Do flying clubs charge by the hour? even if you use a plane for the weekend??

Question

my aero club in jersey charges pilots by the hourly rate the engine has been running. so does this mean that if i was to take the plane for france for the weekend that i would only have to pay for the amount of time the engine has been running? on the tach? becos its something like 60 pounds an hour but only takes 20 mins to get to france, so i would only have to pay for 40 mins??

Answer 1

Yes, all schools charge by the hour and it's per hour of engine running time. Pre-flighting your plane? Free. Taxiing? Pay. Full throttle? Really pay! Some schools go by the tach, some by the Hobbs meter (it's the little instrument with dollar signs on it), depends on their method.

Don't forget to factor in taxiing, engine run-up and getting in/out the pattern to your flight time if you already haven't. Those alone are worth 15 minutes besides the actual point to point flight time.

However....your school will likely have a "minimum hours" they'd like to see you put on the engine per day if you're taking it for a couple days. Yes, it may be only 0.2 hours to get there that day, but your schools may want to see at least 1.5 per day on weekend trips. Why? While you've got the plane over in France, it's not available to be making money to pay for itself and you're not putting enough on it to make up for the loss of business while the plane is gone.

Talk with your club and find out what they're expectations are. Also, you ask them if they have a plane that isn't very popular and isn't getting much time to begin with. You might also agree to do a little sightseeing in France,  just to meet the plane's owner/operator halfway on the money his/her plane is making. Doesn't hurt to ask.

Answer 2

Interesting question.

You should ask your flight club how they manage this - but the clubs I have known will charge a minimum per day charge to off-set the amount of downtime the airplane has while you are not flying.

Think of the aircraft as a business - and there are only a specific amount of hours that aircraft can be used per day - and if you take it for the weekend, there is a loss incurred by the owner.

Answer 3

Most  require that you pay for two or three hours each day you have the plane. Hard to make money at 20 minutes a day.

Answer 4

Yes, but they either charge by tach. time or hobbs. time

Answer 5

Of course, the best source of information on this question would be the club manager.  Nevertheless, I'll throw in my .02 USD, or, as we say over the pond, my two cents worth.

While most flying clubs and aircraft rental outfits do charge by what we call Hobbes time (that little window in the tachometer that totals the time the engine runs) some will have a minimum daily charge for a long time rental.

By the way, while it might take only 20 minutes of flight time from Jersey to France, remember that you'll pay for the time from startup to shutdown to include taxiing to the runup pad, the runup, and taxiing to the tiedown after arrival and back again.  All that could easily add another 10 or 12 minutes to your time.  If one of your airports is large, tower controlled and busy, you could be in the conga line for longer than your flight time.

The good news is that it all counts as Pilot-in-Command time in the logbook.  :oD

Answer 6

It depends on the club. Some Will charge you a minimum fee for the weekend. The reason they charge you per hour is for fuel and maintenance, as you know the A/C has service intervals at 100 hours.