Hour Building

Your Way to a CPL

Hour building is a requirement of gaining your Commercial Pilot Licence. Before you can sit your Commercial flight test you will be required to have gained a certain amount of experience to include a 300 mile cross country flight stopping at two intermediate airfields, 20 hours cross country flying (part if which can be gained during your 300 mile cross country flight), and 10 hours night flight with 5 as Pilot in Command, 10 take offs and landings and two night flights as Pilot in Command of 65 miles or more to another airfield.

The night flying requirement can be difficult to complete in the UK during the summer due to the airfield closing times so if you are building your hours over a period of time try to time it so that this falls during the winter months.

Night hours are very valuable as part of the ATPL requirement is 100 hours Pilot in Command at night so try to double up your cross country time with night flying. This not only keeps all costs to a minimum but also gets you cross country and night flying.

Hour Building UK: This tends to be the case for many pilots since many people have family or employment commitments meaning they can’t spend weeks at a time overseas. There are several ways to keep the cost down. Flying clubs will often offer a reduction in prices if you book a block of hours with them in 10 or 15 hour blocks, but remember the golden rule, never pay large sums of money up front! Find out why not to pay large sums of money up front. Another option is to look into group ownership of an aircraft. This is where say 10 people group together and buy an aircraft and by sharing the costs of maintenance and insurance the flying can be very cheap, often as low as Ł40 -Ł50 per hour, however caution is needed. The popular flying association has excellent information on this. A detailed analysis of this option is required to see if you can have a cost saving in your personal circumstances.

Hour Building overseas: Very often the cheapest of options with block hours being highly competitive. There are many schools offering block incentive, but remember the golden rule. Pay them with instalments. Also paying by credit card can offer some protection although remember to pay it off otherwise the interest can outweigh any cost savings. Don’t forget to take into account of cost of travel and accommodation. For those with family commitments this can often be great as part of a family holiday touring an area of the USA for example.

Note: It is strongly advised to familiarise yourself with all the requirements of the commercial pilots licence so you can gain all the right hours while building hours.

Hour Building USA: One of the most popular options for building hours is in the USA. Very low hourly rates coupled with free or virtually free landing and handling fees make the USA a great place for low price flying experience.

When I was building my hours I spent some time flying in the USA and landed at an airfield. The tie down for my aircraft (a PA-38 Tomahawk) cost $2, the landing & handling fees were free, we were given a large 4x4/SUV vehicle for the evening and the hotel was subsidised 80%. Now we were lucky on that occasion, but hour building in the USA, when researched and worked properly, especially if you fly into reputable rural airports is relatively inexpensive.

Look into your options and speak to a few flight schools who have experience of this with their foreign students. If you can try to see if you can get personal references from some precious students who gained their hours with an organisation you are talking with. Always make sure you know exactly how your hours are being charged.

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