52 hours of x-country

I could probably get you access to a plane at $60-$70/hr dry. But that's in Chicagoland. Oh look, I happen to be a rated pilot who would be happy to be your safety pilot. ;)
 
Another option is to fly free with a friend who sits right seat, who's also be a CFII, who can sign me off.

I'm not going to put you in the left seat but you can fly right seat with the yoke in your hand and log PIC XC time. For that matter I'll let you push the auto pilot button and you can log the whole trip.

But when the lunch bill comes don't tell me what my share is.
 
It has been a dream of mine to buy a cub and fly it from coast to coast. So you should do that so I can live vicariously through you. Good luck.
 
Are you in AZ? If so, I'd be happy to help you out. I'm a CFI and CFII. I have a full-time job outside aviation, but I'm looking to do some flying on the side. I wouldn't charge you anything.

There's a 150 at CHD that you can get on a block rate for $90/hr wet (wings270.com).

Let me know if I can help.


Edited to add: Angel Aviation at GEU has a 172 for $95/hr block.
 
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How about including airports greater than 50 miles out on your normal training flights?

THIS. I would do airwork with my multi students keeping the airplane pointed towards the general direction of an airport 51nm away. Do a real short field landing on a short runway and a real short field takeoff and then do airwork headed back to our home base with the 10,000' runway. We'd still end up having to loiter in the practice area to finish up air work before heading back to the home airport for an instrument approach and some pattern work and would still only log 1.4-1.7 hours. One of my multi students only had one of his multi training flights that wasn't logged with XC time.

It wasn't just good XC time building for me, but for my students as well. I told them "you'll thank me later when you're struggling to get XC time for that R-ATP."
 
The X-Country portion of my IFR is so far the most expensive part of my training. It's a huge money suck. I had budgeted myself $6-8k for my IFR, but it'll easily probably be over that.

Oh well, right? Gotta get it done.

If you have the chance to do some of this in a complex aircraft, you might as well. I would also do the commercial cross country and long solo cross country at the same time. Makes little sense to fly just to log PIC time, you may as well get something useful accomplished. Nothing says that you can't be PIC flying a X/C flight, while also getting dual instruction for the areas of operation for the commercial rating. And at least knock out the HP and Complex endorsements in the process.

While I didn't do exactly that intentionally, I did manage to have nearly all of the commercial ASEL experience requirements done by the time I finished an Instrument Rating. Read 61.129 and plan accordingly.
 
^^ Whatever you do, don't do it without knowing where you need to be at the end.

(solid life advice in general)
 
It has to be done, but how can it be done cheaply? My instructor and I Sunday did the math, it will cost me $7200.00. At $120 an hour for the plane, and $50 an hour for the instructor. He says the benefit, of flying with him is that I get the req. night and hood time, (40 hours) toward my rating. The downside, it's obviously more expensive.

Another option is to fly free with a friend who sits right seat, who's also be a CFII, who can sign me off. For the hood time. Maybe @X-Forces can help me out, when he's not too busy.

The other two options would be to fly alone to build the time. But obviously I can't fly under the hood, so I can't log it. Or fly with another PPL rated pilot. Memory escapes me at the moment here at work if, I can log it with another PPL rated pilot. Problem though, I don't know too many local pilots.

This conversation came about Sunday because my school just bought another 172 in Florida. And my instructor recommended me to the owner to fly it out with another time builder, working on his comm. But they're not sure when they'll ferry it out. It's still in the really early stages. My instructor said if I could do it, I'd get 22 hours toward my 40 hr. hood time req. And it would only cost me $2100, vs $7200. The problem, I train PT so I have work and school responsibilities first and foremost. So not sure if on the fly, I'll be able to get 3-4 days off to ferry the plane. But I definitely appreciate my instructor looking out for me, and throwing my name in the hat.

So opinions or suggestions? I'm listening.
Wait, let me get this straight... They are going to charge you (the ferry pilot) to ferry the airplane??????????
 
It has to be done, but how can it be done cheaply? My instructor and I Sunday did the math, it will cost me $7200.00. At $120 an hour for the plane, and $50 an hour for the instructor. He says the benefit, of flying with him is that I get the req. night and hood time, (40 hours) toward my rating. The downside, it's obviously more expensive.

Another option is to fly free with a friend who sits right seat, who's also be a CFII, who can sign me off. For the hood time. Maybe @X-Forces can help me out, when he's not too busy.

The other two options would be to fly alone to build the time. But obviously I can't fly under the hood, so I can't log it. Or fly with another PPL rated pilot. Memory escapes me at the moment here at work if, I can log it with another PPL rated pilot. Problem though, I don't know too many local pilots.

This conversation came about Sunday because my school just bought another 172 in Florida. And my instructor recommended me to the owner to fly it out with another time builder, working on his comm. But they're not sure when they'll ferry it out. It's still in the really early stages. My instructor said if I could do it, I'd get 22 hours toward my 40 hr. hood time req. And it would only cost me $2100, vs $7200. The problem, I train PT so I have work and school responsibilities first and foremost. So not sure if on the fly, I'll be able to get 3-4 days off to ferry the plane. But I definitely appreciate my instructor looking out for me, and throwing my name in the hat.

So opinions or suggestions? I'm listening.

I already told you I would the last time we spoke, didn't I??

Get the plane, give me a call. What's the hard part? :p
 
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