PRICES for Private

[UScoastie]

Howdy,

Just a general question, what is the approximate going rate for a private licence?

Thanks
-J

[Doug Taylor]

$3000 to $5000, maybe less, maybe more depending on the school you enroll in.

[Skeeter]

I'd say figure at least $5000 and you'll be safe. Doug, you been in the majors too long. HA! [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Eagle]

i paid $3600 in 1994. and was only payinf 40$ hour for the airplane. now that same aircraft is 60$, so I agree it would be closer to 5k.

[ready2fly]

Yup, looks like the above are pretty accurate.

I'm about 28TT.....and about $3500 into my Private now with my two solo cross-countries, the night cross country with my instructor, some solo work and the checkride left to go. So, figure in about another $1200 to $1500.... and there you are.

Take into account, however, that I'm training in a 172 that rents for $80 an hr (I'm 6'3, 210 and my instructor wieghs in around 240), so you MIGHT be able to get it down if you can fly a 152 throughout training.

[UScoastie]

Thanks all!!!

-J

[JediNein]

We estimate $15,000 here. Many will get through for less, but not by much. That number includes everything: books, examiners, decent size airplane, writtens, pilot supplies, and so on.

No 40 hour estimates either.

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein

[TheFlyingTurkey]

$15,000 for PPL?

Do you get to keep the plane?

[Scorpio11982]

what school or FBO [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
is that????

$15,000 for a PPL ??? [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

[mikek123]

I think I spent about $3500 for mine in a 152 and that was only 2 years ago.

[ready2fly]

I'm with you guys..... $15 THOUSAND for the PRIVATE?????? [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] Surely you jest. Was that a type-o? Did you mean to type $5K and hit the "one" for some unknown reason??? [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

What's the scoop, Jedi? Give. Give.

[zombie5225]

I paid around $6000 for mine. That was with 60hrs and some time in some pretty nice planes. I could have done it for around $4000 in a 152.

[reefteaser]

At my school I get asked this all the time. I always say about $3900 in a 152, around $4500 in a 172. The savings are short term in the smaller airplane however, since a new private pilot trained in the smaller airplane will want to checkout in something larger right away. This usually takes 3-5 hours with an instructor, so the difference becomes much smaller. One must consider the "miscellaneous" items like charts, plotter, EB6 (get the electronic one and get out of the stone age), books, written test fee, headset (one that no one else sweats in), medical exam, and examiner's fee if not taken with the FAA.
Of course, those individuals whose learning curve is a rather, shall we say "shallow approach", will need more time and more expense.

[wanafly]

I'm 3120 in and still have 2 hours solo and the checkride prep. Oh and the exam fee for the checkride will be 350 plus the rental. So its looking like 3700-3800 If all goes well. This is not counting roughly around 300-400 in books charts E6B etc. Of course some of this (very little ) will be used in the future. Then the toys just get more expensive....headset, gps, etc.

I suggest geting some good study materials, study hard (self study). Then find an instructor that can teach you. Most are very good but a few are just burned out. Be aware that there are a few milk farmers, if your not showing progress or at least slowly moving forward talk to your instructor.

The money saver will be fly as often as possible this keeps you in tune and i feel large gaps is money wasted on review. Try to target 3 or more times a week. After you work through any problems you might have had focus on the req. for PP (after your solo).

Always remember if your not having fun then you need to step back and consider where/what/if there is a problem.

[JediNein]

Howdy!
Been out of touch for a bit... The breakdown:

The Chief CFI's time, 90 hours, aircraft rental of 60 hours, checkride; and pilot supplies including books, headset, flight bag, case, charts, and so on:
90 hours * $100 = $9000 (50 hours flight time, 40 hours ground instruction)
60 hours * $85 = $5100 (60 hours aircraft rental, less if flies more often, or $600 less in other aircraft)
$300 for checkride
$600 for the pilot supplies.
Total = $15,000

Use one of the other instructors, not the CCFI, and the other aircraft:
90 hours * $50 = $4500 (50 hours flight time, 40 hours ground instruction)
60 hours * $75 = $4500 (60 hours aircraft rental, less if flies more often)
$300 for checkride
$600 for the pilot supplies.
Total = $9,900

After this training, the IFR can take $8000 or more, depending the proficiency of the pilot and their private training.

It's difficult to explain the "why" behind the prices on-line or in phone conversations. This is a different kind of flight school. I know for a fact that the training I received through this school has saved the lives of three people, including mine, during a flight where there was very little time to think (measured in nanoseconds), and the first decision had to be the right decision.

