Question about renting planes
 

Hello quick question here,

For some background, I am a recent high school graduate who is entering a flight school through a local college within the next weeks to obtain my commercial pilots license and possibly a CFI.

My question is that if I wanted to rent a C172 from the local flight school to head to another airport for lunch would they charge me for the time I have the plane parked at another airport? Or would they only charge me for the actual flight time.

Thanks, Drew

Question about renting planes
 

Depends. Ask the FBO what their policy is. If you have it for 6 hours and only put .7 hours on it they may. If you have it 3 hours and put an hour or more on it then it isn't likely. How busy the airplane usually is may factor in as well. The aircraft don't make the FBO any money sitting on the ground...

You get charged by the flight hour.
However, there may be limitations set on how long you can tie up the airplane.
If there is a student/renter on the schedule after you, it is your responsibility to get it back to the next guy on time.

Your rental contract could also have a clause in it for extended time rentals.
Say you wanted to take the airplane somewhere for the weekend, the company might expect you to fly the airplane a certain minimum amount of hours per day.

Thanks for the responses, definitely helped

All of the above are pretty accurate. Most places that charge a min. price per day use 3 hours.

Make sure you have full rental coverage for yourself through AOPA/Avemco. If anything happens, you will be on the hook not only for the damage to the plane, but for the lost revenue. Find out the hull value of the plane, and insure yourself accordingly.

If the FBO tells you that there insurance covers you, it's very likely either a) a lie, or b) an employee that does not understand the insurance policy (and has likely never read it).

^^^ this is something that's not well understood by renters or students. The FBO's insurance typically only protects the FBO/flight school. If you're involved in an incident or accident as a renter and the insurance company determines that you are responsible for the damage they may come after you to cover their costs.

I've found Avemco easy to deal with in regards to explaining and steering my rental customers towards a suitable non-owner (a.k.a. rental) insurance policy.

I certainly never understood that as a renter/student when flying the FBO's airplanes!

I owned a flight school in Michigan. Michigan State Law required flight schools to clearly disclose the insurance coverage provided to a renter (and we had them sign a document affirming that we had disclosed it). Of course, then deductibles were in the $500 range. Now, it's not uncommon to see $10,000 deductibles. The renter is on the hook for that.

How much is insurance typically every year? Say if you only rent a few hours here and there..

A non-owned policy should run about $300/yr depending on the amount of coverage you want.