nimdabew

I have a unique opportinuty to build time. I should say a little about myself before I give the idea, bucause it would probably answer a lot of questions. I am 24 years old, single, no kids, no real ties to anyone except family, low in debt after college, and want to build time.

My idea for next summer: There is a person that is trying to sell his C-150 in DE and I am trying to contact him to see if he would be interested in leasing the airplane to me for some kind of nominal fee (read 6-12 hours of flight time at 140 an hour) for a few months. I go and pick the plane up, fly it home to Seattle, and then fly it almost every single day. I plan to build around 300-450 hours in a three month period, but that may increase or decrease depending on how much, or where, I fly. I want to see the CONUS as a young person, and would love to do it in a flying tin can. There are people all over the nation that I would love to see, places I would love to visit, and time alone I would love to have in the air. I am very passionate about fly, so I am told, and the thought of living out of a suitcase, flying across the country for a month at a time, and having just the plane and a folding bicycle in the back sounds like the BEST time in the world to me.

Now, the time and plane are not really an issue. The money not so much either because my grandfather, family, and myself, have all pitched in money to get my flying career going since hour one. My issue is how would this look like to a potential employeer? I have not had much time in the air since I had my commercial ride (Got it right at 251 hours, one knee surgery later, and eye surgery), and most of that consisited of sitting right seat for a guy that had a stroke so he couldn't be PIC. So, minus a 30 hour block of time in 2009, and a BFR, IPC, and a refresher flight, it might look suspecious to anyone that looked at my logbook. I know the average pilot does not accumulate 400 hours in a three month period unless they are flying the line for an overstretched regional, or maybe do what I plan on doing.

So, what do you ladies and gents think of this idea?

jcrews

Sounds like a great time! I would go for it if i were you, but remember you're going to need multi time, too.

Good luck!

rickair7777

Good question. The time will count, but bottom line is that someone who was employed as a CFI or professional pilot would be more competitive. The problem with recreational flying is that it's usually easy to make a go/no-go decision...you don't have conflicting priorities from the boss, customer, etc.

But since you will probably need 1000-1500+ hours to get an airline job anyway...you might as well go for it. As long as you have a good amount of professional flying on top of the rental time you should not have any employer issues.

But expect to be queried about it...

- They will wonder if you falsified the whole thing...keep meticulous records, including hotel, gas, food receipts and take them to any interview. Photos of the trip would be good too.

- Fatigue. They might suspect that such a trip would be so fatiguing as to be reckless. Have a plan to prevent fatigue, and be prepared to explain it.

- They may also wonder if you are a spoiled rich kid...they probably won't ask about the financing, so you should somehow work into the conversation how you had to scrimp, save, beg, and borrow to afford it.

The good news is that most pilots will find such a "road trip" intriguing...it will make a good conversation topic once you establish that it was legit.


Even the worst regionals could not come anywhere near 400 hours in three months...legal max would be 300.

squaretail

I'm not going to chime in about how it would look to a potential employer, looks like you already have a good answer for that.

What I would caution you to do is, pick up a trade-a-plane, look around your local FBO's, or go to controller online and find a Cessna you could buy for around the $10,000 - $15,000 range that has some time left before TBO rather than lease. Then you are just paying your hourly gas bill.

I doubt anyone will lease an airplane to you for massive time building without requiring you pay a premium hourly cost. The reason is that no one that has set out to sell an airplane (typically) wants to lease the same airplane to someone that is just going to rack up the hours on their engine unless it is just impossible to sell (and if that's the case, you probably don't want to fly it). As cheap as you can buy a Cessna right now, it doesn't make sense to lease one for that ambitious amount of flying time. In this scenario, you can resell the airplane when you finish with it, or keep it and enjoy flying it with your Grandfather and family.

Either way, run the numbers on the lease which will probably come out slightly less than a dry hourly rental from an fbo and compare it to the cost of buying before you get too far into a lease discussion with someone.

Sounds like fun though - good luck!

Ewfflyer

I wouldn't lease one, I doubt it'd work. $140/hr anyways, a might as well buy the thing, spend $500/month on payments, and resell the bird after you get your time.

I would say this opportunity would give you something you could talk about in an interview. Not something too many people have done. Now it's actual benefits as far as hours are going to be a nice "filler," but you should really look at getting something once you hit 500hrs as an actual commercial job. Something to consider is obviously the CFI rating, but there are all sorts of jobs out there that with the experience of this trip you could potentially grab. Surveying/photo jobs would be fitting to this exp I think, but I honestly have no idea

nimdabew

I have been thinking about this. I know the director of flight ops for a small local airline, which shall remain nameless, that I have known since before I soloed, flew with on several occassions, and like being around. He told me in an off-hand remark that he would hire me as a FO in a C-208 once I reached around 650-750 hours. They would send me to a caravan sim school to learn how to fly the caravan, then I would fly right seat for new captains and night time until I could upgrade to captain myself.

To be frank though, I am thinking of not doing this because of what I have read here on the forums. Flying has been in my familys blood since World War Two (I think the current count of pilots is around 5 total), but the state of the airline industry has me hesitant to jump in head first. Buying this airplane would send me back to 0 dollars in the bank and another 10,000 in debt including the loan for the airplane (I have decided that I would buy it if I do this; I found one in DE for 15,900 listed, but might be able to talk down to 12,500) and fuel and associated costs. I have run the numbers, and the real cost, not including opportunity, would be right around 27,000 if I was not able to sell the aircraft after I was done running it across the country a few times. I am aprehensive to say the least about going further into debt after all of my school and flight time.

I will make a final decision about this in the next few months, but I appreciate all of the input that everyone has to offer. Please lay it all out, the good and bad, so I may make a more informed decision instead of what I feel.

ryan1234

Am I reading this wrong... $140/hr for a 150? That sucks dude!

nimdabew

Close to it. 95 for the 152, 15 dollar gas surcharge plus tax. I was referring to a 172 but it is a little but less for a 152.

plane4

That does suck! I rent a 172 IFR w/ GPS for $75 wet!

ryan1234

Yeah, if you have to coin to throw down on a plane - there are tons of great deals right now... perhaps not on controller, but other places. You can really have some fun. Or consider grabbing a few more hours and flying jumpers in a 182... there are more than a few places that hire for the summer - you can get about 500 paid hours in about 4-5 months.

A 15 dollar 'gas surcharge" is pretty much total BS! This dude is taking you for a ride. $110/hr for a 152 - especially if you're paying for that many hours is ridiculous.

Just the engine reserve is like $7/hr - in real money terms.. if you're parking it at your place for a few months... it should run like $65/hr wet. ... that's including insurance, prop reserve, fuel, oil, annual, etc at a fairly liberal amount.