The Price of Take-Off: Unveiling the Financial Journey of Private Pilot Training

Ever wondered how heavy your wallet needs to be to take to the skies? Buckle up, as I take you on a financial voyage into the world of pilot training. From the adrenaline-pumping trial flight that kickstarts your logbook to the nuanced selection of an aircraft that suits your stature and budget, like my trusty PA-28, I try to cover it all. I offer practical tips on how to navigate payments to flying schools while keeping your investment secure, and offer my take on the surprising costs that come with solo flights and ground school essentials. It's not just about the money; it's about making smart choices that keep your dream of flight a reality.

Strap on your headset and let's talk about the less-discussed aspects of becoming a pilot—the ones that hit your bank account. I'll take a look at the membership fees and hidden costs, the benefits of ground school versus self-study, and why  a medical certificate should be at the top of your checklist. And don't worry, I haven't forgotten the joy that comes with this journey; we'll explore the importance of connecting with fellow aviators and seasoned pros who can offer a windfall of advice. So, join me as we share laughs, insights, and maybe a few gasps at the price of charts, while always circling back to the ultimate goal—flying safely and with sheer delight.

I'm a UK based private pilot (PPL(A), who started to learn to fly in my 50s. I passed (just), but every flight is a learning experience.

I currently own 1/5 of a Cessna 172 - but I am not sure which bit is mine.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Cost of Learning to Fly Analysis
• 6:06 Costs of Flight Training and Licensing
• 15:02 Learning to Fly

Transcript

Wayne: 0:00

Hi, this is Wayne, and today I'm going to try and give you a little bit of breakdown as to how much does it cost to learn to fly. This is a question that gets asked time and time again and, in all honesty, it's actually quite a hard question to answer. Everyone's situation is different. Where you choose to learn to fly, how you choose to learn to fly, what you decide to learn to fly All of these things are going to have some bearing on how much it costs. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go through what it costs me and hopefully give you a few little pointers so that, when it comes to working out the costs for you, you have a better idea as to what it really does cost.

Wayne: 0:42

The first thing you need to do before you start to learn to fly is go on a trial flight. Go and find out if you actually like learning to fly. A trial flight is basically half an hour or an hour. I'd always go for the hour. You an instructor in a plane of your choice. Well, I say of your choice. It's down to the school. Really, you're not going to get a trial flight in a Spitfire or a B-52, it's going to be something simple a PA-20A, a Cessna 152, something of that description and the idea of a trial flight is to give you some idea of what it really feels like to be in a small aircraft, which is completely different to a large, wide-bodied or something you might go on holiday on and gives you an opportunity to play with the controls. The instructor is going to be beside you. They're going to be hovering over the controls, so you're not going to do anything that's going to damage the plane or damage yourself, but you get some idea as to what it feels like. You get to look out. You might even get a certificate and some pictures at the end of it, and it's a great thing. The good news with a trial flight is generally the hour or so that you've actually used as a trial flight is loggable, because you had an instructor next to you, so you have just done your first hours flying.

Wayne: 1:46

Trial flights vary in terms of cost. In my case it was about £200, so that was the first £200 I spent and, quite frankly, that was the start of everything. Next we have the biggest and the most expensive part of learning to fly, and that is paying for an aircraft and paying for an instructor. Now the first thing I would say never, ever, pay up front, particularly if you're going to pay large sums of money. Flying schools are businesses and unfortunately in this day and age, businesses do fail. So please don't pay large sums of money to a flying school, even if they're going to offer you a tiny discount and sometimes it's like five percent, because if they fail, the last thing you're going to get back is your money. So always try and be a little bit cautious. Look at what they're offering.

Wayne: 2:29

The first thing you've got to decide is what type of aircraft you're going to fly. The two main groups are low wings, things like a PA-28, and high wings things like Cessnas, 152s, 172s, etc. The criteria are slightly different. One is more expensive than the other. The PA-28s are more expensive than a Cessna generally, but it can vary depending on your school. The reason I went for PA-28s is, quite frankly, I'm a larger guy and sticking me in a 152 with an instructor and enough fuel to actually go flying was going to be quite interesting, so went with a pa-28.

Wayne: 3:06

Generally when you're hiring a plane, it comes with the instructor, so you pay a single price for plane and instructor, but it does depend on the school. For me it was a fixed hourly rate and this hourly rate is based on what they call brakes on to brakes off. So as soon as the aircraft start moving, the clock starts ticking. As soon as the aircraft stops moving at the end of the flight, that's when the clock stops. Now, generally, my school booked two hour blocks and you expected to have the aircraft for an hour in the middle. So you had half an hour to start, which was the time for the briefing. You then had an hour flying time and then you had half an hour allocated for the debrief. But again, your school might be slightly different. All the booking went through an electronic booking system so I could book up in advance, so I knew when I was going to fly.

