Flight training at Seaplane Scenics

Flight instruction: $100/hr

Instructor services on their own are $100 an hour for a CFI-accompanied flight. Training is otherwise sold in blocks, six hours of flight and four of ground in a Cessna 172L for $2,200 and an eight-hour block for $2,800, with extra flight hours at $300 and ground at $100. The $300 figure carries the airplane and the instructor together and is not an aircraft rate; the only airplane-only figure on the site is $250 an hour for the checkride flight. Charter is $595 an hour.

1. 1

   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.

2. 2

   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.

3. 3

   What does the Cessna 172 cost per hour on its own, outside a block?Missing from their site

   The block price bundles the airplane with the instructor and only the checkride flight is priced airplane-only.

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 Seaplane Scenics's rates. The middle of what 20 Washington 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. Seaplane Scenics is not in it.

What we checked

A Renton seaplane and landplane operator selling training in blocks, with an instructor-only rate published beside them. Crawled September 5, 2026.