Time for BFR

NordicDave

NordicDave

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NordicDave
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Wow, our local flight school now charges $95-$115 per hour for flight training.

Since my plane is down for new engine, I need to rent and am stuck using the FBO's planes $175/hr and their CFI $95/hr.

They want to block 4 hours for a 172SP and CFI, though it won't take all that time. $270 per hour.
 
$95-$115 for flight instruction?

$270/hr for a 172SP?

That’s beyond ridiculous...
 
NordicDave said:
Wow, our local flight school now charges $95-$115 per hour for flight training.

Since my plane is down for new engine, I need to rent and am stuck using the FBO's planes $175/hr and their CFI $95/hr.

They want to block 4 hours for a 172SP and CFI, though it won't take all that time. $270 per hour.
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:lol: :loco: No way I would ever pay that much. No other airports in reasonable driving distance to rent from?
 
Four hours seems a little high for a FR. take the FR course on line to cut back on the hours.
 
Fly down to SDM and do one at First Flight. You'll probably save money even with the commercial ticket and hotel, and get a nice vacation out of it. Assuming you feel safe traveling commercial ATM. It's $130/hr for the 172 and instructor.
 
You could simply wait on your BFR until your airplane is ready. You are not flying while your airplane is down, right?
 
BFR? What? Is this 2016 again?
:D
 
1 hour flight time should be ample, plus 1 hour of ground instruction. A full checkride doesn't take 4 flight hours. That's nuts. My last IPC/FR was 1 1/2 hours total flight time, and that was a full workout.
 
Yeah, just wait till the plane is done. Hire a CFI who isn't a billing machine. Hour on the ground and and hour in the air if you're reasonably current.
 
JB1842 said:
I just paid $165 for an hour flight review. $110 rental Archer/$55 CFI. And I did a few WINGS courses for the ground portion.
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It could be that there are so few CFIs willing to fly right now that you pay their price or get nothing.
 
The rental rate isn’t out of line for urban California, but that CFI rate seems high. And 4 hour block for both for a BFR? Putting aside the fact that 4 hours of instruction is high, why wouldn’t they just charge you Hobbs time for the plane? Seems sketchy.
 
My last Flight Review came after a 30 year layoff from flying. It took 2.5 hours in the air and an hour on the ground.
 
I don't think I've paid for a BFR in decades. I've got enough friends who are CFIs.
 
MacFly said:
My last Flight Review came after a 30 year layoff from flying. It took 2.5 hours in the air and an hour on the ground.
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Thirty years of FAR change updates in one hour? Impressive.
 
smv said:
Thirty years of FAR change updates in one hour? Impressive.
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An hour with my CFI. It's all online and there's no shortage of practice orals. COVID-19 gave me plenty of opportunity to review 30 years of updates before starting the FR. Getting flying skills back wasn't an issue, but mastering navigation via GPS with Foreflight and an iPad is still a work in progress.
 
If you want to make lemons out of lemonade, maybe this pushes you to go get a new weekend rating instead? ASES or AMEL?

Or even a new endorsement? Complex? taildragger?

(Edit, I understand that while a new rating would obviate the need for an FR, an endorsement wouldn't, but you'd be learning something new and could surely work the FR into the lessons)
 
I find the discussion about CFI rates somewhat interesting. I'm a little biased because I am a CFI (though I'm not very active and haven't earned a dollar from it in years), but I don't think $90/hr for a CFI in California is out of line at all. In some parts of the country, CFI rates haven't meaningfully changed in many years, and pilots have gotten used to what really amounts to far under-priced instruction rates.

What do you think is a fair hourly rate for a CFI for a flight review or IPC?
 
bradg33 said:
I find the discussion about CFI rates somewhat interesting. I'm a little biased because I am a CFI (though I'm not very active and haven't earned a dollar from it in years), but I don't think $90/hr for a CFI in California is out of line at all. In some parts of the country, CFI rates haven't meaningfully changed in many years, and pilots have gotten used to what really amounts to far under-priced instruction rates.

What do you think is a fair hourly rate for a CFI for a flight review or IPC?
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Our club rate is $45/hr. I am not in this to get rich, nor am I "building time for an airline job" (regardless what some COB says) so it is fine for me. I think that rate is high enough to be fair to me and still be enough to encourage active participation of the student while remaining relatively affordable.
 
bradg33 said:
I find the discussion about CFI rates somewhat interesting. I'm a little biased because I am a CFI (though I'm not very active and haven't earned a dollar from it in years), but I don't think $90/hr for a CFI in California is out of line at all. In some parts of the country, CFI rates haven't meaningfully changed in many years, and pilots have gotten used to what really amounts to far under-priced instruction rates.

What do you think is a fair hourly rate for a CFI for a flight review or IPC?
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I consider weather as one main factor for CFI rates. In Socal you might have 300 VFR days. In the Bay area, much less. So if a CFI can only train VFR students lets say 150 days vs 300 days they will need to charge twice the rate to have the same income.
 
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Spacedoc said:
The rental rate isn’t out of line for urban California, but that CFI rate seems high. And 4 hour block for both for a BFR? Putting aside the fact that 4 hours of instruction is high, why wouldn’t they just charge you Hobbs time for the plane? Seems sketchy.
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To be fair they are just blocking out 4 hours, but only bill for actual time. The C172SP rental is based on actual Hobbs time. Because of Covid, their are not as many CFI's flying and I have to work with someone who's never flown with me before. I can understand caution on their end preparing expectations it could run long. It's is a Part 141 flight school, and the 141 shops seems to have more caution.
 
NordicDave said:
To be fair they are just blocking out 4 hours, but only bill for actual time. The C172SP rental is based on actual Hobbs time. Because of Covid, their are not as many CFI's flying and I have to work with someone who's never flown with me before. I can understand caution on their end preparing expectations it could run long. It's is a Part 141 flight school, and the 141 shops seems to have more caution.
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That makes way more sense, but still an absurd instructor rate. Wish I could get away with charging that :lol:
 
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MIFlyer said:
If you want to make lemons out of lemonade, maybe this pushes you to go get a new weekend rating instead? ASES or AMEL? Or even a new endorsement? Complex? taildragger?
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Agreed! My tail wheel endorsement included a flight review. Took a couple of days and a number of hours in the airplane but it was quite a great experience. Perhaps I need to go take me an aerobatic course ...
 
NordicDave said:
To be fair they are just blocking out 4 hours, but only bill for actual time. The C172SP rental is based on actual Hobbs time. Because of Covid, their are not as many CFI's flying and I have to work with someone who's never flown with me before. I can understand caution on their end preparing expectations it could run long. It's is a Part 141 flight school, and the 141 shops seems to have more caution.
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That makes more sense.

Down here in the LA basin I was paying $70/hr during my training (PPL checkride was two weeks ago!) $95 in SJC and at a 141 school isn’t too shocking, then.
 
Ok, and? With everyone around here charging $60 I’d never get a student.
 
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