"Jay Honeck" wrote in
oups.com:

The lower-priced flight school at my field is now the Cessna Pilot
Center (which was higher priced in 2001). Over the years, there prices
have inflated as well. They train in Millenium edition Cessna 172 (year
2000 or later) at about $120/hr wet. The instructor is $46/hr. They cut
the prices 10% if you pay a $600 club fee.

If I did it again at today's rates, It would probably cost me betwen
$10k and $12k..

Only if you're crazy, wealthy, or both.

There are plenty of flight schools that will rent you a 152 for $70/hr
wet, and lots of CFIs that still work for $20 - $25/hr.

Not in the NYC area...

When I first went to investigate my flight training, I stopped into
MillionAir at TEB. They had a 152 for about $60/hr wet.

When I asked them about training in it, they told me they didn't have an
instructor small enough to be able to do it right now. It was an incentive
for me to lose about 40lbs (most of which I have since gained back,
admittedly, and am trying to lose it again). But I haven't weighed 170 since
I was in 7th grade...

I don't consider myself overly wealthy or overly crazy (maybe just a little
of each). But I do value my time at a rate that would make it illogical to
drive 2 hours round trip for a 90 minute flight lesson in order to save
$50... If you factor in the cost of gas and wear and tear on the car, plus
the likelihood that I might get stuck in traffic and be there longer than 2
hours, it's not a very good investment.

The reality is that it is making it tougher for people to get private pilot
training in this area. I tried to convince my cousin to start flying -
actually, I didn't have to work very hard. He was really eager to do it
without much prodding from me. I took him with me on a few flights, including
the NYC Hudson River tour. He went for a discovery flight, looked around at a
couple of flight schools, and even looked into getting financing for his
training. He was serious.

But in the end, he couldn't justify it because the cost was more than he
could bear.