How much did your PPL cost you?
 

Hi there,

I was wondering if I can get some feedback on how much in total did you PPL cost? Done a bit of research online and it's quite varied.

Mainly interested in PPL's done in Australia. Just want to compare what I'm paying (and potentially will pay) to what's others have paid.

I've done 7 lessons now and spent about $2.5k.

Total projected cost at my school is around $22k for the PPL, including medical, exams, books, landing fees, security clearance. This includes total 50 hours flight time.

I'm also interested in on average how much you are paying (or paid) per lesson. For me it's been around $300 to $450 depending on duration with an instructor.

Any feedback would be much appreciated.

300 an hr dual instruction of flight time. 270 plane only. 10% discount for buying 20hrs in advance

I have just finished my PPL at Aeros in the UK. The total cost including medical, training and exams cost just over £8500+. The actual cost of each one hour lesson was £157.

No idea on what the GBP to AUD is but hopefully this gives you an idea.

I reckon I paid about 10k euros for my licence in Ireland, finished 2 years ago. The cost per lesson (hour) changed from 150 to 170 ish depending on aircraft type.

Mind me asking where you did that? Getting well in excess of €14-15k from any of the larger places here.

Liverpool, UK

Lomac Aviators
£105 p/h on a tommi
Total £5,000 in exams and fees

EINC. They have gotten a tiny bit more expensive since, but still should be below 12k I reckon. Have a look at Trim Flying Club, Waterford, Birr and Limerick too, some of them are really cheap and good value as long as it's commuting distance for you..

The biggest variable is how many hours to complete.

This seems to be proportionate to age - 18/19 you may get it done in 50hours - get over fifty and you could double that - personally I was fifty when I did mine - took a long while to get to solo - think that I was my instructors first ever student may have been a factor - real trouble landing until the CFI told me "when you land it should look like it does when you take off", then no problems - would have been good if I was told that thirty hours earlier!

I was up in Florida, and I must admit to having a taste for flying a couple of hours every morning before the school formally opened - I do like to bimble around even now.

It will also cost you for the travel to the school - I went to Flordia as there was no training here so flight up and back, hotels, car hire etc., etc. I would think mine cost me in the $20-25,000 range seven years ago - on yes, plus the visa fees - plus, plus, plus, plus, plus.

NPPL so not quite the same... 50 hours solo gliding plus silver c around £1000 max - I actually had rather more than that, plus nppl slmg course at Enstone in £1400 inc exams radio etc. plus conversion to ssea £400ish
All great fun!

The cost of my PPL? My marriage..!

£143.7s.6d.......in 1961....

£88 in 1969 Cradock, South Africa

I didn't dare add it all up!
 

Whilst at first I thought i would total it all up and then have a figure at the end, and despite keeping every receipt and invoice, I didn't dare actually do the final calculation! It would have been far too scary, and probably taken something away from the pleasure of the learning and flying!

I have a figure in my mind, but have never really wanted to admit it!

£60 in 1968 but, as a glider pilot, only had to do 20 hours.

Repeated it 30 years later and it cost about £1400 with the lovely Gordon Brown paying 40% of the cost.(NVQ)

400 pounds in 1979, the silver C glider pilot conversion was 8 hours. Still shows inflation was rampant when I compare with pulse1, but it included books and license issue, which I got at the counter in Kingsway 14 days after starting. Not everything was worse in the good old days!

If you get into aviation by counting the pennies - then aviation is not for you.

Same as Man23R I learnt at Lomac's Liverpool.

£7450 all in for Everything including the £200 to the CAA for the license.

Stan

I didn't add it up. That way I could honestly answer "don't know" when my wife asked.


With the ongoing flying, I got myself an even more expensive hobby - I got elected as a councillor - so if I were asked what I was spending on flying I could say, again honestly, "lots less than it's costing me to serve the public as a councillor".

20 hours for the PPL I think having done about 30 hours in gliders at around £1.20 per hour for the glider, at the time £22 per hour for the PPL so £440 in 1983 :ooh:

