Are you looking to learn to fly in San Diego for fun or take flight lessons to become a career airline pilot? The private pilot license is the first step in your aviation journey. GoFly San Diego offers comprehensive PPL training that will equip you with the skills and knowledge you need to become a confident pilot. Our experienced instructors will guide you through every step of the process, from your first takeoff to your solo flights and beyond. With a PPL, you can fly for leisure, travel to new places, or even pursue a career in aviation. Below is an outline of how much a private pilot license costs, and an overview of what is required to obtain your license.
As a brief overview we can break the program up into the following parts:
At home online ground school course
FAA written Exam
Flight Training
Practical Exam
1. At home ground school course: This is an online course that teaches you the ground knowledge required by the FAA. We could do 1 on 1 lessons for all of the ground if you would like to, however instructor costs are $75/hr and the course consists of around 20 hours of ground school. We recommend using Sporty's ground school. It costs $60/month or $299 for lifetime acess. The first few videos for the online course are free and can be found here: Sporty's Ground Free Videos
Feel free to start working on the ground course before we begin flight training. This is not required, but will put you ahead of the curve. Alternatively, the ground school will be incorporated into your course as homework.
2. FAA Written Exam: The FAA requires all Private Pilot students to complete a standardized FAA written exam at one of their testing centers. The completion of one of the above ground school study courses will give you the certificate required to take the test. The cost of the test is dictated by the testing center and is currently $175.
3. Flight Training (the fun part!):Flight training consists of a minimum of 40 hours in the airplane with a minimum of 10 hours solo flight time. Within this time there are specific tasks the FAA requires of us, such as practicing specific maneuvers, training navigation techniques, and landing the airlplane. The minimum requirement is 40 hours. The national average stands at 75 hours. A realistic and achievable goal would be to get it finished in 50-60 hours of flight time. Don’t worry, flying is more like advanced driving than it is like rocket science. By following a syllabus, and completing the ground training on time, finishing in less than the national average amount of hours is 100% doable.
Aircraft rental cost: $150/hr Instructor Cost: $75/hr
4. Practical Exam: At the end of your training, we will schedule a practical exam for you with a FAA DPE (designated pilot examiner). This consists of both an oral exam, and an inflight exam. The cost of this is dictated by the DPE. We do not control these costs, however they currently average $800-$1000.
Required Materials:
Below are the required materials for the course. We have put together various options to appeal to budget and personal preference.
Ground School Course: Flight-Insight ($250) , Sportys ($50), King Schools ($299)
Headset: ASA HS-1 ($150), David Clark H10-20 ($300), Bose A30 ($1300)
Ipad Mini with GPS cellular version ($650 new, $200 used)
Kneeboard ($20-$50)
Foreflight Subscription (App on Ipad for aviation charts and flight planning purposes $100/year)
Books
FAR/AIM (Free PDF, $25 paperback)
Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (Free PDF, $25 paperback)
Pilots Flying Handbook (Free PDF, $25 paperback)
Logbook (electronic version included with foreflight subscription)
All of your flying charts will be on your ipad which will act as a sort of google maps in the sky. While it is possible to fly using paper charts only, it is similar to driving a car in 3d space using paper maps only. It is doable, but not recommended.
Adding It All Up
At 40 hrs dual flight time + 10 hours of solo flight time + 10 hours of additional ground instruction, the estimated cost for aircraft + instructor is $11,250. Adding in FAA Exam fees, materials, and airplane club costs, this brings us to the $12,500-14,000 price range total.
Moving forward
Your first step is to email or call us and book a discovery flight. This is approximately an hour of flying as you take the controls for taxiing, takeoff, and do 90% of the flying yourself! Planning from here, if you are able to join us for flying lessons 2-3 times per week, we can usually finish a private pilot license in 3-4 months. On average, most flights will consist of 1.5 hours of flying and 0.5 hours of ground training. Between flights, homework will consist of 1-2 hours of at home study per flight lesson.