Price increase???

[Texasspilot]

Just saw the price increase and was wonderin what that was all about. My main question is how feasable is it to knock out the 100 hour program in two weeks?? I realize its a load of flyin but if im willin to fly it is it usually possible to get the airplanes????

[kellwolf]

Price increase went into effect (affect? dunno) on March 1st due to fuel costs. We asked about the lenght of time for the 100 hour program, and I think we heard that two weeks was probably a good estimate. I'm pretty sure it was somewhere between 10-14 days was what they were telling me.

[CapnJim]

I've seen guys do 100 hours in two weeks a lot. Thing is, you have to fly all day, every day. No screwing around. Some dudes come in, don't schedule anything, ever, and then bitch that they didn't get done in time and they're out of money. All the instructors have to do is run a printout of how much they've flown in the last two weeks, and give 'em a look like "well, no ##### Sherlock". Plan on 8 hours a day. That means booking the plane for 10.

Scheduling early is the key to getting it done. Coming in the day of, or even three days early is too late. If you're coming in from out of town, get your login and password for the online schedule, and book the planes as early as you can. Two weeks in advance is not too early at all. Don't try to hash out the schedule with your partner either. Book the plane first, work out the details later. If something goes afoul and you can't use the plane, let someone know about it 24 hours in advance- no harm, no foul. But if you show up 2 hours late and say "oh yeah, we don't need the plane today..." or worse, don't show up or call at all, don't be surprised if a service charge shows up on your account. Business is business, and they can't keep the lights turned on if people book up the planes so no one else can use them, and then don't fly. Read the contract.

One other consideration: maintenence. These planes are old, fly all day every day, and have twice as many moving parts to break, not to mention oil changes, 100 hours and annuals. Maintenance there has a pretty high priority, so yeah, the planes are in the hangar a lot. Nice thing is, the online schedule tells you how many hours are remaining before they have to go down for scheduled maintenance, so you it lowers the likelyhood of you booking a plane during a period when it's going to need to be in the hangar with the cowlings off.

As for the price increase, well, there's hardly a plane in the world that can be profitable when oil is $52 a barell. I could mention conspiracy theories concerning our present oil-compelled administration, but that belongs in another forum...

[aloft]

What was the price before? Seems basically on par with Ari-Ben now, and I kinda like the option of saving $4k by doing 70 fewer hours in the Seminole--as long as you've got that magic 100 hrs ME, let somebody else (students) pay for your ME time!. Does anyone know if that's replaced with single-engine time?

[kellwolf]

I think the previous price was $6900 for 100 ME.

As far as MX, there were two Seminoles in the hangar when I was there for 100 hours. To me, that's a GOOD sign. I've flown planes that just came out of 100 hours that made strange noises, asked about what was up and was told "Well, if you don't want to fly it, then don't fly it." Not a lot of confidence there. If a school is willing to take the planes off-line and do it right, I'll accept the downtime. Now, if they drag their feet getting them back on the line, it just hurts them in the wallet.

[Texasspilot]

Yah i figured if i get to do it here soon take a plane for a few days then schedule a different one for a few days and so on and so forth so that thier is time for oil change or if maintenance becomes an issue im not stuck with one bird. I actually finished my multi at skymates so hopefully ill be able to knock out the rest of the hours thier too.

[ryanmickG]

Sorry about the price increase everyboby but as capnjim said with the price of fuel these days we just cant turn a profit at $6900 thats just the buisness side of things. Still cheap fast multi time.