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How much did you spend of flight training?

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How much did you spend on flight training?

  • 0-20k

    Votes: 205 22.5%
  • 20-30k

    Votes: 222 24.3%
  • 30-40k

    Votes: 166 18.2%
  • 40-50k

    Votes: 124 13.6%
  • 50-60k

    Votes: 74 8.1%
  • 60-70k

    Votes: 46 5.0%
  • 80-90k

    Votes: 17 1.9%
  • Great than 90k

    Votes: 59 6.5%

  • Total voters
    913
8/2003-02/2005: Zero hours to MEI, $40k for flight training. Started expensive (Delta Connection for private, instrument, commercial ASEL) and ended cheap (A.T.P. for Comm AMEL, CFI, II, MEI, they have jacked their prices up since then). If I had to do it again I would go to a local fbo. Glad mine wasnt as expensive as some of the stories on here.
 
1991-1993 Big bend community college in moses lake washington. paid $16000 to get cfii and multi. Added a float rating at kenmore for another $350 bucks. Now I'm chillin' at Delta. Wish I could get my hands on a floatplane but Atlanta has no water anyway!!
 
Too much! - and that was before the advent of GA glass panels, parachutes and high fuel prices. I'm sure that it's at least 40% more now to acquire ratings.
 
PPL, 1993 ~$5600

IFR-MEI, 1994 ~$16000 including room, board, r/t airline ticket (NYC-ICT), w/ 60 hours multi.

ATP, 1997 ~$600
 
my list, reconstructed from logbook data

I did a PPL groundschool when I was 15 in the winter of 1990/91. It was given to me as an xmas gift but i think it was 200 including books and test (last gs at that fbo to ever take the test on paper). Then in the summer I turned 16 i started my PPL and the 150 was $40 and instructor $20. my mom would pay one lesson then i would pay the next.

I got i finished in the fall of 1992 with 60 hours 26 dual and 34 solo (i did alot of just flying around once I soloed). so 60 times 40 is 2400 plus 26ish times 20 is 520 plus 100 for the examiner and 1.5 rental for the checkride is 190.

PPL from 1990 to 1992
200 + 2400 + 520 +190 = $3310

In the spring of my senior year in HS I started at a lineguy at the same FBO. A guy that had an archer in leaseback hooked me up for my instrument. He charged me gas plus 10/hour. it came to about 28 bucks an hour and a local instructor helped me with the instruction - free if i ran errands and washed his car once a week until a left the fbo for college. I still owe him.

I did about 40 hours with him (from logbook) and another 20 sharing a 150 under the hood at 42/hr (the 150 had gone up). The checkride was 200 and i did the written with king tapes and 60 sylvan learning center test. This was from jan93 to Aug93.

40 times 28 is 1120
20 times 42 is 840
then 200 + 60 + 100 for checkride/kingtapes/writte test

so 2320 for my instrument rating(jan93 to aug93) .

at this point I have a PPL+inst and show about 130 total time in my logbook and have spent

pvt3310+inst2320 = 5630.

then i went off to college and didn't fly much until my junior year when i got into a mil flying club and decided to finish up to cfi because it was cheap in the club.

My logbook shows about 50 hours duel for my CFI/CommSEL all in a t-34 at 47/hr and the instruction was 15/hr. to get to the 250tt for my commercial i putzed around in the club 150 at 27/hr for 55 hours. I assume the other 15 to get to 250 for my commsel were solo in the t-34.

So Comm/sel and CFI

15 times 50 for instruction = 750
50+15 for t-34 times 47/hr = 3055
55 times 27 in the 150 to build time = 1485
cfi and comm exam fees =200/each = 400
did written again with king so est. tapes for comm/cfi at 250 plus 3 writtens at 60 each = 180

grand total for comm/cfi

750+3055+1485+400+250+180= $6120, this was done in late 1996 to fall 1997.

At this point I started instructing in the mil club, I had comm/sel and cfi with 250 tt. to this point i had spent 11,750.

That same month with the rest of my engineering internship $$ i went to an fbo at wings field in NJ and banged out my MEL in 3 days. I show 8.6 total in the seneca and it was a 1350 flat fee plus 250 for the examiner.

grand total comm/sel/mel/cfi = 13350

then I got on with a 135 company (nov 1997, 365tt) and went from sic in a navajo to pic in a navajo with the same ratings. I could have done my atp for free on one of my 135 pic rides but the boss wanted you to agree to another year if you did that so i want to allatp's in june1999 at ttn and spent 975 cash on my atp plus 250 examiner fee.

Grand total thru ATP $14,575

note: this was reconstructed thru my logbook but since $$$ had someting to do with it and it was a time (college) when many of us had little of it you tend to remember the numbers well. Like I noted above my mother paid for half my pvt then the rest was funded by working in a bike shop, as a line guy, and thru a paid engineering internship. i'd also like to note that the only year i went on spring break was my sophmore year. The rest were spent along with my summer working/saving for flying lessons/college spending cash and the girlfriend i had at the time.

I would say taking into account books, stupid flying equipment I bought, msc flying like taking girls or friends for rides that the total is around 16,000.

anyway just my input.
 
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27,000 pvt-com multi at Florida Aviation Academy, Pompano Beach. Started 1/3/04 finished 3/19/04.

24,000 F/O Program at Gulfstream. May 04-Nov 04.

30,000 to live on for a year with no pay.

81,000 total. Now at Delta and worth every last cent.
 
27,000 pvt-com multi at Florida Aviation Academy, Pompano Beach. Started 1/3/04 finished 3/19/04.

24,000 F/O Program at Gulfstream. May 04-Nov 04.

30,000 to live on for a year with no pay.

81,000 total. Now at Delta and worth every last cent.

Having Dad pay my way and being the Delta Chief Pilot= PRICESLESS
 
Bought own airplane, sold at a profit after getting my Private. Employer paid for instrument ticket. Joined a partnership on a Twin Commanche, roughly $5,000 in expenses not covered at the sale there. Got the ATP for $2,500 from AllATP's. Jessh with all the horsing around in T-34's I'm probably in for less than $20K.

Employers paid for the Bachelors and I got a $10,000 bonus and a trip to San Diego for completing the Master's degree, but as a result of taking forever to work my way through night school I'm old & on my third aviation related pay cut.

I'm envious of the 26 year old guys at FedEx and Delta. The investment they made will probably pay off ten fold.
 
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What is a shame is that a 17 year old with his own airplane would be hounded off the field in Marietta, GA that welcomed me with open arms back in the late 1980's.

Now there is a wall around the airport with security clearance required for entry. A kid changing his own oil would result in a call to the Police. Not to mention impromptu airshows, incidents involving sacks of flower and the semi famous lithium broker.

The cheapest airplane is a $120+ (plus monthly fees) 172 and forget a complex, or multi at the airport.

Today, I would not do it because the same folks who sat on pretty days with their hangar doors open encouraging me have been forced out to make room for big corporate box hangars.
 

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