Renting an aircraft

[polarautumn]

When you rent an aircraft, do you normally pay a different rate for when the aircraft is not actually flying? (For example, if you flew the aircraft somewhere and parked it for a couple of hours before returning home)

[Northern Skies]

In my experience that was always free. It's better for them to have the aircraft fly 2 hours and sit for 2, than for it to sit at the base for 4 hours. Same for overnighters. All I paid for was any extra expenses at the destination.

[Grey_Wolf]

Depends on who your renting from. If it's a flying club or school, they may have a miminum charge for "day trips".

For example, If you plan on taking a day trip, fly for 30 mins, let it sit for 6 hours, and fly back ... then the school is losing revenue.
To ensure the aircraft is being used productively, most instill a "day-trip" rule(s).

When I trained, the school charged a minimum of 4 hours of flight time for the day, if you were going to take it for more than 6 hours
(in the "peak" season May-Sept). Ditto for an overnight. Plus it had to be approved by the CFI.

If you didn't fly for those 4 hours, then tough luck.
Anything above that then you paid the actual fligh time. So it was to your advantage to fly it!

The other option was a dry (pay your own gas, top it off at the end of the flight; similar to renting a car) vs.
wet (fuel included) rate for the rental. Those longer trips were more affordable if you rented dry.

[polarautumn]

Thanks for the reply Northern Skies. Does the same deal apply for overnighting an aircraft away from base?

[polarautumn]

Sorry Northern Skies. Looks like you already answered my second question!

[polarautumn]

Thanks folks, I'm just doing some "bean counting" for a day trip from Edmonton to Grande Prairie.

[Northern Skies]

You're welcome...

It really depends on who you're renting from. But as a rule of thumb, these things are generally free if they are not going to lose money from it. If it's a busy place that is filling their planes full of students all the time, you may be out of luck. If the plane was going to sit anyway, you will probably find the arrangements to be reasonable. Shop around if you need to.

Take grey_wolf's advice on the dry rentals. If you call ahead and find the fuel to be relatively cheap, you may decide that renting dry will save you money. It may not.

[200hr Wonder]

For a dry rental be careful, often times your "discount" for dry rental is based on average fuel burn, so say 7gal/hour for a 172, so 7*4 = 28Liters of fueled burned more or less. Now the school is going to discount you based on there bulk rate which may be as low as 90cent to a 1.00 per liter. When you pull up to the pump at an FBO you are more than likely paying more like $1.30 per, so you are in essence getting hosed. Also check at what the fuel reimbursement rate is for a wet rental if you go far enough to refuel. From you nave log just run the numbers to see how you do.