Fixed Price Flight Training
Every program on this site carries a published price that is set on the day you enrol and does not move at a phase boundary. This page sets out what that covers, what it deliberately does not, and the questions worth asking any school that quotes you an hourly rate instead.
What Does Fixed Price Flight Training Actually Mean?
That the figure attached to a program on the day you enrol is the figure for that program, with the content stated alongside it, and that nothing is recalculated when you move from one phase to the next. It is a narrower promise than the phrase is usually made to carry, and being precise about the boundary is the point of this page.
The alternative, which is what most of this industry sells, is an hourly rate multiplied out against an assumed number of hours. That is an estimate. Its failure mode is well understood: the assumed hours sit close to the regulatory minimum, almost nobody finishes at the minimum, and the difference arrives as a series of small invoices nobody planned for.
A fixed program price removes that particular failure. It does not remove every cost, and a page claiming otherwise would be selling something nobody delivers. What it removes is uncertainty about the biggest single number, which is the one you would be borrowing against.
Who Is Actually Carrying The Risk In A Training Quote?
That is the whole question, and it is the honest case for a fixed price. Somebody has to absorb the difference between the hours a syllabus assumes and the hours a particular student needs. On an hourly model it is the student. On a published package price it is the school.
Estimating that difference is a professional skill. A school knows, across a few hundred students, roughly how the distribution of completion hours looks. An individual enrolling for the first time knows nothing about it and has no way to find out. Putting the estimating risk on the party with the data is not generosity; it is simply the sensible allocation.
The commercial consequence is worth stating rather than hiding, because it is the part that makes the argument credible. A school on an hourly model earns more from a slow student. A school on a fixed program price does not, which aligns its interest with your tempo. That alignment is the real product, and the price is only the mechanism.
What Does A Fixed Price Not Transfer?
Three things, and a page that did not list them would be doing exactly what it criticises. A fixed price is a strong protection against one specific failure and it is not a guarantee about the whole undertaking.
It does not remove the possibility of needing more hours than a program contains. Aptitude, tempo and the gap you leave between lessons all move that, and tempo is much the largest of the three. Fly four times a week and you will land closer to the stated hours than somebody flying fortnightly, reliably and for obvious reasons. What additional instruction beyond a program costs is not published on this site, and we would rather say so than print a figure we cannot stand behind. Ask before you enrol and get the answer in writing.
It does not remove third-party costs, because nobody can. And it does not remove the consequences of stopping: training already delivered has been delivered, and what happens to anything not yet flown is published on the terms page rather than negotiated case by case.
What Is Inside The Price And What Is Outside It?
Inside: the aircraft, the fuel, the instruction, the simulator sessions and the books. Outside: everything charged by somebody who is not us. The second list is short, it is entirely third-party, and this site publishes no dollar figure for any of it.
Inside The Program Price
The airplane and the fuel it burns across the hours the program states. The instructor's time across those hours, airborne and on the ground for briefings and debriefings. The simulator sessions the program includes, which is two on the Standard and Premium private pilot programs and five on the Comprehensive. And the books and training materials, supplied with every private pilot program.
Note what that list does to the $179 hourly figure published elsewhere on this site. That figure is the airframe and its fuel for students already enrolled, and it is not an instructor rate. No instructor rate is published anywhere here, because instruction belongs inside the package figure rather than beside it.
- Aircraft and fuel across the stated hours
- Instruction, airborne and on the ground
- The simulator sessions the program names
- Books and training materials
Outside It, And Why We Publish No Figures For These
The examiner's fee for a practical test is set by the examiner and paid by you. The knowledge test fee is set by the testing provider. Your FAA medical examination is paid to an Aviation Medical Examiner. A headset, a tablet, charts and applications are yours to choose and yours to buy.
None of those figures appears anywhere on this site, and that is deliberate rather than evasive. We do not set them, we do not bill them, and publishing a number we cannot control would produce a budget that is wrong the moment somebody else changes their price. They are named as costs so that you know they exist. They are not priced, because they are not ours.
- The examiner's fee for a practical test
- Knowledge test fees
- Your FAA medical examination
- Headset, tablet, charts and applications
The Honest Edge Case: Hours Beyond The Program
Every program states a number of hours. Some students need more than the program states, and pretending otherwise would be the same estimate-shaped problem this page exists to argue against.
What additional instruction costs is not published here, and we would rather admit the gap than fill it with a figure we cannot defend. Ask us before you enrol, get the answer in writing, and treat any school that will not give you one exactly the same way. It is a fair question and it has a specific answer.
