MedEwok wrote:
I thought Sweden was an expensive place…
I would say my club is pretty representative. Possibly a bit on the low side considering the avionics.
Our yearly fee is a bit high, but that’s because we run our own airfield with no subsidies (on the contrary, we have to pay rent to the city for the land).
My club is much the same. Yearly fee €300, 3-4 seater (C172S G100, Saab Safir, C-172N, PA-28) €144. Two seater (Army Cub) €96, Microlights €90. All wet and free landing/parking at all commercial airports in Norway.
My other club is €0 (but you have to take a glider along when taking off) 
In our club in Sweden we pay 200 EUR per year membership fee.
We have two C172 and one C152. The C172 go for 125 EUR/hour wet and the C152 goes for 105 EUR/hour wet. You get a discount of 10 EUR/hour if you loan the club 1000 EUR, which you get back when you decide you don’t want the discount anymore. We have free landing and parking in almost all Swedish airports besides some really big ones like Arlanda and Landvetter.
No other fees.
These Swedish prices are indeed surprisingly low. In Germany, on average, it’s more like 400-700 a year, vintage Skyhawks are usually 140-180€ per hour, restart Skyhawks are 160-200€ an hour, depending on avionics….and that is usually plus landing fees! Very small / rural clubs are sometimes a bit cheaper.
But the worst in Germany are the one-off joining fees. Often, these are 700-1500€, and if you happen to move (for work or whatever), you need go pay them again at your new club. This deterred me so far from joining a club in my area.
By the way, in Italy, hourly rates are on average about 20% higher than in Germany. What’s quite insane in Italy are the annual fees. Usually between 800 and 1600€. Every year! At least this often includes home landing fees.
French club prices tend to be very competitive. Rates much like those those Swedish rates, but also very low annual fees (1500-300€), plus usually no landing fees. Some big city aeroclubs are a bit more expensive of course.
UK clubs…, well, they usually are no clubs, so they don’t compare.
I think the few “clubs” in the UK would disagree but I am not starting another discussion about why some people feel warm and fuzzy in a “club” and how some airfields achieve low or zero landing fees (local chamber of commerce subsidy, etc)
Here in the southern UK the rental rate is in the region of GBP 200/hr wet for a PA28-161 based at a well maintained tarmac airfield. This is likely to be nearer to GBP 150/hr if based at some dump full of potholes in the grass, and you will get the usual spectrum of variation. While rental rates don’t (by definition) include the landing fee if the landing fee is otherwise significant, the rental rate will reflect how “nice” the place is.
Peter wrote:
and how some airfields achieve low or zero landing fees (local chamber of commerce subsidy, etc)
It’s fairly easy actually. Avinor owns almost all commercial fields used by airliners. GA is welcome everywhere, but also have to pay. You can pay per take off, per week or per year. When you pay per year it is typically in the order of €4-800 depending on MTOW, but then you can also fly as much as you want on all of them (40 or something placed all over Norway). This is what all people based on Avinor fields do of course. Smaller private strips for GA exclusively therefore have no fee, or some token €5 or something, or there would be no one flying there.
Like many other things, the Norwegian model (flat yearly fee) makes sense.
I rent from a variety of places, from club to school to private owners.
As this thread seems to be about comparing club rates, I’ll limit this to the club I rent from.
Annual fee is 200 EUR (+300 EUR base charter to benefit from the hourly rates as per below – if you don’t pay the base charter, the hourly prices go up by 30 EUR).
Rental rates are 112 EUR/h for the C172 (3 aircraft), 122.90 EUR/h for the Archer III (7 aircraft, all IFR capable with GNS430), 184 EUR/h for the C182 RG (1 aircraft) and 204 EUR/h for the C182 TR. Billed by tach hours (which in my experience is very much equivalent to actual flying time). Based at an international 24/365 airport. There is no mandatory work, but there is a fund that members can pay into that covers self-induced (non-negligent … by the club’s interpretation, not insurance companies’) damages. Over 5 years, I have contributed 125 EUR to that fund.
Incidentally, I have just analyzed my overall spend over the last three years. My annual spend on flying is in the range of 11-12.000 EUR (including all rentals, fuel, landing/parking fees, fixed costs for subscriptions etc.).
The Sr22 I rent is from a club, the DA40 is from a private owner.
There is also a 1973 PA28-200 for 4€ per min. wet that I can rent from a private owner.
