I live in NY (lower Hudson Valley area) & was wondering how much & if anyone can recommend a good flight school.
Two very good places to search for reputable flight schools are:
Cessna at: http://www.cessna.com/learn-to-fly/learn-to-fly-for-students.html
or AOPA at: http://www.aopa.org/learntofly/school/index.cfm
Good luck and have a great time learning to fly!
Also cost will vary based on type of aircraft you fly and how much you study / apply yourself. A good general spectrum is between $8,000 to $12,000 across the country: depending on the type of aircraft.
Just don’t fall into the trap of believing any school that tells you it will only cost $4,000 to $5,000 and you can complete the training in just 35-40 hours. The national average completion rate for 2008 was 72 hours.
Have fun!
#1 by pilot T on October 1st, 2009
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In the US, you will need 40 total hours of logged flight time minimum. Most student pilots will go over this flight time. If you add up the study materials, aircraft rental/fuel, flight school fees, instructor fees, AME, written exam and check ride fees, I would say close to around $8,500 or so.
As far as a ground school, check out your local general aviation airports and you’ll find one or more flight schools based there that have instructors, rental aircraft and a classroom.
Here is another helpful link:
http://www.gg-pilot.com/privatepilot.htm
References :
pilot
#2 by cherokeeflyer on October 1st, 2009
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It might be a bit of a commute, however I recommend you go over to HPN (White Plains) and see Chris Graesel at Panorama Flight Training.
He can tell you better than any of us that are not in the area as to the cost .
References :
#3 by flygirl on October 1st, 2009
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Two very good places to search for reputable flight schools are:
Cessna at: http://www.cessna.com/learn-to-fly/learn-to-fly-for-students.html
or AOPA at: http://www.aopa.org/learntofly/school/index.cfm
Good luck and have a great time learning to fly!
Also cost will vary based on type of aircraft you fly and how much you study / apply yourself. A good general spectrum is between $8,000 to $12,000 across the country: depending on the type of aircraft.
Just don’t fall into the trap of believing any school that tells you it will only cost $4,000 to $5,000 and you can complete the training in just 35-40 hours. The national average completion rate for 2008 was 72 hours.
Have fun!
References :
http://www.cessna.com/learn-to-fly/learn-to-fly-for-students.htmlhttp://www.aopa.org/learntofly/school/index.cfm
#4 by Dennis M on October 1st, 2009
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While you can get it for $6,000, as some flight schools will lead you to believe, most people end up paying around $9,000-$12,000. I paid about $12,500 for mine about 4 years ago. My plane rent was $100 an hour and I paid $40 an hour for an instructor. It took me 10 1/2 months.
I could have saved a lot of money by having the majority of the money up front. I paid for it initially by selling my car, cleaning out my savings, and using a few hundred bucks I came into. At the same time I was working a part time job hoping to make enough money to pay for the rest of my flying. That was enough to get me about 3/4 of the way then I ran out of money. Once that happened I took four months off while I saved up and sold everything I owned that had any value. When I started again I had forgotten most of what I had learned, so I more or less started from the beginning. I quickly ran out of money again. I ended up asking my parents to take out a 2nd mortgage on their house to finance my flying, which I ended up paying back over the next year. Had I not taken so much time off due to lack of funds I could have saved myself thousands and been done in 3-4 months time. I would have flown more often from the start, and would have retained more between flights.
I know its a lot of money, but if you can have $8,000 in a bank account ready to use you’ll end up saving yourself money. That is if you don’t have a good paying job that gives you $500 a week in disposable income.
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