stickshaker

Definitely, I'll rent until it justifies taking the next step. A lot of people buy a boat, use it for a while then the novelty wears off and it collects dust :) Before doing any commitment will see how the honeymoon phase goes, I was reading about overseas guys with these great club style things but they don't seem common here - renting, or part share only. Renting does have it's benefits. At ~$140/hr though, even 3 hrs a month will be looking at $5k a year. Wouldn't be too much more for an entry level plane that could be doing a lot more hours, be taken on a bit of a "road trip". Sounds good, don't have a plane to fly in with but it's an easy drive.

Wish I was! Saw the events in the calendar, I'm back in town in September. Childers, Gympie and Bundy seem to have very active flying communities. Ok so more syndicates with large shares not really clubs as such. That document has a lot of info. Would be good to join an existing setup that is working before DIY'ing, too inexperienced.

AirAsia often have great prices, cheap meals, flown with them a ton (20 odd times) - incidents like this are a bit worrying though about the quality of training.

A paid stake in the plane, more-so than a club/group? I didn't see much online so I assume it's more of a "who you know" thing.

Unsure of the right terminology... anyway have seen a number of overseas guys talk about a monthly fee + paid usage. It may be in the region of $100-150/month shared between 10 or so people, which covers hangar, insurance, admin. Then $40-50/hr for hire to cover maintenance. It's great for those who want a basic plane for semi-regular hire without being a share and being locked in (of course you can sell that share, whereas this is a monthly fee down the drain type thing, but with a bit of usage saves a lot compared to renting). This doesn't seem common in Australia? Aviation has a poor web presence so hard to find info, at best I've seen a few paid shares - pay X to own 1/4 of the plane, rather than a smaller fee with no ownership. Yes if the group is active schedules can be tighter etc, however very cheap (compared with buying your own plane at least!) way to do a number of hours. Are there share or club setups similar to what I described in Australia? Does anyone know if there's one in Hervey Bay/Maryborough region?

Difference being you go to them - not much oversight needed, rather than them trying to find anyone with a plane and getting money out of them. I guess it makes jobs for everyone though :)

Pre 70s is a bit before my time. Interesting and a bit stupid at the same time. So many existing mechanisms in place to collect tax, having yet another for 'TV licenses', big chunk gone just running and enforcing the thing. Then again UK had basically no sport on free to air. Luckily didn't have time to watch much TV while I was there, as there wasn't much on! (Showing, anyway. Ashes were playing at the time)

TV license? What's this?

Looks good, I'm sure dealing with council was an experience especially with the conflict of interest. Will be interesting to see if they ever get their project off the ground. Maryborough Airport is definitely underutilised these days. What's the internet situation there, and does it have town power/water/sewerage?

That's a rough road, hopefully everything goes well and you can get some consistent flying soon.

Deep! Didn't read much into it at first. How do you like the 160? Do you own or that's what you're practising in every decade or so?

Congrats!

When looking at a video for review, what are the things you're looking for? Good quality for a $100 camera. With an instructor would be hard to see the much of the panel?

It can be quite variable. My iPhone runs like a dog, yet iPad is lightning. Using "GeekBench score" they have pretty much the same processing power. I'm an upgrader but for those who don't want the hassle unless there's some new feature you want, fine to ignore the updates. Don't fix what isn't broken!

With the GoPro, do you need to bring your own mount? How does that work with say, top wing vs canopy style plane? Would an old iPhone do it? (given I assume it's more about the content then the quality) That's the plan, without having actually started it's hard to say, I imagine 3 hrs/flying a week is probably a good amount. Any more and it probably won't get absorbed as well, less is fine to an extent but it will get into 'having to relearn' territory. Good to hear there's not much extra, must have been RPL people were spending 100 odd hours on.

Perfect!

That would be hard, constant changing. Need to do a lot more hours just to freshen up. Thankfully I can free up time for a few lessons a week although no point moving too fast, need time to learn, do it properly and build the muscle memory. 2-3 lessons a week seems more than enough, and will still fit within a ~3 month timeframe. I was a bit worried based on 100-150 hrs I saw people saying it really took all up, that it might end up being this huge affair I'd get disillusioned with. Hard to know until you do it though! 100 hrs seems a lot, given a license is more a "you meet the minimum requirements" not a "yes you're super experienced".

He said 26 hrs average of flying. It was more the extra curricular, perhaps the "Rec license" thread I saw was RPL not RAAUS. They were talking around 100-150 hrs if you take everything into account, whereas he was more "yeah you just do the hours, some briefings, done" - which is a walk in the park in comparison. Not as if I need to find 50 hrs of home study time Not to get too ahead of myself, it should be easy enough... I do programming which is all about structure, memory, planning (what to plan now vs what can be improvised), do it once and do it right, there's always that element of risk - what shortcuts are ok and you can reverse, vs what are too risky etc. Pretty similar to flying. You need to learn the overall concepts and understand the underlying mechanics - you can then handle new situations by evaluating the options and predicting the outcomes. If you try and learn the specifics it'll take forever and you'll struggle when it's not something you've learnt. It's like learning the formula vs going 1*1=1, 1*2=2 forever. It's Russ in Maryborough (Pro Sky), from what I could find online he seems good and experienced.

Thanks that's good to know, around double the flight time with other activities.

Just spoke with the closest instructor, seems good. He was leaning towards the minimum time, not much extra study; so unsure what the others were doing to be around 100 hrs. Perhaps RPL rather then RAA. If someone says "Rec license" can be ambiguous.

Unfortunately the choices are 30 mins, 90 mins or 120 mins away! I'm in Hervey Bay. Not many to choose from, from what I've heard the closest is pretty good, I can't start til September so haven't spoken with him just yet. I have done a 1 hour flight with another (too far away) and it was good, though at 185cm + headphones I was squashed against the roof, couldn't use that plane again! Texxan or something from memory. From what I can find 3-4 months seems quite feasible, around 100 hrs of work in total, a lot more than 30 hrs mentioned. However only time will tell how good I'll actually be at that stage, whether can take a passenger (ideally) or still too rough.

Sure that was the idea, to get a better understanding rather than only 1 persons (instructor) opinion! 5 weeks 'full-time', does sound like that 100 hr mark. I could probably push and do it within 3 months assuming it all goes to plan. ~10 hrs a week is feasible. Haha that's been a while coming!

That's quick. How many hours roughly of study at home was required? How many days a week did you fly, or pretty much every day for 5 weeks straight?

I saw a previous thread where people were saying 100-150hrs to get their license - including flights, prep time, driving to/from airport, studying and so forth. Quite a lot more than the 20 hrs prac, 10 hrs theory hours listed at flight schools I've seen. One you could knock over in a few weeks, the other takes a number of months even if you were spending a good amount of hours a week. In September I'll be able to start flying and am wondering the time to factor in. Thankfully I can shuffle working hours around a bit so 7 day availability, hours aren't much of an issue. Would it be possible to have a license by Christmas? I'm assuming it would be possible to get the piece of paper, however in regards to taking a passenger seems it would be too tight; not sure 3-4 months is enough time to say "sure I'm confident I can handle potentially bad scenarios, trust your life to me!"? Generally speaking of course as who knows where on the ability curve I'll be.

Really nice spreadsheet! Certainly interesting how you're pretty much putting as much money towards the next engine as you are simply maintaining the current!