People ask us the same two questions every week: how long does it take, and what does it cost? Here are straight answers at current prices, and a walk through what happens between your first lesson and your checkride.
If you can fly twice a week you will probably be done in five or six months. If you fly every other week, plan on more than a year. The surprising part is that both students end up flying about the same number of hours. When two or three weeks go by between lessons, the first part of every flight goes to getting back to where you were, and that adds up.
Flying more often does not cost more. It just gets you there sooner.
Months from first flight to checkride, with the total cost at current rates, by how often you fly. Hover over a bar for details.
These are current rates. The typical column is what an average student spends, and the range covers most people.
| Item | Typical | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Aircraft timeCessna 172, $137 to $190 an hour including fuel. Most of the fleet is $164. About 73 hours. | $12,100 | $10,000 – $14,900 |
| Instruction$55 an hour, in the airplane and on the ground. About 80 hours, counting the briefings before and after each flight. | $4,900 | $3,700 – $6,500 |
| Checkride examiner feeYou pay this to the FAA designated examiner, not to us. | $750 | $700 – $900 |
| Study course and knowledge testAn online ground school course plus the $175 FAA written test. | $475 | $350 – $600 |
| HeadsetA decent starter headset runs $150 to $350. A Bose A20 is $1,299. We have loaners for your first few lessons. | $350 | $150 – $1,300 |
| FAA medical examA third-class medical from an aviation medical examiner. You need it before you can solo. | $125 | $100 – $200 |
| Logbook, plotter, charts, and other supplies | $100 | $75 – $150 |
| Total | $19,000 | $16,000 – $23,000 |
You pay lesson by lesson, and there is nothing to put down up front. A typical lesson is about 1.3 hours in the airplane plus an hour and a half of your instructor's time, which comes to $300 to $330.
The FAA requires a minimum of 40 hours. Very few people are ready for the checkride at 40. If someone quotes you a price based on 40 hours, ask how many of their students actually finish in 40.
Of the 73 hours, about 60 are with an instructor and 12 or so are solo. The full bar is 100 hours.
The timing on the right is for a typical student flying about once a week. Fly more often and all of it happens sooner.
Your first lesson. You fly the airplane yourself with an instructor next to you. Most people know by the time they land whether they want to keep going. If someone gave you a gift certificate, this is the flight it covers.
A visit to an aviation medical examiner, and some paperwork we file with the FAA for you. Get both done in your first month so they are not holding you up when you are ready to solo.
Takeoffs, landings, slow flight, stalls, emergencies, and a lot of time in the traffic pattern, until your instructor is comfortable sending you up alone. This is the longest stretch, and it is where flying often makes the biggest difference.
Three trips around the pattern with nobody in the right seat. Everybody remembers this one. After it, your lessons mix solo practice with flights where your instructor takes you farther from home.
Flying to other airports, first with your instructor and then solo, plus night flying and some time flying by instruments. Somewhere in here you take the FAA written test, which you study for on your own time.
An oral exam and a flight with an FAA designated examiner. Pass, and you are a private pilot. You can take passengers up that afternoon.
Rent an airplane and go. You can carry passengers, fly at night, and fly anywhere in the country. The certificate never expires. And if you decide later that you want to fly for a living, this is where that starts too, with an instrument rating and then a commercial certificate.
Most students who quit do not quit because the flying is hard. They quit because life got busy, a few weeks went by, and it felt like starting over. We built our training program around that problem. Every student follows the same syllabus, and all of it is in the app on your phone.
The syllabus is laid out in stages and lessons, down to the individual maneuvers the examiner will test on your checkride. You know what you are working on before you get to the airport.
After each flight your instructor grades every maneuver you worked on. You can look at it that night and see what is solid, what still needs work, and what to read up on before next time.
Anything that needed more work shows up on the plan for your next flight. If your regular instructor is out and you fly with someone else, they see the same record and pick up right where you left off.
Your hours, your endorsements, and how much is left before the checkride are all in one place. No guessing about how close you are.
Figures are for Part 61 training in a Cessna 172 at current FlyCarolina rates. The examiner fee, medical, headset, study course, and supplies are paid to other people and will vary with what you pick.