How much does it all cost to get a Private Pilot's Licence?

A PREAMBLE!
First we have to look at the way we run the training course. By reading the information up to now you’ll realise that there are basically three stages to the training. First is to dip your big toe in the water by having a short trial lesson - either 20, 40 or 60mins. You’ve probably already done this and feel you’d like to progress a bit further by completing our 12--hour introductory course. If you then find you can’t live without flying we’ll work together to the final stage to obtain your licence.

To continue beyond the 12-hour introductory course you must have access to your own aircraft and this is the first big hurdle for most people. If you are wealthy then you can probably afford to shell out the odd £50,000 for a new aeroplane but most of the people we teach these days either can't justify spending that amount of money or simply haven't the time to spend with all the major hassle that goes with aircraft ownership...... where to park it, the constant maintenance, the worry of it being damaged, the paperwork.... (oh the dreaded paperwork ! !)...... etc etc.

Most people just want to turn up and go flying and because of this we’ve arranged things such that we can provide the latest state of the art, safe, reliable and well maintained aeroplane to learn on without it costing the proverbial arm and a leg. We’ve achieved this by providing the means by which our students can buy into a low-cost share scheme in the aeroplane they are learning on. This allows each student to enjoy all the benefits of ownership of a well equipped and well maintained aircraft with all the necessary bells and whistles on it yet only having to pay the running costs ..... at cost-price.

Sometimes it's a bit of a struggle for some people to come up with the readies for a share in the aircraft so we try to help out here as best we can by offering some payment options (ask for details). All this means that not only do our students all get an excellent and really affordable deal but we stay in business too! Thus we can afford to provide a really first class service without having to compromise on quality of training or safety.
There are one or two options of aircraft purchase available as you’ll see from the price list later on but by far the most popular is the 'One- twentieth' share. This means that you’ve got all the advantages of a ‘club’ aeroplane but you only pay cost-price to fly it - and the price includes the fuel too.

But suppose you didn’t want to have a permanent share in our aeroplane due to the distance of travel involved. Maybe you just want to get your licence and then make your own arrangements for flying in your own locality. No problem. You’d simply purchase an even lower cost 6-month share in the aeroplane to enable your training to be completed.

The 12-hour Introductory Course
Everybody starts with the 12-hour Introductory Course and there are two ways you can do this. One is by booking your lessons on a day-to-day basis as and when you can fit them in, maybe once a week for instance. The other is by doing your training whilst taking a few days holiday. Ok .... Ok .... the costs .... yes .... !

We'll start with the Introductory Course  which includes  all your books and reference materials together with ground subjects training, six hours of Simulator training and six hours of Flight training. There's £25 for the Microlight Aviation Club membership. There's a deposit of £94 to cover the books and the groundschool. The flying and simulator lessons are paid at end of each day at the rate of £98 per flying hour and £35 per simulator hour. That's a Grand total of £917 but if you pay for the whole lot up-front, we'll knock off £50 ....that's a Total of £867.

Continuation training up to obtaining your PPL
It ’s very difficult to put an exact figure on the total cost of the continuation training up to PPL stage because some people take longer than others to get to the solo stage. Getting to the solo stage is the most expensive bit but once there, everything begins to cost less. Also there’s the choice of aircraft to taker into consideration. However, let’s take an average situation using the C42 aircraft.

Club Memberships:
Club membership - M.A.C. (already paid) £25
Club membership - Spitfire Flying Club £100

Your own aeroplane
This is the juncture at which you must make a decision and purchase one of the aircraft options we have available. (Easy payment terms can be arranged).

Aircraft/Share Purchase Options:
6mth Share C42                                        £950
1/20th Share (C42)                                £3,650
New C42                                              £48,000

The aircraft you'll be flying are fully equipped with all the available accessories and options. These include full flight and engine instrumentation, 720channel TX/RX and two-way intercom. The C42 even has a heater!

Aircraft Running costs and Training fees
So, now you have your own aeroplane, even if you ’re a member of a syndicate, you treat it just as if it were your own and  you pay the aeroplane running costs separately from the training fees. There are TWO costs for training fees; one when you’re being taught dual and the other when your instructor is supervising you whilst you are flying solo.

Aircraft Running Costs per flying hour        £39
Dual Training fees per flying hour               £43
Solo Supervision fees per flying hour         £25

An overall ball-park total:
The average person who’s never flown before will reach solo stage in about 15 to 18 hours, so we’ve based our answer to the cost question on that average. There is of course the possibility that some people may require a little more dual flying than this, but people with previous flying skills will obviously need a lot less than 15 hours, depending upon experience etc.

