I have been to my local gliding club few times (just time pass, never been on the sky in a glider). The condition of small aircrafts they use to pull gliders on the sky looks appalling (they must be at least 20 years old). If they were cars, I would not probably want my family to be inside them :-P
Do these aircrafts have to go thorough some MOTs?
On a different note, how much does it cost to buy/maintain/service such aircrafts?
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The ones that take you abroad are the same age. :-)
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>> The ones that take you abroad are the same age. :-)
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Not at my airline - average fleet age about 2 years. :-)
To answer the OP's question, yes, they are rigorously inspected and maintained especially if they're involved in any kind of commercial activity.
I took my instrument rating in a nearly 40-year-old Seneca and it was fine. Retrofitted with Mode S and a GPS and these were the only significant changes in all that time apart from scheduled servicing.
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Do these aircrafts have to go thorough some MOTs?
Yes, the pilot inspects the aircraft before every flight and every 50 hours there is a more rigorus inspection done which is like an MoT.
Costs depend on the complexity of the aircraft but quite commonly light aircraft are owned in syndicates to share fixed expenses.
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James May knows how to check an aeroplane in detail, as can be seen in this Top Gear race film.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoK4QYwixDc
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Like all things mechanical, even with checks something could go wrong. The live advert with sky divers that Honda aired a few years back went fine.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA3GL1mGfCQ
The very next day a wing snapped off the plane used and plummeted to earth.... killed two:
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2058045/Honda-skydive-advert-plane-crashes-kills-two.html
A colleague was one of the sky divers in the advert though. He's fine thankfully.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Fri 19 Aug 11 at 13:36
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>>A colleague was one of the sky divers in the advert though. He's fine thankfully.
Well, he would be as he was probably in a different country by then.
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Frighteningly expensive. A couple of years ago I went through a phase and a friend of the family had a microlight at cumbernauld. For me to go in sharing costs with limited use to get me through the ppl-d was £9k just for the aircraft share with limited flying time. Didn't include the actual ppl.
Decided I'd never use it anyway, a passenger whirl over the west coast was enough to satisfy my interest.
Had a shot in a glider when I was about 14. When you get released from the winch thats a bigger thrill (read: scared me ****less) than any roller coaster or the like. Glad I've done it but won't be repeating :-)
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>>Had a shot in a glider when I was about 14. When you get released from the winch thats a bigger thrill (read: scared me ****less) than any roller coaster or the like.<<
+1. It's even an even bigger thrill if you don't quite manage to drop the tow at the right time.
I started lessons in mid-60s but had to give up because I couldn't afford it. At something like £1 10s a time.
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I recall accompanying my friend when he was learning to fly in Cessna's. They were sheds compared to what he co-owns/flies nowadays but were mechanically sound - they have to be. Flying is and always will be an expensive job/hobby unless you do the other end of the scale and go paragliding.
This is his plane
www.altairaviation.co.uk/
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In what sense is their condtion appalling? Faded paint?
Aircraft used as glider tugs are often types that started out as crop dusters. More like pick-ups or tractors than a family car.
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www.buffaloairways.com/
run some rather old stuff. In somewhat scary flying conditions!
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The tug used last time I went on a gliding course was quite old probably 50 years old and started life as a crop sprayer but was in good nick, as were the gliders which were 30+ years old. Some of the gliders were from the 30's and still being used. I don't think the cost was to high, all the courses I did was free but I think a tug launch was less than £20 and the drum launches were less than £10.
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Went on a gliding course when I was 18 at Withybush near Haverfordwest. We used a car to tow-launch the old open cockpit Slingsby T21 gliders. Used an old 1950s Jag of some description and an American Ford Break-down truck. Don't think it would be allowed now.
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We used to tow each other six at a time up hills on skis with a long knotted rope attached to my old Land Rover for a bit of off ( very off ) piste gluteous maximus-ing around.
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The tug at the Devon and Somerset Gliding Club at former RAF Dunkeswell in the mid-60s was a Tiger Moth, IIRC.
Going up on the winch was a feeling I have rarely experienced since...
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The first time I ever flew was in a Tiger Moth.
My boss owned one when I worked at the Sunnybrae Motor Co at Houghton on the Hill and he offered to take me for a spin.
I sat in the front and had a mask thingy on to talk to him and a lap full of toilet rolls.
I thought they were in case I was air sick, but he told me to throw them over the side holding the end and we spliced them all the way down:)
Oh what fun we had:)
Pat
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>> The tug at the Devon and Somerset Gliding Club at former RAF Dunkeswell in the
>> mid-60s was a Tiger Moth, IIRC.
>> Going up on the winch was a feeling I have rarely experienced since...
>>
I've flown that Tiger Moth! :-)
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Wow! I sat in that front seat. Only time I've ever put on one of those leather helmets as well as the parachute...
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A good mate of mine flies microlights out of Popham. He's in a club share scheme which after payment of the share "buy in", effectively gives him access to any of the club aircraft, paying only the hourly running costs (currently somewhere around £60 p/h IIRC). This covers fuel and maintenance.
The current fleet is a mix of Ikarus C42s and Evektor Eurostar EV97s. The latter in particular is a fantastic little plane, with a 100 horsepower Rotax 912S and 100+ mph cruise. It even has carpets and a heater! :-) We took this one ( tinyurl.com/3rsm2xb
) over to the Isle of Wight a couple of months ago. It was as smooth and comfortable as any car, and a lot quicker! :-)
The club employs a full time aircraft technician who looks after the fleet, and maintains a good relationship with the manufacturers and distributors of the aircraft.
Microlights come up for sale at temptingly low prices (£8k will get you something airworthy), but the club share scheme has to be the way to go unless you REALLY need to own your own aircraft. Lower outlay, far lower running costs, and you know the maintenance is all done properly to approved standards. You can literally book the plane, turn up, do your checks, put some fuel in it, get in it and fly it. No hassle. :-)
Last edited by: DP on Sat 20 Aug 11 at 13:57
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>> the maintenance is all done properly to approved standards. You can literally book the plane,
>> turn up, do your checks, put some fuel in it, get in it and fly
>> it. No hassle. :-)
Not really, unless it comes with a really good autopilot, you need your PPL first!
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Fair point, although I'd like to see what reaction you'd get when applying to join a club share scheme without one. :-)
Last edited by: DP on Sat 20 Aug 11 at 14:25
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If you have to ask the cost, you can't afford it.
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fair point too I guess.
I could get into this private pilot lark, but it does have serious limitations. You have to plan trips, file flight plans etc etc, but the worse thing is, where you want to go probably doesn't have an airfield within easy distance.
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40 years ago my farmer uncle kept a plane in a barn in a field.
Apart from having to register the plane and have some kind of annual MOT, there were remarkably few regulations. On taking off he logged in to the nearest control tower and told them roughly where he was going, but as its altitude was well under any commercial flights there wasn't much congestion to worry about.
He had a network of farming pals etc who were fellow enthusiasts, so there was generally somewhere available to land almost anywhere with a bit of planning.
He had been a pilot during the war, and said that for dares they used to fly under the bridges on the Bedford River in the Fens.
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>> He had been a pilot during the war, and said that for dares they used
>> to fly under the bridges on the Bedford River in the Fens.
Only at low tide!
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Owning a small aircraft - Bigtee
