Flight training at U.S. Flight Academy

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 is the hourly rate on your cheapest trainer, and which airplane is that?Missing from their site

   This is the number that is missing from the site, and it is the largest line on your bill.

4. 4

   Is that rate wet or dry, meaning does it include fuel?Missing from their site

   A dry rate and a wet rate are not comparable. Dry rates can run $40 to $60 an hour lower for the same airplane.

5. 5

   Is training actually based at Portales, or does it run from the Texas base?

   The school's own site describes Portales as a satellite of its main base in Post, Texas. Which field you fly from changes your travel, your lodging and your schedule.

6. 6

   Are the professional courses priced as a package or by the hour, and what is the figure?Missing from their site

   The site publishes a course outline and career pages but no price of either shape, so it is not clear which model applies.

7. 7

   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.

8. 8

   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.

9. 9

   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 U.S. Flight Academy's rates. The middle of what 5 New Mexico 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. U.S. Flight Academy is not in it.

What we checked

A crawl on August 12, 2026 read 25 pages, followed eight fleet index pages and read three linked PDFs. The only dollar figures on the entire site are airline SALARY ranges on the career page, which are not training prices and are not used here. Worth knowing before you call: the school's own pages describe Post, Texas as the main base and Portales as a satellite, and offer degree options through Utah Valley University rather than awarding a degree itself.