Logistics of weekend trip.

[JcBook47]

I've done my first lesson and looking now to do ground school then finish out my flight lessons. But the Wife and I were talking about after I get my PPL how does it work if I don't have a plane.

Would I be able to rent a plane for a weekend to fly out Friday and back on Sunday? Or is there other options to buying a plane, like owning with multiple people?

I think in a 2-3 year time frame we could afford to purchase a plane in the $20-30,000 range and spend $3-5000 a year for maintenance and hanger fees. Is that the option most people go for is ownership?

 

[rk911]

lots of options. I don't own so I rent. my home airport requires a checkout ride every 6-mos for insurance purposes and anytime I rent at a new-to-me airport I need to take a check-out ride with a CFI. that's only prudent as the school or FBO renting the plane has no idea if I'm competent or not.

another option is joining a flying club. that's very common. you pay $X to join and/or $Y each month in order to rent whatever planes the club owns. there might be a qualifying checkout ride there as well.

as far as owning I would encourage you to do a lot more research on the annual costs. a buddy recently had to drop serious $ to correct issues found during the annual.

 

[denverpilot]

Renting is fine. Most places have extended rental rules for longer trips that simply have a minimum number of hours the aircraft needs to fly during the trip or you'll be billed for the hours. In most cases, they're set up such that a typical trip will cover the hours easily. Mostly to keep someone from doing like a three week trip only a couple hundred miles away, and the rental place losing the revenue the airplane would have made them if it stayed home.

As far as what "most" people do, I can't say. If your rental place has a decent number of aircraft and choices, and the schedule isn't always horribly "tight", renting may be a fun way to fly different types (you'll probably need an aircraft checkout in each, insurance being what it is...) and see what you like to fly, before buying anything. Also gives you access to aircraft you may not be able to afford.

Ownership has a different set of pluses and minuses, but means you usually have the keys in your pocket and don't need to schedule jack... You just go to the airport and open hour hangar or pull it off of your tie-down and go flying whenever you like.

And there's stuff in-between. Co-ownerships and clubs, even non-profit clubs, with nice aircraft and half or less of the fiscal outlay. I think personally these are the best of both worlds, but I'm biased. I'm 1/3 owner of an LLC that owns a 1975 Cessna 182 P-model w/Robertson STOL kit. The bills are spilt three ways except for consumables (fuel mainly) and we pay ourselves an amount per hour into the LLC for engine time, so whoever flies the most ends up paying for a larger chunk of the next engine overhaul. The LLC used to rent a hangar but a good deal came along and we voted to buy the LLC a T-hangar a while back, too.

All sorts of ways to do it. But at first, renting is fine. You'll find once you own which airplanes on the field are "good deals" for rentals and which ones someone is maybe making a few bucks off of, but usually not much.

You'll also find when you shop co-ownerships and have to join the insurance as a named pilot on the policy that low flight time and low time in type will increase the insurance rates for a while for the co-owners. You'll have to either get more time in type by renting or work out a deal to pay extra on the insurance or whatever until the premium comes back down. Doesn't take a lot of hours and you'd probably easily have them in first year in a co-ownership. Hammering out little details if it's a new co-ownership is important... Like if I go flat spot a tire doing something dumb, I should probably pay for it, and not make the others cover my mistake. Stuff like that.

 

[Shawn]

On the short term rental side, many FBOs will have a minimum hour charge per day...typically three hours per day for overnights. So if you rented on Friday and came back on Sunday you would be on the hook for minimum nine hours regardless of the Hobbs time. However, that is ALWAYS negotiable. If the plane if booked solid, not so much, but of there is a plane that sits most of the time you can often get that minimum knocked down. That is where developing a good relationship with your FBO is handy. They would rather it be generating some income vs no income.

Next level is flying club which is usually a larger group of people with access to multiple planes. Usually cheaper rental prices but with monthly membership dues and possibly a buy in cost.

Next is partnership on a single plane which is VERY common and that can range from 2 people and a handshake splitting costs to a 12 person fractional share managed by a FBO. Buy in on those vary wildly

...or just buy a plane and you don't have to worry about any of that!

