Hi Everyone,
My goal is to eventually fly for the airlines so I've been doing research on flight schools in my area. While looking at schools I noticed a few price inconsistencies. I live in a major city so all local flight schools are about a 1hr 30min drive. To give you a general idea of costs I'll refer to the flight schools' quote on a PPL. Most flight schools said that I should expect to pay 13,000 to 16,000 for a PPL. Some flight schools a bit farther from the city (about 3hr drive plus toll costs) are saying 8,000-10,000. Jason Shappert of MzeroA wrote in his book that a PPL should cost $6,000-$10,000. So, $6,000-$16,000 is a HUGE range and all flight schools I looked at use similar equipment (C172, PA28, and a few C152s on the cheaper end).
Another thing I noticed is that the national average of hours needed to get a PPL varied from school to school. Some said 60, 65, 70, 75, even 80. Hmm... I thought a national average is only one number, not five. I get the feeling that some instructors focus heavily on getting to their quoted "national average" and would be reluctant to sign off a student below that number. So if an instructor tells you that the average is 80 hours and trains you to 77-83 hours, how do you know that the school isn't just taking more money from you and that you weren't ready 20 hours ago, closer to the 60hr average another school quoted.
I am not sure who to trust at this point. Perhaps a packaged flight training program is better than an hourly? So why the large differences in price and average hours? How much should I be paying for my flight training, and how many hours should I expect to complete it? What is the best option for flight training (except buying an airplane)? Can anyone recommend a program anywhere in the US? Thank you all for your help!