Flight training at Butterfly Aviation

One aeroplane, priced both ways: $150/hr wet or $100/hr dry. The wet figure is used here because it is what an hour costs without buying fuel separately. Butterfly does not employ instructors: the site says to phone and it will put you in touch with one of the local instructors, and lists instructor rates as being "per instructor".

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

   Which certificates and ratings do you train all the way through, and where would I have to go elsewhere?Missing from their site

   This is the difference between one school for your whole path and switching partway.

4. 4

   Which local instructor is available, and what do they charge an hour?Missing from their site

   Butterfly rents the aeroplane and refers you to an independent CFI who sets their own price, so the instruction half of your budget cannot come from the website at all.

5. 5

   Which certificates can I actually train for here?Missing from their site

   The site names none. It is one 172 on a small western Kansas field, so the realistic ceiling is worth establishing early.

6. 6

   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.

7. 7

   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.

8. 8

   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 Butterfly's rates. The middle of what 4 Kansas 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. Butterfly is not in it.

What we checked

One 1980 Cessna 172N doing both rental and instruction at Goodland, in the far west of the state, published at $150/hr wet and $100/hr dry. Like the Flying Club of Kansas City, the instructors are not the operator's: you are given a phone number and the rates are "per instructor". The rate page is at /issues.html, which is not a URL any rate-path probe would guess.