Flight training at Fly Time Aviation

Aircraft: $135/hr

Fly Time publishes two figures and a surcharge: any of its Cessna 172 models rents at $170/hr wet, the Cessna 150M (N150HB) at $135/hr wet, and a fuel surcharge of $7/hr applies on top. The rates sit on the rental-requirements page rather than a rate page. The flight instructors page names the instructors and prices none of them.

1. 1

   What do you charge per hour for flight instruction, and is ground instruction billed at the same rate?Missing from their site

   This is the number that is missing from the site. Ground is often billed separately and at a different rate.

2. 2

   Does the instructor rate change for the Instrument, Commercial, or CFI, or is it flat across everything?Missing from their site

   Plenty of schools charge more for advanced instruction. A flat rate quoted for the Private can climb later.

3. 3

   What is the hourly instruction rate?Missing from their site

   The school lists its instructors by name with their certificates and does not price any of them, so this is the missing half of the card.

4. 4

   Is the $7/hr fuel surcharge current, and does it change with fuel prices?

   It is published as a standing surcharge on top of the wet rate, which means the advertised hourly figure is not what you pay.

5. 5

   Do you offer block rates or prepay discounts, and what is the refund policy if I stop partway?

   Block discounts are common and rarely published. The refund terms matter more than the discount.

6. 6

   What do you charge for the written test, the checkride, and the examiner's fee?

   The DPE fee alone runs $800 to $1,200 in most of the country and is almost never in a quoted hourly rate.

7. 7

   How many trainers and how many full-time instructors do you have right now?

   Availability decides your pace, and pace decides your total more than the hourly rate does.

What to compare their answer against

Not Fly Time's rates. The middle of what 10 Arizona schools charge, to hold your phone quote against.

From the schools here that publish full rate cards, the same sample behind the Flight Training Cost Report. Fly Time is not in it.

What we checked

The rates are on the rental-requirements page, which is why a rate-page search misses them. Fly Time lists eight tails by registration and prices them as two groups rather than individually: every 172 at one figure, the 150M below it.