What Is the Best Aircraft for Time Building?

The best aircraft for time building is one that you can afford, is safe, and economical to fly, such as a Cessna 150. [Credit: Trent Palm/ file photo]

Question: What is the best airplane for time building? I am a low-time pilot looking for an aircraft to purchase. I'm training under Part 61 with a goal of a job as a professional pilot. But first I need to get the hours to qualify for the instrument rating. The local flight schools only rent to pilots in the current pursuit of a certificate, so time builders have to go somewhere else.

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Answer: The short answer is find an airplane that you can afford, is safe, and economical to fly.

Time building is about hours spent in the air and not necessarily about distances covered. You don't want to be that pilot who presents a logbook with 1,500 consecutive hours with most of that in the pattern of the local airport. Employers will want to see a variety of experiences, in particular multiple cross-country flights to more than one destination.

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Legacy single aircraft like the venerable Cessna 150 series and Piper Cherokees are popular time-building machines, as are many of the light sport aircraft (LSA) on the market. If you have a tailwheel endorsement and cost of insurance isn't prohibitive, you may even think about a Piper Cub or one of the LSA derivatives.

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Meg GodlewskiAuthor

Meg Godlewski has been an aviation journalist for more than 24 years and a CFI for more than 20 years. If she is not flying or teaching aviation, she is writing about it. Meg is a founding member of the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA AirVenture and excels at the application of simulation technology to flatten the learning curve. Follow Meg on Twitter @2Lewski.