Flight training at STL Flight Training

A Redbird MCX simulator is $95/hr for students and $125/hr otherwise. STL Flight publishes whole-certificate ranges rather than an instruction rate: about $11,000 to $15,000 for the Private, about $7,000 for the Instrument, about $7,000 for the Commercial and about $2,000 to $6,000 for the CFI and CFII.

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, and is ground billed at the same rate?Missing from their site

   Both airplane rates are published plainly and no page prices the instructor, including the rentals page and the online store.

4. 4

   Does the Illinois base or the Chesterfield, Missouri base have the airplane I would train in?

   STL Flight runs two locations across a state line, and the rate page does not say which airplane sits where.

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 STL Flight's rates. The middle of what 13 Illinois 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. STL Flight is not in it.

What we checked

Crawled 11 pages on August 9, 2026 and read the rentals page and the store by hand. Two airplanes published wet with the tax and surcharge position stated, which is rarer than the rate itself. Part 61 stated on the site. Bases at St. Louis Downtown (Sauget, IL) and Chesterfield, MO.