If you were doing it all again....

… I would do it the same. One reason is, having in mind my work that provides funds for this hobby, that my work is better suited for local training. I completed my training (PPL, SE/IR, MEP, ME/IR) flying after working hours (thanks to good weather in Croatia) and during weekends. Only simulator training for SE/IR required travelling to another city but I combined this with flying there and back so travelling wasn’t waste of time. The other reason is that I had a lot of time during my flying career (started more than 30 years ago, paused for some years due to war and re-established with PPL renewal) to decide to go for professional flying yet I’ve never considered it as real option and I don’t regret. The only thing that I would change (I mentioned that earlier) I wouldn’t try running PPL training facility like I did (with very sad outcome).

One of the aircraft I once co-owned was a Pa44 Seminole. This came close, but lack of turbocharging made crossing the Alps difficult and total lack of de-icing combined with low tolerance for ice took away at least 50 of those 350 days. Today this thing would cost around 500 Euros per hour to operate privately (half of that figure for AVGAS alone) and at an average of 130KT would really not deliver good value for money.

Any twin will be much more expensive to operate than a single, that is true. Clearly, a dispatch rate of 350 days requires a different kind of airplane, that is also true.

I am pretty sure that I could get to all those destinations (Friedrichshafen excluded, but maninly because they dumped the scheduled Stuttgart-Friedrichshafen service…) together with wife&son for the price of one hour in my ex Seminole. Booking now, end of February. (*)

Possibly yes. Also, it depends strongly where you want to go. My main motivation to getting a plane again and flying again were the exorbitant rates to certain destinations I use quite a lot, all of them are too far to drive in one day back and forth but within 2 hours of Mooney cruise speed. None of them are mainline destinations, so you have to use airlines who cater mainly for biz people.

The moment I fly to places where mass transport is available or it is more than 2-2.5 hours flight time, the airlines will be cheaper, provided that there are flights going there at all without a changeover in Novosibirsk or so :) Then you also need to calculate the time involved, which can be considerable if you have change overs. I can sometimes fly to Bulgaria faster with my plane than using the airlines, if that involves changing planes in Berlin or even London with 4-5 hours layovers… but of course the problem there is that this is rarely possible weather wise.
(Funnily, that was almost what happened to me last year when had to go to Bulgaria… I tasked some friends who are great in booking cheap flights to find me the best value for a given day one week away in high season summer and got a flight via Moscow and Siberia (3 legs) to get to Burgas… I did luckily find a better way of doing it for a few Euros more but sometimes airline tarifs are quite mysterious)

Re Prague, I would probably try to use the Mooney (but I will be in Bulgaria by the looks of it that weekend) with the mainline as backup. But there I´d do that because I want to fly my own plane, not out of economical issues. All I am saying is that GA does not have to be the luxury transport form some critics make it out to be all the time, provided you have the right airplane and a good backup plan. If so, it is pretty much in the ballpark of everything else. Clearly, it may also be cheaper to take the bus or train than a private car, all expenses included, but the loss of time and freedom is still most people´s priority.

do these numbers include maintenance, insurance, your new avionics, the hangar, repairs, avionics updates, maps, subscriptions plus the extra cost the flight will create like taxis?

Alexis,

we operate the plane with a hourerly rate which is calculated to include all of the above other than investments such as the new avionic. Basically, what we do is pay every flight hour as if we were flying in a club, only the money goes in my airplane account, from which the running costs are paid from. So maintenance, insurance, parking(I don´t have a hangar in ZRH), fuel as well as engine and prop fund are included in this rate. I also paid the Jeppview we use so far from that account, now that it goes IFR we are still looking into which product we will use. I am recalculating the rate every year based on the total cost and hours flown. The hour rate may also slightly rise with the IFR certification now, but it is still quite economical as opposed to what the local clubs charge.

I would change: Nothing. I think it worked out well for me.

I learned at a flying club (which incidentally is still going strong) called the Bay Area Aero Club near Houston. Unlike many UK clubs (which are really for profit companies that call themselves clubs) it was a true non-profit. The club owned no aircraft – its aircraft were leased back by club members. The club employed nobody – the instructors were club members. New members learning to fly would get in touch with a club instructor, and the commercials were between the student and instructor. Some instructors were full time (working towards that airline job), most were part time (they were doing it because they loved it). The airline job seekers were not the typical airline job seekers either – all of them instructed because at least in part they enjoyed instructing. You could get a plane 24/7/365 – every member had the door combination and keybox combo. Scheduling was first done by just the airport on paper and later on via an online system (you could still call the FBO if you didn’t have a computer handy).

