Anyone have good intel on aircraft rental in the north Raleigh area?

[N546RV]

I'm heading to NC to see my parents next month, and my brother will be in town at the same time with his daughter. I'd like to try and take her up for a flight, but that requires that I find somewhere to rent from in the area.

Closest airport to the parents' house is KLHZ, which has one flight school listed online, but no info on fleet/rates/etc. KRDU is an option, but I'm sure rates there would be kind of high.

If possible, I'd like to find somewhere that rents an Archer or Warrior or something like that, since that's what all my recent time is in...though I suppose I should learn to fly a Cessna at some point in my life.

Any locals have some inside information? Thanks!

(I've just now sent my brother a message asking about this. I'm sure he'd be fine with the flight, but his ex-wife might have a problem with it. Who knows, this whole thing might be a moot point...)

[gvouga]

Originally Posted by N546RV

I'm heading to NC to see my parents next month, and my brother will be in town at the same time with his daughter. I'd like to try and take her up for a flight, but that requires that I find somewhere to rent from in the area.

Closest airport to the parents' house is KLHZ, which has one flight school listed online, but no info on fleet/rates/etc. KRDU is an option, but I'm sure rates there would be kind of high.

If possible, I'd like to find somewhere that rents an Archer or Warrior or something like that, since that's what all my recent time is in...though I suppose I should learn to fly a Cessna at some point in my life.

Any locals have some inside information? Thanks!

(I've just now sent my brother a message asking about this. I'm sure he'd be fine with the flight, but his ex-wife might have a problem with it. Who knows, this whole thing might be a moot point...)

Philip,

KHNZ -Henderson-Oxford
http://www.empire-aviation.com/
I received my instrument ticket from the owner Paul Hesse back in 2006. I haven't talked with him recently, but I think he has a cherokee. His prices were reasonable as I recall, but I don't have the exact rates.

KLHZ - Triangle North Executive...
The airport manager is Steve Merritt. His number is 919-280-5510. They have a lot of training, skydiving, glider ops, etc. out of this airport. It's pretty active and should be a good possibiity for you. Call Steve for specifics.

KRDU -
I haven't checked prices in a couple years, but I recall that they were really expensive in the past. I think they mainly have newer Diamond aircraft. The flight school has been doing a lot of marketing on the radio and Groupon lately. They might have some kind of special that you can get. http://www.bluelineaviationllc.com/.

In the past, I have had issues trying to rent planes in areas (not Raleigh) where I'm only going to be for a short time. Most places require a checkout with a flight instructor and this usually pushes the expense past my threshold when I really only want to rent a plane for ~1 hr for a sightseeing trip. I guess this could be considered a pretty reasonable requirement before they let someone loose in their expensive aircraft, but car rental companies don't require this. I would think having reasonable time and currency in type along with renters insurance would be sufficient. It just hasn't been the case the few times that I have looked into it.

Anyway, I hope the info above helps out and you find something that will work.

[jcaplins]

Originally Posted by gvouga

In the past, I have had issues trying to rent planes in areas (not Raleigh) where I'm only going to be for a short time. Most places require a checkout with a flight instructor and this usually pushes the expense past my threshold when I really only want to rent a plane for ~1 hr for a sightseeing trip. I guess this could be considered a pretty reasonable requirement before they let someone loose in their expensive aircraft, but car rental companies don't require this. I would think having reasonable time and currency in type along with renters insurance would be sufficient. It just hasn't been the case the few times that I have looked into it.

There is a renting/scheduling operation called Openplane, that is trying to eliminate this problem.

https://www.openairplane.com/

Although they don't seem to have any participating FBO's in NC to help the OP, if people would lean on their local FBO to participate, the network can grow significantly.

[N546RV]

Originally Posted by gvouga

Philip,

KHNZ -Henderson-Oxford
http://www.empire-aviation.com/
I received my instrument ticket from the owner Paul Hesse back in 2006. I haven't talked with him recently, but I think he has a cherokee. His prices were reasonable as I recall, but I don't have the exact rates.

KLHZ - Triangle North Executive...
The airport manager is Steve Merritt. His number is 919-280-5510. They have a lot of training, skydiving, glider ops, etc. out of this airport. It's pretty active and should be a good possibiity for you. Call Steve for specifics.

KRDU -
I haven't checked prices in a couple years, but I recall that they were really expensive in the past. I think they mainly have newer Diamond aircraft. The flight school has been doing a lot of marketing on the radio and Groupon lately. They might have some kind of special that you can get. http://www.bluelineaviationllc.com/.

In the past, I have had issues trying to rent planes in areas (not Raleigh) where I'm only going to be for a short time. Most places require a checkout with a flight instructor and this usually pushes the expense past my threshold when I really only want to rent a plane for ~1 hr for a sightseeing trip. I guess this could be considered a pretty reasonable requirement before they let someone loose in their expensive aircraft, but car rental companies don't require this. I would think having reasonable time and currency in type along with renters insurance would be sufficient. It just hasn't been the case the few times that I have looked into it.

Anyway, I hope the info above helps out and you find something that will work.

Thanks. I ran across Empire at Oxford earlier, and I'm thinking they're probably my best bet. It looks like the joint at LHZ only rents Cessnas, which isn't a show-stopper, but having never flown a Cessna (no, seriously), I'm hesitant to go flying my niece around in one when my experience consists only of whatever minimal checkout I did...

As far as the expense goes, my experience is that most places will limit a checkout to one hour with an instructor for basic airplanes; I can stomach that as a prereq to doing something like this.

[luddite42]

All you owners who occasionally rent - for insurance, are you carrying an additional non-owned policy or are you using your owned policy for coverage in (insurance company approved) rental airplanes up to the hull value of your plane? Just curious.