THE TRADITIONAL STUDENT pilot usually starts flying lessons while still single then becomes overwhelmed with raising a family and balancing an income. Those obligations leave little time and money to rent the aircraft for $125 per hour to obtain a private pilot certificate plus the $60 fee for the CFI. It was far less expensive in 1969 when it cost $400 for all the required flying training and ground school sessions ($4 an hour for the airplane; gas was 10 cents a gallon). The CFI received $5 per hour to supplement his full-time $7,000-a-year job. That total cost compares to today's estimated for obtaining the certificate at $12,000. In that same year a new house cost $15,000, and the annual tuition at Harvard was $2,000 per year.
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