I did mine in the UK at £120 an hour (that was 13/14 years ago). I'm now in Melbourne and, from what I can see, $330 an hour for a PA-28 seems about the norm. All I'd be careful of is not to get stung too much by time on the ground etc.
What kinda aircraft are you learning in and where are you located?
What I will say is, post licence, here in Aus, I now have access to the most affordable flying I've ever had - less than half what I was paying duel 14 years ago!
It's definitely not mainly about the money though - but of course that comes into it. I don't think it's fair to say if counting pennies, aviation isn't for someone - personally I encourage anyone that dreams of flying to get involved - we have numerous club members that haven't flown themselves in a long time (if ever), but they are an important part of the club and get the opportunity to take to the skies when there are seats going regularly.
It's about getting the most value from your training - not being tied up for half of the lesson paying for time on the ground, not being rushed through briefings, being hands on with the aircraft from day one rather than rocking up and having everything done for you.
People (including me in retrospect!) cannot believe some of the stories from my own time learning to fly and my flight training school. I made the mistake of paying up-front. To be honest, I doubt I'd have changed schools anyway as I didn't really know any different, but some lowlights included:
- a total of only 15 mins ground briefing time for both pre and post flight briefings, and getting to and from and into the aircraft (in other words, the aircraft and instructor had 20 mins between flights to change over, de-brief and brief the next student);
- no time at all to check-out the aircraft on the ground/refuel/check oil etc. This was all done for students;
- if the weather was "at all" flyable, we were going - that meant I spent a very long time repeating lessons and kept my solo time very minimal;
- a total of three full hours (or maybe five, I can't remember) spent on "slow flight" before being circuit training (slow flight = low RPM = higher margin);
- no ability to meet with other students and share experiences (was a school rather than a club);
- high landing fees - in the circuit lessons my landings cost more than the lesson;
- I could go on all day... just don't be that guy (i.e. me!).
I really enjoyed my training despite these things - but could have had much more fun and got more out of it elsewhere!
But, in saying all that, I now live 5 mins from a c150 that costs $104 an hour duel - it all came good!!

Like hundreds of others in those days, it cost me the princely sum of £0 for 30 hours on brand-new Cessna 150s - courtesy of having won a Special Flying Award from the RAF. My parents paid for the extra 5 hours for my PPL, which cost them £50.

My PPL arrived at my boarding school some months before I passed my driving test!

What did it cost in 1984?
 

Far too much compared to salaries at the time, but then it always is - but what you get is priceless, so JUST DO IT.

to all the old timers sharing their experience, I really think this is one thread that can do without.. I don't think OP is after a price list that was accurate 40 years ago on the other side of the globe!

Not quite sure as I've yet to pass! With my Cross Country on Monday I think I'm up to 45hrs so all-in I'd anticipate £8,800

I once met a man who had learned to fly in 1927. I asked him how much it cost and he said, "Same as it does now...just a bit more than you've got."

The RAF paid for most of mine :)
We have a scheme designed to help fund a degree that allowed me to pay £1000 and the RAF put in £4000. Combined with the RAF Flying Clubs Association's zero profit rental costs (around £100ph wet PA28/C172) and it's got to be one of the cheapest ways to get a PPL in the UK - you've just got to join up first!

They've just started a new scheme for junior ranks that funds about 20 LAPLs a year for applicants. The Charitable Trust have even bought two brand-new Tecnam P2008JCs for the junior ranks to learn in.

Cheap flying available, just enquire at your local RAF careers office*

*may require one or two other minor commitments. Terms and conditions apply! 😎

Cost of PPL in 2018
 

I just (June 2018) completed my PPL(A) in a school near London, UK.
The total cost came to £13,188.20 (~ $17,317.20) for 70 hours of flying over about 18 months (weekends).

This breaks down as follows:
Notes

• Travel was almost exclusively by London public transport, with three taxi journeys.
• Additional items include things like a kneeboard, charts, flight computer.
• I tried to get what I could second hand (mostly tuition materials).
• I did not attend ground school (but have to say that the instructors at my school were extremely helpful in going over any questions I had regarding the theory on an ad hoc basis).
• the majority of this cost is bunched into the last quarter of the course, when flights get longer, and landing fees are creeping in (so don't pay upfront, better invest the money if you have it, and reap the returns).
• the cost of plane hire dwarfs everything else. Thus the least expensive option is likely the school with the lowest hire rate, disregarding any fees for exams etc. (the radio exam and medical certificate seem to vary considerably).

Of course, the number of hours needs to be taken into consideration as well; I didn't think I'd have a chance doing it in 45hrs, but likewise didn't anticipate 70hrs (no doubt caused in part by large periods of not being able to fly because of the weather conditions).

In his 1989 book 'Ready for take-off' (not essential reading in my opinion!), Patrick Quinn states the cost of gaining the PPL at around £2,000 in 1983 (I believe only 40 hours were mandatory then). The Bank of England's inflation calculator tells us that £2,000 in 1983 would have been worth £6,415 in 2017, suggesting the real cost of achieving the license has about doubled in the last 30 years. Fuel tax? Aircraft maintenance? Electronic gadgets? Who knows...

For those considering it as a hobby, also take into account recurring costs, e.g. renewal of the medical certificate, charts (yearly), club membership, association membership, dual checks (at periodic intervals, depending on club), and lessons after periods of not flying (often mandated by the club, quite rightly so). You may also want to buy your own headset.

Some clubs offer a "Saftey pilot" course, which just teaches you to land the plane in an emergency, and the basics of operating the radio. It's not a license or legal document by any means, but, if I were to do it again, I would probably start there. It's a good way to meet like-minded people to fly with, and thereby getting experience in procedure, handling the plane, and the radio without having to pay for lessons. I'm sure this would reduce the number of required hours.

