Flight training at Newport Aviation

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

   Your published rates are dry. Roughly what does fuel add per hour on the trainer?

   The published figures leave fuel out, so they understate the real hourly cost until you add it.

6. 6

   What is the dry hourly rate, and what does fuel add?Missing from their site

   The rental agreement confirms rates are dry and never states one. A dry rate plus fuel is not comparable with the wet rates most schools publish until you know both halves.

7. 7

   What does an instructor cost per hour?Missing from their site

   Seventeen pages crawled and the only figures anywhere are penalty fees in the rental agreement.

8. 8

   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.

9. 9

   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.

10. 10

    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 Newport Aviation's rates. The middle of what 3 Rhode Island 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. Newport Aviation is not in it.

What we checked

AOPA lists this operator twice, as Gilded Gull Aviation dba. Newport Aviation and as Newport Aviation, and the two rows differ only by a typo in the stored web address: flyNENWportri.com does not resolve, flynewportri.com does. One business, one listing. The only dollar figures on the site are penalty charges inside a rental agreement PDF, which also confirms the fleet is rented dry. Checked August 6, 2026.