cost of rentals /training...then vs now

[Brad W]

So I posted this in another thread a few weeks back
I've been thinking about this question more...and realize that this has likely been hashed out many times before. So what's the consensus?...is flight training really double when compared to what it was in the early 1990's (adjusted for inflation)?

just a side note comment
but I find this interesting....spoken as an oldtimer of 52yo..."back in my day" (the 1990's) I don't recall anyone asking for or talking about lump sum quotes or estimates for PPL.
I do recall folks talking and using "average cost to get" numbers. I think it was just generally understood or accepted that it was all done on a "per hour" unit cost, and there were many variables that would affect the end result...
so knowing that most folks would spend ballpark $3,000 for PPL and another $3,000 or so for their instrument rating, just for example, was enough. Indecently, those are the numbers I'd always heard and read, and later on I went back and figured up my cost and it was very close to that....
I guess it was the development of 141 schools that steered things to more of a lump sum total basis......

with aircraft rental rates seeming to run about x3.5 of what I recall them being, I'd take a rough stab and think that somewhere roughly around $11,000k would be a good number these days
but plugging $3k into an online "inflation calculator, 1991 to 2020, I get that it should be only $5,697.75. Yikes!!!! What's up with that!!!

 

[gkainz]

Yeah it’s gone up a little. Cleaning out files yesterday turned these up. My first training flight.

 

[Brad W]

nice find! It's funny the things we save
so $14/hr in 1978,converted with some random online calculator = approx $55.54 in today's dollars
for what type of aircraft?

 

[DFH65]

I have the receipt from my 1st lesson as well September 1989. Dual was $56 an hour. Cessna 172 was $43.

 

[RyanB]

I did most of my training at $88hr for a 152 and $35hr for the CFI, so $123hr for dual. This was in 2013-2014.

 

[RussR]

So I posted this in another thread a few weeks back
I've been thinking about this question more...and realize that this has likely been hashed out many times before. So what's the consensus?...is flight training really double when compared to what it was in the early 1990's (adjusted for inflation)?

Early 90's is when I started. 1993 to be exact. It was $38 an hour (wet) for the Cessna 172s and $43 an hour for the T-41Bs (which were 172s with 210 hp and constant-speed props). CFI was $15 an hour. This was at a military flying club, so it's possible the rates were a little cheaper than elsewhere.

 

[CJones]

In 2000, I did my initial training in a club 152 for $35/hr wet + $20/hr for CFI. At the same time, I could rent a 152 from the FBO near school for $53/hr wet.

Started my IR in 2001 in the club 172 for $55/hr + $25/hr for CFII.

Finished IR in 2007 flying RV-7A for cost of fuel + CFI was paid in beer, Irish nachos, and every once in a while a check for some money.

 

[Stan Cooper]

In 1964 I paid $5.00/hour wet for a C150 and $2.00/hour for instruction ($7.00/hour for dual). This was at the Vandenberg AFB, California Aero Club. That was cheap even back then; the military aero clubs were subsidized.

 

[gkainz]

nice find! It's funny the things we save
so $14/hr in 1978,converted with some random online calculator = approx $55.54 in today's dollars
for what type of aircraft?

The flying club had Cessna 150 for basic trainers.

 

[Brad W]

I don't have the exact numbers, but when I started in 1990 at a flight school, the cessna 152's rented something like $35/hr and the 172 for like $45/hr. Something like $2/hr off with block rate (prepay like 5 hour blocks or something like that).
I moved in the mid 90's and didn't fly much for a bit but over that time rental rates increased by what seemed like a reasonably proportional rate till I relocated again and around 2000 rates to a huge leap up.

 

[Ghery]

When I started lessons in 2000 the club's C-172N was $49/hour wet. The same plane 20 years later is $97/hour wet. I'm not sure what I was paying per hour for the CFI back when I was a student pilot as my log shows different amounts for the same flight time, but it might have been somewhere around $35/hour or so. I'm paying about $50/hour now.

So, based on my limited sample size (1 - me), I'm paying about twice today compared with 20 years ago for the plane, and only about 43% more for the CFI. Sounds to me like the CFIs are underpaid today compared with what they were 20 years ago.

 

[saddletramp]

I started my flight training in 1972. I was a teenager then. I paid $15.00 an hour for a Cherokee 150 & $7.00 got the instructor. Yes, Virginia, there was a Cherokee 150. It was the "C" model with a 150hp Lyc.

In 1975 I became an instructor & was paid a $250.00 a month base & $4.00 an hour for flight pay. Flying was crazy busy with all the VA training. We were a 141 school. When I flew a 120 hour month, which was common, I was wracking in the big dough.

Remember, minimum wage at the time was $1.60 an hour. I was killing' it.

 

[CJones]

When I started lessons in 2000 the club's C-172N was $49/hour wet. The same plane 20 years later is $97/hour wet. I'm not sure what I was paying per hour for the CFI back when I was a student pilot as my log shows different amounts for the same flight time, but it might have been somewhere around $35/hour or so. I'm paying about $50/hour now.

So, based on my limited sample size (1 - me), I'm paying about twice today compared with 20 years ago for the plane, and only about 43% more for the CFI. Sounds to me like the CFIs are underpaid today compared with what they were 20 years ago.

Hmm... I haven't actually rented a plane since 2009 or so and haven't paid a CFI an hourly rate since then, either. Now my BFRs are around $200 in 'my' plane, so I guess I'm paying about $100/hr for CFI nowadays.

 

[Brad W]

in 2000 the club's C-172N was $49/hour wet. The same plane 20 years later is $97/hour wet.

from an online inflation calculator
$49 in 2000 → $73.61 in 2020
so it seems your rate has increased more than "inflation" too

$97 for a 172 seems like a deal. Around here an ill maintained worn out dog of a 172 goes for $135 to $140

 

[midwestpa24]

I started in 1999. The Cessna 150L was $40/hr wet, instructor was $10/hr.

 

[Ghery]

from an online inflation calculator
$49 in 2000 → $73.61 in 2020
so it seems your rate has increased more than "inflation" too

$97 for a 172 seems like a deal. Around here an ill maintained worn out dog of a 172 goes for $135 to $140

It is, if you fly that month. There are monthly dues of around $80 that you pay whether you fly or not - hangars, insurance, other fixed costs. That 172N, on the other hand, has the Penn Yan 180hp conversion (giving it a 250 pound bump in max gross weight), a Garmin 430W and G5. Well maintained, as well. We pay less per hour ($87/hour) for our C-172P as it is only /A. And $124/hour for our C-182P which has a Garmin GTN650 and other stuff in the panel. So, if you fly the rates are very good.

The rate increase has been largely driven by the increase cost of 100LL around here. Upgrading the panels hasn't helped, either. Oh well, the only thing it takes to fly is money. Lots of money.