Hi all,
I was wondering what your thoughts / experiences were on the pro’s and con’s of bulk / wholesale / discounted purchasing of aircraft rental hours (in this case, to use for PPL)?
So far I’ve only found negative comments about it, e.g. not being able to use all of the hours within the time limit, clubs / schools going out of business and students / pilots loosing their money etc.
From my calculations, I predict I could save around €700 on aircraft rental over approx 18 months or so whilst doing my PPL.
Is it worth it?
In the UK certainly, history is littered with schools that have gone out of business and disappeared with people’s up front payments. The general advice is ‘never pay up front’. If you want to change schools for any reason it may also hold you back.
I definately wouldn’t touch it.
If you said you were going to fly it off in 3-4 months, I’d think that it might be a reasonable risk that you use it up before any issues arise.
But 18 months is a long time. I definately wouldn’t give any flying school my money for that length of time.
Especially so if it was for training rather than solo rental. When it’s training you might want to change organisation but can’t. Also you’ll suddenly be their lowest priority becasue you can’t change school.
Jamie, what sort of discount have you been offered?
In addition to above comments, it may be illusory. Let’s say it is 20%. You can easily knock 20% off the cost of doing a PPL by having lessons frequently. The people (the majority) who fly say once a week are doing 2 steps forward and 1 backwards, and that would be in good wx. In “typical” wx (with lesson cancellations) they are doing 1.5 backwards 
We all have our experiences to report. I can report that when I left one school (mainly due to PA38s in atrocious condition) they “lost” some exam passes, so I had to re-do those exams.
Peter wrote:
We all have our experiences to report.
The only such experience I ever had was that one flying school owed me some money (as an instructor!) when they went bankrupt. But it wasn’t really much. As a student I never paid anything up front.
And I second Peter’s opinion: Get your flying hours in the quickest possible time. If money is an issue, instead of spreading the expense over 18 months, rather put the funds into an account and then do all the flying in the remaining 3. Like this you will have a fair chance to get your license with the minimum hours.
The discount on offer in the scenario I outlined above is basically two hours free on a PA38 and 2.5 hours free on a PA28 when taking 32 and 25 hours on each aircraft respectively. I realise the 45 hr PPL is generally not achieved so this leaves room for a longer PPL with currency in both aircraft, and if done earlier then will have hrs in the ‘bank’ for rental in the future.
I’m trying to book at least two hours a week at the weekends (the only time I can realistically with work committments), aiming for a loss of one hour a week due to wx or other things in life….For me its time that is the limiting factor. I think a solution could be to fly for more than an hour each time, subject to availabilities of aircraft and instructors.
The feeling I’m getting (from multiple sources) is that its not a good idea to bulk-buy.. .
Jamie wrote:
I realise the 45 hr PPL is generally not achieved…
Almost all our students get their PPL in 45 hours. There is no rocket science involved. When I did mine under national legislation (per JAR and EASA) it was only 35. And again, a vast majority achieved that.
Jamie wrote:
The discount on offer in the scenario I outlined above is basically two hours free on a PA38 and 2.5 hours free on a PA28 when taking 32 and 25 hours on each aircraft respectively.
So that’s 57 hrs altogether?
Why would you use 2 aircraft for the training? Wouldn’t it be better to do all 45 hrs in the PA38 which I assume is the cheaper of the two?
what_next wrote:
Almost all our students get their PPL in 45 hours.
That was the case also when I got my license in Norway, but here in France I also am under the impression that 60 hrs and up is the norm. Maybe someone who spends more time in clubs than I do, like @Jujupilote , would care to comment – although it is not really the topic.
Almost all our students get their PPL in 45 hours. There is no rocket science involved. When I did mine under national legislation (per JAR and EASA) it was only 35. And again, a vast majority achieved that.
Could be due to
In the UK the average is something like 60.
I would not learn in a PA38. It isn’t suitable for going anywhere (lack of stability coupled with a poor trim mechanism), not good for taking friends along (most of them are in a very poor condition; they were atrocious when I was flying them in 17 years ago), and very few available for rental generally. In that price range, a C152 is much more useful
Aviathor wrote:
Why would you use 2 aircraft for the training?
This was suggested as an option by the instructors – thus permitting more experience, particularly on a larger, more comfortable and usable cross-country aircraft. Is it common for such a practice?
