PilotBound

Published rates, sourced · Updated September 12, 2026

What flight training costs at South Carolina flight schools

Every listing shows the school's own published rates with the source and date, next to an honest PilotBound estimate for your Private pilot certificate. Add any school to your plan to map your whole route on their real rates.

Across the 6 South Carolina schools here with published rates, trainer rentals run $110 to $255 per hour and instruction $40 to $75, and PilotBound's private pilot estimate lands between $12,611 and $26,295, with a median of $17,229.

Search, filter by city, and sort by cost. Each card marks where it falls among the state's schools on cost. Estimates are ours, not quotes, and we are not affiliated with these schools. See a wrong number? Every card has a correct-this-listing link.

Estimate cost toflying
Showing 1–12 of 33 schools

Totals to reach your Private goal at this pace. 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. How we estimate.

Private estimate range across South Carolina

lowest $10.8Khighest $30K

  • Aeronautical Services of Greenwood

    Part 61
    Lowest in SC

    Greenwood, SC·airchartersc.com

    Published rates

    $110/hr aircraft (wet)+$40/hr instructor

    Checked September 9, 2026·Source

    One aircraft and one instruction rate, published together: a Cessna 150 at $109.95/hr wet and instruction at $40/hr. A cash discount is offered and not quantified. The operator also runs charter, FBO and maintenance from the same site, and its corporate address is in Greenville while the flying is at Greenwood County.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $12,611

    range $10.8K – $14.4K

    ~72 hrs on their published rates, plus one-time fees.

    Add to my planGreenwood Aeronautical cost breakdown →

  • Pivotal Aviation

    Part not stated

    Spartanburg, SC·flypivotal.com

    Published rates

    $135/hr aircraft (fuel basis not stated)+$49/hr instructor

    Checked September 5, 2026·Source

    Pivotal charges the same $49/hr for flight and for ground instruction, which is the lowest instruction rate in this directory. Block time discounts are offered on both. Gliders are not priced by this estimator. The site does not say whether the aircraft rates include fuel.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $14,937

    range $12.8K – $17K

    ~72 hrs on their published rates, plus one-time fees.

    Add to my planPivotal cost breakdown →

  • Greenville Aviation

    Part not stated

    Greenville, SC·greenvilleaviation.com

    Published rates

    $155/hr aircraft (wet)+$60/hr instructor

    Checked September 12, 2026·Source

    Greenville Aviation prices each aircraft on its own page rather than on one rate card, and its own private-pilot page states the fleet runs $155 to $211 per hour WITH FUEL. Instruction is $60/hr flat and covers ground, simulator and single-engine flight alike, rising to $70/hr for multi-engine training or if you bring your own aircraft. Its Redbird MCX simulator is $70/hr. A $300 annual incidental fee covers damage, and the school's own estimate for a Private runs $12,000 to $20,000 all in.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $17,015

    range $14.6K – $19.4K

    ~72 hrs on their published rates, plus one-time fees.

    Add to my planGreenville Aviation cost breakdown →

  • ACES Flight School

    Part 61
    Largest fleet3 locations

    Rock Hill & Pelion (plus Monroe, NC), SC·acesflightschool.com

    Published rates

    $169/hr aircraft (wet)+$50/hr instructor

    Checked September 8, 2026·Source

    Rental rates include fuel. Instruction is $50/hr for single-engine and $65/hr for multi-engine training. ACES publishes one figure for the Piper Aztec, $439/hr, and does not say whether an instructor is included in it, so confirm that before budgeting a multi-engine rating.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $17,443

    range $15K – $19.9K

    ~72 hrs on their published rates, plus one-time fees.

    Add to my planACES cost breakdown →

  • Upstate Flight School

    Part not stated

    Seneca, SC·upstateflightschool.com

    Published rates

    $175/hr aircraft (wet)+$55/hr instructor

    Checked September 5, 2026·Source

    Both rates are wet on the Hobbs, fuel and oil included. Clemson students and employees pay $165 in the Cherokee and $215 in the Marchetti, ROTC cadets $160 and $210; the figures here are the public rate. A trade name of Winston Tripp Aviation.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $18,165

    range $15.6K – $20.7K

    ~72 hrs on their published rates, plus one-time fees.

    Add to my planUpstate cost breakdown →

  • CRAFT Flight Training & Simulation

    Part 141

    North Charleston, SC·flycraftchs.com

    Published rates

    $255/hr aircraft (wet)+$65/hr instructor

    Checked September 9, 2026·Source

    All rates are wet and billed in tenths of an hour. Instruction is $65/hr for a Private student and $75/hr for the instrument, commercial, instructor and multi-engine ratings, and both figures cover ground and flight time including briefings. The Redbird simulator is $100/hr with an instructor already inside that rate. The school also sells fixed-price accelerated courses alongside the hourly rates, and prices extra dual on those at the standard hourly figure.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $26,295

    range $22.6K – $30K

    ~78 hrs on their published rates, plus one-time fees.

    Add to my planCRAFT cost breakdown →
  • Below: schools without a full published rate card. They cannot be priced, so they sit at the end of a cost sort.

