PilotBound

PilotBound estimate · Griffith, IN · Checked September 12, 2026

What flight training at Griffith Aviation costs

Website griffithaviationinc.com

Phone 219-924-0207

Section 1Cost estimate

Your plan

Estimate cost to reach

Flying

Two-seat trainer. $118.80/hr with the pre-pay discount.

PilotBound estimate · Private

Examiner data

Cost of your Private at Griffith Aviation

$16,391

range $14.1K – $18.7K · about 6 months at 2×/week

Priced on Griffith's published rates: Cessna 152 at $132/hr + $60/hr instruction, checked September 12, 2026.

Against a minimums quote

at the FAA legal minimums$8,675
at the hours students actually take$16,391

+$7,716 on Griffith's own rates. Quotes usually price the 35-hour minimum; almost nobody finishes there.

Where it goes

$14.1K – $18.7K
Aircraft rental$10,296
Instruction$3,720
One-time costs$2,375
Aircraft + instruction$14,016
78 hrs in Cessna 152 @ $132/hr + 62 dual @ $60/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 pace78 hrs

Examiner records (DPE dataset). Note: Part 141 typically runs higher, not lower.

The hourly flying is priced on Griffith Aviation's published rates. About $2,375 of this is one-time fees (written test, examiner/DPE checkride, medical, gear), typical national estimates, not Griffith Aviation'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 →

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Section 2The rate card

What Griffith publishes

checked September 12, 2026
Cessna 152 (N157SK, N48SU)1980Two-seat trainer. $118.80/hr with the pre-pay discount.$132/hr fuel basis not stated
Piper Warrior PA-28-151/161 (4 tails)$152.10/hr with the pre-pay discount.$169/hr fuel basis not stated
Beechcraft Duchess BE-76 (N2009X)1978Multi-engine trainer. $315/hr with the pre-pay discount.$350/hr fuel basis not stated
Instructionstandard $60/hr · multi-engine instruction $70/hr$60 – $70/hr

Airframes built 1978 to 1980. Years of manufacture from the FAA aircraft registry, read September 16, 2026.

Griffith publishes every rate twice, with and without a pre-pay discount. The figures here are the standard rates without the discount; pre-paying takes about 10% off both the aircraft and instruction. Griffith is also VA approved and hosts FAA PSI testing.

The examiner's checkride fee is not on this card: the examiner sets it, not the school. The estimate above includes PilotBound's own figure for it. Griffith's site does not state whether its rates include fuel.

See the published rates →

Section 3Discovery flight

Section 4Paying for it

Two ways to cover $16,391.

Win what you can first, then borrow only what is left. Neither figure assumes anything about you: one is what our scholarship directory holds, the other is what the lenders publish.

Money you keepScholarships you could apply for46 open to anyone. Top awards reach $22,200.No Indiana-only awards in the directory yet.
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Money you pay backLenders that cover $16,391All six lenders in our comparison lend this much. That is whether a loan this size is on offer, not whether you would be approved.
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Section 5Add to my plan

Turn this into a plan.

Your $16,391 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

Section 6What to ask

What to ask when you call

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

  1. Do the published aircraft rates include fuel, or is fuel billed separately?Missing from their site

    The site does not say, and it is the difference between two rates that look identical and are not.

  2. 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.

  3. Which instructor rate applies to each rating I plan to do, and does the higher tier start on day one of that rating?

    This school prices some instruction above its primary rate. Knowing when the step-up starts keeps the later ratings from surprising you.

  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.

Section 7Questions

How much does it cost to get a private pilot license at Griffith Aviation?
Griffith Aviation publishes $132 per hour for the Cessna 152 and $60 per hour for instruction on it, checked September 12, 2026. Applied to those published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate at about $16,391, in a range of $14,100 to $18,700. That covers roughly 78 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 Griffith Aviation.
How long does it take to get a private pilot license at Griffith Aviation?
Flying twice a week, PilotBound estimates about 6 months at Griffith Aviation to reach the private pilot checkride, at roughly 78 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 Griffith Aviation a Part 61 or Part 141 flight school?
Griffith Aviation trains under Part 141, an FAA-approved syllabus with a structured course of study. Part 141 can finish the private certificate in fewer required hours on paper (35 versus 40), though in practice most students at either kind of school fly past the minimum. Part 141 also matters if you plan to use VA benefits, which generally require an approved 141 course.
Do Griffith Aviation's aircraft rates include fuel?
Griffith Aviation publishes $132 per hour for the Cessna 152, a rate that does not say whether fuel is included. Ask before you budget: if the rate turns out to be dry, fuel adds roughly $30 to $60 per hour on top. PilotBound's estimate uses the rate exactly as published. Rates checked September 12, 2026.
What ratings can you train for at Griffith Aviation?
Griffith Aviation trains Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, Commercial Pilot, Multi-Engine (AMEL) and Flight Instructor. Instruction runs $60 to $70 per hour depending on the rating and the aircraft, since advanced and type-specific instruction is priced above the standard rate. PilotBound's estimator on this page prices any of these paths on Griffith Aviation's own published rates.

Section 8Sources

Estimates use Griffith Aviation's published Cessna 152 and instructor rates (checked September 12, 2026), shown in USD for planning only. Real cost varies by student, weather, and pace. A range, not a quote.

PilotBound is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Griffith Aviation. 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.

Are you Griffith? Every figure here is yours, shown with its source and date.

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