How 30 years changes things...

cleared4theoption

cleared4theoption

Pre-takeoff checklist
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May 6, 2010
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Flowery Branch, GA
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Jeremy
A co-worker of mine brought in an old packet of info he got at an FBO back in 1981 at Fulton County (Charlie Brown) Airport
It has this:
picture.php

Price list...Cessna 150 $28 an hour...instruction $13 an hour
Cessna 172 $43 an hour :eek:

Also had an Atlanta Terminal Control Area Chart
KRYY and KLZU didn't have towers back then...pretty neat stuff
Oh...and Hartsfield only had 3 runways instead of 5
 
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It hasn't been all that many years since it's gone sky-high. In '99, I rented a 152 for $40 and the instructor for $20.
 
in 2002 when i learned to fly i was paying $60/hr for a 152, wet, with or without instructor.
 
Everskyward said:
But the median household income in 1981 was $17,375 compared to $47,022 in 2010. That's about 2.7 times more.

http://www.davemanuel.com/median-household-income.php
Click to expand...
True...
The cost of the plane rental is close to matching that... $43 times 2.7 is 116. If you look hard you can find a 172 for around that price...but it's closer to 125-140.
Percentage wise, the average cost of an instructor is much further off..about 3.5 times higher. And we know the instructor doesn't get a lot of that. Most of it goes back to the school to help augment the cost of the rental.
 
In '99 and 2000 I was renting a 172 wet for $50, now it's around $110-$125 in the local area.
 
I have a receipt here from a $25 intro flight in 1998, .5 dual in a Cherokee. Another is from .9 dual in December of '99, $50 per hour for the plane and $23 for the CFI. $11 per hour ground instruction.

So now, almost 13 years later, the instructor is $35 an hour and that same PA-28 goes for $95 wet. I'm flying the club's 172 for $83 an hour. Doesn't seem all that bad. Well, it does, but not out of line with everything else. The CFI isn't making out so well, though.
 
My employee rate for the rental of a PA-48 was $42/hr in 1998. They were charging students around $150 irrc.
 
The C-152 I used to get my ticket in 1994 was $37/hr wet. The Warrior I rented after I got my PPL was $60/hr wet, and I used to think, "Wow, I am paying a dollar a minute to fly this thing". :D
 
Wow, it has been awhile. Sorry, PA-44. Not nearly as cool.

images
 
I paid $65 wet for PA28-181 and 20 for instruction in 2002 :rolleyes:
 
Humph. When I was your age (1973) I paid $19 for a 172. The instructor cost another $5.

Dan
 
I paid $18/hr wet in 1974 for brand new C-150 Commuter II.
I think the instructor was $12/hr.
And then the new C-152s came out.

I just rented a 1997, C-182S with full King IFR package last weekend for $180/hr wet.
 
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I think I paid about $50 per hour in 2003 or 2004 for a Grumman trainer wet and $30 for the CFI
 
I think we were paying about thirteen or fifteen bucks an hour when I started, for the least expensive stuff; the high end was about thirty five.

I do remember when a cub was renting for thirty dollars an hour, I thought it was highway robbery.

I used to get paid seven hundred a month in the Cessna 207, plus seven dollars a flight hour.
 
When I started in 2000 the club's C-172N was $50/hour wet. Of course, we have monthly dues to cover the fixed expenses like hangars and insurance. That same 172 is now still less than $100/hr and our "new" C-172P is $79/hour. Why is the P less expensive to fly than the N? The P has the stock 160 hp engine and the N was upgraded years ago to the Penn Yan 180 hp conversion. Burns more gas. It also has a 430W in the panel, which the P lacks.
 
What I noticed was that commercial was required before instrument... (though I see the commercial included instrument so I guess that was more a local idiosyncracy )
 
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Ghery said:
When I started in 2000 the club's C-172N was $50/hour wet. Of course, we have monthly dues to cover the fixed expenses like hangars and insurance. That same 172 is now still less than $100/hr and our "new" C-172P is $79/hour. Why is the P less expensive to fly than the N? The P has the stock 160 hp engine and the N was upgraded years ago to the Penn Yan 180 hp conversion. Burns more gas. It also has a 430W in the panel, which the P lacks.
Click to expand...

the 430W shouldn't raise the hourly cost.

our club is structured about the same with about the same prices. We have N's with stock engines. I think the base price is something like 65 per hour plus a fuel surcharge based on the price at our home base. right now that is $3.50. Our monthly dues pay for avionics upgrades, interiors, overhauls, and all the other fixed costs.
 
And, one decade before that, you could order a 200Kt "personal" aircraft for under $3K.
 

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$89.00 / hour for dual in a Pitts in 1979.

But I could afford it - I was making something on the order of $15,000 per year.
 
skidoo said:
And, one decade before that, you could order a 200Kt "personal" aircraft for under $3K.
Click to expand...

You could order it. Didn't mean that you'd receive it. And it was a kit, not a flyable airplane, and I don't think it did 200 kts, either. The ones that flew sometimes killer their pilots. There are hundreds of incomplete BD-5 kits in garages and basements everywhere.

Dan
 
skidoo said:
And, one decade before that, you could order a 200Kt "personal" aircraft for under $3K.
Click to expand...
And a decade before that, you could [ahem] order a factory-built, two-seat, fully-aerobatic lightplane with wings removable for towing, and 120 mph cruise speed at 65% power (65 hp), all for $2,500! Or spend an extra $1200 and get a 108 hp engine, and cruise at 145 mph and climb at 1150 fpm!

:yikes:

BD-1_pricelist.jpg


Notice any pattern here? :idea:
 
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But on return to Earth from Planet Bede, in 1966 you could actually buy a factory-new (but very skimpily-equipped) Cessna 150 for $6,995.00. They sold three thousand 150s that year. And in 1971 a new Champ 7ACA, with 60 hp, 2-cylinder Franklin engine, sold for $4,995.00.

On the other side of the inflation ledger, consider this "Dream" avionics package from Narco in 1962 -- dual navcoms, glideslope, ADF, markers and an analog DME:

narco_6211-1.jpg


... all for "less than $8,000"! In today's money, that's over $61,000. But the good news is, it weighs "under 65 pounds." :rolleyes2:
 
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