09/30/2026
A student came in last month with a budget built around exactly 40 hours. The FAA minimum. He'd done the math, and on paper it looked clean.
He finished his checkride at 68 hours. And he was one of our faster students.
That gap catches a lot of people off guard, so let's talk about it. The FAA's 40-hour minimum is a legal floor, not a realistic finish line. The national average for passing a Private Pilot checkride sits closer to 70 hours. That's not a reflection of students struggling. It's the reality of how flying works.
Flying is a perishable skill. Miss a week to weather, hit a scheduling gap, and some of your last lesson evaporates. Then there's the real work of the certificate: building cockpit judgment, reading conditions, making decisions when the plan changes. That takes reps, and reps take hours. ✈
Here's why budgeting for 60 to 70 hours from the start matters. You train with less financial stress. You make better decisions because you're not rushing to beat a number. And you arrive at your checkride genuinely ready instead of barely qualified.
Plan for the average, not the minimum. Your training goes smoother, and so does your budget.