Wayne: 3:51

Instructor wise, I was allocated an instructor at the start and for most of my training I had the same instructor. Personally, I found that worked really well. You can spend a lot of time in a very small, confined area with your instructor. Get on with them. If you don't get on with your instructor, talk to them or talk to the school Change instructors. Remember, at the end of the day, you're the one paying the money for the lessons. If you're not getting on with your instructor, that's the time to start to talk to people. Further on in your training you might find that other instructors brought in. We had mock tests. We had instructors who would sign us off for particular milestones like going solo. Then you have an instructor at the end who's the chief flying examiner or flying examiner from the description who does the final skills test. That generally is not going to be the person who's been doing the instruction all the way through. So total-wise, I was paying £224 an hour for PA28 plus an instructor.

Wayne: 4:43

Bear in mind Elstree is based in London. Prices are generally higher than a lot of the other areas in the country and if you want to save money and you can then consider aircraft like the C152, which was cheaper the minimum requirement is 45 hours. The average seems to be between 60 and 80. So when you're budgeting for flight costs, take that into consideration. I also have 1700 pounds of solo flight. This was from when I was doing my cross countries and my solo consolidation and this is charged at a slightly lower rate because you don't have an instructor next to you.

Wayne: 5:19

Next, we have travel. Now my traveling time and the amount I spent on travel is actually a nominal amount. I live about 15 to 20 minutes away from my aerodrome, which is great. It means I can jump in the car, drive to the airfield and be ready to fly. But it's something you need to consider. If you're going to spend an hour travelling to an airfield and an hour travelling back, that's going to cost you more potentially than finding an airfield that was closer but slightly more expensive. So take travelling time into consideration and also consider whether you have to pay parking. At the other end, some flight schools are in major international airports and parking is not going to be cheap, although a lot of these schools will actually have some deal with the airfield. So you're not going to be paying the same amount you would if you're doing the short stay car park at Heathrow.

Wayne: 6:06

Next, £120 for flight school membership. This covers more of the social side of the flight school. Technically, it also covers insurance for me when I'm doing solo hire and it's a yearly payment to the flight school. It also covers some of the barbecues and things like that that they do for their members. Next, we have landing fees. Landing fees are the fee that you pay to land. Quite simple, really. Most airfields do have landing fees. The larger the airfield, the more complex the airfield, generally the more expensive. I'm lucky the flight school that I was with landing fees were incorporated into the hourly rate. So for flying in the circuit flying at my local aerodrome I didn't pay any landing fees. However, when I to land aways that is, flying to other aerodromes and training at other aerodromes, particularly for things like doing my cross countries I had to pay a landing fee. So next in my spreadsheet is 950 pounds for exams and ground school.

Wayne: 7:04

I basically went to an intensive ground school for five days and managed to crack through all my exams. I'd actually spent about three months doing book work with a set of Pooley's books, but I actually found that my ability to absorb information is much better when I actually have someone in front of me and be able to ask questions and talk about particular aspects. There's a lot of online stuff out there now and a lot of people go to various online schools for their training. I was just at the point where the CAA changed from old-fashioned question banks and paper exams into full online digital exams, so I had all of the new online stuff, including some very quirky questions that, quite frankly, weren't written very well and were basically meaningless, but I still managed to crack through them in the end. Would I recommend going to ground school? Well, for me personally, it worked really well. I did do the book learning first, so I did go to the ground school, effectively using the ground school to bring me up to speed and finish off a couple of the topics that I didn't really understand by reading Pooley's books. I am aware that some people use ground schools to try and cram everything into a week and, quite frankly, I don't think that's doable. If you manage to pass an exam in a week without having done any background reading, is that really a good understanding of the subject? Personally, I don't think so. Next up is £85 for the RT exam. The RT is a practical exam for radio telephony and is done with an instructor.

Wayne: 8:35

Moving down my spreadsheet, we're now into medical territory. Now trainee pilots have to have a medical and there's basically two types. There's a Class 1, medical, which is more intense and is designed for people who are going into commercial flight, is more intense and is designed for people who are going into commercial flight. So if you're intending to do your ppl and then go beyond ppl into commercial, get a class one done sooner rather than later. If you're looking, as I was, just for ppl flying, class two is perfectly adequate. Covers everything that you need to do standard ppl flying.

Wayne: 9:02

One thing I would suggest is get your medical done sooner rather than later. One of the problems that people sometimes find is they'll spend summers of money learning to fly. Then they decide to get their medical. Most schools require you to have your medical done before you at least go solo. They do their medical. Something gets flagged up and they have to stop. So they've wasted all that money learning to fly. Now they've either got to have a break because they need to sort out whatever medical has flagged up, or worst case scenario is the medical turns around and says, sorry, you're not going to be able to fly. It does happen. So get your medical done as soon as possible If you're going for commercial class one. If you're not going for commercial class two.

