If you had $8,000 USD to burn?

[No Longer Active]

Flying does get cheaper once you have got your PPL, remember you are paying for someone to teach you to fly as well as renting the club or school aircraft.

Ways of getting in the air once you have your PPL is:

1)Rent an aircraft at the hourly rate.

2)Go halves on the rental with another pilot so that the hourly rate is halved for you. You can each log half the flight on your log book each.

3)Buy a share of an aircraft for cheaper flying

4)Learn to be a CFI so that you can be paid to flight.

If the PPL is still out of reach, pick yourself up a cheap headset from ebay and put ads in local flying clubs that you are looking to 'take any spare right seats' and contribute to fuel costs. I have been doing this recently and have had some great flights so far! There are some very generous folk out there that will happily take you up in return for great aviation banter and the odd bit of 'skivvy work'.

You could also fly microlights (my favourite) or fly gliders, both are just as challenging and rewarding. Gliding is very cheap and is a great way to get in the air.

Nothing beats real flying, because my eyes hurt looking at a computer screen all day!

If you can afford it, go for it! You wont regret it!

[No Longer Active]

Forgot to add: In the US you can get your PPL for £5000, here in the UK, we pay on average another £2k more for the same thing (and you have better weather). So for £5k for a PPL I would go for it! You'd be bonkers not to!

[scott1976]

Hi folks, saw this post and just had to comment. Two year ago I had some money burning a hole in my pocket and I was also debating whether or not I should get a PPL or build a simulator. I took a trip to Coventry for my first home cockpit flight in John Davies 747 simulator (I have a few hours clocked up on PMDG’s 747) as well as talking to my local flying school. PPL courses vary in price, but my school was looking for £10,500 for a PPL and ultimately I could not justify that amount of money or even one or two ££££ less for a piece of paper. A colleague at work suggested microlight flying, which I initially laughed at. I seemed to have it in my head that I needed to be sitting in a cockpit and surrounded by as many instruments as possible. I did however give microlight flying a go, three axis microlights to be exact, so I got the cockpit and a handful of instruments instead. Two years later and at a cost of just under £5000, I now have my nPPL(m) and for a few extra ££££, I own a share in a three axis microlight that cost’s under £1000 a year to keep and £35 an hour to run…including fuel.

I believe that these three axis machines are becoming the future of recreational flying due to their ever increasing performance and low cost. And if you add a further 3 day training course, you can up your nPPL(m) to SSEA (Simple Single Engine Aircraft) giving you more options and certainly keeping up with most light aircraft for the same cost as microlighting. Microlights are very restricted in a number of aspects, but I would suggest that unless you are pursuing a career in aviation or have a lot of money to “continually” burn, there are cheaper ways to really fly, after all an hours flying in any aircraft is still an hours flying and this brings me back on topic…

A wise pilot once told me, getting your license is the easy part, keeping it is another. I believe around 90% of pilots let their license lapse after 2 years or so. It’s probably easy to guess why and brings me onto my point and ultimately the reason why I took up microlight flying as opposed to light aircraft (but not cockpit building…I will get to that). It’s not the cost of getting your license that you need to be concerned with, it’s the cost of keeping it or as I like to think of it, how much air time I get for my buck. Yes you can do the minimal hours (for ease, 12 hours over 2 years) but such low hours can arguably prove dangerous as well as stressful as opposed to enjoyable and who wants to spend all that money only to fly for an hour once every two months? My point is any pilot is really going to spend a few ££££ a year to make it worth their while, hence possibly why 90% give it up.

My last point is that no matter what, simply by it’s nature, flying is inherently dangerous. In the last six months there have been three microlight death’s in my area as well as a handful of accidents (not at my airfield I might add)…I am now asking myself if it is really worth it? Has it really been worth all that money as well as burning an even deeper hole in my pocket for those few moments of enjoyment I get when not thinking about what could go wrong? If at this moment you are about to say “but do you know you are more likely to die whilst…” Don't! You deserve a smack in the mouth. I firmly believe real pilots that think that should have their licenses revoked.

Ultimately I have found that despite real flying, I never lost my passion for flight simulator, actually quite the opposite. So much so I am giving some serious thought to joining that 90% and instead investing in a home cockpit. Ultimately because it’s safer, I get just as much satisfaction from flight sim, it’s just as technical, arguably more, will cost less in the long run and you can go anywhere in the world for a lot less than £35+ an hour, and that really is as cheap as it gets. By the way, how much electricity are you guys burning flying your home cockpits?


