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09/10/2008, 12:55 PM Anthony Tester Joined on 24/09/2007 Vienna Posts 106 Fed up with excessive Club Fees! I'm a CPL with 750ish hours flying 20tons of twin turboprop regularly. I have an SEP endorsement which I'd like to hold onto but which requires me to fly 12hours before it expires in May 2009. Problem is that with all the costs of normal living plus paying off my excessive training debt I have little left to commit to GA flying, especially when the cost of club flying is so prohibitively high. Recent figures from my local flying club were £220p/h for a dual check flight thereafter £160p/h solo (PA28 Warrior) meaning a massive cost of £1980 to hold onto my SEP class rating! I have no particular desire to join any other clubs offering marginally cheaper hourly rates or commit long term to a syndicate (Clearly if I'm reluctant to pay £2k just for flying I'm unlikely to want to pay £8k and then a cheaper hourly rate and monthly fees). What I'm looking for is an aircraft prefferably Blackbushe based with an owner who is willing to let me fly it for fuel + maintenance costs on a per hour basis. A perfect way to keep a perhaps under utilised aircraft in the air and for me to keep flying :-) Ant    Report

10/10/2008, 2:37 PM McGoo Joined on 15/11/2005 Posts 225 Re: Fed up with excessive Club Fees! If you can't afford the 12 hours why fly them, if you don't get the 12 hours you could just take the proficiency check flight with an examiner, general handling, stalls etc, that would give you your two year renewal without having to fly the 12 hours??    Report

12/10/2008, 12:49 PM Anthony Tester Joined on 24/09/2007 Vienna Posts 106 Re: Fed up with excessive Club Fees! My calculations suggest that even with this option I'd be looking to have to fly about 3 hours using a club aircraft. I think it can be agreed that it'd be foolish to go straight into a flight test without first having some practice, revision if you like, on the basis that it would have been at least a year since my last SEP flight (sufficient time for it to have expired). Logic would dictate that this would include at least one hour with an instructor and perhaps another hour of solo consilidation before the actual flight test. Based on current club rates this would be set to cost nigh on six hundred pounds (this is assuming the examiner fee is the same as the instructor fee and I imagine it could be somewhat more than this). If however someone out there in Pilot land happened to have an under utilised 152, PA28 or similar and were willing to allow me to fly for perhaps 80quid an hour inc. fuel the 12 hours would be closer to 1k (4x the flying for under half the price with an experience based revalidation). Are there any owner operators out there who think this is a reasonable rate?    Report

12/10/2008, 10:15 PM Silver Fox Joined on 13/12/2004 In a world of magnets and miracles. Posts 68 Re: Fed up with excessive Club Fees! "Are there any owner operators out there who think this is a reasonable rate?"   I doubt it very much, in a PA28 that will hardly cover fuel/oil cost with avgas at over £1:70 per ltr. It's unlikely you will get anything for less than about £110, sorry to be the bringer of bad news!    Report

14/10/2008, 8:51 AM Anthony Tester Joined on 24/09/2007 Vienna Posts 106 Re: Fed up with excessive Club Fees! Thanks for the information, as much of a fact finding mission as anything else. On that basis I'd be more inclined just to renew as and when I have the cash to go back to SEP.    Report

14/10/2008, 9:40 AM ISee Joined on 30/06/2008 Posts 23 Re: Fed up with excessive Club Fees!  Anthony Tester wrote: My calculations suggest that even with this option I'd be looking to have to fly about 3 hours using a club aircraft. I think it can be agreed that it'd be foolish to go straight into a flight test without first having some practice, revision if you like, on the basis that it would have been at least a year since my last SEP flight (sufficient time for it to have expired). Logic would dictate that this would include at least one hour with an instructor and perhaps another hour of solo consilidation before the actual flight test. Based on current club rates this would be set to cost nigh on six hundred pounds (this is assuming the examiner fee is the same as the instructor fee and I imagine it could be somewhat more than this). If however someone out there in Pilot land happened to have an under utilised 152, PA28 or similar and were willing to allow me to fly for perhaps 80quid an hour inc. fuel the 12 hours would be closer to 1k (4x the flying for under half the price with an experience based revalidation). Are there any owner operators out there who think this is a reasonable rate? I might be able to sort you out with a c150 aerobat but it is based at EGHH let me know if it suits.    Report

14/10/2008, 12:18 PM Anthony Tester Joined on 24/09/2007 Vienna Posts 106 Re: Fed up with excessive Club Fees! That sounds almost ideal, if slightly far away. What kind of hourly costs would we be looking at though?    Report

14/10/2008, 12:49 PM ISee Joined on 30/06/2008 Posts 23 Re: Fed up with excessive Club Fees! currently letting it out at 55 ph dry and excl landing fees. but I just took it to the nearby old sarum for the touch and gos when i was doing my ppl I just singed up 2 lads. one of them needs about the same as you and another one is doing some 40 hours starting next month or something like that, so the availability may not be 100%, but nothing that an agreement in advance could not sort out. When do you need to start by?    Report

23/10/2008, 8:50 AM ISee Joined on 30/06/2008 Posts 23 Re: Fed up with excessive Club Fees! I guess that's the end of that conversation then? :)    Report

23/10/2008, 9:55 AM Anthony Tester Joined on 24/09/2007 Vienna Posts 106 Re: Fed up with excessive Club Fees! It'll probably be beggining of next year, feb onwards or perhaps beggining of Jan, funds and availability permitting. I'll send you a message nearer the time. Cheers, Ant    Report

30/10/2008, 3:06 PM ISee Joined on 30/06/2008 Posts 23 Re: Fed up with excessive Club Fees!  Anthony Tester wrote: It'll probably be beggining of next year, feb onwards or perhaps beggining of Jan, funds and availability permitting. I'll send you a message nearer the time. Cheers, Ant cool, let me know. if i can tag along during those hours and we can make the trips useful and exciting i may make you a better deal.    Report

11/11/2010, 3:53 PM Richard Beath Joined on 16/11/2005 Posts 2 Re: Fed up with excessive Club Fees! I am happy to let someone fly my plane based in Corsham near Bath, for a marginal cost rather than a fully absorbed cost. This will help me with the fixed costs. Presently I run at 30 hours per year at around £230 per hour, but am willing to do it per hour for suitable pilot at around £170 per hour wet, assuming fuel at £1.70 per litre. Let me know what you think 07941 184 487    Report

16/05/2012, 10:28 AM willsonlynn Joined on 16/05/2012 Posts 5 Re: Fed up with excessive Club Fees! I have an SEP endorsement which I'd like to hold onto but which requires me to fly 12hours before it expires in May 2009.... ________________________________ Cheap WOW Gold and RS Gold    Report

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