PilotBound
PilotBound

PilotBound estimate · Davis, CA · Checked July 29, 2026

What flight training at Cal Aggie Flying Farmers costs

Website calaggieflyers.com

Your plan

Estimate cost to reach

Flying

Two-seat, the club's cheapest line.

PilotBound estimate · Private

Examiner data

Cost of your Private at Cal Aggie Flying Farmers

$14,171

range $12.2K – $16.2K · about 6 months at 2×/week

Priced on Cal Aggie's published rates: Cessna 152 at $130/hr + $42/hr instruction, checked July 29, 2026.

Against a minimums quote

at the FAA legal minimums$8,919
at the hours students actually take$14,171

+$5,252 on Cal Aggie's own rates. Quotes usually price the 40-hour minimum; almost nobody finishes there.

Where it goes

$12.2K – $16.2K
Aircraft rental$9,360
Instruction$2,436
One-time costs$2,375
Aircraft + instruction$11,796
72 hrs in Cessna 152 @ $130/hr + 58 dual @ $42/hr

One-time fees ($2,375)

  • Knowledge (written) test$175
  • Checkride / DPE fee$800
  • Medical certificate$150
  • Headset$700
  • Ground school / test prep$300
  • Books, charts & supplies$250
Hours at a steady pace72 hrs

Examiner records (DPE dataset).

The hourly flying is priced on Cal Aggie Flying Farmers's published rates. About $2,375 of this is one-time fees (written test, examiner/DPE checkride, medical, gear), typical national estimates, not Cal Aggie Flying Farmers's prices, and several are set by third parties.

Estimates use PilotBound's own completion-hours model, examiner-completion data where it exists and FAA minimums where it does not, applied to each school's published rates. They are PilotBound estimates, not the school's quote, and will differ from a school's own figures. Full methodology and sources →

What Cal Aggie publishes

checked July 29, 2026
Cessna 152 (four aircraft)Two-seat, the club's cheapest line.$130/hr wet
Cessna 172 (full IFR, DME, Garmin 430W)The standard trainer.$174/hr wet
Cessna 172SP (full IFR, Garmin 430W)$174/hr wet
Cessna 172SP G1000 (two aircraft)Full IFR, autopilot, GPS.$195/hr wet
Piper PA-44-180 Seminole (twin)Full IFR with autopilot and flight director. Rented, but multi training is not advertised.$365/hr wet
Instruction$42/hr

Airplane rental rates are published as wet. Cal Aggie is a membership club with dues, so these are member rates. Its $42/hr instruction is the lowest in the California set. A Piper PA-44 Seminole twin is in the fleet at $365/hr, but the club does not advertise multi-engine training, so the multi goals stay hidden. The Redbird simulator is $50/hr for members and $60/hr for non-members, and a 25-hour block on the Seminole carries a 4% credit-card discount.

Not published: the examiner's checkride fee. Listed as missing rather than guessed.

See the published rates→

Step 2

Turn this into a plan.

Your $14,171 is the starting line. Turn it into a route to your checkride, every step in order with this cost built in.

Add to my plan

What to ask when you call

The marked one is what Cal Aggie's site never answers. The rest are what turns an hourly rate into a real bill.

  1. What gets billed on top of the hourly rates, and roughly how much per hour does it add?

    The site notes extras beyond the hourly figures. Ask for the all-in number per hour, not the base rate.

  2. Does the instructor rate change for the Instrument, Commercial, or CFI, or is it flat across everything?

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

  3. Do you train under Part 61 or Part 141?Missing from their site

    It changes the minimum hours, and for some students it changes financing eligibility.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

Estimates use Cal Aggie Flying Farmers's published Cessna 152 and instructor rates (checked July 29, 2026), shown in USD for planning only. Real cost varies by student, weather, and pace. An honest range, not a quote.

PilotBound is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Cal Aggie Flying Farmers. School names are used only to identify the school. Estimates use PilotBound's own completion-hours model, examiner-completion data where it exists and FAA minimums where it does not, applied to each school's published rates. They are PilotBound estimates, not the school's quote, and will differ from a school's own figures. Disclaimer & removal policy.

Common questions about Cal Aggie Flying Farmers

How much does it cost to get a private pilot license at Cal Aggie Flying Farmers?
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers publishes $130 per hour for the Cessna 152 and $42 per hour for instruction on it, checked July 29, 2026. Applied to those published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate at about $14,171, in a range of $12,200 to $16,200. That covers roughly 72 hours of flying and instruction plus the one-time fees most quotes leave out, including the written test, the examiner's checkride fee, a medical, and study materials. It is a PilotBound estimate built on the school's published rates, not a quote from Cal Aggie Flying Farmers.
How long does it take to get a private pilot license at Cal Aggie Flying Farmers?
Flying twice a week, PilotBound estimates about 6 months at Cal Aggie Flying Farmers to reach the private pilot checkride, at roughly 72 hours. Pace is the single biggest variable: flying once a week typically stretches the timeline and raises the total, because time between lessons gets spent re-learning. Weather, aircraft availability, and instructor turnover all push the same direction.
Is Cal Aggie Flying Farmers a Part 61 or Part 141 flight school?
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers does not state on its own website whether it trains under Part 61 or Part 141, so we do not list one. It is worth asking directly before you enroll: Part 141 follows an FAA-approved syllabus and is generally what VA benefits require, while Part 61 is more flexible on scheduling.
Do Cal Aggie Flying Farmers's aircraft rates include fuel?
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers publishes $130 per hour for the Cessna 152, a wet rate, so fuel is included in the hourly figure. A wet rate is the easier one to compare, because the number you see is the number you fly on. Rates checked July 29, 2026.
What ratings can you train for at Cal Aggie Flying Farmers?
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers trains Private Pilot, Instrument Rating and Commercial Pilot. Instruction is $42 per hour across the ratings it teaches. PilotBound's estimator on this page prices any of these paths on Cal Aggie Flying Farmers's own published rates.

Other California flight schools

All California flight schools

Plan the money before you commit

A program price only makes sense next to what each rating costs on its own, what free money exists, and what borrowing actually looks like.

What each rating costs

Honest per-rating ranges, with the fees most quotes leave out.

Free money first

Verified flight training scholarships. Every scholarship dollar is a dollar you never finance.

If you borrow

Compare lenders and see the real monthly payment before you sign.