The Learn to Fly Budget Planner

What paragliding really costs from your first course to your own kit: the whole course price with its weather days, the order to buy in with the wing last, used gear priced with its check, every service interval as a yearly cost, and the flying days a year at which owning beats hiring

FreeFlight's calculators are mostly about flying, and this planner deliberately touches none of them: it is about the money. A course quote leaves out the membership, the exam, the travel and the weather days; in our worked example the cheaper sticker, 1,950, is the dearer course at 3,485 against 3,200, because 78.7% more sits outside the fee. A full kit bought in the first month commits 5,775 before an instructor has matched a wing to you, where the fit items alone commit 385. This planner works it all out on your own numbers. It prices the whole course and whether a weather buffer (195 in the example) beats flying back to finish (675); sets the buy order with the wing last; prices used gear with its check, repack and shipping; turns every service interval from your manuals into a yearly cost; and uses our free kit own vs hire calculator to find the flying days a year at which owning pays: 24 for the example's new kit, 17 for a used one. It contains no flight figures and chooses no wing, size or class: that is done with your instructor, inside the manufacturer's certified weight range, and whether any kit is fit to fly is decided by its manufacturer's checks and a qualified service center. Included: 7 steps, a course quote sheet, a kit sheet, a service-date log, a flying-day log, a break-even table, a quickstart, and a personalised sheet worked from the figures you enter in our kit own vs hire calculator and harness sizing guide. All worked figures are examples.

Look inside

Two full pages from the pack, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• The Whole Course Rule: two course quotes compared on their whole totals, membership, exam, travel and weather days included
• The Buffer Rule: what extra weather days cost against flying home short and coming back
• The Wing Last Rule: the order to buy kit in, and the money committed after each stage
• The Ready Price Rule: used gear priced with its check, repack and shipping, and bought subject to the check
• The Interval Rule: reserve repacks and glider checks from your manuals turned into a yearly cost
• The Flying Days Rule: the break-even flying days at which your own kit beats hiring, new and used
• The Saved First Rule: a two-year plan in cash and real cost per flying day, and the monthly saving for the kit
• Four working pages: a course quote sheet, a kit sheet, a service-date log and a flying-day log
• A break-even table for owning costs against hire rates, and a quickstart
• A personalised sheet worked from the figures you enter in our kit own vs hire calculator and harness sizing guide

The pack picks up where the free kit own vs hire calculator leaves off. The calculator gives the number of flying days a year at which your own kit beats hiring; the pack starts earlier, with the whole price of a course and the weather days it needs, then the order to buy kit in, used gear priced with its check, and every service interval turned into a yearly cost. It sizes nothing: the harness sizing guide is a starting point for trying harnesses on, and your wing is matched to you by your instructor, inside its certified weight range. The pack contains no flight figures.