When someone gives to DreamFlight Charities, one of the first questions we hear is a great one: “Where does my money actually go?”
The short answer is: into the air. Learning to fly is one of the most rewarding things a young person can do, and it’s also expensive. Every hour in the cockpit means paying for an airplane, fuel, and a flight instructor. For many Kentucky students, that cost is the only thing standing between them and the sky. DreamFlight exists to remove that barrier, and here’s exactly how we do it.
The Path: How a Student Goes from Curious to the Cockpit
Every DreamFlight scholarship student follows the same path, and each step has a real cost.
Step | What It Is | Cost |
1. Discovery Event or Flight | A first taste of flying. Discovery Events run about 1.5 hours; individual Discovery Flights are about 30 minutes in the air with an instructor. | $100 |
2. OpenSkies Flight Club | A year of monthly meetings at Capital City Airport: about 8 hours of logged ground school, guest aviation professionals, STEM activities, field trips, and lunch. | $150/Year |
3. DreamFlight Flight Training Scholarship | Selected students go from zero flight experience to their first solo flight at a partner flight school. | $6,000/Student |
4. Beyond solo | Students finish their private pilot certificate by combining personal savings with outside scholarships from AOPA, EAA, the Ninety-Nines, WAI, OBAP, and more. | ~$9,000 |
There’s no separate scholarship application to start. DreamFlight uses the Discovery experience itself to identify students who are ready, teachable, and likely to succeed.
What A Flight Hour Actually Costs
Flight training is billed by the hour, and most lessons combine two costs: the airplane and the instructor. Here are the rates our scholarship students train at:
Cost Item | Rate | Notes |
Training Aircraft | $135/hr | “Wet” Rate (Fuel Included) |
Certificated Flight Instructor (CFI) | $90/hr | Same rate for time in the air or on the ground |
One Hour Dual Instruction | About $225 | Aircraft & Instructor Together |
Cessna Training App | $424 | Required online ground school and progress tracking |
FAA Third-Class Medical Certificate | $150 | Needed before a student can fly solo |
Private Pilot Written Exam | $175 | Taken before the final checkride |
FAA Checkride | $600–$800 | The final flight exam with an FAA examiner (this is a conservative figure) |
FAA rules require at least 40 hours of flight time for a private pilot certificate, but many students don’t feel ready for their checkride at the minimum. Our roadmap plans for 50 hours, which puts a full private pilot certificate at roughly $13,400 to $13,650. That’s a huge number for most Kentucky families, and it’s the gap DreamFlight is here to help close.
Our Scholarships, Line by Line
Our Flight Training Scholarship covers the hardest and most important stretch of training: getting from a student’s very first lesson to their first solo flight, the moment they take an airplane up with no one else on board. Here’s where each dollar goes:
What It Covers | Est. Hours | Est. Cost |
Cessna Training App | – | $424 |
Flight & Ground Instruction | 14.2 dual flight, 1.0 solo, 12.8 ground | $4,482 |
Estimated total to reach solo | – | $4,906 |
Scholarship cushion remaining | – | $1,094 |
Total scholarship | $6,000 |
Estimates are based on representative Part 61 training tables. Each student’s pace will vary. An optional $257.50 training kit is also available, which reduces the cushion to $836.50.
That cushion matters. Some students need an extra lesson or two to feel ready to solo, and the cushion lets them take that time without stopping their training. We also make smart use of our own flight simulators: up to 2.5 of the required 40 hours can be flown in a simulator, at no cost to the student.
After solo, students plan for about $8,500 to $8,700 more to reach their checkride. That covers about 32 more flight hours, the medical certificate, the written exam, and the checkride fee. By then, they’ve proven they can do it, and that makes them strong candidates for the national scholarships that help carry them the rest of the way.
Why We Find Flight Time in Blocks
One of the biggest lessons in our roadmap is that consistency beats speed. Flying one lesson here and another six weeks later is usually the most expensive way to learn, because skills fade between flights and lessons have to be repeated.
So DreamFlight scholarships are disbursed in stages as students progress, which lets them fly on a steady schedule of two to three lessons a week while the skills are fresh. We also train in efficient, lower-cost aircraft like the Cessna 150 and Aeroprakt A22 to stretch every dollar. Fewer repeated lessons and lower hourly costs mean your gift buys more real progress.
By the Numbers: Your Givts at Work
This fall alone, DreamFlight has committed $47,000 in flight training scholarships across eight students. The first $18,500 has already been paid out, and the remaining $28,500 will follow as each student reaches their next training milestone.
DreamFlight Charities is 100% volunteer-led. No one is paid a salary, so your gift goes to students, not overhead.
The Selection Process
We’re often asked whether a donation can go to a specific student. To keep our scholarships fair and to make sure funds follow real progress, DreamFlight pools scholarship gifts rather than assigning them to individuals. Every student is selected and funded through the same process, and every dollar moves with a student who is actively training.
What Your Gift Can Do
Your Gift | What It Makes Possible |
$100 | A Discovery Flight: a student’s first time at the controls |
$150 | A full year of OpenSkies Flight Club membership |
$225 | One hour of flight instruction, airplane and instructor included |
$424 | A student’s full Cessna Training App ground school |
$1,000 | About four and a half hours of dual instruction, or roughly three lessons |
$6,000 | A full scholarship: a student’s path from zero flight experience to their first solo |
Help Launch the Next Pilot
Every Kentucky pilot, mechanic, and aviation professional started with someone who believed in them. When you give to DreamFlight Charities, you become that someone.
- Give Once or Monthly
- Sponsor an Event: like the Spirit of Kentucky Air Race or Run the Runway 5K
- Partner with Us: corporate and community partners help us reach students in all five of our regions
Questions about how gifts are used? We’re always happy to talk. Contact us anytime!