First lessons of PPL done!
 

Hi All,

I just completed my first 1 hours of PPL training and it was pretty awesome! I just was looking for an opinion on costs.

Todays lesson was with Cabair (Blackbushe) who were pretty good, but the ongoing lessons cost £185 p/hour. Redair also at Blackbushe who charge £151 for the hour.

Are these prices what I should be paying? I have seen mentionings of £120 per hour around but am unable to find anything cheaper than Redair in my area (Farnborough).

Would appreciate any advice.

What were you flying? My flying club charges around 100 for an hours lesson in a 152 and about 130 in a 172. It's obviously going to be more expensive in a school than a club. Have a look at local flying clubs, although if you're looking at going PPL straight to CPL then you might want better continuity as a lot of flying clubs don't offer CPL training - however I think PPL training is fairly standard and can be conducted anywhere (as long as the training is up to scratch, natch) so you could move to a school after PPL and hour building, which is what I'll probably do when I slowly work up my hours. 185 per hour is very, very steep.

What you have to ensure is you compare like for like.

Sounds strange , but there are several ways to calculate an hours flying.

• Brakes off to brakes on.
• Tacho time
• Hobbs meter
• Airborne time plus 10 minutes
• Aircraft type

all spring to mind.

Also does the rate include landing fees? does solo flying get charged at dual or solo rate whilst a student? and proably several other variations.

So it maybe does not answer your qustion, but hopefully does gives you some help in comparing prices.

I'm paying £150 / hr, brakes off brakes on. this is with the cambrian flying school in swansea. the tuition and pre-flight briefing is top notch.

I've been investigating the possibility of recieving instruction in a VLA, as it would seem that a disproportionate chunk of the lesson cost is purely use of the aircraft (which obviously has to include fuel, maintenance etc etc). I'd imagine it would bring the costs down considerably....

I should add that my time is tacho in the 152 and hobbs in the 172, but it's converted to real time before I'm charged.

I pay about £160 an hour which is based on tacho time plus 0.1, inclusive of fuel, home landing fees and instructor time. That's Wellesbourne - from looking at the websites of a few places a bit further north it's definitely cheaper. I'd shop around, that sounds awfully expensive.

I believe I was charged for 12 mins prior to take off, and 6 mins post landing to allow taxi time.

Also I was given a temporary log book which has 1.1hours marked, is this transferable immediately to another school/club I go to?

Yes - they are your hours.

StevenAFC (Im hoping that is Aldershot Football Club if so good choice :ok:)

I did most of my PPL at Blackbushe Aviation (Redair). At the time they were around £30 an hour cheaper.

Remember you will be doing around 50 hours so that works out to £1500 cheaper in the long run.

As said above, check what you are paying for. Brakes off to brakes is what they used at Redair, and seems to be the more common method.

£151 an hour with an instructor on a 152 is probably about average. Also, consider your personal transit, because if you had 30 lessons, that may have been 60 trips to the airfield!

I have been to watch Aldershot a few times, but in the Farnborough end!

I have booked my second lesson with Redair, for this Friday afternoon! Can not wait. I am happy to drive to Blackbushe its only a 10/15 min drive from my house, and I can pick it up on the way back from work!