Come fly
with us
The MIT Flying Club’s primary purpose is to motivate, encourage, and facilitate an affordable, hands-on experience in flying, for everyone from the curious first-timer to the certificated pilot.
Come fly
From looking up
to the flight deck
Every certificate, in order, with what each one really costs and where the club can help. Hover or tap any exit for the detail.
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You look up. That is the whole entry requirement. Nobody in this club started out knowing how any of it worked, and most of us still remember the exact flight that did it.
- Cost
- Nothing
- Prerequisite
- Curiosity
How the club helps. Come to a Hangar Talk. They are free, open to everyone, and you can turn up knowing nothing at all.
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The single most useful hour you can spend is understanding the real numbers, because almost every quoted figure online is the FAA minimum rather than what people actually pay.
- FAA minimum
- 40 flight hours
- What people really take
- 55 to 70 hours
- Realistic Boston budget
- $15,000 to $20,000
How the club helps. We keep a neutral comparison of every flight school near MIT and a full cost breakdown, and members will tell you honestly what they spent.
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A short instructional flight where you fly the aircraft yourself. It counts toward your certificate if you carry on, and it is the cheapest way to find out whether you actually love this.
- Typical price
- About $200 to $300
- Published locally
- $275 for one hour at Mitiguy
- Logs toward your licence
- Yes
How the club helps. Ask on Slack before you book. Someone has usually flown with that school already.
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A physical with an FAA-designated Aviation Medical Examiner. A third class medical covers all private pilot training. Get it early: it is far better to find out about a medical issue before you have spent thousands on lessons.
- Class needed
- Third class
- Typical cost
- $100 to $200
- Who does it
- An FAA-designated AME
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If you are not a US citizen you must be vetted through the TSA Alien Flight Student Program before flight training begins. This is a real gate, not a formality, and your school has to be an AFSP-registered provider.
- Applies to
- Non-US citizens
- When
- Before training starts
- Also check
- Your visa status, with the MIT ISO
How the club helps. We have a whole page on this, and members who have been through it are on Slack.
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Applied for through the FAA IACRA system, normally sat down with your instructor. You need it before you can fly solo, so it is worth doing well ahead of that lesson.
- Cost
- Free
- Where
- FAA IACRA
- Needed before
- Your first solo
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Weather, regulations, navigation, aerodynamics, radio work. Self-study, an online course, or an in-person class. This is what the written exam tests, and doing it early makes your flight lessons cheaper because you are not learning theory at $250 an hour.
- Formats
- Self-study, online, in person
- Typical materials
- About $250
- Best timing
- Alongside early flight lessons
How the club helps. The club holds navigation materials, aviation books, sectionals and airport directories that members can use.
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Part 61 is self-paced and flexible. Part 141 follows an FAA-approved syllabus and can finish in fewer hours. Both produce the same certificate. What matters far more is instructor consistency and how often you can actually fly.
- Schools near MIT
- Six, from 15 to 45 miles
- Part 61 minimum
- 40 hours
- Part 141 minimum
- 35 hours
How the club helps. Our comparison table lists fleet, avionics, distance and ratings for every school nearby, with no rankings and no sponsorship.
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Your instructor gets out and you fly the aircraft alone. Usually three circuits. It is the moment the whole thing stops being theoretical, and the tradition is that your shirt tail gets cut off afterwards.
- Typical point
- 10 to 25 hours
- Requires
- Medical and student certificate
- What it feels like
- Ask anyone. They will tell you at length
How the club helps. Tell us and we will celebrate it. First solos are exactly the sort of thing this club exists for.
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Sixty multiple choice questions at an approved testing centre. You need 70 percent to pass. Most people take it once ground school is done and well before the checkride.
- Cost
- About $175
- Pass mark
- 70 percent
- Valid for
- 24 calendar months
-
An oral exam and a flight test with a Designated Pilot Examiner. Pass, and you can carry passengers, fly across the country, and rent aircraft. This is the certificate most club members are working toward.