So:- If you’ve already done the introductory course,   £867
there's another 12 hours dual training  @ £45ph         £540
plus your 12 hours aircraft running costs @ £39ph    £468
Assume you're solo in 18 hours, you'll now need around
10 hours of supervised solo training @ £32ph           £320
plus your 10 hours aircraft running costs @ £39ph    £390
plus the £100 for the Spitfire Flying Club so the total so far is £2,685.

THOSE HIDDEN EXTRAS
But as with most things in life there are those hidden extras which people tend not to tell you about for fear of putting you off, but we believe in making our students aware of ALL the costs beforehand so that there aren’t any nasty surprises along the way.

Monthly payment to cover parking and other costs.     £30
There is a once-only Hull Insurance payment on the share purchase. It's just in case the aircraft suffers some really expensive damage whilst parked or whilst flying. It isn’t an annual payment. Subsequent premiums are paid for out of the running cost fund.                                           £195
Navigation equipment                                    £50
A couple of dual cross country flights           £252
Radio Telephony (RT) Test                              £45
Written tests                                                £125
General Flying Test (£100fee+£39costs)      £139
CAA Licence fee                                            £135
... Can’t think of anything else! ........ Total   £941

So, you can see from all this that the whole of the training costs (but excluding the capital cost of the aeroplane and the £20 monthly syndicate payment) is around £3626.

The capital cost of the aeroplane must be added to this of course and this cost will naturally depend upon your choice of the options mentioned earlier, but you should look upon this as an asset and not part of the training costs. Supposing for instance you opt for the 1/20th share in the C42 at £3,650, you must remember that the aeroplane belongs partly to you, so you have almost all the privileges of a sole owner. One of which is that you get to fly it at cost price, but you don’t have all the hassle of maintenance and all the associated paperwork - that’s all taken care of by us - you just turn up and fly whenever you want to.

So, there it is. All in you're looking at around £7,276 but you'll already have paid for the Introduction course (£867) so the continuation cost is actually around £6,409, and MORE THAN HALF OF THAT is the aircraft share which is an asset that you can sell any time you want to.

So you see, you can't really lose can you?

All prices quoted are inclusive of VAT and subject to change without notice

More about the Share Scheme
Although the capital cost of the aeroplane must be added to the cost of the Continuation course, (this cost will naturally depend upon your choice of the options quoted in the Share Prices), you should really look upon this as an asset and not part of the training costs.

Supposing for instance you opt for the 1/20th share. You must remember that the aeroplane belongs partly to you – PERMANENTLY - so you have almost all the privileges of a sole owner. One of which is that you get to fly it at cost price. But you don’t have all the hassle of maintenance and all the associated paperwork that a sole owner has - that’s all taken care of by us. YOU just turn up and fly whenever you want to...... at cost price …... ie: no profit built in for Airbourne Aviation Ltd.

Selling your share
In addition to this, should you ever want to pull out of the syndicate you are free to sell your share to another licence holder, or we will re-purchase it back from you any time starting at £2,400 with £380 a year depreciation ending up at the end of 5 years at £500. Now you’d expect a depreciation on your aeroplane wouldn’t you? But this is a depreciation of only £380 per year - much less than if you were a sole owner.

But 20 people to one aeroplane????
Aha! ..... but surely 20 people on one aeroplane will make it impossible to ever have it when it's wanted. This is the natural logic that EVERYBODY assumes when the figure of 20 people is mentioned but please believe me that lack of availability is NOT an issue. Far from it in fact.  So far from it that not only are there 20 people sharing one aeroplane but the way we administer the scheme enables it to be in use CONSTANTLY for training purposes as well as for the use of Group members. Group members NEVER have a problem booking their aeroplane whenever they want it.

The downside....!
If there IS a downside to the 1/20th share, it's the fact that you can't take it away for the day - or longer - like you'd be able to do if you owned it outright. But we've even got that covered with our 'Quarter Share' scheme. With the 'Quarter Share' scheme you CAN treat the aircraft as if it's your own and take it away for a fortnight's holiday - even to Europe - if you want to and only pay for the flying time - again, at cost price.   For space reasons the details of this scheme aren't covered here but please ask if the idea takes your fancy. It obviously costs a bit more .....but nothing like as much as you'd think.

Testimonials:
But back to the 1/20th share, remember, we have MANY aeroplanes. You're not just restricted to just one so we never have an availability problem. But don't just take my word for it. Our many students currently training with us will more than happily testify that we have an excellent scheme here. So should you be wondering whether to go for such a scheme but need some independent information, we'll gladly give you the names and phone numbers of all our existing members who will be delighted to discuss their experiences with you. Their testimonials will assure you that what I've said is absolutely true. In fact, letters from three of our members are included at the end of this info pack just to prove the validity of what I've been saying. Read the testimonials later from Pete, Mike and Roy.