PilotBound

PilotBound estimate · Southern Pines, NC · Checked September 5, 2026

What flight training at Sandhills Fliers costs

Website sandhillsfliers.com

Phone 910-246-0349

Conveniently located near

  • Elizabethtown

Section 1Cost estimate

Your plan

Estimate cost to reach

Flying

PilotBound estimate · Private

Examiner data

Cost of your Private at Sandhills Fliers

$18,745

range $16.1K – $21.4K · about 6 months at 2×/week

Priced on Sandhills Fliers's published rates: Cessna 172P at $175/hr + $65/hr instruction, checked September 5, 2026.

Against a minimums quote

at the FAA legal minimums$11,455
at the hours students actually take$18,745

+$7,290 on Sandhills Fliers's own rates. Quotes usually price the 40-hour minimum; almost nobody finishes there.

Where it goes

$16.1K – $21.4K
Aircraft rental$12,600
Instruction$3,770
One-time costs$2,375
Aircraft + instruction$16,370
72 hrs in Cessna 172P @ $175/hr + 58 dual @ $65/hr

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
Hours at a steady pace72 hrs

Examiner records (DPE dataset).

The hourly flying is priced on Sandhills Fliers's published rates. About $2,375 of this is one-time fees (written test, examiner/DPE checkride, medical, gear), typical national estimates, not Sandhills Fliers'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 →

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Section 2The rate card

What Sandhills Fliers publishes

checked September 5, 2026
Cessna 172P (N5387K)1980$175/hr wet
Vulcanair V1 (three aircraft)$185/hr for Pinehurst ACES Part 141 students.$220/hr wet
Cessna 182N (N9224G)1971High performance.$205/hr wet
Mooney M20C (N427SF)1966Retractable.$205/hr wet
Aviat Husky (N8765H)1993Tailwheel.$185/hr wet
Aeronca Chief (N4388E)1948Tailwheel endorsement trainer.$135/hr wet
Aeronca Champ (N1202E)Tailwheel endorsement trainer.$130/hr wet
Instruction$65/hr

Airframes built 1948 to 1993. Years of manufacture from the FAA aircraft registry, read September 16, 2026.

These are Sandhills Fliers' MEMBER rates. Membership is not required to fly or train, but the Pilot Training membership is $40 a month and the non-member aircraft rates are not published, so a non-member cannot work out a price from this site. Instruction is $65/hr for members, $75/hr for non-members, and $55/hr for students in the Pinehurst ACES Part 141 programme, who also fly the Vulcanair at $185/hr instead of $220/hr. The Redbird FMX is $70/hr for members and is programmed as a Beechcraft Baron for multi-engine work, which is a simulator rather than a twin, so no multi is priced here.

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. Sandhills Fliers does not state whether it trains under Part 61 or Part 141, so the estimate above is built on Part 61 hours.

See the published rates →Source 2 →

Section 3Paying for it

Two ways to cover $18,745.

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 for46 open to anyone, plus 1 in North Carolina. Top awards reach $22,200.
47
Money you pay backLenders that cover $18,745All six lenders in our comparison lend this much. That is whether a loan this size is on offer, not whether you would be approved.
6 of 6
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Section 4Add to my plan

Turn this into a plan.

Your $18,745 is the starting line. Turn it into a route to your checkride, every step in order with this cost built in.

Add to my plan

Section 5What to ask

What to ask when you call

The marked one is what Sandhills Fliers's site never answers. The rest are what turns an hourly rate into a real bill.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. Do you train under Part 61 or Part 141?Missing from their site

    It changes the minimum hours, and for some students it changes financing eligibility.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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 6Questions

How much does it cost to get a private pilot license at Sandhills Fliers?
Sandhills Fliers publishes $175 per hour for the Cessna 172P and $65 per hour for instruction on it, checked September 5, 2026. Applied to those published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate at about $18,745, in a range of $16,100 to $21,400. 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 Sandhills Fliers.
How long does it take to get a private pilot license at Sandhills Fliers?
Flying twice a week, PilotBound estimates about 6 months at Sandhills Fliers 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 Sandhills Fliers a Part 61 or Part 141 flight school?
Sandhills Fliers does not state on its own website whether it trains under Part 61 or Part 141, so we do not list one. It is worth asking directly before you enroll: Part 141 follows an FAA-approved syllabus and is generally what VA benefits require, while Part 61 is more flexible on scheduling.
Do Sandhills Fliers's aircraft rates include fuel?
Sandhills Fliers publishes $175 per hour for the Cessna 172P, 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 5, 2026.
What ratings can you train for at Sandhills Fliers?
Sandhills Fliers trains Private Pilot and Instrument Rating. Instruction is $65 per hour across the ratings it teaches. PilotBound's estimator on this page prices any of these paths on Sandhills Fliers's own published rates.

Section 7Sources

Estimates use Sandhills Fliers's published Cessna 172P and instructor rates (checked September 5, 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 Sandhills Fliers. 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 Sandhills Fliers? Every figure here is yours, shown with its source and date.

Send your training part

One other school flies from Moore County Airport.

It does not publish a rate either, so that one is a phone call too. SOP is the identifier to give when you ask.

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