PilotBound estimate · Saginaw, MI · Checked September 30, 2026
What flight training at Bay Flying Services costs
Website bayflyingservices.com
Phone (989) 439-4332
Section 1Cost estimate
Your plan
Estimate cost to reach
Flying
The school's one airplane. Analog panel per the aircraft page.
PilotBound estimate · Private
Examiner dataCost of your Private at Bay Flying Services
range $13.8K – $18.3K · about 6 months at 2×/week
Priced on Bay Flying's published rates: Cessna 172M at $150/hr + $50/hr instruction, checked September 30, 2026.
Against a minimums quote
+$6,100 on Bay Flying's own rates. Quotes usually price the 40-hour minimum; almost nobody finishes there.
Where it goes
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
Examiner records (DPE dataset).
The hourly flying is priced on Bay Flying Services's published rates. About $2,375 of this is one-time fees (written test, examiner/DPE checkride, medical, gear), typical national estimates, not Bay Flying Services'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 →
Put this calculator on your siteSection 2The rate card
What Bay Flying publishes
checked September 30, 2026Airframe built 1976. Years of manufacture from the FAA aircraft registry, read October 4, 2026.
Rates are wet. Bay Flying Services publishes no hourly rate on its site; the school gave its rates to PilotBound directly on September 30, 2026: $150/hr for the Cessna 172M and $50/hr for CFI and CFII instruction.
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.
Section 3Discovery flight
$190
Checked October 1, 2026
About one hour of flight time in the Cessna 172, billed at $190 an hour and prorated for a shorter flight.
Section 4Paying for it
Two ways to cover $16,075.
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 for51 open to anyone. Top awards reach $22,200.No Michigan-only awards in the directory yet.
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- Money you pay backLenders that cover $16,075All 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 $16,075 is the starting line. Turn it into a route to your checkride, every step in order with this cost built in.
Add to my planSection 6In the app
Track it against Bay Flying's rates.
Bay Flying Services's rate card is in the PilotBound app. Choose Bay Flying when you set up and the app prices your training at its rates, then tracks every flight you log against the projection.
Scan to download on your iPhone
Section 7What to ask
What to ask when you call
What turns an hourly rate into a real bill.
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.
Does the instructor rate change for the Instrument, Commercial, or CFI, or is it flat across everything?
Plenty of schools charge more for advanced instruction. A flat rate quoted for the Private can climb later.
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.
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.
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 8Questions
- How much does it cost to get a private pilot license at Bay Flying Services?
- Bay Flying Services publishes $150 per hour for the Cessna 172M and $50 per hour for instruction on it, checked September 30, 2026. Applied to those published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate at about $16,075, in a range of $13,800 to $18,300. That covers roughly 72 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 Bay Flying Services.
- How long does it take to get a private pilot license at Bay Flying Services?
- Flying twice a week, PilotBound estimates about 6 months at Bay Flying Services to reach the private pilot checkride, at roughly 72 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 Bay Flying Services a Part 61 or Part 141 flight school?
- Bay Flying Services trains under Part 61, the flexible path. There is no FAA-approved syllabus to follow, so lessons can be scheduled around your life and adapted to your pace. The tradeoff is a slightly higher paper minimum for the private certificate (40 hours versus 35) and, for most students, no VA benefit eligibility.
- Do Bay Flying Services's aircraft rates include fuel?
- Bay Flying Services publishes $150 per hour for the Cessna 172M, a wet rate, so fuel is included in the hourly figure. A wet rate is the easier one to compare, because the number you see is the number you fly on. Rates checked September 30, 2026.
- What ratings can you train for at Bay Flying Services?
- Bay Flying Services trains Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, Commercial Pilot, Flight Instructor and Instrument Instructor. Instruction is $50 per hour across the ratings it teaches. PilotBound's estimator on this page prices any of these paths on Bay Flying Services's own published rates.
Section 9Sources
Estimates use Bay Flying Services's published Cessna 172M and instructor rates (checked September 30, 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 Bay Flying Services. 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 Bay Flying? Every figure here is yours, shown with its source and date.
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