Just a final note on this. Although American Flyers hourly rates are a bit higher than some others, here in the NYC tri-state area they are not the highest by far. Even some of the "acclaimed" mom and pops in the area are the same or higher. Plus they are quoting much higher hours - like way more. Our local FBO quoted 50% higher total cost than AF. I completely understand wanting to get quality instruction/time, but come on. I am also not comfortable traveling to East Jabib somewhere to an unknown flight school with suspiciously low prices.

This has been a frustrating experience, to say the least. It seems there are tradeoffs no matter which way you get the ratings done.