Private Pilot License , Flight School Terminology

Today I am going to start pointing you in the right direction about your dream of getting your Private Pilot License. The first thing you want to do is plan. Would you just start building a new house without a plan? Probably not. So why do so many people just start taking flying lesson without a budget or plan?


Today I will familiarize you with some terminology that you will need to know and start you going thru this entire process. When you start looking around you will find a few things that are in the cost estimates of all the flight schools. Each school will have a Private Pilot License Course. If you look at the syllabus, you will probably find that the hours in the course are more than the cost estimate since most schools quote their estimates on the FAA minimum Requirements.


Dual Instruction: This is also known as flight instruction received. This is the time you are up in the airplane with your flight instructor. In the case of dual instruction the cost will include both the airplane and instructor.

Solo Time/Aircraft Rental: This is the time you will be renting the aircraft that is charged on a per hour basis like the dual instruction:

Flight Instructor: This is the charge per hour for the flight instructor.

There are some different ways that a flight school will word their cost estimates. One school may have DUAL INSTRUCTION in an estimate and another school may have AIRCRAFT RENTAL and FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR. I will give you some sample prices below:

Flight Instructor Rate: $50.00 Per Hour

Aircraft Rental Rate: $96.00 Per Hour

Examples of a brief cost estimate from a flight school may look like this:


A: 40 Hours Aircraft Rental: $3,840.00

B: 20 Hours Certified Flight Instructor: $1,000.00

Total: $4,840.00


Another Flight School May have a cost estimate that looks like this:


A: 20 Hours Dual Flight Instruction $2,920.00

B: 20 Hours of Solo Flight $1,920.00

Total $4,840.00



You will notice that both are the same cost, just the way they are presented is a little different. In many cases the above may be all they tell you.


You will want to start digging into what is really going on. This is why I have listed the Private Pilot License Requirements and then used them for a Private Pilot License Cost Estimate for you in the other lessons.


From the cost estimates above, I told you some of the ways that flight schools will structure their pricing.


In a lot of cases this will be all they tell you.. Some schools do try and make this a little more realistic. But in general they all will stay very competitive. Since flying is very expensive they like to keep their cost estimates as low as possible to get the students. You have to remember this is just pure business. So you may want to call it a scam or you may not want to call it that. I call it just telling the customer what they want to hear.


Now the FAA only requires 20 hours of dual instruction and 10 hours of solo but there is still a minimum of 40 so you have to get them somewhere.


Most of the schools will be honest about it if you start asking the right questions. You have to remember that there is a lot of competition in this industry and there aren't enough students to keep every flight schools planes flying 100 hours per month. Bottom line is they need to keep the planes flying or they go out of business.


You will want to remember that the national average for private pilots is 65 hours. Most private pilot syllabuses are between 45 and 55 hours. There are to many things that need to get covered. I have listed all of them in the other my other articles.


If you want to be a safe pilot you should plan on about 30 hours of Dual Instruction. With that said, you have just added another $2000 on to the above cost estimate. Remember this will also depend on the aircraft rental rates and the flight instructor rates. So you are already somewhere around $6,800 and you haven't included any books, materials, medical expenses, flight test fees and any other costs you may have.


This is one thing that causes students to stop flying. NOT PLANNING CORRECTLY.


Tomorrows Installment is The Aviation Medical and Flight Schools

Hope To See You In the Sky


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