Hour Building in New Zealand
 

I'm based in the UK and am considering locations for hour building, hopefully for January/February next year. New Zealand sounds appealing and I've heard it being suggested in the past, but can't see any recommendations for quite some time, even taking covid into consideration. The main things I'm wondering at this stage are:

• Are there any recommended places to hire from? The option to take the plane away for at least a few days at a time would be nice, but not essential.
• Are there any particularly good places to fly from/to? Places to avoid?
• Any other general words of wisdom?

The USA is the cheapest place to hour build , Florida tends to be the place to go.

NZ will be over priced , and if its like Australia the regulator are anti GA.

Funnily enough I had a similar reply when posting the same question on another forum!

From what I've seen so far, the prices in NZ don't seem too bad compared to home; it really puts into perspective how expensive it is in the UK! From what I've seen in Australia, prices are somewhere between NZ and the UK. I've spent a fair bit of time in the south west of the US over the years (in a non-aviating capacity) and I'd like to go somewhere new. Although I've never been to Florida, the thought of it doesn't excite me. My ultimate goal isn't so much as to hour build for as cheaply as possible, but get some decent flying done somewhere different over the northern hemisphere winter months when low cloud bases seem to scupper most attempts at going too far. Someone messaged me to suggest South Africa and gave lots of useful info which could be worth looking into.

There haven't been any other replies so perhaps it's not such a popular destination...

Possibly because the majority of hourbuilders are primarily concerned with cost, and will therefore go to FL (cheapest option).

Florida is no longer the cheapest option for hour building. Aircraft rental prices in South Africa are the same or less than in Florida. Car hire prices in the US have also gone up by a factor of 3 or 4.

To be fair, New Zealand has been effectively closed to the world for 2 years so hence the lack of interest. It's a pretty country.

Then definitely go to NZ. It’s a fantastic place to fly, nice people, lots of interesting airfields and spectacular scenery.

When you are getting checked out, ask to do some low-flying, bad-weather exercises. They take this issue very seriously. It’s very easy to get caught out, particularly in the South Island.

Canterbury Aero Club in Christchurch? (My experience there was many years ago, and very limited, back then it seemed like a good operation.)

Nelson Aero Club. Do a mountain rating there and go fly in the most spectacular scenery in the world (South Island). Must-do's Milford Sound, Wanaka, Fox, Motueka, Kaikora. Worth every penny.

A mountain rating could certainly be interesting and I'll take a look at Nelson Aero Club and Canterbury Aero Club. Thank you for the feedback!

Have a look at The Greek schools. Excellent weather year round, and good value to boot.

Hungary is a good option as well. Cheap, nice weather and GA friendly airspaces. I've been a mentor pilot for hour builders in the past years, did a lot of amazing cross country flights to Slovenia, Italy, Austria.