Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Hour Building in the USA.

So, hour building. It's a vital part of becoming a commercial pilot - it enables you to gain the hours required to start the CPL (Commercial Pilots Licence) whilst also helping you gain much needed experience and confidence. But, with typically around 100 hours to get, it's not cheap - especially at UK prices.

These expensive prices can be avoided, however, by going to America - where a C152 aircraft can be rented from as little as $80 an hour. This gives a substantial saving which, with the overall cost of training, can only be a good thing!

As I am currently in a position to start planning hour building myself, I've been assessing the options. Top of my current list of places to go so far is Air America ( Air America Flight Center) in Daytona Beach, Florida. They are currently offering a C152 at a price of $770 (roughly £485) for ten hours flight time, wet (with fuel).
At this pricing, if you buy 50 hours flight time with them, it works out at $3850, or roughly £2450. If you were to buy the same amount of hours over here, assuming a ballpark figure of £120 per hour, it is a cost of a staggering £6000!
That saving of £3550 is money that can be spent on more hours over here, or put to good use somewhere else in your training - maybe even add it to your Type Rating fund!

Anyway, I shall update you with my plans as I figure them out. Until then, happy flying!

2 comments:

  1. Those prices are scary. I'm not looking forward to flying back in Europe. We are so lucky here in the US.

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  2. Yes, very expensive when you compare them to the US. The UK certainly isn't cheap for GA!

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