Flight training at Vermont Flying Service

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

   What do you charge per hour for the airplane and for instruction?Missing from their site

   Nothing is published anywhere, so the whole budget starts with this call.

6. 6

   Do you train the Instrument rating here, and in which aircraft?

   AOPA records an instrument rating against this school, which is worth confirming directly rather than assuming.

7. 7

   How many aircraft and instructors do you have right now?

   Availability decides your pace, and pace drives the total more than the hourly rate does.

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 Vermont Flying Service's rates. The middle of what 3 Vermont 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. Vermont Flying Service is not in it.

What we checked

No website. AOPA's Flight School Finder records a Part 61 operation at Edward F. Knapp State Airport near Barre and Montpelier, with an instrument rating listed. This is the only training operation in central Vermont; everything else in the state clusters around Burlington or sits on the Canadian border.