Perhaps the last thing to say is that the PPL is likely not the end of it. Conversion courses to larger planes (so to take (more) passengers), the night rating, complex aircraft, twin engine aircraft, tailwheel, aerobatics, IMC (or even IR for the brave) are all beckoning.
Oh yes, and helicopters, well, they pretty much require a different license all together.

Hope this helps somebody!

PS: I know you can't compare apple with pears, but out of curiosity, I popped into the helicopter school at the same aerodrome as my fixed-wing school, and training in a Robinson R22 costs just under 80% more than training in a Cessna 152 per hour (including instructor fee, just hire is 55% more expensive for the R22). PPL(H) training for PPL(A) holders requires additional theory, and a minimum of 39 hours dual instruction.

Cost me about £650 in 1975/6 with about 40 hours dual and solo time in C150/152, ground exams, medical etc. Am guessing this might well be the equivalent of about £7,000 today. I sold my stamp collection to fund about half of it ! Flying has always kept me artificially poor … :{ But .. I no longer fly at all now and things are looking up financially at last, despite retirement :} !

I got my UK PPL in the Eighties after only 16 hours as did a Silver C glider conversion. Then moved soon after to Oz and this was converted with no flying to a RPPL but then I needed to do 20 hours Navs to get an Unrestriced PPL. Went on to do a CPL/IR but gliding was the low cost entry for me.

In the UK, lots of flying schools advertise PPL cost being about £5-9K depending on location in the country and type of plane -- that's just for instructed flight time (i.e. 45 hours). That gives you a UK minimum. Realistically in the UK, it's probably averaging about £10K all in, plus or minus depending on factors, of which flight time cost is the highest. I say this having recently qualified (mine was £15K on a PA28 in 60 hours with generous personal equipment expenditure) and done the research on it, and talked to other students about their experiences. 22K AUD is about 10K GBP. Your flight time cost of about 400 AUD per hour is about 200 GBP per hour which seems consistent with UK prices. From some recent research into flying in Australia, I think the costs between Australia and UK and roughly equivalent, probably on the upper end globally.

Flight time cost seems largely a factor of fuel cost (a standard PA28 161 training aircraft chews 30+ litres per hour, being about £60 per hour in the UK) and a pro-rata maintenance cost (high in the UK under EASA, with 50hr/100hr checks, etc). Plus you have an instructor cost, £50 per hour at my school. So to lower your flight time cost, find a country with lower fuel prices, less expensive maintenance, and lower wage/living/etc costs lowering instructor costs. That's not the UK, and it's not Australia :).

Students should have a realistic budget with contingency otherwise they will risk stopping/starting training, which extends the hours required (too much "getting back up to speed") and the churn across instructors (too much repeating some things with new instructors) and the risk of lapsing exams. I've spoken to a number of students where this has happened.

£6000.00/6500.00 here in Kenya, that is on 50hrs though you can do it on 40 if you are not a slow coach like me.

However, cost of living in Nairobi is high (didn't realise how high 🤔) but, you can save in various ways.

Excellent and Interesting flying conditions though, HKNW is the 2nd busiest domestic airport in Africa .. So it's full on from the word go. So for me personally, it has been a very intense learning curve, not that I would change it 👍

Just pick the right season, this year has been the wettest on record for years, so did spend a month twiddling thumbs

Cost around £3500 over the last year with significant previous gliding experience. Small help that I completed my PPL exams for free at my gliding club and know someone who does FRTOL exams.

Planesandthings

PPL Cost
 

Did mine at Bournemouth Hurn which dates me and Middle Wallop. Total cost £2,500 44 hrs. Aged then about 37.

No idea, didn't add it up. But I knew at the time that it was the wrong question - adding the one-off cost of a PPL to a mortgage (if you don't have the cash handy) hardly makes a noticeable difference to the repayments, and the real question is how much you can afford to pay year in year out to keep flying once you've got the PPL.

1986, PNG, 60 kina PH, 10 hrs for an RPPL, extra 15 hrs for the UPPL.
300hrs gliding beforehand.

Blimey, what interesting reading !

Mine was free in 1965 - an RAF flying scholarship via the CCF at my school.

Tiger Moth.

180 GBP, 1962, Oxford.

aeros cov is near me, how was it there ?

I took a slightly unusual route:

NPPL(M): 32 hours (10 solo) + exams and fees - approx £5000
NPPL(SSEA): £1000
FRTOL: £200 (can't remember exactly to be honest, estimate for book, past papers and exams)
NPPL(SSEA) - LAPL(A): £40 paperwork excersize
LAPL(A) - PPL(A): £2000

In between the NPPL(SSEA) - PPL(A) journey I was flying a PA28 I have a share in so that might make the figures sound a bit low.

Going for my class 1 soon, so all the above will shortly become small change :eek: