Hour building: ways to make the hours count

How to build PIC time efficiently towards a CPL, keep costs down and actually become a better pilot while you do it.

The short answer

Plan real trips to new airfields rather than circling at home, share costs within the rules, and use each flight to practise something: navigation, radio work, crosswind landings or busy airspace. Log carefully, since every hour must be provable at your CPL application.

Know what you need

Before the CPL(A) course on the modular route you need 150 hours total, including 100 hours as PIC and 20 hours of VFR cross country as PIC with a flight of at least 540 km (300 NM) with full stop landings at two aerodromes other than your departure. Check the exact wording in FCL.325.A and your course requirements.

Ideas that work

• A tour of airfields you have never visited
• Joining a club with cheaper hourly rates
• Tailwheel or mountain flying training for new skills
• Cost sharing flights with other pilots and friends, within EU cost sharing rules
• Flying abroad to build experience with different procedures