Flight training at Rudy's Aviation Services

Only the Cessna 150 carries a single figure. The Cessna 172 is published as a RANGE rather than a rate, and a range cannot be estimated on without choosing a point inside it, so it is described here instead of priced.

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, and what exactly does the Cessna 172 cost?Missing from their site

   The 150 has one rate but the 172 is published as a range, and no instruction rate appears anywhere.

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 Rudy's Aviation Services's rates. The middle of what 47 Texas 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. Rudy's Aviation Services is not in it.

What we checked

A RANGE IS NOT A RATE. The fleet page gives the Cessna 150 one figure and the Cessna 172 a spread, without saying what moves it between the two ends. Only the single figure is recorded. The $5,000 elsewhere is an approximate cost for a five-day ATP course, not an hourly rate.