Renting a C-172 in the Southern Ontario (Toronto) Region

I'm currently a student pilot hoping to have my RPC by the end of July
and possibly my PPL by the end of August. Once I get the RPC I'd like
to build up the 10 solo hours required for the PPL by taking friends
and flying to various places. I'm currently a member of a club (which
is where I do my training) but their rental policies are centered
around renting a plane and flying for the day. I'd like to be able to
rent a plane and keep it overnight (or two) even though I'd only be
flying about 2 hours away (so 4 hours of flight time in 3 days). It
seems many places charge 6 hour minimums or other - and 4 hours of
flight time is expensive enough for me as it is that I cannot justify
paying for 12-18 hours for 4 hours of flight time.

What I'm looking for is any information or advice anyone has. Is there
any club or company anywhere in the Toronto area which has renting
policies more suitable to someone who may want to rent a plane for two
or three days for a semi-local flight? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Oh and since I am learning on a Cessna 172 right now I'd be looking to
rent one of those.. once I finish my training then I'll worry about
getting checked-out on other aircraft! That hopefully shouldn't be a
problem though since as far as I know the 172 is an extremely popular
GA aircraft.

Thanks!

I'm currently a student pilot hoping to have my RPC by the end of July and
possibly my PPL by the end of August. Once I get the RPC I'd like to
build up the 10 solo hours required for the PPL by taking friends and
flying to various places.

What do you mean by "RPC"? Do you mean RPP (recreational pilot permit"?

If you mean the RPP, then I'd suggest you are doing things the very long way around if you are planning on getting the full PPL afterwards, as you not only have to finalize your RPP training and do a full flight test with a Transport Canada examiner, obtain your licence, and then actually fly under it (with only one passenger at a time, which is a restriction on the RPP don't forget!) and then when you proceed to upgrade to the PPL you need to do it all over again.

Your better off to forget completely about the RPP and simply build the hours solo towards the PPL....unless the time between the RPP and PPL is going to be something reasonable to allow time building - a year for example.

As for renting an aircraft for multiple days just for "local" flights, you will not find anything anywhere to accomodate this - rental aircraft need to be flying to make money, and (within reason) anyone who rents aircraft will want a reasonable return on the time away versus hours on the hobbs at return.

If you want an aircraft that you can fly for short periods of time but have possession of for long periods of time, you'll have to look at buying your own...or getting into a partnership with an appropriate group of people for whom this arrangement is acceptable.

--
Mark
http://www.oshawapilot.ca
RPASEL, Canada