Airline Pilot Central Forums - Why is flight training still so expensive?

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The school where at which I work recently dropped our prices due to reduction in fuel cost. Depending on the plane, it was anywhere from $4-$12/hour. Rates may drop a little more if fuel prices continue to drop.

Our cheapest plane still rents for a little over $100/hour, however. As others have said, there's a lot more cost to operating an airplane than filling the tank. Insurance, scheduled maintenance, unscheduled maintenance, payments on some aircraft--these things add up.

Learning to fly is expensive. I suppose there are some gradations of expensive, say, Somewhat Expensive to Very Expensive to Crazy Expensive (seriously, people, stop getting your PPL in an SR-22), but Cheap it will never be.

And be careful the seductiveness of dry rates. Sometimes they're a good deal, other times not and, regardless, be sure to budget for your fuel costs.

Another thought is that at the very least, a good chunk of PPL flying can be done in light sport planes... They're a LOT cheaper than even the beat-up old-school 150 at most places... Plus, they're new...ish... At the place I used to teach, using the Evektor in place of a 172 for everything you could on your private took the cost down by about half.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ryan1234 (Post 497618)

Also... you don't always get what you pay for.. I can think of several schools of the top of my head that are really expensive and the planes/instruction isn't anything to write home about. Personally old planes (to a degree) are probably better for primary training anyways....if something does happen, at least you'll know the signs and how to deal with it.

This is true, and depends largely on the instructor. For an example, I tried to pursue at a much cheaper place, but I could not find a helpful and coorporative enough instructor to accomadate me... Thus I thought I should initially start at this expensive FBO and then give it another try after my PPL. I want to save as much as I can, but right now, getting the PPL is the biggest concern and challenge for me now, although I am paying a lot, I am glad to be paying out of my pocket. But I am not sure if I want to get my instrument rating at this same place if I could work it out on the other option. The only catch is that it is part 61 so I will have to have that 50 hours of XC...Again, I would rather pay a lower price for hours that I really need at the end.

Flight training is so expensive in part because a factory-new Cessna 172SP is running $283,500...$100k higher than they were five years ago.

And personally, I don't think I'd ever rent an airplane I owned to someone dry...a renter saving $20-50 in fuel by flying excessively lean could cost me THOUSANDS come overhaul time.