BBK

Malc4d

Thanks for the info. Will look these up.

weedman1990

Hi Guys,

Its been a few weeks since I been back from the USA, and for me it was the best decision I ever made. I did 85 hours at Chandler Air Services with perfect weather every single day. I even managed to do around 50 hours in 1 week!! The view too where amazing in some parts of Arizona making it a once in a lifetime unforgettable experience.

The guys at Chandler Air Service helped me out a lot too whenever I need some advice on anything, aircraft where well maintained too and they even gave more attention to the hour building aircraft before I was going cross country so that it was safe to use.

Overall experience was great, would definitely recommend them. Now for the next bit, the CPL/ME/IR!

Thanks

P.S. If anybody wants any information about Chandler Air Service I would be very happy to help.

Amateur Hour

Sounds cool. Thinking of doing this myself, I'm at about 43 hours and once I get my PPL I was thinking of heading to the USA (I live in Sydney, Australia) as the cost is just so much more reasonable.

Are you able to provide a breakdown of costs, as in how much did you spend all up including accommodation and so forth?

weedman1990

All I'm going to say is go for it mate, you'll love it there just like I did!

As for the prices, i paid around $8900 for the flying including all the ground school and flying with the instructors. I stayed at the Doubletree Hilton Hotel which i got for a cheap price through Chandler Air Service, but they do provide you with accommodation is well which is around $800 a month so it aint bad.

In total i think it cost me around £9000 - £10000 which is pretty decent for me considering i stayed at Hilton and food and all my hours and that was including fuel at places I visited, but Chandler Air Service reimburse the account so make sure you take your receipts with you after you refuel.

It will be a lot cheaper for you if you stay at the accommodation that Chandler Air Service provide you with though.

I was there for around 28 days. The very next day after i arrived there i went straight to the FSDO office to get my Temp license in order not to waste time and the next 3 days after that i did the ground school and the instructor flying for the checkout and mountain training. The first few days will fly by but when your there doing your hours, it will feel like a long time which is what i found. I averaged at-least 4 - 5 hours a day and some days i used to do 6.30 hours from flying long distance's.

Hope this helps

Straighten Up

I'm one week into my 4 week hour building session here in California. The weather so far has been fantastic, and even when it's been dubious off to one direction, there's always somewhere else to go in the other direction. I was originally booked to fly with Long Beach Flying Club, but when I got there they didn't have any availability for 2 weeks. Instead I'm flying with Pacific Air, from the same airfield who have been great.

They have a good selection of well maintained aircraft (I think it's 4 C172, 2 with G1000 - which I had a go on yesterday) and a C152. The owners and instructors are very friendly, and the amazing options of airfields to go to is superb - today I flew into the Mojave Space Port, landing on a 4000m runway, which was an unforgettable experience. Highly recommended and the prices are so much cheaper than the UK even with flights/accom taken into account - I'll post an update when I leave with the totals that I spent for the hours.

Straighten Up

So - all done in the US. 30 days, 63 logged hours, and 87 flights in total.

I used Pacific Air Flight School at Long Beach airport who were great.

My cost breakdown was as follows (all in £)

Flights £553.23
Accommodation £1,174.85
Carhire & gas £271.46
Flying £4,484.73 64 hours £70.07

TOTAL £6,484.27 64 hours £101.32

So including flights/accom/car it was about 30% cheaper than the UK (assuming £140 for C172). Just on the flying it was half the price, and the experience was fantastic.

Hope these figures may be hopeful to someone.

Live your dream

Hi there,

I would like to go to the USA in July, everything is really much cheaper than here in Spain.

I would like to know which flight school you would recommend. I've heard good things about Florida-flyers, but I think they are more expensive than other flight schools nearby, for instance Dean International.

I have heard that I should go to the West coast, San Diego, the area over there is much better, but I don't know any flight school there.

Looking forward to hearing from you chaps.

desarba

Hi live, how long are you planning to stay in USA? I want to go to fly many hours. We could plan to go together. I'm a FAA license and I know many schools in L.A.

Let me know ok?

Live your dream

Give more info about your plans.

cumbrianboy

Chandler Air Services in Chandler, Pheonix. Had a blast when I went, really interesting flying and very good rates on the aircraft.

clkorm3

Hi,

I am looking for a school in US to build around 50 hours. I need to build my hours quickly so I can complete my training. I would like to know following:
1: administration process .i.e. Validation, , medical, any thing that I have to consider before my arrival,
2: Cost of living
3; recommended school with good availability and good aircrafts.


Thanks a million in advance.

RNWill

Hi Everyone,

I'm currently in the process of planning my hour building trip to the States in October for just under 3 weeks.

I'm just curious to see if there are any other budding pilots, who are considering going out the same time as myself to Florida.

I'm going out on my own currently, so I can build my P1 hours up. Would be good though to tour Florida with someone else.

desarba

I'm planning to fly in California after October 15, around 50hours in multi. If you think that can work we can fly together, or I can change my me hours for se. It's up to you!

Let me know

shinigami

I'll be doing some time building in Florida in september and commercial training at sunstate aviation. If your plan was september we could have done it sunstate, by the way i'll do 80hrs of time building.

CL215

Im going in October, if someone wants to do a shared time, I will be over there. Im already thinking where to go at: Arizona, florida or California, taking into a count transportation costs from airport to that place, and also WET flight rental/ accommodation costs in each different place...

Did someone recently come from USA? Do you have some advice? Schools, places to live at...

Has someone planned to go around october?


Best regards

desarba

I was planning to go in cotoner, i was living in LA.I Can give you info from where in was flying, Also i Can offer where to Stay.

zondaracer

How does someone share time?

CL215

The people share time in USA, as pilot and copilot write down in the logbook PIC hours, since the pilot is piloting, and the copilot is a safety pilot, so both of them can write down the whole time as PIC. So you can pay half time, and write down the whole flight time.

Dont you know it?

Most of the people who do hour building in USA do that.

flyhiguy28

Hi Everyone,

I did my hours building in the US back in September 2012. I flew with 'Pilots Paradise' who are an unbelievably amazing outfit, I can not recommend them highly enough.

On arrival I got my FAA licence issued (a paperwork exercise) and had a check flight with Stephen Fisher who owns the aircraft. Stephen has over 20,000 hours experience most of which is instruction so he knows a thing or two about flying! He's also British. After about 45 minutes I was signed off and handed the keys to the aircraft. It was MY aircraft for the next 2 weeks to do with as I pleased!

And it gets better... my accommodation was literally 5 steps from the hangar! Pilots Paradise is based at Indian River Aerodrome (near Vero Beach), an aviation community. There are huge houses and everyone owns an aircraft. The grass runway runs through the centre of the community.

The following morning I opened the hangar doors, pulled the aircraft out and jumped in the PA28 - which is pristine and well maintained. What followed was 2 weeks of some of the best flying I have ever done. In a nutshell, I flew up the East coast of America, from Florida up to Canada and back. Highlights included landing at La Guardia, New York; flying over Niagra Falls and flying Low Level over Miami Beach! In total I flew 40 hours.

If anyone is interested in doing the same then I am more than happy to tell you about my experience and help you get a FAA licence etc. 2 years later and I'm still raving on about my amazing trip with Pilots Paradise!

Yours Aye,


Kris

desarba

I have flown a wet Cessna 150 in Cali for 80$ and if the house is not full, you have house for 600$ month.And if you want a b1900 for 200$!and 75$ instructor you can fly as a pic. With the owner of course

All from the same owner!



Thanks