NorCal aircraft rentals

inigo88 said:
LVK. O69. RHV.

Nice Air at RHV at least. Says pay as you go, no club fees, right on their homepage. AeroDynamic (formerly Amelia Reid) has a ton of Citabrias and no club fees, but like Attitude at LVK both require the purchase of AOPA renter's insurance ($400/year) to comply with the renter's agreement.

There are tons of nice, NORMAL, non-dues schools in the bay area. You guys just have to avoid SQL and PAO. (Also FYI, RHV is 44 min from SFO without traffic. LVK is only about 10 min further.)
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I just ran Mapquest and roundtrip from my place to RHV airport is 103 miles! :eek2: LVK would be 104 miles roundtrip, plus toll on Bridge.

You said to avoid SQL and PAO, is it because these places are shady? Ripoff? Multi-day checkouts?

I see that San Carlos flight center offers Club member rates and non-club rates. Does that mean you could rent from there without paying rental fees?
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
I just ran Mapquest and roundtrip from my place to RHV airport is 103 miles! :eek2: LVK would be 104 miles roundtrip, plus toll on Bridge.

You said to avoid SQL and PAO, is it because these places are shady? Ripoff? Multi-day checkouts?

I see that San Carlos flight center offers Club member rates and non-club rates. Does that mean you could rent from there without paying rental fees?
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I commuted 112 miles roundtrip every time I flew at Attitude in LVK. It was worth it. I now drive about three times as far as my closest airport to go to my current flight school, luckily still only about 40 miles round trip. Sadly you don't always get to live next to the best flight school that meets your needs. In my case it's not wanting to get raped by initiation fees and monthly dues when I don't have the money or the time to fly enough to make it economically viable. I get why flying club dues exist and appreciate the need for these businesses to stay afloat through tough economic times, but a lot of places take it way too far IMHO.

ChasenSFO could give you more personalized info on SQL specifically, but in my experience most of the schools on the peninsula are both club dues-based and require multi-day checkouts, with a lot of strange stipulations in the rental contracts. Not for me personally but it depends on your priorities, YMMV, etc. :)

Edit: San Carlos Flight Center actually looks pretty sweet. Looks like membership is optional and they even have a Super Decathlon. Nice!
 
inigo88 said:
I commuted 112 miles roundtrip every time I flew at Attitude in LVK. It was worth it. I now drive about three times as far as my closest airport to go to my current flight school, luckily still only about 40 miles round trip. Sadly you don't always get to live next to the best flight school that meets your needs. In my case it's not wanting to get raped by initiation fees and monthly dues when I don't have the money or the time to fly enough to make it economically viable. I get why flying club dues exist and appreciate the need for these businesses to stay afloat through tough economic times, but a lot of places take it way too far IMHO.

ChasenSFO could give you more personalized info on SQL specifically, but in my experience most of the schools on the peninsula are both club dues-based and require multi-day checkouts, with a lot of strange stipulations in the rental contracts. Not for me personally but it depends on your priorities, YMMV, etc. :)

Edit: San Carlos Flight Center actually looks pretty sweet. Looks like membership is optional and they even have a Super Decathlon. Nice!
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I briefly looked at the Attitude website at LVK airport, and could not find any prices for aircraft rental on their fleet page. In my limited experience renting, usually that hasn't been a good sign.
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
I just ran Mapquest and roundtrip from my place to RHV airport is 103 miles! :eek2: LVK would be 104 miles roundtrip, plus toll on Bridge.

You said to avoid SQL and PAO, is it because these places are shady? Ripoff? Multi-day checkouts?
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Couple things.. both airports are squished right up against lots of different airspace, and both airports have more "flight club" presence than "FBO that rents aircraft"/"Flight school" presence. Both are expensive real-estate, too. Palo Alto has a 2400' runway (which ain't short, but if the shortest runway you've used is 6,000', it might be a bit different.). I dunno.

Anyway, my experience is that you're looking at 1-1.8hrs plus a ground review sheet. Think bfr-ish stuff.

It's not bad, honestly. It's not the east coast, where checkouts for me have always been "Ok, you can takeoff and land, good enough. Here're the keys to the 210..." ... but for a 172, it won't be bad. You'll also probably pay a little more per hour (expensive real-estate) and you may end up needing to pay a higher non-member rate, as well.

Anyway, no "multi-day checkouts" for 172s, and definitely not ripoffs in my opinion.

I see that San Carlos flight center offers Club member rates and non-club rates. Does that mean you could rent from there without paying rental fees?
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Not familiar with that operation. Got a postcard from them the other day ... looking for flight instructors. I started poking around on their site and, while I haven't heard of them, nor do I know anyone there, I do have to say they look like a pretty interesting operation.

I'll send you a quick PM, if you don't mind.

-Fox
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
I briefly looked at the Attitude website at LVK airport, and could not find any prices for aircraft rental on their fleet page. In my limited experience renting, usually that hasn't been a good sign.
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When I was flying the Citabrias there they were actually only $99/hr wet (for the new one) and $89/hr wet (for the old one). That is extremely good for the bay area, land of the $140/hr C172 for no reason (because they can). The rates actually used to be on the website and only recently went away. The only quarrel I have with them and Amelia Reid at RHV is the mandatory requirement for renter's insurance (when the school already insures the aircraft on top of it). But with a mostly taildragger and aerobatic-capable fleet I can see why they do it. I guess my quarrel is equally with AOPA for not offering installments on their $400/year renter's insurance... *grumble grumble* ;)

I haven't flown at Attitude in 3 or 4 years but Inverted and Acrofox do.
 
I'm only interested in flying a C152/172 once or twice per year. For that frequency, it doesn't make sense to join a flying club. I guess I'll call San Carlos Fligh center and see what they offer.

Seriously though, I'm not driving 100+ miles roundtrip like some of these guys here. LOL! That's insane. I'd rather not fly GA at all if it means going that far!
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
I'm only interested in flying a C152/172 once or twice per year. For that frequency, it doesn't make sense to join a flying club. I guess I'll call San Carlos Fligh center and see what they offer.

Seriously though, I'm not driving 100+ miles roundtrip like some of these guys here. LOL! That's insane. I'd rather not fly GA at all if it means going that far!
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I'm down in Mountain View. LVK isn't that bad, but it's not that great. I've actually been tempted to rent an airplane to fly over there to go flying. :p

-Fox
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Are there non club places to rent from at OAK or SJC?
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I don't think anyone rents out of SJC anymore. They ran the little guys out a decade and change ago.

However, I know there are at least a few operations out of Oakland...
http://www.oaklandflyers.com/ looks like it might fit your bill, but I know nothing of them.

... Have I mentioned how much I love the fact that to stay competitive in the bay area, flying clubs are all having to get tailwheel aircraft? :> Just sayin'.

-Fox
 
I am not sure if there are any non-club rentals out of RHV though. I am not positive on that so it is worth a check.
 
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