Flight training at Cargill Aeronautical Academy

Aircraft: $205/hr

A single flat WET LEASE rate covering the whole training fleet, plus sales tax. The school describes itself as leasing aircraft to students rather than renting to them.

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 does instruction cost per hour on top of the aircraft lease?Missing from their site

   The school publishes one flat aircraft figure and no instruction rate, and a wet lease is an unusual arrangement whose terms are worth asking about directly.

4. 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. 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. 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.

What to compare their answer against

Not Cargill Aeronautical's rates. The middle of what 16 Pennsylvania 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. Cargill Aeronautical is not in it.

What we checked

PRICED AS A WET LEASE, NOT A RENTAL: Cargill leases aircraft to students at a flat rate of $205.00 per hour plus sales tax. One figure covers the whole fleet, which is rare, and the leasing framing may carry conditions a rental would not. No instructor rate is published.