Teaching my kids to fly

[traffic pilot]

I want my kids to learn how to fly. I have 11 and 12 year old girls so I have a little time to plan ahead. I am an airline pilot with an expired CFI. I am not sure whether I will do the flight instruction.

It's the airplane that I would like some input on. I know that if it flies, floats, or fornicates it is always cheaper to rent but I want to buy an airplane for them to use while training . I've considered a 152 or 172. Am I delusional about saving money on training costs by buying? Any other avenues I am missing?

Thanks

 

[pilotyip]

Go for it

I taught my son and grandson to fly. From what I found that renting an airplane to instruct is almost impossible. I owned a VFR C-150, it burned about 5-6 gallons an hour, outside tie down, about $4,000/yr before I started the engine once. This covered insurance, tie down, taxes, and maintenance. So 100 hours a year would be about $70-$75 per hour. Avemco has a hobby CFI policy that allows a CFI to give instruction in their own airplane to family and friends, no more than two students listed by name on the polity at a time. It costs about $1,000 over the regular policy which for a 150 would be about $700/yr. It was great fun and something I am very glad I did.

I now own an IFR C-172 which I keep in a hangar, my base cost on that is about $8,000/yr. I keep a couple students on a regular basis, I enjoy the teaching and it helps defer about 1/2 of the cost of owning an airplane. Incidently, I make my studnets pay for their own insurance, that allows them to rent the airplane for about $20-$30/hr under what most FBO's charge, it is an incentive to make them fly more.

My son went on to fly in the Army and now flies as an airline pilot

 

[traffic pilot]

Thanks yip

 

[pilotyip]

Thanks yip

Stroy of how my son got his pilot's license


My son started flying when he was 17. I was a CFI and we owned a C-150. He was getting close to finishing his training and only needed his cross-country to be ready for his check ride. Cross-country in Michigan in the winter is not a sure thing so it was holding off the completion. We were going to visit my in-laws in Scottsdale, AZ at X-mass 1986, Since AZ is always VFR, I thought hey! lets do our X-C in AZ. Now I knew renting someone else’s C-150 to do instruction would not be sure thing, but I was committed to try anyway. I went to first FBO and explained what I wanted to do and got the answer, "We are not allowed to rent to CFI’s who not on our insurance, not employees, etc". So I asked how about one of your CFI’s taking him out and getting his X-C signed off. Again I got the non-answer. "We have a policy we do not pick up students from other sources and continue training, they must go through our process, besides our CFI’s are really busy right now and could not work him into the schedule" So I was off to the next FBO to try the same thing, when walking out of the FBO I saw a model of a P-3 in the display case, along with headsets etc. This was not a kit you bought at the hobby shop, but a model that Lockheed gave to P-3 pilots when they qualified as PPC's. I asked the girl whom it belonged to. She answered "The boss used to fly them in the Navy" I asked where is the boss, she said "In his office". So I walk into the boss’s office stick out my hand and say. "Randy VP-45", He gets up, big grin on his face and says "Bill VP-23" We chat about common friends, our careers since flying in the Navy for about 10 minutes. He finally says what brings you out to AZ, I explained about training my son and wanting to do X-C’s. He says, "Hey what a fantastic thing to do, anything I can do the help, I would glad to do" So we walk back out to the front counter and he says. "Put Randy on our insurance and give him a$1,000 line of credit and the block rate on any of our airplanes" The poor girl had a look of WTF on her face; she had been following company policy when she chased me away monuments earlier. We flew ever day, got the X-C done, reco ride and Bill lined up a DPE on 1-2-87 for the check ride. Came home from X-mass vacation with a private pilot’s license. What a great time we had. He had a NROTC Scholarship to the U of Az, but elected to become an Army pilot because he could get into Flight School Quicker.

 

[jegermeister]

Don't forget flying clubs and partnerships.

I own a 1/4 share of a Piper Cub and couldn't imagine a less expensive way to fly.

Divide everything by 4, and add gas (about 4 gallons an hour). Even with 4 of us there's never been an issue with availability.

 

[DUATS]

Clubs can save alot of money, but you need to make sure you understand their rules about student pilots and solo flights. Some don't allow primary instruction at all. Some will make your children join themselves before they can solo. Some will offer a family plan to keep it a bit more reasonable. For years I was in a club where a second family member could join for half price (initiation and dues). CFI's had to be approved by the club, but it was a mere formality. In the right club, you could accomplish what you ant without purchasing your own plane.

 

[340drvr]

Owning a plane as a primary trainer can certainly be cheaper than renting, especially with 2 students using it.
As to whether "Dad" should instruct, a couple of things come to mind. One, as an expired CFI and airline pilot, you may or may not be the best choice as instructor vs. say, someone who is currently engaged in primary training with 1000's of hours of dual given. And, if cost is the only factor, the expense to get re-instated may easily absorb much of any savings differential.
Secondly, and probably more significant, it may or may not be the best idea to have a family member as CFI. Not saying it can't be done, and Pilotyip has certainly related a success story, but there are plenty of disaster scenarios involving parent-child or spouse-spouse combinations that simply don't work out well at all, and could even result in driving the students away from training pursuits. As they say, YMMV, and of course, the results are entirely dependent on the specific relationships involved.
Just saying, these decisions will require a careful and honest (self) assesment as to what will work best in your situation. Good Luck, and have fun!