Renting aircraft in St. Louis area?

I have moved to Eureka, MO and was wondering what are my aircraft rental options in west St. Louis/eastern MO. Closest airport is KSUS, and it looks like they may have a Langa Air per their website with mainly Cessna a/c - anyone else?

At SUS Skyline used to be the place, but they went bankrupt.

I learned out of St. Charles Muni 3SQ, there is a big school there with lots of planes.

I think there may be a rental option at Festus.

I don't live in St. Louis any more (2.5 Hours South of you) and I don't have any rental options period.

There may be some rental options at Creve Couer as well.

If you need somebody to fly with, I go to St. Louis fairly often, and need to get in the air myself.

cnpeters said:

I have moved to Eureka, MO and was wondering what are my aircraft rental options in west St. Louis/eastern MO. Closest airport is KSUS, and it looks like they may have a Langa Air per their website with mainly Cessna a/c - anyone else?

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You could go the other direction down I-44 to St. Claire. It would be as close as Spirit and for sure closer than St. Charles.

Herman Ray (sp) at Skylink KSET rents Cessnas but that is a long way from Eureka.

I didn't realize there was anything for rent at St. Claire.

There may be at Sullivan too, that is only about 30 mins down the road.

aiiplane rentals at KSUS

Langa air had a very nice operaton at KSUS. but unfortunately the economy caused them to close both their operations at Spirit of St. Louis and Alton Municipal airports recently.

Yeah, I just saw that. Fairly depressing, as there is very little in the whole metro area anymore to rent. I can only find one operation left at St. Charles Airport about 40 min away from me that has decent planes to rent, incl the DA-40 with the Garmin G1000 cockpit. There is one old Cessna 172 at St. Louis Downtown airport, also about 40 min away. Not worth it. I may just hang it up for awhile until the RV is done, vs keep current back in Bloomington, IL (3 hours away) as I will be there from time to time. Sad to see this decline.

Carl--

What about Alton, IL or Scott AFB Aero club?

Joe

St. Charles Flying Service (3SQ)

Carl,

I feel your pain. The economy has driven all of the flight schools / rental FBOs out of business in the St. Louis metro area except St. Charles Flying Service at 3SQ. On the plus site, SCFS is a first class operation and their planes are beautifully maintained.

Disclaimer: I'll be sellling my '68 Arrow (based at 3SQ) shortly so I can begin building an RV so I'll be renting at SCFS. And it happens that I like Dennis Bampton, the owner, quite a bit.

-- Art Z.

I have about 130 hours on SCFS aircraft, and I am not sure "beautifully maintained" is a term I would use.

1 plane had radio issues squaked several times. Resulted in us leaving with a working radio, came back IFR with a radio that we could barely here ATC, and could not send. We were IFR, using Ident to ack ATC requests.

Another airplane, we were outbound IFR, in the clouds ten minutes when we had a vacuum failure.

On my PPL check ride, the AI failed while still in the pattern after takeoff.

I have squaked many items, that went month after month without being resolved.

I don't have a problem with Dennis, but I would not say that the maintenance there is top notch.

Brent,

That's good to know... and surprising. Thanks.

-- Art Z.

Brent,

That's good to know... and surprising/disappointing. Thanks.

-- Art Z.

The lack of good rentable aircraft in STL is why I bought a Cessna 140 during my build of the RV. Cheep and holds resale value. I wanted to stay current as I was building but nothing really at Creve Coeur that was decent to rent. Had time in the airplanes at Skylink at SET but always had squawk that I flew with on the planes.
There is a small rental place at Creve Coeur now that has a nice 172. It is called high altitude flying club.

I didn't know about the Cessna at Creve Couer Airport - wouldn't be that far of a drive. May look into that, as it is a club and without students. Otherwise, it looks like St. Charles Flying Service would be it - a 40 min commute. They do have the DA-40 with the G1000 that I like, plus all the Cessnas one would want.
Joe - thanks, but I believe Scott Aeroclub is only for the active duty or others with base privileges. I flew there for a few months when stationed there and got fed up with all the bureaucracy - basically, you were a perpetual student (had to find an instructor to sign off a couple pages of weather and other stuff you reviewed before every flight). I bailed and went to St. Louis Downtown/Parks and was much happier. And not sure Alton has anything, but would be close to 45-50 min away.
I do like the idea of buying something to fly in the meantime, but would be a bit more expensive than renting.
Thanks for the tips... .
Carl

AF Aero Clubs

cnpeters said:

Joe - thanks, but I believe Scott Aeroclub is only for the active duty or others with base privileges. I flew there for a few months when stationed there and got fed up with all the bureaucracy - basically, you were a perpetual student (had to find an instructor to sign off a couple pages of weather and other stuff you reviewed before every flight). I bailed and went to St. Louis Downtown/Parks and was much happier. Carl

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Carl,
I talked to the Scott Aero Club manager (Sandy) last week, and they are already feeling the surge from LangAir closing down. She is scrambling to add more aircraft to the inventory to help out but that will take some time. You're right though, all the hoops you have to jump through to take a one hour sight-seeing flight kind of takes the fun out of it. But if you're interested, CAP members are authorized to join an AF Aero club.