Been & gone & done it now! As the title this w/e I bought a plane
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Not quite as grand as it sounds, it may shock some of you to know you can buy & run a plane for not a lot more than a second car/mototbike!!
What's more this one will cruise at around 105/110knots (120-125MPH) on ordinary pump fuel at over 30 to the gallon! It won't transport any lardy people tho'
There is of course the minor detail that you need to get your PPL - took me around 2 years & about £10k
So how many other pilots have we got on here?

What is it? I assume that its a proper plane rather than a microlight thing? (They are starting to look more and more like light planes..)


I would be very interested to know how much you calculate your "per hour" cost to be including airframe, insurance and fuel...

I have a PPL.... But I wouldnt
be seen dead in a frigging plank





[Edited on 2/3/09 by tegwin]

My boss built his own plane with some help from some of the lads at work.

He was planning on selling it but was only getting silly offers so he has retaken his licence and will be using it again when the weather is better.

Just cost him loads of money to service the prop though. About £1k if I remember.

Apparently Heather Mills used her divorce money to buy a plane...........







Now she can shave both her legs!

(I'll get me coat)

Cheers

Chris

Very nice!
Thats a Pulsar right? And from memory the one which went down after a seized engine a few years ago.
(im not a plane spotter, my instructor took great delight in showing the pictures of the plane on my second lesson, as he was involved with the plane somehow )

I've got a PPL but have hardley flown for the last year, decided to put the Tiger ahead. Now need some nice weather and I'll get my tailwheel training finished

I'd always planned to build one from a kit ala Mark evans - may I ask what sort of cost these are?

James

I too looked into it James while day dreaming one day!

I think starting at around £30k. Im sure the engines start at around £5k, also the equivalent of the SVA is obviously alot more invloved. They come round at different stages of your build as you probably saw in A Plane is Born.

I'm training for my PPL-B Hot Air Balloon pilots licence at the moment. Does that count?

"Very nice!
Thats a Pulsar right? And from memory the one which went down after a seized engine a few years ago.
(im not a plane spotter, my instructor took great delight in showing the pictures of the plane on my second lesson, as he was involved with the plane somehow )"

This site never ceases to amaze me!!!

Yes absolutely spot on a coolant hose fractured & the engine seized & it was force landed in the Scottish Highlands!

I've seen the pics & certainly wouldn't have fancied putting anything down there myself. It's all been rebuilt since then, new undercarriage, rads, battery, interior, repainted & a zero timed engine.

It is indeed a Pulsar, still made in the States I believe but no distributor over here at present, you can buy second hand for around £15k. Building brand new I doubt you'd have any change out of £25k (that's like £250 only with more 000's!!)

Hourly rate I haven't worked out accurately, but even if you were only doing the hours to keep up your licence it would still come out cheaper then hiring school planes. It's not a microlight, tho' the whole plane weighs about 230kgs!!!, Yes, really - I reckon we could learn a lot from the aircraft industry! But because it's a permit plane rather than on C of A you can maintain it yourself so costs are dramatically cut. I can't actually fly it at present as Ihave to get a tailwheel conversion, but should be able to do the conversion in my own plane, hence cost about £150 rather than about £1500!

so any of your plane experts care to explain a few things to me?

Could I pass a test (PPL or PLL or soemthing I think I've read) that allows me to fly me and my family to say.... south of france?

The plane would need to be a four seater, but I;ve seen a few of them up for sale as a "1/10th share" etc. - but what is all this talk of costs? I;ve seen £60 per month/ £70 per hour wet.

Does that mean that as 10th part owner I have to pay £60 per month toward general upkeep/storage costs, and then if I actually want to fly I have to pay £70 per hour of flying time?

What other nasties are there? surely airports charge you to fly in/out of them?

Just trying to get a rounded understanding of it, as I've always fancied it - but its quite firmly filed away under "pipe dream"

Knew a bloke who had a part share in a twin engined thingy. He could only afford to fly it to france to fill up on fuel and fly it back (fuel was a lot cheaper when i talked to him 10 years ago). His wife left him and his bank manager gave him an ultimatum - sell the plane or i'm bankrupting you!

he sold the plane.

Its not a case of OMG Ive got a plane more a case of OMG Ive got to pay for the upkeep of a plane.
Ive got PPL & PPL microlight flexwing, Microlights are more fun and cheaper but in this country with the weather you can count your flying opportunity's on the fingers of one hand.
Nice plane though Russ.
Cheers,
Bob

[Edited on 2/3/09 by splitrivet]

I spent 10 years as a Commercial bush and waterbomber pilot in Northern Canada. I came out of it with my life, and that makes everything from now on gravy.

Anybody wanting to become a pilot should come to Canada or the US and save themselves a bundle. Flying makes kit cars seem like good deals. Essentially, do it often, or die. Simple.

Nearly got my weightshift moiclolight license.

Did all exams, most of solo hours and gft, but ran out of holiday time/money to do cross countries.

My instructor moved to France about 15 years ago, so I went there in '99.

Then kids and Ron Champion came along

ATB

Simon

"Could I pass a test (PPL or PLL or soemthing I think I've read) that allows me to fly me and my family to say.... south of france? "

Simple answer is yes, but if you want to fly to France you need PPL(A) which is what I've got, despite anything the flying clubs will tell you to do it in this country will cost around £10k (including equipment,exams, landing fees etc.). You can go for NPPL which is less hours & therefore cheaper, but you can only fly within the UK.

"The plane would need to be a four seater, but I;ve seen a few of them up for sale as a "1/10th share" etc. - but what is all this talk of costs? I;ve seen £60 per month/ £70 per hour wet."

Most syndicates won't let you in till you have 100 hours+ experience (I currently have around 80). Most 4 seaters are C of A aircraft which can be horrifically expensive to maintain, there are a few permit 4 seaters around, but many are wooden construction & need hangaring or will go rotten £60/month would be to cover insurance, hangarage, general expenses, £70/hr wet means that is the cost to fly the plane for one tacho hour (usually actually about 1.2 real hours) including fuel - older planes can burn an incredible amount of fuel, some modern ones are just as incredible in the lack of burning it!

"What other nasties are there? surely airports charge you to fly in/out of them?"

Landing fees vary enormously from free or £5 up to literally hundreds if you wanted to land at a major international airport (even if they'd let you in), typically £10 - £20. What I'm doing is farm strip flying, I pay no landing fees at the strip where the plane is based, included within £60/month rent, I'm building a little "T" hangar for the plane so it doesn't have to stand outside but doesn't cost me for full hangarage, tho'I do have access to a hangar for doing maintenance etc - i am doing this about the cheapest way possible. With C of A aircraft you could pay £15k for an old cessna or PA28 then get caught for around the same again when it comes up for annual inspection If you buy a C of A plane near the end of it's engine life that could easily be another £10k They will also be burning around 25 - 30 litres an hour to do around 100mph.
HTH

Had a trainer come in to do a course a month ago and he got onto his flying hobby. Referred to his weekend as going out for a £500 bacon sandwich - as most people fly from their home airfield out to another one have a snack at the destination airfield, fill up and fly home.

He had a share in a piper somethingorother which sounded ruinously expensive to keep in the air. That said he was about the most enthusiastic person I've ever talked to when he was on the subject of flying.

I too have a plain ....







































..... naan, but prefer peshwari.

Nice peice of kit!! I thought the Pulsar was quicker thou ?!?

Anyways ... with the size of that thingie ... you better keep your seperation from my wake turbulence lol

Enjoy it!!! I am jealous! It is a real beaut!