A wet rate includes the fuel. A dry rate doesn't, so the pilot pays for fuel on top. Sooner or later, every committee's rate review asks which one the club should use.
The answer matters less to the average bill than you might expect. Put the same margin on both and an average pilot pays almost the same either way. Where they really differ is who takes the hit when the fuel price goes up, whether a pilot who burns more pays more, and what happens to fuel a member buys at another airfield.
This guide picks up where our guide to setting a hire rate that covers its costs leaves off. That one works out the rate from insurance, maintenance, engine reserve and realistic hours. The sums here use plain numbers with no currency, so they work just as well in pounds, euros or dollars.
What wet and dry mean on a club rate card#
| Wet rate | Dry rate | |
|---|---|---|
| What the hourly rate covers | The aircraft, fuel and usually oil | The aircraft and usually oil, no fuel |
| What the pilot pays | One rate for each hour on the clock | The hourly rate, plus the fuel used |
| Who carries a rise in the fuel price | The club, until it changes the rate | The pilot, from the next uplift |
| What has to be recorded after each flight | The time | The time and the fuel taken on |
| Fuel bought at another airfield | Needs a refund rule | The pilot has already paid for it |
Oil usually sits inside both rates. It's a small cost, and nobody wants to bill a quart or a litre at a time (least of all the treasurer). Still, say so on the rate card.
Landing fees normally sit outside both. Every airfield sets its own. They often go by the aircraft's weight, they change from one destination to the next, and they're charged per landing, not per hour. Approach fees, parking and out-of-hours charges are the same. We'd charge them separately, at cost, so the hourly rate stays an honest measure of what the aircraft costs to fly.
Worked example: the same flight wet and dry#
Let's take the four-seat trainer from the hire rate guide. At 150 hours a year it costs 200 an hour without fuel and 290 with it. With a 15% margin, the club sets a dry rate of 230 and a wet rate of 335. It burns about 30 litres an hour (8 US gallons), and the club pays 3.00 a litre (about 11.36 a US gallon), so fuel costs it 90 an hour.
If your flight manual gives fuel flow in gallons, convert it first. According to the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, one US gallon is 3.785 litres and one imperial gallon is exactly 4.54609 litres.
Say a member flies 1.5 hours on the clock and takes on 45 litres afterwards.
| Sum | Charge | |
|---|---|---|
| Wet | 1.5 hours at 335 | 502.50 |
| Dry, fuel sold at cost | 1.5 hours at 230, plus 45 litres at 3.00 | 480.00 |
| Dry, fuel sold at 3.45 (cost plus the same 15%) | 1.5 hours at 230, plus 45 litres at 3.45 | 500.25 |
With the same margin on everything, this pilot pays 502.50 wet and 500.25 dry. That small gap is only the wet rate being rounded up from 333.50.
So the decision that actually moves the bill is whether fuel carries a margin. Sell it at cost on a dry rate and the dry pilot pays 22.50 less than the wet pilot for the same flight. We'd settle that question first, then set both rates to match.
All of this assumes you charge on the clock the rate was costed on. Charge a wet rate on airborne time and you give away the fuel burned taxiing and sitting at the hold, so read which clock to bill by before you fix the number.
Now hand the same 1.5 hours to a student doing circuits at high power. They burn 36 litres an hour and take on 54 litres:
| Sum | Charge | |
|---|---|---|
| Wet | 1.5 hours at 335 | 502.50 |
| Dry, fuel sold at 3.45 | 1.5 hours at 230, plus 54 litres at 3.45 | 531.30 |
On the wet rate both pilots pay the same and the club soaks up the difference. On the dry rate each pays for what they burned. Over a year, a wet rate means the members who lean carefully on a cross-country are helping pay for the ones who don't.
For most training fleets, we think that's a fair price for one simple rate. But write the choice into the committee minutes. Then it stands as something the club decided, and nobody can say it just happened.
When a wet rate suits a club#
- Most of the flying is local. Training, circuits and short trips from home, with fuel from your own pump or on the club's account.
