The most common question I am asked is “How much does it cost to become a Private Pilot?” I always wish I could give a hard and fast answer to that but there are so many variables, the total cost is hard to predict for each individual. It depends on which airplane you choose for your training, whether you pay by the hour for the airplane rental or if you pay for 10 hours in advance and mainly, how many hours it takes you to complete the requirements and become competent at the maneuvers.

The rates for the airplanes are as follows:

Cessna 150:  $90/hour or $86/hour if 10 hours are purchased in advance

Cessna 172 and Cherokee 160:  $122/hour or $117/hour at the 10 hour block rate

Instruction is $45/hour in addition to this.

To give you an idea how the total cost can vary, if you complete the training in the minimum number of hours (the FAA requires 40 hours of flight time) in the Cessna 150, at the block rate, the total cost would be around $5000 for your training. On the other hand, if you did your training in either the Cessna 172 or the Cherokee at the hourly rate and it took you the average amount of hours (65), the cost would be about $10,500.

I recommend that you fly at least once a week. If the gaps in your training are much longer than that, it’s difficult to retain the information and usually takes longer (and therefore, costs more) in the long run. Also, the more preparation you can do for each lesson, the better.  Reading, studying and “arm chair flying” in between lessons all helps with your training progress.

We do our best to complete your training in the least amount of hours but at the same time, our goal is to help you become a safe and confident pilot!