PLL training: Flight school or own-a-plane route?

Chesterspal

Chesterspal

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Chesterspal
So, by now you folks have read my other posts. Want to go back and complete my PPL from years ago.

Where I live now in Connecticut is in the sticks. There is a privately owned but open to the public airstrip called Goodspeed just 10 miles from me. Not much, gravel runway, no tower, no service, but you can pay to tie down there. The closest commercial flight school is 25 miles away in Hartford.

Since I plan to buy a small single at some point down the road, would it make sense for me to get one now, park it at Goodspeed and contract with one of these CFI's who travel around giving flying lessons?

I'd be learning right in the plane I will fly from then on, which seems like a plus, and I'd be saving hundreds of $$ off renting from a flight school. I've had quotes if $120/hour just for the plane.

If the Goodspeed option would not work for training... No tower for instance... I could tie down in Hartford. Full service there. Might make more sense for the training, yes?

Your comments, please, and thanks.
 
Any good CFI will take you to both towered and non-towered airports, so the existence of a tower at your home base is irrelevant. My only reservation is that until you begin flying you do not know what kind of plane you want, and the one you buy might not meet your needs once you begin flying in earnest.

BTW, I know instructors who do ten-day courses for the instrument rating, but taking someone from newbie to certificated takes time....much more than ten days. Good luck finding an instructor.
 
$120/hr is a good price, especially in the Northeast. You are not going to save a lot of money, if any, by purchasing an airplane, and it could well cost you more per hour. IMO, one does not purchase a basic trainer type a/c to save money on the hourly cost; there are other reasons. I am not saying don't do it though I also think a 25 mile drive is nothing.
 
Do yourself a favor and get a very experienced CFI who can assist you in the purchase and the instruction before you buy a plane.
 
Did you check to see if the private field allows flight instruction?
 
Worst case scenario, your PPSEL takes you 100 hours. At $120/hr, that's $12,000 for the plane. I don't see how buying, maintaining, insuring, housing (even if you just rent a tiedown), and fueling an airplane could do anything but at least triple that cost, and that's if you buy a very modest plane (as is mine). There are many reasons to buy a plane, but saving money usually isn't a valid one. If you fly a LOT (at least twice a week), and/or take long, frequent, or multi-night trips, then after a year or three (or more, depending upon what plane you buy), you may start to realize savings over renting.

Oh...yeah...the 25 mile drive didn't strike me as a problem, either. I had to drive further than that to work every day for 31 years, and I drive farther than that to my plane now. Driving 25 miles to go do something I love is a lot more fun than driving 33 miles to go to work! Only so many people can live near airports....
 
Does that local field have any CFi’s lingering around?
 
Goodspeed is paved, not gravel... and sadly, nearly dead, nobody hangs out there any more. But Chester Airport, just across the river, is a lot more active, with an FBO, gas, and instruction (PP or SP)... I'm based there. A buddy there is working on his private in his own C-170, with a freelance CFI out of I think Riconn over on the RI border.

What kind of flying do you ultimately want to do? That will affect what makes sense for you.
 
I agree with other posters here that owning will not decrease your price per hour and may increase it. The primary reason to own your plane during training is freedom and flexibility. No one else will be contending to schedule your plane and once you are post-solo, you can fly it when you want.

OTOH, most of the older trainers one might purchase will require occasional unscheduled maintenance which will require some patience.
 
PeterNSteinmetz said:
OTOH, most of the older trainers one might purchase will require occasional unscheduled maintenance which will require some patience.
Click to expand...

You can pretty much count on it. My observation has been that the people I’ve provided training to in FBO or school owned and maintained airplanes are done training quite a bit sooner than those who own their own plane. Distractions with maintenance events, trying to source parts, and simply trying to resurrect an airplane that may not have flown much lately all add up to extended training times.

My latest experience with this is two instrument students. One student who used the FBO plane and flew almost every weekday was done with training in just over a month. The other one with their own plane is just about to hit the 1 year mark because the plane is in the shop more than it is getting flown.
 
