getting plane deposits back
 

[/COLOR] I recently passed my skills test
( haveing kept putting it off thinking it was alot scarier then it actually was )
and I now have my liscence tucked into my pink leather flight bag in case I should ever need to show it .

I notice now that some places need a deposit placing when one books an aircraft .a nominal sum of about £50 . and if you fail to fly then you loose it .

(I can understand if you simply just fail to turn up or cancel under twenty four hours notice , ,that this is feasable )

but who says the weather is not stopping you .

MY newly taken exams say that "THE PILOT IN COMMAND "makes that descion ,

but what if the club /school . do not agree as they are may be more exsperianced and would may be fly in weather that a NEW PPL may be more cautious in due to lack of exsperiance .
( so you would not get back your deposit if you didn't fly , or may be would fly when you were really not happy with it ?

I know some on here will have no paitence for a new PPL question , but I was just wondering if this is common practice at places every where.?

THE PINKAVIATOR/
PINKSTER

I've never heard of a school requiring a deposit when booking an aeroplane - but if they did, I would go elsewhere. :mad:

The PIC should be able to cancel for any reason at any time without having to worry about getting money back, otherwise you'll have people deciding to go for it when they would rather stay on the ground just to 'save' that £50.

I'm sure no-shows are a pain in the arse, but the solution is surely to just bill people who don't bother to let you know that they've cancelled (or suggest that they b*gger off...)

As for "no patience for a new PPL question", don't worry about that Pinks :ok:

Sounds like a ripoff. Even where I am, where every one of a number of schools charge brakes-off to brakes-on (another ripoff) nobody charges for a cancellation.

Never heard of deposits. I have heard of cancellation charges, which theoretically are applied to people who book planes and simply fail to turn up without phoning the club.

BUT the pilot must be able to cancel for any legitimate reason, such as: "I didn't sleep very well last night, so I'm not convinced I'm safe to fly, so it's probably better if I stay on the ground". There's no way anyone else can make this judgement; there's nothing objective that a doctor could see or measure to support your claim to have the deposit returned. Being charged £50 for this will, as you say, end up with people flying in marginal conditions they're not entirely happy with, and in due course this could result in bent aeroplanes and dead people.

I would recommend that you do not fly with anyone who asks for a booking deposit.

Oh dear, is someone trying to take advantage of your girly flappiness, Ms P? Like the others, I have never heard of a flying club charging deposits on aircraft bookings or rentals. As already advised, do not book with anyone who operates on such a basis.

I too have never heard of a deposit.

As Gertrude notes, cancellation / 'no-show' charges are commonly found in the small print of many flying school's rules ... but, at least in my experience, they are rarely enforced; at least, not against one-time offenders.

I have never heard of any flying school insisting that weather is flyable when a pilot thinks otherwise. Besides it being mere common sense that no pilot (especially an inexperienced one) should be bullied into flying in weather that he or she is uncomfortable with, there would be obvious liability exposure in the event of an accident ("I told them that I couldn't handle that 30 kt crosswind; but they said that I had to fly or I would forfeit my deposit").

Being generally 'cheap' (I'd like to say "frugal") by nature, I don't consider £50 to be all that nominal! ;)

I can understand no shows but if I was at the airfield and made the call not to go because of weather and got charged then they would not get any business from me again.

Its another form of invoking "Get-there-itus" where people may feel pressured to go because of a financial penalty - especially newly qualified who may not feel confident to stand upto an FBO!