Flight training at Pilot In Training Flight Academy

The rates block gives the aircraft at $190 an hour and adds a fuel surcharge on top, which the school attributes to fuel price rises. Beside it the site quotes market ranges, $185 to $220 for an airplane and $70 to $85 for an instructor; those are other schools' numbers, not this one's, so no instructor rate is recorded.

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

   Do the published aircraft rates include fuel, or is fuel billed separately?

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

4. 4

   What does your own instructor cost per hour, and how large is the fuel surcharge?Missing from their site

   The site prices its airplane and then quotes the market range for instruction instead of its own.

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 Pilot In Training's rates. The middle of what 13 Maryland 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. Pilot In Training is not in it.

What we checked

A Montgomery County Airpark school publishing one aircraft rate plus an unquantified fuel surcharge, with market ranges standing in for its own instruction rate. Crawled September 5, 2026.