Flight training is the single biggest cost component. Small hourly differences multiply dramatically over the course of your training.
2 April 2026
Flight training is where most of your money goes. Nowadays you’ll need least 40 hours of flight training, including at least 10 hours of supervised solo time. Those are the minimum PPL requirements set by the CAA. However, is 40 hours a realistic amount? No, unfortunately it’s not… The UK national average is somewhere between 55 and 60 hours.
Why does it take so long? Lack of consistency is a big reason: more time between lessons means that you’ll spend part of your lesson repeating the previous one. Obviously, consistency doesn’t only depend on the amount of time you can make available for lessons, but also on the teacher’s availability, your budget, and of course the weather.
Factors such as age and speed of learning play a huge role as well and are different for each student. Last but not least, it depends on the flight school; on a busy airfield there’ll be more circuit congestion, and thus more training time spent waiting.
“The lowest hours I have recently had a student complete the course in was actually the 45 hours (plus a little bit to show in excess of the minimum required in the logbook). The next best was 51 hours,” says Ben Ellis, Head of Training at Perranport Flying Club.
However, he explains: “Both of these students were aged 17 with exceptional aptitude. The student who had just over 45 hours was also very lucky with the weather. Of course it’s now a minimum of 40 hours; not sure we could achieve that here and cover the syllabus. I think a realistic number of hours to PPL is 60 to 70. It’s very age related.”
The fact that nobody finishes in 40 hours indeed means that those attractively priced PPL-packages, which are always based on only 40 hours of flight training, aren’t what you’ll be paying if you need 10, 20 or perhaps even 30 hours more than the minimum until you’re ready for your skills test… That’s the reason why, even when choosing such a package, you should also look at the flight school’s hourly rate.
What’s the price of an hour of flight training? Two factors affect the cost: type of aeroplane you’ll be flying and the location. This can range anywhere from £185 per hour in a C-152 at Virage Aviation in Beccles (Suffolk) to £315 in a C-152 at Flight Training London at Elstree Aerodrome. And of course there’s anything in-between. At The Pilot Centre in Denham, for example, an hour training in the C-152 costs £240. It all depends on the flying school, as well as on the type, age, and fuel use of the aircraft you’re training in.
Obviously, training in a two-seat Cessna 152 will be cheaper than a four-seat Piper PA-28, another popular training aircraft, or a Robin R3000. This soon adds up: a Cessna 152 (or the earlier 150) might ‘only’ be £20 an hour cheaper than a four-seater Cessna 172. However, with 50 hours of PPL training that’s £1,000 you’re saving, just by choosing a different aircraft. Small hourly differences multiply dramatically over the course of your training.
Don’t forget to double-check what exactly is included in the hourly price you’re quoted – and when the clock starts ticking. Is it when the prop starts spinning? Or at take-off? Is it an hour from brakes off to brakes on? Are you charged on tacho time? Do you pay for taxi time? What about the pre- and post-flight briefing? Is this time with the instructor on the ground included or charged extra? This is especially worth checking with schools that divide their flight training into a price for airplane rental and a price for instruction.
In the UK, rates for flight training are almost always including VAT and so-called ‘wet rates’ (including fuel), but once you’ve got your PPL and are renting an aircraft, don’t forget to check if the rental rate is indeed a wet one, and not a ‘dry rate’ (excluding fuel).
So, you’ve budgeted for between 55 and 65 hours of flight training. Can you close your wallet now? Unfortunately not. Although it’s by far the biggest cost component, hourly rate isn’t the whole story…