  • Ace Basin Aviation

    Part 61

    Walterboro, SC·RBW·acebasinaviation.com

    Published rates

    $110/hr aircraft+instructor rate not published

    Checked September 13, 2026·Source·5 aircraft published

    Every aircraft is a taildragger and each is priced twice, once to fly solo and once with an instructor. The solo rates are shown here, and solo is open only to Ace Basin students working towards a Private or Commercial certificate. Ground instruction is $65/hr. The $95/hr instruction figure on the same page is for training in YOUR OWN aircraft, for spin training, basic aerobatics and Stearman transition, so it is not what instruction in one of theirs costs. Ferrying and transition training away from base are priced by the day, $700 plus expenses while flying and $350 plus expenses while positioning. The site never says whether fuel is included.

    No PilotBound estimate

    Ace Basin does not publish an instructor rate

    Nothing to total without it.

    See what to ask themWhat they do publish →

  • Aero II

    Part 61

    Spartanburg, SC·SPA·aero2academy.com

    Published rates

    aircraft rate not published+instructor rate not published

    No PilotBound estimate

    Aero II does not publish an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    Nothing to total without it.

    See what to ask themWhat they do publish →

  • Aiken Pilot Training

    Part 61

    Aiken, SC·AIK

    Published rates

    aircraft rate not published+instructor rate not published

    No PilotBound estimate

    Aiken Pilot Training does not publish a website, an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    Nothing to total without it.

    See what to ask themWhat they do publish →

  • Aloft Aviation Services

    Part 61

    Spartanburg, SC·SPA·aloftaviationservices.com

    Published rates

    aircraft rate not published+instructor rate not published

    No PilotBound estimate

    Aloft does not publish an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    Nothing to total without it.

    See what to ask themWhat they do publish →

  • ASG Flight Training Academy

    Part not stated

    Greenville, SC·avserve.com

    Published rates

    aircraft rate not published+instructor rate not published

    No PilotBound estimate

    ASG Flight does not publish an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    Nothing to total without it.

    See what to ask themWhat they do publish →

  • CAVU Flight School

    Part 61

    Greenville, SC·GMU·cavuflightschool.com

    Published rates

    aircraft rate not published+instructor rate not published

    No PilotBound estimate

    CAVU does not publish an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    Nothing to total without it.

    See what to ask themWhat they do publish →

Flight school costs in South Carolina, in numbers

Computed from the 6 South Carolina schools that publish both an aircraft and an instructor rate, on the same method every card above uses. The 27 listings without a full rate card are left out of every figure.

$17,229
Median PilotBound Private estimate across the 6 schools with published rates
$109.95 to $255
Published trainer rental, per hour
$40 to $75
Published instruction, per hour
6 of 33
Schools publishing a full rate card (aircraft and instructor)

Lowest published trainer rates in South Carolina

Part 141 flight schools in South Carolina

Flight schools by city in South Carolina

Airports with more than one South Carolina flight school

Discovery flights in South Carolina

5 South Carolina schools publish a discovery flight price, median $200. See each price with its source

How these estimates work

We apply one consistent method to every school: PilotBound's own completion-hours model, examiner-completion data where it exists (like the Private and Commercial) and FAA minimums where no credible public data exists (like the Instrument and CFI), times that school's published aircraft and instructor rates (linked on every card, with the date we verified them), plus the one-time fees most quotes leave out. Holding the hours model identical across schools means the only thing that changes card to card is the school's actual rates.

So the number is PilotBound's estimate, not the school's quote, and it will differ from a school's own cost figures, which are often based on FAA-minimum hours. The schools do not set or endorse it.

Want a number tied to your own pace and aircraft choice? Run the estimator or read the full methodology.

These estimates are ours, not the schools' quotes, and we are not affiliated with the schools. A school can correct or remove its listing anytime. Disclaimer & removal policy.

Common questions about South Carolina flight schools

How much does flight school cost in South Carolina?
Across the 6 South Carolina flight schools here that publish full rates, trainer rentals run $110 to $255 per hour and instruction $40 to $75 per hour, checked as recently as September 12, 2026. On each school's own published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate between $12,611 and $26,295, with a median of $17,229. These are PilotBound estimates built on published rates, not quotes from the schools.
What is the cheapest flight school in South Carolina?
Aeronautical Services of Greenwood in Greenwood publishes the lowest trainer rental of the 6 South Carolina schools listed here, $110 per hour for its Cessna 150, a wet rate, so fuel is included in the hourly figure, checked September 9, 2026. The lowest hourly rate is not automatically the lowest total: instructor rates, fuel basis, and the hours you actually fly decide that, which is what the per-school estimates on this page hold constant.
How current are these South Carolina flight school rates?
Every rate here is the school's own published figure, linked to its source and dated; the newest check in South Carolina is September 12, 2026, and each card and school page shows the exact date its rates were read. The directory is re-checked on a monthly cycle, and 27 more schools in South Carolina are listed without an estimate because they do not publish a full rate card. A school can correct or remove its listing anytime.