- The fuel price is steady, or the club is happy to review the rate when it moves.
- You want one number. A trial lesson customer, a new member or a student can see exactly what an hour costs, and compare it straight against the club down the road.
- Nobody has to measure fuel. The flight sheet records the time and that's it.
The catch is fuel price risk. If the price climbs between rate reviews, the club pays the difference on every hour flown until it changes the rate. That can add up quickly over a busy summer.
When a dry rate suits a club#
- The fuel price moves a lot. The hire rate stays put and fuel finds its own level.
- Members tour and refuel away often. They buy fuel where they land, and there's nothing to refund.
- Burn varies with use. Aerobatics, circuits and long cruises at economy power use very different amounts per hour, and dry charging matches the bill to the flight.
- A small group shares one aircraft, such as a syndicate where each member fills up and pays for their own fuel.
The catch here is that you need to know every flight's fuel. The usual rule is to refuel to a set level after every flight (full, or to the tabs), and the pilot pays for what goes in. Skip that rule and sooner or later someone climbs in, fills up and pays for the previous pilot's flying.
Refunding fuel bought away on a wet rate#
A wet rate needs a written rule for fuel bought elsewhere. Without one, the treasurer ends up sitting over a pile of receipts, judging each one case by case. Nobody enjoys that. Most clubs either refund the receipt in full or refund up to the club's own price per litre.
Say a member flies 3.0 hours on the wet rate, which is 1,005. Along the way they buy 60 litres at a distant airfield for 3.50 a litre, 210 in all.
| Refund rule | Refund | Member pays the club | Member's total, including the fuel bought away |
|---|---|---|---|
| The receipt, in full | 210 | 795 | 1,005 |
| Up to the club's price of 3.00 a litre | 180 | 825 | 1,035 |
A full refund means the touring member pays exactly what a local pilot pays for the same 3.0 hours. The cap protects the club from expensive fuel, but the touring member pays 30 more. Either works. Pick one, write it on the rate card and ask for the receipt every time.
And keep litres and gallons straight. A receipt in US gallons needs converting before you refund it against a price per litre.
Wet lease and dry lease in airline regulation#
Airline and charter regulation in the US, the EU and the UK uses the same words for something else entirely. There, wet and dry are about the crew, not the fuel.
In the US, 14 CFR 110.2 defines a wet lease as "any leasing arrangement whereby a person agrees to provide an entire aircraft and at least one crewmember". In the EU, Regulation (EC) No 1008/2008, which the UK kept in its own law, turns on whose air operator certificate the aircraft flies under. It's the lessor's for a wet lease and the lessee's for a dry lease.
So keep the club meaning out of your hire agreement's legal wording. Any question about who operates a hired aircraft belongs with your regulator or a lawyer.
What to write on the rate card#
A clear rate card states:
- The rate, and whether it's wet or dry. "335 an hour wet, fuel and oil included" or "230 an hour dry, oil included, fuel extra".
- The clock. "Charged on tacho time" or whichever you use.
- Fuel. For dry: "Refuel to full after every flight, charged at 3.45 a litre." For wet: "Fuel bought away refunded at up to 3.00 a litre on a receipt."
- Extras. "Landing, approach and parking fees charged at cost."
- Review. "Rates reviewed each April. The wet rate is also reviewed if the club's fuel price moves by more than 10% from the price it was set on."
We'd pin a copy by the booking sheet, too.
Fuel, fees and refunds in Volanti#
In Volanti, fuel, landing fees and hire can each be set up as their own priced service. So a dry rate and its fuel, or a wet rate and its landing fees, show up on the pilot's account as separate items instead of one blended number.
Each completed flight is priced at your rates and charged to the pilot's account automatically. A refund for fuel bought away can go on as account credit. The member asks for it, the treasurer approves it, and it comes off their next charges. Every pilot has a running balance and statements with a PDF, and can pay by card in the pilot portal. See billing and payments, or the aircraft hire page if you hire to qualified pilots.