Flight training at Northern Air

Every tail is labelled "Rental Rate Wet". Three simulators are also priced: a Redbird TD2 at $50/hr, a Redbird FMX AATD at $90/hr and a Redbird Xwind at $65/hr.

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 does instruction cost per hour?Missing from their site

   All five aeroplanes and all three simulators are priced to the dollar and no instructor rate appears on any of the site's six pages.

4. 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. 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. 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.

What to compare their answer against

Not Northern Air's rates. The middle of what 5 Idaho 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. Northern Air is not in it.

What we checked

The most complete aircraft pricing in Idaho's partial pool and no instructor rate at all: five tails wet, three Redbird simulators, a retractable turbocharged 182RG, and a six-page sitemap that was read in full. Twelve miles from the Canadian border, and the only listed flight training in Boundary County. One of its instructors is credited with 33,000 hours and 60 years of instructing.