Typical Instruction Rates

azpilot

azpilot

Line Up and Wait
Joined
Jul 27, 2015
Messages
821
Display Name
Display name:
azpilot
In another thread I asked some questions about tailwheel instructions. I commented that the instruction at the FBO where I rent is $77/hr. They normally charge $67/hr for instruction, but tail wheel is another $10/hr.

On top of that you still have to pay for the airplane. The Super Cub is $112/hr on top of the instruction, so it is $189/hr for dual.

That instruction rate seems very steep to me. Is it normal to charge more for advanced training? I guess that kind of makes sense, but I still don't like the idea of paying that much.
 
$30 an hour in east Texas. $35 if you are habitually flatulent.
 
There's no way in hell I'd pay that to fly a Super Cub.
 
$50hr cash or trade.

Don't much care if it's a 172, PA18 or a C208B.

As far as the airplanes rates, that's another topic all together.
 
$30 seems fairly standard, for some reason a lot of FBOs add $5-10 for instruction in your airplane. Seems like independent CFIs charge closer to $50.
 
Where I taught many moons ago, we did charge more for advanced training.
 
$30 for instruction?!

Not in NY it ain't. It's closer to $50 for most private instructors I've contacted. Most schools charge at least $60.

Maybe I should consider a change of scenery and get out of NY. Wouldn't mind cheaper plane rentals and instruction.
 
Last edited:
Place near me charges 45 for primary, 54 for advanced and 75 for multi-engine. I think the multi rate is high but that is standard around here. Place I got my license in the midwest was a flat 45 for any type of training.
 
I'm paying $35 an hour here in NY, $40 advance rating (block rate).
 
In LA it's $75-100/hr. So don't let anyone tell you you can't make money as a CFI… :D;)
 
Cheapest CFIs in the Bay Area peninsula area are around $60. Most are $70-$100. Lessons are usually 3-hr blocks with 1.5 to 2 Hobbs. Piper Archer is around $135. So one lesson is around $380-$450.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
stratobee said:
In LA it's $75-100/hr. So don't let anyone tell you you can't make money as a CFI… :D;)
Click to expand...


Holy ****e! I hadn't given serious consideration to adding on my fixed wing CFI but not I have to give it some serious thought.
 
In Western NY (not the paved part) :D

I pay $110 for a 172M with a 430W
Instruction is $38

I paid about the same for Tailwheel in Aeronca Chief. Plane was slightly less instruction slightly more.

ETA: I don't think other than for the ground portion of a BFR I have ever paid for ground instruction. When I did the PPL years ago I only paid for the time in the air. I did a lot of that on my own but for the things I did have questions about I never paid.
 
Last edited:
Unless your a women then it don't cost anywhere near this. In one of my latest copies of one of the aviation mags I get monthly they had an article on how if you are a women you can get training for a 1/4 of what men pay. Maybe this one time it would pay to be a cross dresser or a Bruce Jenner type.
 
55-75 in the dc metro area.
 
50 an hour in your airplane, 65 -70 in your airplane for multi. Up in New England
 
$45, flight school gets $15 of that, where I'm at in the Birmingham area.

C152 $115, C172 $140, PA28-140 $140, C182RG $215
 
Last edited:
DFH65 said:
I don't think other than for the ground portion of a BFR I have ever paid for ground instruction. When I did the PPL years ago I only paid for the time in the air. I did a lot of that on my own but for the things I did have questions about I never paid.
Click to expand...


Around here, CFIs are paid from handshake to handshake--from preflight planning to end of debriefing. Isn't that the same elsewhere? Why should they be paid just for Hobbs time? As a student, I think it's fair that they get paid for all the time working with you, on the ground and in the air.

I'm shocked that many of you mentioned rates less than $50. Hard to make a living that way. But everything is expensive in the Bay Area Peninsula where a 3 bed/1 bath 1200-sqft house costs $1.3 million.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
In middle of nowhere New Mexico I paid $110 for a clean 172 and $30 a hour of instruction. The CFI was "Gold Seal"

The highest I ever paid was in Palo Alto, CA. The plane was something like $165 and the instructor, who was/is a self proclaimed genius but not gold seal instructor charged $80 a hour. That guy was the most expensive and by FAR the worst instructor I ever flew with.

The instructors I use now in the San Francisco Bay area, charge between $40-$50 a hour and are close to on par with my instructor from New Mexico. I think that is a very fair, maybe even cheaper, comparable rate considering the cost of living in the bay area is roughly 50% more than where I was in NM.

Its hard to make than comparison to price and cost of living with good instructors though. With a few exceptions, instructors that live off of their instruction income tend to gouge and not give a damn about whether or not you get your rating. I like to find the guys/girls that are just as pumped up to get me ready for a checkride as I am.
 
Last edited:
In the Atlanta area, instruction rates vary between $40 and $90 per hour. Probably average around $50/hour.
 
CrimsonFlyer said:
Cheapest CFIs in the Bay Area peninsula area are around $60. Most are $70-$100. Lessons are usually 3-hr blocks with 1.5 to 2 Hobbs. Piper Archer is around $135. So one lesson is around $380-$450.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Go to the South Bay. It's cheaper. So is Livermore.

I rent a complex for $125, and instructors are typically $50 and occasionally less. Chief instructors and DPEs seem to be more, not surprisingly.

Extra cost for advanced training happens, but it's not everywhere.

That Archer isn't 74T, is it? You can do better.

How long a lesson is depends on your stamina and what you're doing. My primary lessons were about that long (but I did it in the cheapest 172 I could find, that is now out of annual and rotting on the ramp at PAO), but my instrument lessons were typically longer than that.
 
