Flight School Cost
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The cost of flight school:
Get ready for your career start with us!
Step 1. Private Pilot 14 day finish up or 4 weeks to 6 weeks full time
Step 2. Collect qualifying flying hours to move towards the next level, 3 weeks
Step 3. Instrument Rating 10 days to 3 weeks
Step 4. Collect qualifying flying hours to move towards the next level, 4 weeks
Step 5. Commercial pilot certificate 1 week to 10 days
Step 6. Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) course 4 weeks
Step 7. Start working as a flight instructor to qualify for your airline job!
Total cost
Airline Sponsored School California Flight School $140,000 - $180,000 $65,000 - $75,000
PRIVATE PILOT CERTIFICATE
Pay as you go, by the hour, no prepayment needed!
50 hours C17210 hours of VFR procedure trainer / simulator, (included)
20 hours of flight instructor time for simulator / ground training (included)
60 hours of flight instructor time for pre-flight, flight and post-flight instruction
TOTAL PRELIMINARY ESTIMATE $15,000 - $17,000 (pay as you go, accelerated) - part time not unusual to see $17k to $18k
Note: Estimates do not include additional ground instruction where needed. Add approximately $1,500 for books, exam costs and misc.
Prerequisites:
Completion Certificate from our ground school or home study program of your choice
3rd Class Medical or Better, min. age 17 to take the final test
REQUIRED FLIGHT TIME TO GET READY FOR THE INSTRUMENT RATING:
50 hours aircraft rental approx. $7,250
INSTRUMENT RATING
30 hours of aircraft rental $4,350
10 hours of FAA approved BATD simulator $690
10 hours of procedure trainer time $490
60 hours of flight instructor time $4,800
TOTAL PRELIMINARY ESTIMATE $10,330 - $12,000
Note: Estimates do not include ground instruction. Add approximately $1,500 for books, exam costs and misc.
Prerequisites:
Private Pilot Certificate
50 Hours PIC Cross-Country
20 Hours of Actual or Simulated Instrument Time Logged
3rd Class Medical or Better
Completion Certificate from our Instrument Rating ground school or home study program of your choice
REQUIRED FLIGHT TIME TO GET READY FOR THE COMMERCIAL PILOT CERTIFICATE:You can credit 50 hours of our AATD simulator time (FAR 61.129) to your total
Flight time to reach 250 hours total time
Example 100 hours needed to reach qualification level, aircraft rental cost $14,500
NOTE: 10 of these hours are required to be in a TAA aircraft (technically advanced aircraft)
Check our flight training cost page for current estimates.
INITIAL COMMERCIAL CERTIFICATE:
10 hours of aircraft rental $1,450
5 hours procedure trainer $245
15 hours of flight instructor time $1200
TOTAL PRELIMINARY ESTIMATE $2,895 - $3,500
Note: Estimates do not include ground instruction. Add approximately $1,500 for books, exam costs and misc.
Prerequisites:
Private Pilot Certificate
Instrument Rating
240 Hours Total Flight Time (to reach 250 during the program)
100 Hours PIC Flight Time, which includes at least:
(50 hours in airplanes, 50 hours in cross-country flight of which 10 hours must be in airplanes)
3rd Class FAA Medical or better
INITIAL COMMERCIAL MULTIENGINE CERTIFICATE:
15 hours of aircraft rental
5 hours procedure trainer
15 hours of flight instructor time
TOTAL PRELIMINARY ESTIMATE $ 3,500
Note: Estimates do not include ground instruction. Available to our own graduates only.
Prerequisites:
Commercial Pilot Certificate
Instrument Rating
250 Hours Total Flight Time
100 Hours PIC Flight Time, which includes at least:
50 hours in airplanes, 50 hours in cross-country flight of which 10 hours must be in airplanes
3rd Class FAA Medical or better
Available to our own graduates only
INITIAL FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR CERTIFICATE:
We train our own graduates who choose to work and fly for us without charge.
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Basic Medical Exam (not required to get started):
You will want to get this very basic medical exam out of the way after a few hours of training. Technically this is not needed until you actually solo (fly by yourself) but it's best to get this done early in your training.
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Knowledge Test (required before the navigation stage):
We require that you start and mostly complete the knowledge test before the actual cross country (navigation) training. This will help avoid additional cost in ground instruction to advance the training.
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Final Flight Test :
The FAA final practical test consist of a oral exam and a flight. Since you will already have demonstrated competency to your instructor previously this is not considered a very difficult test for our students. Most all of our students pass this on their first attempt.
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TSA authorization (for non-USA citizens):
In case you are not a US citizen, the US government agency TSA requires additional processing. This has to be accomplished before the training can start.
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Approximate Duration:
Accelerated Private Pilot and Finish Up as a 14 day schedule
Private Pilot 3 weeks to 6 weeks
Private Pilot part time training can be 6 months or more, your choice and your own schedule
Accelerated Instrument Rating 10 days to 3 weeks
Accelerated Commercial pilot certificate 1 week to 10 days
From zero to Commercial Pilot approx. 6 - 7 months
Information about flight training:
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Starting flight training:
You can start your training with us anytime but we need advance notice to arrange your full time schedule.
Accelerated flight training courses compress all lessons into a few weeks rather than months, keep in mind that your required preparation for the course is considerable.
A part time training schedule is much more relaxed and you can choose your own schedule.
Flight training Details
Some of the things you (the student) will have to accomplish:
- Pass your FAA Knowledge Test before a certain phase of the training. Not required to start part time training.
- Complete your IACRA student pilot certificate application.
- Get a freee account on www.faasafety.gov and look at the free online courses.
- Get your FAA medical certificate.
- Complete our homework assignments including aircraft manual quizzes and flight plan assignments.
- Study our maneuver guide and review the FAA ACS Airmen Testing Standards.
- Review our checklists and procedure guides.
- Don't show up unprepared to any of the flight training sessions.
- Don't make your schedule unrealistically short. Budget additional time for weather and other issues that might come up.
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Training times:
Any day and any time during daylight hours, weekdays, weekends, holidays are all ok. Some night training is also required..