Train first. Buy plane later, when you know more. It is dubious owning a plane for training will be cheaper than renting. Owning is mostly about convenience. Real costs of owning and renting are not that far apart. Plus, as others have hinted, a new to you plane will require a lot of initial maintenance to bring it up to standard. That's more money and less time flying. There is a high correlation between a plane for sale and deferred maintenance and/or improvements. The new owner gets to play catchup. Unless you can find a rare primo plane, then it's gonna cost.
 
"Never buy a plane to save money."

- Said every aircraft owner ever

But, if you like opening up your hangar door a few times a month and look at your airplane as you slap your back in an "atta boy" fashion, MPTO. I do, and sometimes I even get to fly it. Nothing like spending about a 1 AMU a month just to park the thing and set aside annual AMUs and pay the insurance and have a place to store the crap I'll never get to sorting through. I do have a nice 1995 Chevy pickenup that I drive daily to justify owning a 44 year old airplane.

Might have missed it posted, but any clubs that will allow you to train in? Or, can you afford to buy a champ or ancient 172 and keep it?

I vote buy a Simple single that is built like sheet breekhouse that has some fancy crap in it to get you through your IR

Then sell it for what you bought it for, and just be out about what you'd put into renting. IMHFO. Fly it for about 200ish hours and bill yourself about $150/hr for ACMI, and sell it in a year for the same price. Something like this can pencil out kinda cheap on the hour if it is of healthy stock already. I'll check with the beechaeroclub.org guys to see if it is one of 'ours.'

I am in a spot right now where I'm about even-even in regards to cost per hour rental and what I have put into the plane in hours over 4 years. Minus hangar and insurance. My insurance is cheaper than my wife's car and both are full coverage.
 
I always felt that once you are committed to the training, buying a suitable aircraft made sense. While buying to learn in will not be cheaper than renting the flight school’s plane, I look at it as a down payment on the plane that you will want to have once you have your certificate. Once you have your certificate you are going to want to get a plane because renting the flight school’s plane for personal use has a lot of problems. Rather than give the flight school the money, use that money to help go buy a plane. If you intend to get your IR, it makes even more sense, assuming you purchase a plane that can be made instrument certified, which isn’t a big deal usually.
 
These are all great replies and I will consider what you have said.

I guess my concern is, if I was to go the "freelance" CFI route, my understanding is, they do not come with a plane. You must supply your own.

Visited Goodspeed yesterday. All locked up. No activity so I could not get any info. Did not see any tied down planes, only hangars. That would affect the costs, for sure, if I cannot go that lower monthly rental route. Too bad, as they are less than 20 minutes from my house. Nice, quite field next to the CT river.

Chester (the air field, not my dog) I will have to look into.
 
MuseChaser said:
Oh... and, as an aside... you really don't have to fully comprehend phase-locked loop circuitry to be a pilot, and even if that knowledge was valuable, buying a plane wouldn't help, nor would most flight schools

This is a pretty good intro, though, if you're interested in the subject....

https://www.analog.com/en/analog-dialogue/articles/phase-locked-loop-pll-fundamentals.html
Click to expand...

Actually, I used to design circuitry for motion picture camera control that was based on PLL, so yes, I do understand.
 
Question: If I was to locate a plane not in my local area is there a process whereby I can hire someone to ferry the plane to my "home field" and then put them on a flight back home? If so, where might I search for this person?

This would be after I have inspected the plane myself and hired a flight mechanic to check it out, of course.
 
Chesterspal said:
Question: If I was to locate a plane not in my local area is there a process whereby I can hire someone to ferry the plane to my "home field" and then put them on a flight back home? If so, where might I search for this person?

This would be after I have inspected the plane myself and hired a flight mechanic to check it out, of course.
Click to expand...

Barnstormers is a good source though I would imagine any of the airplane classifieds have a section for services.
 
If I were you I'd at least wait until you get through your solo. Those first 10-15 hours of training are REALLY hard on airplanes (and CFI's). Once you get through the bounces and harder landings, then you can start thinking about buying a plane. Especially if you're looking at continued training after your PPl. If you plan on getting your IFR, commercial, CFI then buying a plane for training makes sense. Just make sure you get one with decent radios. New radios can cost more than a good trainer.
 
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