Hope this helps.

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein

[ready2fly]

One word:

DAMN!!

[JediNein]

I KNEW I had something wrong.....
$250 for the checkride
AND $650 for the pilot supplies... forgot about the written test.

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein

[Astin]

Ok J-9 - I'm intrigued. I would really like to hear the story of what happened if you are willing to share. Maybe it will even help save someone else's life.

[aloft]

$100/hr for PRIMARY FLIGHT INSTRUCTION???? How the hell do you guys get amy business with those prices?

You're in Fresno, right?

[JediNein]

Howdy!

I am in Van Nuys and Bakersfield. Fresno was several moves ago.

Our Van Nuys competition offers somewhat new (1998-2000) Cessna 172's at $82 per hour DRY (renter pays for fuel at 8 gallons * $3 per hour, aircraft owner/lessee gets to replace cylinders more often).

The new (2001/2002) Cessna 172SPs for rent in Fresno are at $98 per hour WET (with fuel). The owner of that school reports business is just fine.

The $100 rate mentioned is for the Chief Instructor. I think he is underpriced.

Some personal background to this story… When the Chief Instructor for the American Bonanza Society crashed in IMC after a vacuum failure, I stopped flying IFR. If this instructor that WROTE the IFR training program for their refresher clinics couldn’t survive gyro failure, how could I?

Here goes:

At the time of this incident, the instructor had given less than nine hours of training over the previous four months towards my regaining IFR currency and proficiency. I had almost one hour in the right seat working on the CFII.

Ten thousand plus hour pilot in left seat. Flown in all sorts of conditions including a 3 hour hard IMC flight the previous week. I’m riding right seat for the fun of it. Pilot is taking aircraft owner’s son to summer camp. The son is not a pilot and sitting back seat. We are in IMC and the pilot, also an aircraft maintenance technician, is evaluating the autopilot’s function. He finds the autopilot will not couple to the nav, but will hold heading and altitude. A while into the clouds, I notice we are rolling into a medium right bank for no apparent reason. The pilot complains about the autopilot not coupling again, but we were in heading hold mode.

I had less than three seconds to figure out which, if any, flight instruments were telling me the truth looking at them from the right seat. This process is not in any book. In fact, the only way to get this process is attend one of our WINGS Seminars (free) or obtain training at this flight school. Then I had to battle for the controls as the pilot was completely disorientated and who knew what trim the autopilot had left us.

When I recovered the aircraft, we were about to exceed red line airspeed, over 60 degrees of bank, over 10 degrees pitch down, and the VSI was pegged down. The autopilot had disconnected during this so the aircraft was very much out of trim. Passing through 500 feet below our assigned altitude, my hearing returned to ATC screaming at us to climb. The passenger didn’t know a thing as the pilot had the intercom on “crew isolate.” A few more seconds and the NTSB would be investigating P210 confetti from the inflight breakup.

I logged that flight as dual given. I figured I’d earned it.

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein

BTW, the “Surviving Gyro Failure in IMC” WINGS Seminar will be in Bakersfield on August 8th.

[E_Dawg]

After 2 school, 4 instructors, and 75 hours (don't ask), mine came out to be around $8000. Obviously this is on the high end of the spectrum, although it's nowhere near as high as the 15G estimate!.

[ready2fly]

It's official = I JUST finished my PPSEL checkride last week and the grand total was a little over $5,500.00 - that's with 47 hrs in a 172, mind you.

So, there you go. If you can train in a 152 for less - DO IT!! My fat ass had to pick a fat assed instructor - so that was out of the question. [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[JStevens]

LOL......yeah, a couple of fat asses flew a 152 right into a tree in Brunswick Georgia last week....they were only supposed to be taxing the thing to try it out.

Not so funny considering one of them died and the other is burned pretty badly.

[chunk75]

JediNein,

Are you smoking crack? 15 large for a private?

I am willing to pay more than most to get the best training available...that's why I go to FSI, but 15K? That's ludicrous...by about 10K.

You charge different rates for different instructors? Interesting business practice.

To each his own....just don't scare off potential pilots by 'bragging' how much you charge.

Chunk <--paid 4K....only took 36 hours...back in 93....in Logan, Utah

[Doug Taylor]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />

Are you smoking crack? 15 large for a private?

[/ QUOTE ]

Crack? Damn, now my users are smoking crack?!

Ooops, sorry, I guess I'm kind of spring-loaded on the drugs issue!

Carry on!