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I want to do a 45 hour course to obtain a PPL. The course only includes 10 solo hours but states that it is enough to hire light aircraft.

So could I rent a Cessna after this and take a passenger?

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  • $\begingroup$ What makes you doubt that with a PPL you can hire an aircraft? $\endgroup$ – Jamiec♦ Oct 4 '18 at 20:22
  • $\begingroup$ It might help to tell us which country you're in. Apart from the regulations, there may be country-specific requirements or just common practices (e.g. for insurance, or minimum rental times) that affect how easy it is practically - not just legally - to rent an aircraft. $\endgroup$ – Pondlife Oct 4 '18 at 20:36
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    $\begingroup$ @Pondlife OP has indicated in LAPL vs PPL - Which is more suitable? that "training will take place in the UK" and that the plan is to move to France after getting a pilot's license. $\endgroup$ – a CVn Oct 5 '18 at 14:07
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Most people do not take 45 hours to get a PPL, the national average is closer to 70. Do not fall for the "get your license in 45 hours" gimicks. They will give you 45 hours of instruction (and you will probably need more), you also then need to book the examiner and pay for that. 45 hours is difficult to do in short periods of time as well, for example I got my license in 47 hours, way below national average, and it took me 7 months (weather/work/instructor availability/aircraft availability/etc).

So theoretically yes, you can, if you are renting from the same place that you took your training. If not, then you will probably have to pass a check-out which will include about half an hour of ground and an hour or so of air with the company renting the aircraft. You may also not be allowed to rent overnight unless you have X number of hours, again this is up to the rental company.

You also need to have insurance which meets the rental company's requirements. Some rental companies won't rent aircraft overnight, so you need to check that, and if they rent for longer periods of time you will end up paying extra even while the aircraft sits on the ground.

For example, a local company will rent one of the 172's for up to 4 days. The regular rental rate is \$125/hr and overnights are charged $375 for each day.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thanks Ron, I will have to take the extra costs into account if it can take up to 70 hours. Cheers $\endgroup$ – Cloud Oct 5 '18 at 9:51
  • $\begingroup$ @Cloud It can take longer than that, and potentially much longer. If the average is around 70 hours, then a not-insignificant fraction of all student pilots will need more than 70 hours to get to the point where they are able to pass a checkride. (If the 70 hours was the median, then by definition half of all student pilots would need more flight time.) Also add to this the time commitment for learning the theory, and exams, which, while not billed per hour the way flight time is, still represents a time (and to some extent financial) commitment. $\endgroup$ – a CVn Oct 5 '18 at 11:09
  • $\begingroup$ @MichaelKjörling Absolutely. I only have a couple of hours a week to invest really, was hoping to do it in under a year, but we'll see :) $\endgroup$ – Cloud Oct 5 '18 at 11:12
  • $\begingroup$ @Cloud A couple of hours a week probably won't do it, IMO. My theory classes were 3-4 hours once per week, plus homework, and that felt very cramped. Add to this the flight time; taking Ron's as an example, 47 hours over 7 months averages out to 1.5-2 hours per week (and don't forget to account for things like preflight checks, pre- and post-flight briefings, etc., which isn't flight time). Even if you're an absolutely stellar student and have great luck with weather and everything availability (not likely), I really doubt you can expect less than 10 hours per week for half a year. $\endgroup$ – a CVn Oct 5 '18 at 11:22
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If you just want to be able to take people for rides, just do an NPPL, roughly equivalent to Sport Pilot in the US or Recreational Pilot in Canada/Aus. The privileges of that license cover 95% of the flying that private pilots do anyway, which is flying around VFR during the day alone or with one passenger.

Probably less than half the cost. Those licenses are a bit less than what the 35 hour Private Pilot course was like 43 years ago when I learned to fly, which cost me $1100 1975 dollars or about 5 grand today.

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Absolutely, if you indeed get your PPL.

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  • $\begingroup$ This is the answer to the question, unlike the other replies which talk about the syllabus and so forth. Yes, with a PPL the OP can do exactly that. Sometimes just "yes" is the right answer. $\endgroup$ – Ralph J Oct 4 '18 at 16:57
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    $\begingroup$ @Ralph J: Except that in this case, it's the wrong answer. The right answer is "It would be legal to do so. Whether you actually can depends on who you're renting the airplane from". $\endgroup$ – jamesqf Oct 4 '18 at 17:23
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    $\begingroup$ @jamesqf Okay, and "can I rent a Cessna..." should probably be qualified to exclude renting a Cessna Citation, or any other twin Cessna. And yeah you'd need a checkout from someplace that doesn't know you. And if the weather is terrible, then that's an issue. And, not if the Cessna you want to rent is on floats (unless that was part of your training). And lots of other what-if's. But the basic question is, if I get a private license, is (this) something that I then can do -- to which the answer is, yes -- that's what a PPL allows you to do. $\endgroup$ – Ralph J Oct 4 '18 at 21:10
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    $\begingroup$ @Ralph J: The PPL allows you to rent from someone who is willing to rent their airplane. It does not require the entity with planes to rent them for a week to a low-time pilot. $\endgroup$ – jamesqf Oct 6 '18 at 1:39

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