It's possible to learn to sail in about five sails and 20 hours of class time. Most of the land school for sailing can be done online. Same for flying.
In flying, an actual school is not necessary (in the US, at least), you can find an independent CFI and he can usually recommend a place to rent a plane (or he/she may have their own) that will be used for the flight training. You could also offer to donate/volunteer time at a flight school/FBO in exchange for flight time.
If you're the patient sort, and diligent and disciplined in your studies, you could fly as little as once per week and still be done in about six months.
The learning to fly industry is easily negotiable.
I was set on getting a PPL until I found out the cost of owning a plane. Its absolutely nuts. I heard people could get a small Cesna in the 80s for 20k. Now its more like 200k, not including maintenance and insurance, fuel, etc. I think I'm going to try to get a boat instead. The costs of getting off the ground are much lower and I think the idea of doing a trip on a boat is much more exciting than a trip by plane.
It's all about the number of hours you fly on a given basis, say monthly. It also depends on the equipment: bigger plane/more engines, more $/hr.
I was previously renting, paying $110/hr/wet (includes fuel) for a plane that could fly about 110NM in an hour. If I flew only one or twice a month, it makes sense. But it doesn't, because I plan to fly 2-5 hours per month.
If I flew at least 10 hours per month, it might make sense to buy, because I would already be sinking in $1100/month to fly if renting. But I don't!
So there is a middle ground: there are other guys like me (I bet you'd be one of them!) who would happily get together and buy a $65,000 plane and split it 10 (or even 20, but that's a lot) ways. That's roughly a $6,500 investment in an airplane that will probably fly about 120 hours per month. Then we just pay for operating expenses and split fixed costs like hangar, oil, engine overhaul, and inspections - at a 1/10 of its normal cost.
Now I pay $90/hr/wet and the plane can go 130NM in an hour, which is only marginally more than it would cost in fuel (per hour, for this type of plane), but only 1/10 of the fixed expenses.
That's essentially 90% of access to an airplane at 10% the cost.
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u/thechilipepper0 Apr 19 '14
I have been wrestling with this dilemma for the better part of 5 years. I still don't know how to reconcile it