- Programs state their hours
- Some students need more
- The figure is not published here
- Ask before enrolling, and get it in writing
What Are The Fixed Prices?
All of them, with no figure withheld and none offered as a range. The private pilot programs differ by hours and by aircraft rather than by quality, and the Comprehensive is the one most people finish on.
Private Pilot — Standard
Forty hours in the logbook. Thirty-eight of them flown and two in the simulator; thirty of the forty are dual, with three hours of ground instruction alongside.
- ✓40 hours logged
- ✓2 simulator sessions
- ✓3 hours of ground instruction
- ✓Books and training materials supplied
Private Pilot — Comprehensive
Sixty hours in the logbook: fifty-five airborne, five in the simulator, fifty of the sixty flown dual, alongside ten hours of ground instruction.
- ✓60 hours logged
- ✓5 simulator sessions
- ✓10 hours of ground instruction
- ✓Books and training materials supplied
Private Pilot — Premium
Forty hours in the logbook with the airborne time flown in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo. Two of the forty are simulator, thirty are dual, and three hours of ground instruction sit alongside.
- ✓Glass cockpit from the first hour
- ✓2 simulator sessions
- ✓3 hours of ground instruction
- ✓Books and training materials supplied
Airline Career Track
Every phase from the first logged hour to a flight instructor rating, priced once and fixed on the day you enrol.
- ✓Five phases under a single number
- ✓Financing from $2,500 down
- ✓No repricing at a phase boundary
- ✓Part 61 from start to finish
How Do You Compare A Fixed Price Against An Hourly Rate?
By converting both into the same object before you look at either. Take the other quote's hourly figure, multiply it by the hours that quote assumes, add its instruction rate across the same hours, and add ground instruction and materials if they are billed separately.
Then ask the question that usually changes the answer: what happens on the first hour past the estimate. On an hourly model the answer is that you keep paying the same rates, which means the estimate was never a price at all. On a fixed program the stated content is the stated content.
Two follow-ups make the comparison honest. Ask whether the assumed hour count is the regulatory floor or an average somebody has actually observed at that school. And ask for both answers in writing, because a number given verbally in a sales conversation is not a number you can hold anybody to later.
What Four Steps Turn A Quote Into A Number You Can Trust?
Four, and the fourth is the one that usually changes the answer. None of them takes longer than a phone call, and all four apply to us as much as to anybody else.
Find The Assumed Hour Count
An hourly quote is meaningless without it. Ask what number of hours the estimate rests on, and whether that number is the regulatory floor or an average the school has observed across its own students.
Add The Instruction Separately
Many hourly rates are aircraft-only. Instruction is then billed on top, at a separate rate, across a number of hours that is usually most of the total. Add both before comparing anything at all.
Add Ground Instruction And Materials
Ground hours, books, exam preparation and materials are sometimes inside a quote and sometimes not. Every private pilot program here includes the ground hours it states and supplies the books.
Ask What Happens Past The Estimate
This is the question. On an hourly model the billing simply continues at the same rates. On a fixed program the stated content is what the fixed figure buys. Get whichever answer you receive in writing, before paying anything.
Why Are Simulator Sessions Inside The Price Rather Than Extra?
Because a session that is billed separately is a session a student under financial pressure will skip, and the ones they skip are usually the ones they most needed. Putting them inside the program price removes that decision entirely.
The specific counts matter and they differ by program: two sessions on the Standard and on the Premium, five on the Comprehensive. Those are not the same as the ground instruction hours, which are three, three and ten respectively. The two figures get conflated constantly and they are different things.
The other reason is weather. A full-motion simulator session is never cancelled for a low ceiling, which means it is the one part of a training plan that a calendar can actually rely on. For anybody financing against a completion date, that reliability is worth more than the session's face value of $189.
Every Course We Teach, Priced
Course prices are packages rather than hourly rates, they are set on the day you enrol, and books and training materials are supplied with every private pilot program. How the financing works →
The Assessment FlightOne hour of dual instruction with you doing the flying, credited in full if you enrol inside a day.
FROM$229
Book →
Every figure above is a package price set on the day you enrol, and none of them is a range. The single hourly figure published anywhere on this site is $179 wet in a single-engine airplane for students already enrolled, which buys the airframe and its fuel and not the instructor. Neither the Piper Seminole nor the Cirrus SR22 Turbo carries an hourly figure at all.
Which Costs Appear After The Quote On An Hourly Model?
Three, and all three are ordinary rather than sinister. They appear because an hourly quote prices a rate and a training plan consumes hours, and the two are not the same object.
