What's a 172 go for an hour now? (Been awhile since I had a check ride too...)
$145 an hour and you get a $200 credit if you fly 10 hours a month. They are a little nicer. Fuel injected, 180 Hp, GPS and such but still beat up rental planes. Flying out of Frederick MD and sharing the pattern with a wide mix of stuff. Love to hear the Gulfstream V being told to hold for me.
We go through life balancing time and money and it's finally aligned for me at age 54. Retired from the Navy in 07 and don't miss any aspect of the Navy but I've missed flying terribly and SWMBO told me "stop looking up at every single airplane, go do this" so who am I to argue? As a plus, I've not seen a SAM go by me on any of these flights but I've not gotten to shoot a HARM either.
My instructor did wonder why I thought an engine failure passing 5000 feet AGL with no relight we should eject but he got over it.
Actually, he's a retired USMC A-4 and AV-8A guy so very cool and kind of gets me even though he never flew with a Naval Flight Officer being a single seat puke.
I suspect I'll end up looking at joining one of several local clubs for the time we have left in MD (<5 years) and then we'll see what I do once we retire to central NH. It's either mind boggling how cheap airplanes have become or my perception of cheap has changed over time.
Congrats on the re-solo, Pugs! That's a pretty nice feeling.
I started flying in 2013 at the ripe age of 60. I had no prior aviation experience, but a colleague who's ex-AF talked me into it. I got my PP not quite 2 years ago, after accumulating 135 hours of flight time (65 with instructor, fwiw). Not having an aviation background and being a stickler for understanding the principles that underlie the rules, I deliberately took a LOT more time than the FAA requires before taking my check ride. I am convinced that was the smart way to go for me as an older pilot. I've had a couple of potentially scary situations since then that weren't really all that scary because I took the time to get the greater experience prior to my PP.
I started my training by joining a local flying club, and that was a relatively cheap way to start out, but it has its limitations... beat-up aircraft, limited availability of aircraft, etc. Then the Club went bankrupt and I had to rent for a while, but as you know it's not much better than flying Club airplanes. Fortunately a nice low-hours Cessna popped up locally, the price was right, and I bought it.
Since I got my PP I've racked up another 200+ hours, almost all in 172's, mostly my own '77 172XP "Super Chicken" (195 HP Continental). It's all steam gauges, the only glass in my cockpit is in my handhelds, but that's no impediment. Last year Kamo_Gari saw pics of me and STXHunter flying in my plane to Ltppowell's dove hunt and dubbed it the "Oblivion Falcon". The name suits, so it stuck.
My costs for flying the Oblivion Falcon run about $100/hr, wet and hangared. I could do it for a bit less, but that's a false economy if you look at it over time. Smartest thing I did was buy this plane when I was about 80 hours in... I find I fly a lot more in my own plane than I did in the Club's planes, and way LOTS more than when I was renting. FWIW, a lot of people had told me this would happen, and sonofagun they were right. So let me echo their sentiments and advise you to buy a used airplane rather than continuing to rent. If you haven't looked at the market, you can get a quite decent 1980's vintage 172 or Cherokee 160 for under $50K, and after you've flown it for 300-400 hours it will still be worth what you paid for it.
If you're moving to NH, you should be able to find a nice small airport with hangar space, and the less crowded airspace will be a joy to fly in. I love the fact that I can fly the 2.5 hour trip to my other job in west Texas every month and rarely see another airplane the whole way, even with ATC advising me of traffic.
Anyways, good on yer, mate. Glad to hear you're back in the air.