Scott.

[WJH308]

Hi folks, saw this post and just had to comment. Two year ago I had some money burning a hole in my pocket and I was also debating whether or not I should get a PPL or build a simulator. I took a trip to Coventry for my first home cockpit flight in John Davies 747 simulator (I have a few hours clocked up on PMDG’s 747) as well as talking to my local flying school. PPL courses vary in price, but my school was looking for £10,500 for a PPL and ultimately I could not justify that amount of money or even one or two ££££ less for a piece of paper. A colleague at work suggested microlight flying, which I initially laughed at. I seemed to have it in my head that I needed to be sitting in a cockpit and surrounded by as many instruments as possible. I did however give microlight flying a go, three axis microlights to be exact, so I got the cockpit and a handful of instruments instead. Two years later and at a cost of just under £5000, I now have my nPPL(m) and for a few extra ££££, I own a share in a three axis microlight that cost’s under £1000 a year to keep and £35 an hour to run…including fuel.

I believe that these three axis machines are becoming the future of recreational flying due to their ever increasing performance and low cost. And if you add a further 3 day training course, you can up your nPPL(m) to SSEA (Simple Single Engine Aircraft) giving you more options and certainly keeping up with most light aircraft for the same cost as microlighting. Microlights are very restricted in a number of aspects, but I would suggest that unless you are pursuing a career in aviation or have a lot of money to “continually” burn, there are cheaper ways to really fly, after all an hours flying in any aircraft is still an hours flying and this brings me back on topic…

A wise pilot once told me, getting your license is the easy part, keeping it is another. I believe around 90% of pilots let their license lapse after 2 years or so. It’s probably easy to guess why and brings me onto my point and ultimately the reason why I took up microlight flying as opposed to light aircraft (but not cockpit building…I will get to that). It’s not the cost of getting your license that you need to be concerned with, it’s the cost of keeping it or as I like to think of it, how much air time I get for my buck. Yes you can do the minimal hours (for ease, 12 hours over 2 years) but such low hours can arguably prove dangerous as well as stressful as opposed to enjoyable and who wants to spend all that money only to fly for an hour once every two months? My point is any pilot is really going to spend a few ££££ a year to make it worth their while, hence possibly why 90% give it up.

My last point is that no matter what, simply by it’s nature, flying is inherently dangerous. In the last six months there have been three microlight death’s in my area as well as a handful of accidents (not at my airfield I might add)…I am now asking myself if it is really worth it? Has it really been worth all that money as well as burning an even deeper hole in my pocket for those few moments of enjoyment I get when not thinking about what could go wrong? If at this moment you are about to say “but do you know you are more likely to die whilst…” Don't! You deserve a smack in the mouth. I firmly believe real pilots that think that should have their licenses revoked.

Ultimately I have found that despite real flying, I never lost my passion for flight simulator, actually quite the opposite. So much so I am giving some serious thought to joining that 90% and instead investing in a home cockpit. Ultimately because it’s safer, I get just as much satisfaction from flight sim, it’s just as technical, arguably more, will cost less in the long run and you can go anywhere in the world for a lot less than £35+ an hour, and that really is as cheap as it gets. By the way, how much electricity are you guys burning flying your home cockpits?


Scott.

Regulations in the USA are much different than Britain. USA, our pilots licenses never expire. If you want to fly however you need certain proficiency of flight. Every two years you need a bi annual flight review with a CFI. Instrument rating can expire and that is the hard one to keep unless your a CFII and your buddies who are CFII's as well can give each other IPC's.
Having done piloting as a profession in the USA, I have to say the hardest part is not running out of luck. Currently no commercial operator will hire me because my last check ride was a failed part 135 currency check. Just went to an interview for a company that flies Caravans, they wouldn't hire me, never mind that I aced the knowledge exam and flew the sim evaluation better than anyone else ever. Never mind that I am over qualified and can do the job...
Your current job is only until the next check ride or medical. Not only can you lose your current job, but make it next to impossible to get hired down the road.
Well, I have an interview with Union Pacific Railroad on Monday. Starting pay is more than 2 to 3 times as much as I ever made as a pilot.