California Flight School Flight Training Cost:
	What you should know

You are asking the question "how much does flight training cost?"

When you shop around for a flight school, a better approach and more complete question(s) to ask:

- How long have you been in business?

- What is your safety record in regards to incidents/accidents with students?

- How old are your airplanes?

- How many years has my (potential) instructor been teaching students?

Our answers:

We have been in business for over 15 years. Our safety record is stellar, no incident or accident ever.

Our airplanes are new or near new four seat Cessna aircraft, from 1 to 9 years old. Your instructor has been teaching for more than a decade.

As a pilot, you will be tasked constantly with making decisions about safety, knowing the way to do things right and the desire make the experience enjoyable.

As you are choosing a flight school, this will be your first decision about your safety.

There are activities where "cheap" may be an appropriate desire and "dollars" an appropriate measurement device.

Take some golf lessons and a cheap set of clubs and a rotten golf course with a lousy golf instructor won't ruin your day all that much. Apply this logic to flying lessons and we are almost certain that you are going to have a "less than ideal experience", to express this in the most delicate words we could find.

Now here is your question about cost: How much is "it"?

First off, the FAA only requires a legal minimum of 40 hours of flight training.

This regulation was written many decades ago and if you use the FAA's math you come up with something around $6600 for your pilot certificate. Fact is the national average for students these days hovers around 60 to 70 hours.

Your budget should be around $8,800 to $9,500 but be prepared to spend a little more if you are not the perfect flight student and need a little extra help.

It is best for you to figure hourly cost for the airplane and instructor and then apply a healthy dose of realism.

Call us for details at the office (818) 769 1503 or call Uwe Kerner directly at (818) 731 7066.