Wayne: 9:38

Something else to factor in as you get older, the medical requirements change slightly. Once you're over 50, you now need a medical every year, and every two years you need to have an ECG. Other things to add to the list A chart. You need a chart. A chart is the roadmap of the skies and it's something that you'll spend hours and hours and hours poring over drawing lines on. Generally, the schools can provide you with a chart. They're 18, 19 pounds but you can buy them in places like Pooleys. Don't forget buy the chart for your area. There's three charts that cover the UK. They get replaced every single year, so a chart is only going to last you a year. So if you're going to buy anything second hand, don't buy a second hand chart. It's probably going to be out of date.

Wayne: 10:20

Whilst we're on the subject of buying things, I bought a flight starter kit which was around about 245 pounds, which was basically a flight bag, a load of books, a couple of rulers, a protractor, a knee board and a few bits and pieces, and it was a good start. But there are cheaper ways of buying things. But for me, it was a case of buying it, having it in one package and then proceeding on with my flying, coming towards the end of my spending list. And I have a headset and, yes, I bought a Bose A20, which is probably the most expensive headset you can buy for flying. It's noise reduction. Yes, they're expensive. I love them, as long as I remember to switch them on. They're great. It changes your flying in so much that you actually get to hear better because you're not constantly dealing with the drone of the engine in the background. You can buy cheaper headsets. You can buy headsets that don't have automated noise reduction and most flying schools will actually allow you to hire headsets from them. So my suggestion possibly is the first two or three flights just borrow or hire the headset from the school. Then, when you're more certain that you're going to carry on training, then consider buying a headset.

Wayne: 11:31

When you finally have done all your training, the school will turn around to you and say congratulations, we want to put you up for your skills test Now. The skills test is something that every pilot looks forward to and possibly dreads, because it's the culmination of all your training. Once you pass your skills test, you have your PPL and have that great little license. You're paying for the flight examiner and you're paying for the aircraft. Expect two to three hours of flying time and hopefully at the end he or she will turn around to you and go congratulations, you've passed your skills test. You might have passed your skills test, but now you've got to fill in a whole pile of documentation and send the princely sum of £196 to the CAA and hopefully in two or three weeks they'll send you a license. A few tips here. One, get your school to check all your paperwork, because I guarantee you'll manage to send the paperwork and something will be missing, something won't be ticked, and then you have a delay getting things back. And the way the CAA seems to work is, if there's any possibility of something being wrong, they restart the clock and everything has to go back to the beginning, and then you have to go through the whole process again. One little thing I will say is make sure, when you've done your RT exam, the documentation for that you send in at the same time as the documentation for your PPL. That way you don't have to pay an additional fee to have your RT added onto your license at a later date and hopefully, if everything's well, two, two to three weeks, the CAA will send you a nice little blue wallet with your license in.

Wayne: 12:58

Congratulations, you're now a fully fledged pilot and now you have to spend even more money carrying on flying, but that's another subject. The total for me has come to £28,326 and a few pence, which is a lot of money, but the thing is that was spread over 14 months. I enjoyed every moment of it. Well, I enjoyed most of it, in fact. Yeah, I did enjoy big chunks of it and other bits were hard and I was tearing my hair out, but that's the nature of learning to fly.

Wayne: 13:26

The key is always budget for more. My adage is double what you think it is and add 50%. And if you think that 45 hours is the minimum required, 45 hours double. That's 90 hours, add 50%. The number of hours I did to compress my PPL is quite close to that. It was within my budget. There are a few other things I haven't mentioned that sort of come into budgeting for flying.

Wayne: 13:49

If you're doing land aways, buy your instructor a cup of tea. Maybe they might like that. Bear in mind. Also, if you're going to travelways, buy your instructor a cup of tea. Maybe they might like that. Bear in mind. Also, if you're going to travel to and from an airfield, you are sometimes going to get to the airfield and find your lesson is cancelled. That's effectively a wasted trip. Possibly talk to your school and talk about doing ground school instead.

Wayne: 14:05

I also paid for a few other little extras, like I had a couple of apps that I use Sky Demon. They were down as ancillary costs. Hopefully this has given you some idea as to how much does it cost. Well, how much did it cost me? And give you some pointers as to how much it might cost you. I would go through everything step by step and try and work out roughly what it's going to cost you and then budget for it.

Wayne: 14:27

One of the worst things you can do is run out of money halfway through your training. You'll find that if you space your training out too much, you'll end up spending more time going over what you did in the last lesson and less time doing something new, which is basically going to cost you more in the long run. I aim to try and book two flights a week, expecting at least one of them to be cancelled due to weather or due to other reasons, and it generally worked out for me, but it's always going to be down to your personal circumstances, don't forget. Everyone's situation is going to be different. So just because I did something in a certain way and it's cost me a certain amount doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be the same for you.

Wayne: 15:02

Biggest thing is talk to people. Get out there, explore, use the internet, go and talk to schools, go and talk to other pilots, get personal recommendations and fundamentally enjoy the journey. I hope this podcast has helped. If it has, please consider leaving a review and consider following for more episodes on my journey on how not to learn to fly. Don't forget please do not use the internet for flight instruction. We'll only teach you how to crash. Thanks for listening and please remember be safe and have fun. Bye.