The Hours Past The Estimate
The largest of the three by a wide margin. An estimate built at the regulatory minimum will be exceeded by most students, and the excess is billed at the same rate that made the estimate look attractive.
- CauseAn estimate at the regulatory floor
- Who Absorbs ItThe student
- SizeUsually the largest of the three
- Question To AskFloor, or an observed average?
Instruction Billed Beside The Aircraft
Many published hourly rates cover the airframe and its fuel only. Instruction is then a separate line across most of the same hours, which roughly changes the shape of the whole quote.
- CauseTwo rates presented as one
- Who Absorbs ItThe student
- Where It ShowsOn the invoice, not the quote
- Question To AskIs instruction inside this figure?
Relearning After A Gap
Not a billing practice at all, and the most avoidable of the three. Long gaps between lessons cost relearning, relearning happens in the airplane, and airborne minutes are billed however the school bills them.
- CauseTempo, not pricing
- Who Absorbs ItThe student, on any model
- DefenceFly more often, not more cheaply
- Question To AskHow often can I realistically fly?
Six Signs A Quoted Price Is Really An Estimate
Each one is visible before you sign anything, and none of them requires you to know how flight training works. They apply to this school as much as to any other.
A Range Instead Of A Number
A range is not a price. It also gives a borrower nothing to size a loan against, and it is reliably the bottom of the range that gets quoted.
An Hour Count At The Regulatory Minimum
14 CFR 61.109 sets a floor of 40 hours for a private certificate. Very few people finish there, so an estimate built on it is an estimate built on the best case.
A Price That Appears Only On Enquiry
If the number is not on the page, ask why. Every program figure on this site is printed, which is a claim you can check in about two minutes.
Instruction Quoted Separately
An aircraft-only rate is not a training price. Add the instruction across the same hours before comparing anything.
A Block-Rate Discount
Pre-buying hours at a discount makes a headline rate look lower than it is. There is no block rate on this site and no tiered rate card.
No Answer On Hours Past The Program
It is a fair question with a specific answer. A school that will not give you one in writing has told you something useful.
Does The Price Change If You Train More Slowly?
The program price does not. What changes is the likelihood that you need hours beyond the ones the program contains, because long gaps between lessons cost relearning time and relearning time is flying time.
This is the single largest variable in what training actually costs anybody at any school, and it is almost entirely within your control rather than the school's. Somebody flying four times a week finishes nearer the stated hours than somebody flying fortnightly. That is not a claim about our syllabus; it is how skill acquisition works.
It is also the reason weather is a pricing question rather than a comfort one. Across the twelve months ending 1 August 2026 this field produced 355 training-capable days, counted from NOAA ASOS observations. A field producing 280 imposes gaps on a student whether they want them or not, and those gaps have a cost that never appears on any quote.
What Can You Verify About How This Is Priced?
The last item is the one that matters here, and it is the easiest of the five to check: open any program page on this site and see whether a number is missing.
Airframe Types On The Ramp, Owned Rather Than Brokered
Cessna 162 Skycatcher, Piper Warrior, Piper Arrow II, Diamond DA20, Cirrus SR22 Turbo and Piper Seminole. The airplanes belong to the operation, so the maintenance calendar is ours rather than a lessor's.
Inspected under 14 CFR 91.409(b)Flight Instructors Working Here
Each holds either a commercial certificate or an ATP beneath, an instructor certificate above it, and a medical in date. You are matched with one of them and you may ask for another if the fit is wrong.
14 CFR 61.183 · 61.23Training-Capable Days Measured Across Twelve Months
Counted from NOAA ASOS observations for the year ending 1 August 2026, admitting a day only where the cloud base stood at 3,000 ft or better with 5 sm of visibility across four qualifying daylight hours. Tempo governs cost, and this is the part of tempo a school can measure.
NOAA ASOS via the Iowa Environmental MesonetA Session In The Full-Motion Simulator
Two such sessions are built into the Standard and the Premium private pilot programs, and five into the Comprehensive. Weather never takes one away.
Published price listProgram Prices Withheld Until You Enquire
None. Every program figure is printed on the site, nothing is offered as a spread, and the price you sign for is the price you read.
Checkable on any program pageWhat Is The Strongest Argument Against A Fixed Price?
That you may be paying for hours you would not have used. A student with strong aptitude, flying four times a week, might finish the Standard program inside the hours it contains and would, on an hourly model, have paid less. That is a real objection and it deserves an answer rather than a deflection.
The answer is that you are buying the removal of variance rather than the average. Insurance costs more than the expected loss, and it is still worth having when the loss you are insuring against is large relative to what you can absorb. For most people, on a certificate costing five figures and financed, the variance is the thing that hurts.
