Flying is getting very expensive.

[damienair]

I flew up to the Flyin in Cooley yesterday, first flying over my house in Navan and flying over the Rowing boat making it's way into Drogheda harbour, held a pattern there until I was joined by 5 other microlights and we welcomed the rowers home from their trek across the Irish Sea from the Isle of Man with a 6 ship formation before flying up the Coast and into Cooley. I then took off an hour later and Visited my friends in Tandragee Co. Armagh before flying south to Clonbullogue, onto Ger Doody's strip in Laois to pick up Oil and and Oil filter for an upcoming service. I then took off and dropped into Limetree before heading back to my base in Enfield. A total of 4 hours and 55 minutes logged yesterday. Flying is starting to get very expensive now with the increase in Fuel prices. I don't usually pay much attention to petrol prices as I drive a Diesel Company car, but yesterday ended up costing me €90 , the same day out a couple of years ago was just €60. Add to that €50 for the bits for my 50 hour service and it cost me a total of €140. But it was a great day out, met great friends and flew until I emptied my fuel tank, and I suppose the maintenance is just around €1 an hour at the end of the day, I just wish the price of unleaded at the pumps started going back the other way.

Damien.

[alphaLaura]

FIVE hours of flying for €90?

No pity from me, sorry!

[StrikeCommand]

€90 would just about cover fuel for a Cessna 152 for 1.5 hours and that's going on the cheapest Avgas price in the country or 1.25 hours if you get your fuel in Galway.

[HQaviation]

€90 would cover 15 Minutes in a R44 Raven

Consider yourself lucky !!!!

[Gyropilot]

€90 worth of Texaco's finest would get you around 4 1/2 hrs in the ELA07 flying solo

[Higgie]

Hi Gyropilot
I reckon you are exaggerating.
My calculations show that using Tesco petrol, you would only get 3.99
Higgie

[jonkil]

Friday evening we filled the plane, 60 litres total €89.20
3 hours flying over a good bit of Northern Ireland and overnighted.
Flew to the Cooley fly-in on Saturday and another good bit of touring for another 4 hours and added another €75 fuel.
Overnighted once again and flew for a further 4.5 hours Sunday. There is still a good bit of fuel in it yet, So total fuel bill for 11.5 hours = €164.20 between 2 of us which is €82.10 each. Not bad at all yet for the hourly figure of €7.14 each or €14.28 if solo.... that is in a plane capable of cruising at 90mph in cruise configuration or nearer 110mph if you open the taps up, however fuel burn almost 50% more if you do that.
But you are right, I remember fuel at less than the €1 a litre not so long ago, now that was cheap flying. Will have to look at a diesel option and run her on the green stuff

[Peggy XL]

Hi All.
Yes flying is way too expensive.
My friend Brendan flew his aircraft from Roddige,UK midlands to Clonbullogue Flyin.
His Pegasus XL,to buy on the open market are fetching as high as 1600 sterling.
That would include radio, comms,suits and maybe a trailer,but who wants to tow a trailer from Birmingham.
Fuel burn is 10lts per hr,12hr flight over is 168 euro.Not sure about Tesco Prices.
Explore around Ireland and fly back to Birmingham.
Total fuel Bill could be as high as 450 euro.

So buying a Microlight Aircraft and flying it for nearly 2 weeks could cost as high 2500euro.

Ridiculous prices,with the ould recession who can afford this expensive hobby.

Mick

[aviatorsguide]

Flying is expensive, but I think it always was.... Look at the prices of all the new aircraft that came into Ireland in the 60's/70's and 80's. People had the best of new Cessnas, Pipers etc and Ireland had dealers for all the big brands. I think if you inflation adjust the costs perhaps it might not be the runaway graph you think of.

"Tarmac Jockey Flyers" in most group A paying for hangarage, landing fees, easa maintenance, avgas, hull insurance, medicals, nav subscriptions etc require serious commitment to keep going. Certain people love that big airport pilot in a little plane outlook on the world.... and that's ok too. "Farm field" flying where you trade labour for hangarage, use filtered Mogas wisely, local/own permit maintenance, 3rd party insurance and keep current - is certainly within the grasp of the everyman. A good cub variant/taylorcraft/aeronca can be had for the price of a 2nd hand VW Golf, and when you go to sell it will have not depreciated if well bought, unlike a VW Golf. You only have to find another 80 euro cash a week to fly 100hrs a year. How you earn that few bob is up to you. If you were into rallying, karting, card playing, salmon fishing, motocross, computers as a hobby you could easily spend the same.

If you want to become an expert, rather than a middle of the road pilot then wiki research shows you may plan on: 10,000 hours of "deliberate practice", which forces the practitioner to come up with new ways to encourage and enable themselves to reach new levels of performance. An early phase of learning which is characterized by enjoyment, excitement, and participation without outcome-related goals. The ability to rearrange or construct a higher dimension of creativity. Due to such familiarity or advanced knowledge experts can develop more abstract perspectives of their concepts and/or performances.

Certainly the farm strip route, and an extra days work each week is the only way I can see myself becoming a 10,000hr expert. If you were really confident on fuel prices you could always do some spread betting and make the flying fund up in a few days desk work!

William

[Raven 912]

I've just returned from the Round Britain Rally Microlight event with my 16 yr old son. Clonbullogue - Haverfordwest - Shobdon - Preston Capes (Near Coventry) - Zig Zag down the country to Old Sarum - Cerne Abbas - Weston Zoyland - Popham - Hinton in the hedges - Preston Capes - Liverpool - Newtownards - Clonbullogue and Tullamore.

Total 20 hrs flying ( Not bad in a flexwing ) Cost just over 600 pounds but that included landing fees, fuel, B&B for a couple of nights, camping for the rest and food.

Great holiday and all filmed for a new BBC documentary Propeller Heads with no less than 3 onboard HD cameras and a full film crew following us by road.

Cheap flying, cheap holiday for 2 and a great adventure. Watch out for it in the autumn on BBC 2

Could have saved a packet except I had to use Avgas for most of it as I had no room for my Jerry Can

[aviatorsguide]

Could have saved a packet except I had to use Avgas for most of it as I had no room for my Jerry Can

One of these should be on your minimum equipment list for next voyage around the mainland

http://www.akbushwheel.com/images/rokqu ... ag_sml.jpg

$75.00 Fuel Bag; These fuel bags hold 5.2 gallons and, measure 21 ½” x 24, fit nicely in the baggage compartment and are completely flat once empty.

Pricey yes - but a full one has more liquid value than an Irish Bank.....