Wet vs dry
A wet rate includes fuel. A dry rate does not — you pay the hourly rate and then the fuel the airplane burned. Schools and clubs that advertise a headline number like $120 an hour are almost always quoting dry. A Cessna 172 burns enough at today's prices that the fuel adds roughly $100 an hour, which puts that $120 airplane at about $220 — more than our $180 wet round-gauge rate.
GoFlyTexas quotes everything wet: $180 an hour for the round-gauge Cessna 172s and $195 for the glass-panel ones. The number on the rate sheet is the number on the invoice. When you compare schools, ask one question first: is that wet or dry?
Hobbs time
Rental hours are measured on the Hobbs meter, which runs while the engine runs — taxi, run-up, flight and shutdown. It does not run while you are doing the preflight walk-around or the briefing with your instructor, so a one-hour lesson is usually right around one hour of aircraft time.
Block time
Block time is prepaid aircraft hours at a discount. Our block is $1,900 for 11 hours — ten hours plus one bonus hour. On the glass-panel airplanes that is about $172.73 an hour instead of $195.
Fly a round-gauge airplane on block time and it gets better: every block hour flown in a $180 airplane returns a $10 credit to your account, so the same $1,900 stretches to roughly 11.2 hours. Larger blocks of 25 and 50 hours bring the effective rate down further still — on the largest blocks flown on the round-gauge fleet it comes in below $150 an hour. Ask for the current block sheet for the exact figure.
| How you pay | Glass panel | Round gauge |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly, wet | $195/hr | $180/hr |
| $1,900 block (11 hrs) | ≈ $172.73/hr | ≈ $172.73/hr plus a $10/hr credit |
| Largest blocks | ask | below $150/hr |
When block time makes sense
- You are training for a certificate. A private pilot certificate is 55–70 hours for most people; that is five or six blocks, and the savings add up to real money. See what a private pilot license costs.
- You rent regularly. Licensed pilots who fly a couple of times a month get the same discount.
- You have not flown yet. Then no — take a discovery flight first. It is one fixed price with the instructor included.
Instructor time is separate
Block time covers the airplane. Instruction is $75 an hour with a two-hour minimum per session ($90 for instrument and commercial work), billed as you go.
Questions
Call (940) 905-3090 or message us and we will walk you through the current block sheet. Our fleet page shows which airplanes are glass panel and which are round gauge.