$76 an hour for a 1980 172
$35 an hour for instruction

But, that is out in Colorado.

Back home in California,

$99 an hour for a 1980 172
$50 an hour for instruction (low end is about 45, high end is 55/60, up to 75)

Cheapest I have EVER seen was a 152 at $40.25 tach. Of course there was a $100 joining fee and a $40 a month membership fee, but $40 an hour tach is pretty cheap!

 

105hr for a warrior plus my time @ 50hr plus the fuel surcharge so you talking 160hr and hey if you wanna come fly the seneca 229hr plus 55hr for me plus fuel surcharge your talking 300hr. Oh yeah about grd instruction 50hr.

 

Where do you work? That is the exact rate where I fly.

 

$94/hr for a Katana....OUCH. Our's go for $79/hr wet

 

In my opininon instructors aren't worth anything except for the time the hobbs is running. The class room BS they charge, I could have done on my own. And infact, I did learn most the book stuff on my own. Any body that charges more than $30 is way over priced.

 

Here are the rates at a school that recently went out of business in my area:

Cessna 152: $84.00 solo, $114.00 dual
1999 Cessna 172: $128 solo, $158.00 dual
PA-28 R200: $125 solo, $155 dual
PA-34-200: $195 solo, $230 dual

This school took a $5 per hour cut of the dual fee and charged a fuel surcharge. They also charged a $45 quarterly membership fee. They were located on an private airport that had unusually high fuel prices.

--Andy

 

BTW, the above prices I quoted were wet.

--Andy

 

A Cessna 150 rented for $10 and hour and instructor was $5. My salary was $1.25 an hour. Working a 40 hour week, my paycheck covered 4 hours solo per week (sales tax was 3%). Avgas was hitting 30 cents a gallon. Work the percentages to your weekly paycheck today and see what you come up with. Note that I lived at home, attended local college on a limited schedule while building time. Hitchhiking was the norm. Our instructors were much more qualified than what you see today; many of them were WW2 aviators. We were sponges for these mentors. I was very lucky.

 

I charge the amount of time the student requests. If they book a two hr lesson then they are charged the 2 hrs. If we use more time I charge the additional time. I have found that pilots and students tend to think that the instructor somehow is less than a professional and willing to do it for free or whenever at whatever rate they want, like it is negotiable. This is a business - I like to teach - but it is a business. My time is what you pay for. And I charge what I am worth and you pay for what you get. Also (just a note)- I have found that some of my best students are the older type that are not doing this for a career, they understand that this world is about business, time, and money. For those of you who don’t like it and think I am wrong - I never had trouble finding students and usually I have too many. I think we all (including airline) should stop bending over backwards, we all must remember just who the "professional" is.

 

Not that it requires comparison, but as a captain for an airline, I am not paid until we block out (door closes) and until we block in (door opens). I spend at least an hour prior to the flight preparing for the flight and perhaps 10 minutes wrapping up the flight after the door opens. Should this have any bearing on what a flight instructor charges? I don't know except to say that in other areas of aviation there is time devoted to the flight that is unpaid. I think instructors need to be fairly compensated, but the students also need flight instructors who will charge them fairly. I think most would agree with that?