Last edited:
Chicago suburb (1 example). A little more for more advanced, but not much. Hasn't changed in years.
Private $49/hr
Instrument, Commercial & Tailwheel $52/hr
Flight Instructor, Multi Engine, Airline Transport Pilot & Helicopter $56/hr
 
At KBIS,
$143/hr for a 172, $230 for a 182RG.
$50 for instructor, $70 for Cirrus instruction (in your own plane)
 
DFH65 said:
In Western NY (not the paved part) :D

I pay $110 for a 172M with a 430W
Instruction is $38

I paid about the same for Tailwheel in Aeronca Chief. Plane was slightly less instruction slightly more.

ETA: I don't think other than for the ground portion of a BFR I have ever paid for ground instruction. When I did the PPL years ago I only paid for the time in the air. I did a lot of that on my own but for the things I did have questions about I never paid.
Click to expand...

This is similar to what my FBO was charging in WV when I relocated two years ago, but no tailwheel. All three 172s had G430W.

Instruction in your own plane added $5/hr. I never paid for any ground school, PPL or IR.

But just like housing, costs vary by region. Housing costs in WV were low, across the Ohio River were even lower. Well below the national average. This is reflected in many other costs.
 
Most instructors in the San Diego area charge $60-70/hr and a few charge $50/hr. At least rentals are less expensive than the bay area. I need to live in Texas way cheaper!
 
My school charges $60 for regular instructors and $70 for senior. My instructor is a senior instructor (>5,000 hours). According to him, he doesn't even get half of his bill rate and winter up here has kept most of the CFIs grounded a lot due to strong winds and snow, so I doubt he's rolling in the dough. At least not from this job.

Thankfully, he respects his students and is very good about never making things longer than they need to be just to earn a few extra bucks. There are a couple of instructors there who aren't like that. One guy requires his students to book three hour slots, which just seems like a waste of student money.

I started at a different school that was *only* (lol) $50/hour for the instructor... but I got what I paid for. Was bad :/
 
Last edited:
Cajun_Flyer said:
My school charges $60 for regular instructors and $70 for senior. My instructor is a senior instructor (>5,000 hours). According to him, he doesn't even get half of his bill rate and winter up here has kept most of the CFIs grounded a lot due to strong winds and snow, so I doubt he's rolling in the dough. At least not from this job.

Thankfully, he respects his students and is very good about never making things longer than they need to be just to earn a few extra bucks. There are a couple of instructors there who aren't like that. One guy requires his students to book three hour slots, which just seems like a waste of student money.

I started at a different school that was *only* (lol) $50/hour for the instructor... but I got what I paid for. Was bad :/
Click to expand...

That's the issue with many flight schools, the breakdown between what they bill the CFI out for and what he pockets is all out of whack, especially when you consider what side has the majority of liability/responsibility.

50hr cash or trade has worked well for me, makes it worth my time and it also doesn't price me through the ceiling as far as my students go.

I'm surprised that school attracts >5,000hr pilots for only $35hr gross, that's taxed so more like 25ish, F' that.
 
The take home rate is typical. Hire a plumber at your house, then ask what his take home is. My plumber two weeks back charged $92/hr labor to fix a leak in my yard between the house and the meter. Guaranteed his take home wasn't $45/hr less taxes.
 
I saw 40-50 bucks an hour in Austin, Texas depending on where you go....

Skyhawks rent from 118-165 per hour depending on year and glass vs no glass
 
Hank S said:
The take home rate is typical. Hire a plumber at your house, then ask what his take home is. My plumber two weeks back charged $92/hr labor to fix a leak in my yard between the house and the meter. Guaranteed his take home wasn't $45/hr less taxes.
Click to expand...

Which is OK for a 250-600ish hr CFI with no real world experience, however that's insane for a high time instructor with real world experience.

Probably the reason you're usually best off with high time freelance guys.
 
James331 said:
Which is OK for a 250-600ish hr CFI with no real world experience, however that's insane for a high time instructor with real world experience.

Probably the reason you're usually best off with high time freelance guys.
Click to expand...
A lot of the guys that I've flown with that have experience just do it for "fun" because they have a passion for teaching. I don't think they are doing it for a living. It's just some extra cash in their pocket.
 
Fargo, ND. 75/hr Hobbs. Both very senior instructors.
 
Totally understand that. My CFIing now is along the same lines, pays my property tax and the rest is just fun money. That said as a matter of self respect I wouldn't instruct for less than $50 in my pocket, just got too much invested in where I'm at and too much to risk with students and the Feds.
 
James331 said:
I'm surprised that school attracts >5,000hr pilots for only $35hr gross, that's taxed so more like 25ish, F' that.
Click to expand...

Hopefully he meant that he nets less than half the $70, not grosses... but, either way, it doesn't seem like a fair cut for the CFIs. There are seven senior instructors at my school with between 5,000 & 22,000 hours. With the exception of one, they've all been there for over a decade. I like not worrying that my instructor is just there to build hours to move onto something bigger/better. One guy has been there since 1989! So, something is keeping them devoted. It IS a really great school. I'm very impressed with the level of instruction, quality of the planes and facility, and knowledge of all of the staff.
 
Last edited:
Just for contrast:
I learned to fly in Georgia at our local field in 1970.
C-150 = $10 hour
Instructor = $3

I could barely swing it. :rofl:
 
cowman said:
$30 seems fairly standard, for some reason a lot of FBOs add $5-10 for instruction in your airplane. Seems like independent CFIs charge closer to $50.
Click to expand...

At my friend's FBO it's $45 in their airplane, $55 in yours.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top