- Examiner fee
- $800 to $1,200
- Total realistic cost
- $15,000 to $20,000 in Boston
- What it lets you do
- Carry passengers, not fly for hire
How the club helps. Scholarships are real money and most require you to join the sponsoring organisation months before you apply. Start early.
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Flying by reference to instruments alone, in the system, in weather that would keep a private pilot on the ground. Widely considered the rating that makes you a genuinely better and safer pilot.
- Requires
- 50 hours cross-country PIC
- Instrument training
- 40 hours
- Typical added cost
- $10,000 to $15,000
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The certificate that lets you be compensated for flying. Requires 250 total hours, plus training in a complex or technically advanced aircraft, which is worth asking schools about early.
- Total time
- 250 hours
- Also needs
- 10 hours in a complex or TAA aircraft
- Opens up
- Being paid to fly
-
Flight instructing is how most professional pilots build the hours to an airline, and it pays while you do it. Adding the instrument instructor rating (CFII) lets you teach instrument students too.
- Why most people do it
- Paid hour building
- CFII adds
- Teaching instrument students
- Also useful for
- Understanding your own flying properly
How the club helps. Several of our Hangar Talk guests have been working CFIs. Come and ask them what it is actually like.
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The Airline Transport Pilot certificate, required to fly for a scheduled airline. 1,500 hours in the standard case, though a restricted ATP at lower hours is available to graduates of qualifying degree programmes.
- Standard requirement
- 1,500 hours
- Restricted ATP
- From 1,000 to 1,250 hours, via qualifying degrees
- Minimum age
- 23, or 21 for restricted
Who can join?
MIT Flying Club is open to all student aviation enthusiasts in the Cambridge/Boston area. Join us for informal gatherings to discuss all things aviation, attend lectures and fly-outs, or simply network.
Take flight
- Exciting aviation activities like fly-outs in the Boston and Massachusetts area
- Opportunities to network, share, and learn about flying
- Access to navigational and instructional materials, aviation books, headsets, U.S. sectional maps, and airport facility directories
- Hangartalks by career pilots and other aeronautics experts
Moments from
the flight line
Fly-outs, hangartalks, first solos, and everything in between.
Hangar talks
and fly-outs
Monthly Hangar Talks with working pilots, simulator nights, and trips out to the airfield. Everything is free and everyone is welcome.
Upcoming
Recently
Flight schools
near MIT
Where club members train, ordered by driving distance. We do not list prices, because we are not endorsing one school over another.
East Coast Aero Club
New England's largest
~15 mi25-30 min
- Hanscom (KBED), Bedford
also Nashua NH (KASH), Norwood (KOWD) - Cessna 172 & 182 (G1000), Piper Warrior / Archer / Arrow / Seminole, Cirrus SR20 & SR22, Super Decathlon, helicopters
- Both, steam and G1000
Horizon Aviation
Cessna Pilot Center
~20-24 mi30-40 min
- Norwood Memorial (KOWD)
also Warwick RI (KPVD) - 13 Cessnas: 152, 172 (R / S / SP), 172S G1000
- Both, steam and G1000
Mitiguy Aviation
Small and personal
~25-27 mi40-50 min
- Minute Man Air Field (6B6), Stow
- Cessna 172 (x3), Piper Warrior, Piper Cherokee (x2)
- Both, steam plus G5 and G1000 NXi
Beverly Flight Center
Cirrus Training Center
~26-27 mi35-45 min
- Beverly Regional (KBVY)
- Piper Warrior / Archer / Arrow, Cessna 172M & 172N, Cirrus SR20 G6 (2022) & SR20 G7+ (2025)
- Both, steam Pipers and glass Cirrus
Avier Flight School
Open since 2014
~27 mi~40 min
- Beverly Regional (KBVY)
- Piper PA-28 family: Archer, Warrior, Cherokee; Cirrus SR22
- Both, steam Pipers and glass Cirrus
FCA Flight Center
At KFIT since 1999
~45 mi~60 min
- Fitchburg Municipal (KFIT)
- Cessna 172 (x4), Cessna 152, Piper Arrow (PA28R), Cirrus SR20 & SR22
- Both, steam Cessnas and glass Cirrus