Todays Cost of getting a PPL

unicate wrote:
"Jay Honeck" wrote:
There are plenty of flight schools that will rent you a 152 for $70/hr
wet, and lots of CFIs that still work for $20 - $25/hr.

It's not necessarily that easy, Jay.
There are C152s for rent for around $70/hr wet here, but depending on
how much you and your CFI weigh (together with full fuel), a C152 isn't
a suitable trainer for a lot of people. Nearly all C172s are around
$100/hr, the newer ones (post 2000) are upwards of $125/hr. Most
*schools* charge $35-40/hr for their CFIs because THEY want to make at
least $20-25/hr off of them, and their CFIs are not free to teach in
aircraft that don't belong also belong to the school without a letter of
subrogation from the insurance company insuring the airplane absolving
the flight school from any liability with THEIR CFI if there's an
accident.

*** I had no trouble finding independant CFIs to train me in my own
airplane.
Except that it was a taildragger ( Cessna 140 ), and there's just not
that many tailwheel CFI's out there.

Speaking of insurance, you will pay through the nose for an
insurance company to allow a private individual to use his airplane,
even a C152, for training that allows the solo of a non-rated student.

*** No trouble with that, either. My insurance company was completely
on board, and covered me both dual and solo, as long as I remained
within
the rules. When I got the Private, my rate didn't change, either. Of
course,
that was about 10 years ago, maybe things have changed?

BTW I highly recommend buying an airplane to train in - but you do
need
to be pretty enthusiastic & committed to make it work. Ready to get
your
hands dirty. If you pay people to do EVERYTHING - including changing
the oil etc, it might be better to rent. Also, it's arguable that
ownersip issues
can distract from concentration on learning to fly. Although I did not
find it so.
Just by virtue of having the airplane always sitting out there
available, I
racked up a bunch of solo hours.

The 140 was well matched to the mission - carrying one student, one
CFI,
one flight bag - and in training - hour building - who cares how slow
it is?
The only exception - I flew my long XC in the winter, and it was hard
to cram
that many miles into a short winter day at 90MPH.

- Jerry Kaidor ( )