I did my PPL and instrument rating with a grouchy old ex-air force guy who actually wasn’t all that grouchy once you knew him. He had about 6,000 hours in GA aircraft and so had a great deal of operational GA experience to share.

Because of the leaseback arrangement we had a decent selection of aircraft to fly at non-profit prices. I got to fly during my time there everything from a C150 to a Bonanza (and did a lot of long trips in the Bonanza – great travelling machine).

I had to do my ME somewhere else, the club didn’t have a twin, but I did my ME with an instructor who ran his own tiny flight school (basically at the time, it was a Apache and a Tomahawk – he later expanded and I think it went a bit wrong when the financial crisis hit in 2008). My ME instructor was a senior FO for World Airlines and he was instructing because he wanted to instruct. And if I were richer, I would own an Apache. I loved that classic twin, OK it was “a good time builder” (euphemism for slow) but it was like flying a twin engined TriPacer – it was fun – and it was the sort of twin you could take into a grass airfield without much bother.

How would you do it if you were doing a PPL now, or if – as often happens to me – you met somebody who wants to learn to fly?

First I have to say my school was excellent. PPL with minimum hours (40 or 45, can’t remember). My instructor (also excellent) was the same age as me. I met him a couple of years ago, he was a Captain and instructor in Norwegian (NAS), and I had a cockpit view when travelling from Spain to Norway in a 2 week old B-737 That school has since long gone down along with all other smaller private schools. The only way to get a PPL nowadays is through some club as far as I know. As I see it, that can be a gamble. Some are good, some are bad, with poor and constant changeover of instructors. I also did gliding before that, got to fly a lot, but the school was a complete mess with dozens of “instructors”.

Today, if airplane is the goal (flying and owning), I would have taken microlight license, no doubts. There is where the good and steady instructors with experience are nowadays. Then get a cheap microlight (4-5k €) and fly all over the place for 1-3 years, getting to know flying and light aircraft maintenance (hands on) and the people. Then LAPL and PPL while still having a microlight and enough “seat of the pants” flying to fly circles around any PPL “instructor” at any local club. At the same time building some Experimental (RV, Glasair, CarbonCub or whatever fits). Alternatively replace microlight with gliders, but gliding easily tends to become a bit too all-consuming.

Or maybe gone commercial with helicopters. That’s the only flying I could see myself doing for a living. Well except bush flying, which is a bit far fetched and unrealistic for a living.

Definitely microlight – LAPL – PPL. IFR I still consider to be a waste of time and money unless you really need it flying a Boeing. Much better to use the time and money on acro, fuel, a Pitts maybe, a nice motorgilder, even PPL-H and a small helicopter.

IFR I still consider to be a waste of time and money unless you really need it flying a Boeing.

To each his own…

Don’t do a Microlight License if you want to fly on a PPL. It’s wasted Money since EASA won’t recognise any of the hours flowN. The LAPL is quite minimalistic, offers better upgrade options and you an fly more aircraft types. Plus, at least in Germany the micolight license is included (just an hour instruction and another Ground school).

And to my experience I don’t thonk that the good instructors are with the microlights per se. I have met too many shitty ones for that.

Gliding is a team sport and the instructors mostly work for free so a constant change of instructors is normal. Must not be bad at all since you can identify bad instructors through comparison.

Also, an hour of training on a shiny Eurostar or C42 is often more expensive than an hour on a clapped out C152.

Also, an hour of training on a shiny Eurostar or C42 is often more expensive than an hour on a clapped out C152

Things are in constant change of course. Still, today getting experience with flying and owning and maintaining is a factor 5-10 cheaper with a microlight than with a clapped out C152 under EASA reg. It doesn’t have to be this way, but this is what the geniuses at EASA has chosen. It makes me wonder, what kind of experience do you get by owning a clapped out EASA reg C152 other than banging your head into the EASA bureaucracy and mafia like money sucking “maintenance organisations” ?

Go microlight, then PPL and get an experimental. It keeps you away from EASA, away from the mafia, and you end up with a better performance aircraft that you can maintain yourself (or pay a professional mechanic to help you). Also, if you happen to live in Norway, Sweden or Italy (maybe some more countries), you could also build/buy a super hot rod IFR Lancair, if that is your liking