Flight training at Midwest Flying Service

Published as "$105.00 per hour wet", and the rate includes renter and student insurance, which most schools bill separately or leave to the student. This is the cheapest published aircraft rate in Iowa.

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 an instructor cost per hour?Missing from their site

   The airplane is the cheapest published in the state, so the instruction rate decides whether the total is actually low.

4. 4

   Is the 172 the only airplane available for training?

   One airplane means availability, not the hourly rate, sets how fast you finish.

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 Midwest Flying's rates. The middle of what 5 Iowa 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. Midwest Flying is not in it.

What we checked

A single 1974 Cessna 172M at $105/hr wet with insurance included, which is the lowest published aircraft rate in Iowa. Twenty-six pages crawled and no instruction rate on any of them. Checked August 6, 2026.