Hour for hour rarely is it cheaper to outright own for the casual GA pilot...but you are buying freedom and accessibility. I own and know I would probably fly under half of what I do now if I had to rent each time vs having it available 24/7.

 

[hindsight2020]

Hour for hour rarely is it cheaper to outright own for the casual GA pilot...but you are buying freedom and accessibility. I own and know I would probably fly under half of what I do now if I had to rent each time vs having it available 24/7.

This is an excellent point that often is missed. There is a "ram air" effect to the momentum of having your own aircraft accessible to you. Not saying it's cheaper overall, but renting can be a self-licking ice cream cone in that if you can't get access due to rental/partnership constraints, then of course the fewer hours you do fly look cheaper via renting.

When I had no discretionary money of consequence, renting twice a month kept me in the air and current. But it never afforded me the ability to utilize this conveyance for travel and recreation to the level sole ownership has.

 

[JcBook47]

Thasks for the replies. I'll have to reread them tomorrow and ask another question or two. On the phone right now watching the copa cup finals.

 

[JcBook47]

Where could I find the information, local to me, about renting a plane? Would I contact flying schools that rent planes or would I contact the airport themselves? The idea of a flying club/partial ownership looks like a good idea. Is there a way to find these, do they have to be listed with the FAA by chance?

Again thanks for the input.

 

[JCranford]

Contact the flying schools. The airport may know the schools but not whether they rent or not. For Flying Clubs and partnerships, the bulletin board at the airport is one place to start. I think the APOA webste had a list of clubs at one point. And most clubs have a website so a Google search may be good.

 

[SCCutler]

Where could I find the information, local to me, about renting a plane? Would I contact flying schools that rent planes or would I contact the airport themselves? The idea of a flying club/partial ownership looks like a good idea. Is there a way to find these, do they have to be listed with the FAA by chance?

Again thanks for the input.

Well...

..tell us where you are (city, airport, etc.); pretty good chance someone here will have a useful resource for you.

 

[Skip Miller]

Contact flying clubs and ask about their weekend reservation policy.

Our club lets you reserve in advance four weekend days, so if you want a long weekend put two of those days together on the same weekend. These days are use-it-or-lose-it reservations, so if the weather craps out on you, you lose those weekend days. Weekend days are not lost if the plane is down for maintenance, i.e. you can re-book them in advance.

If you cancel your weekend reservation something like 10 days or more in advance, the weekend days are not lost.

Wednesday at noon and after, you may reserve a plane for that weekend if it is free, with no impact on the four weekend days.

That is the essence of it. It works pretty well.

-Skip

 

[JcBook47]

Well...

..tell us where you are (city, airport, etc.); pretty good chance someone here will have a useful resource for you.

The closest airport to me is KCXY. I know there are a few in the area though.

 

[coloradobluesky]

Talk to the FBO that rents you the plane you are learning in. See if they rent to private pilots for overnight trips. If they don't, and some don't or they only rent "non-trainers" you may want to consider training somewhere else because if you train with them they know and trust you and know how you fly so they will be more willing to pass you on your skills checkout. You can't expect to just come in and rent a plane like people rent a car. No matter how many hours you have. They always want checkouts. Talk to them.

 

[James331]

Get some time under your belt

Spend some time with your local AP, see if you can't help with a oil change or other simple stuff

Get to know some local owners and spend time with them.

Now make th decision if you want to buy and what type.

 

[ifly4fun]

This is an excellent point that often is missed. There is a "ram air" effect to the momentum of having your own aircraft accessible to you. Not saying it's cheaper overall, but renting can be a self-licking ice cream cone in that if you can't get access due to rental/partnership constraints, then of course the fewer hours you do fly look cheaper via renting.

When I had no discretionary money of consequence, renting twice a month kept me in the air and current. But it never afforded me the ability to utilize this conveyance for travel and recreation to the level sole ownership has.

Couldn't Agree more. Owning has kept me in the air exponentially more than renting. If only to not have the plane sitting for more than a week without running the engine, or just the fact that I know I'm paying x amount of dollars a month, I'm going to get my moneys worth.