So take the position squarely: a fixed price is worse value for the fastest students and better value for everybody else, and it is much better value for anybody borrowing. If you are confident you are in the first group, an hourly school may genuinely suit you better, and we would rather say that than pretend the trade does not exist.
What Fixed Price Does Not Mean Here
It does not mean unlimited hours, it does not mean a guaranteed outcome, and it does not mean every cost of becoming a pilot sits inside one number. Each program states its hours and its content, and that stated content is what the fixed figure buys. Third-party charges are named on this site and deliberately not priced, because this school neither sets nor bills them.
Airline Pilot Flight School trains under part 61 of 14 CFR, at Van Nuys Airport. It is not an airline, it is not owned by one, and no carrier holds a cadet program, pathway agreement or hiring arrangement with us. We do not guarantee an interview, a job or a salary.
No pass rate, no graduate count and no rating of any kind is published on this site. The operation is new, any such figure would come from a sample too small to mean anything, and inventing one is the easiest lie available in this industry. What is published instead is the syllabus, the price, the hours and the regulation behind each requirement.
What People Ask About Fixed Pricing
That the price attached to a program on the day you enrol is the price for the content that program states, and that nothing is recalculated when you move between phases. It is not a promise of unlimited hours, and every program on this site states how many hours it contains.
Yes, inside every program figure, both in the airplane and on the ground for briefings and debriefings. The $179 hourly rate published elsewhere on this site is the airframe and its fuel for enrolled students and it is not an instructor rate. No instructor rate is published anywhere here.
Charges set by other people: the examiner's fee for a practical test, knowledge test fees, your FAA medical examination and your own equipment such as a headset, a tablet and charts. None of those is priced anywhere on this site, because we neither set them nor bill them.
Some students do, and pretending otherwise would be the estimate-shaped problem this page exists to criticise. What additional instruction beyond a program costs is not published here, and we would rather say that than print a figure we cannot stand behind. Ask before you enrol, in writing.
No. There is no discount for pre-buying hours, no tiered rate card and no negotiated pricing, which means the number you read is the number everybody reads. Block rates are a common way to make a headline hourly figure look lower than it is, and this site does not use one.
Because a range is not a price. Every figure on this site is a single number for a stated program, and if a sentence's whole point would have been the spread then the sentence gets rewritten. A range also gives a borrower nothing to size a loan against.
Take the other quote's hourly figure, multiply it by the hours that quote assumes, add its instruction rate across the same hours, add ground instruction and materials, and then ask what happens on the first hour past the estimate. That last question usually changes the comparison more than the arithmetic does.
The program price does not. What changes is the likelihood that you need hours beyond the ones the program contains, because long gaps between lessons cost relearning time. Tempo is the single largest variable in what training actually costs anybody, at any school.
No, and there is no penalty for not paying in full either. Arrangements here start from $2,500 down and the balance is structured around the phases you are flying. The published price is the published price whichever way you settle it.
Training already delivered has been delivered and is not refundable. What happens to anything not yet flown is set out on the terms and refunds page, which is published rather than discussed case by case, and it is worth reading before you pay rather than afterwards.
On an hourly model, the student, because every additional hour is billed at the same rate. On a published package price the school has taken a position on how many hours the program contains and is holding that price for the content it states. That transfer of estimating risk is the substantive argument for a fixed price, and it is why the two models are not simply different ways of writing the same number.
No. A fast student flying four times a week might finish inside the hours a program contains and would, on an hourly model, have paid less. A fixed price is worse value for the fastest students and better value for everybody else, and it is markedly better value for anybody borrowing, because a loan has to be sized against a number that does not move.
Keep Reading
The Rest Of This Cluster
Flight Training Financing OptionsPilot Training Loans ComparedTerms And RefundsWhat The Prices Buy
Every Program Price On One PageAccelerated Private Pilot TrainingThe Airline Career TrackFurther Along The Route
Building Flight Hours After CommercialATP Certificate RequirementsHow To EnrollOpen Any Page On This Site And Look For A Missing Number
That is the whole test and it takes about two minutes. Then book an hour, ask what additional instruction would cost, and see whether you get a straight answer. Both of those questions are worth asking of every school you consider, including this one.
Fly The Aeroplane Once, Then Decide
The assessment flight is the first hour of the syllabus and a two-way evaluation. You fly it from the left seat with an instructor beside you, they write down what they saw, and you get an honest read on whether the plan is realistic. It is loggable, and it is credited in full against enrolment if you enroll within 24 hours.
What happens on an assessment flight →