Built for working adults.
Evenings, weekends, and irregular weeks are normal here. Lessons are scheduled around your job, and your training plan adjusts when life does.
Flight training for Opelika, Alabama
A personal flight school within reach of Opelika.
Opelika sits about 45 minutes from Columbus Airport (CSG) down US 280, where Tiger Aviation offers one-on-one flight training by appointment. For working adults in Lee County who want a certificate or rating without enrolling in a university program, this is the personal option.
Your instructor came through Auburn University's Professional Flight program and kept the structure: ordered lessons, clear standards, honest debriefs. What is different is the scale. You fly with the same instructor every lesson, and the plan is built around your schedule, not a class roster.
Getting here
Training happens at Columbus Airport.
From Opelika, US 280 East runs straight toward Columbus; the drive to Columbus Airport takes about 45 minutes. All lessons are by appointment, so your instructor and airplane are ready when you arrive.
Explore TrainingWhy students make this choice
Why Opelika students train with Tiger Aviation.
Make every drive count.
Your instructor sends preparation before you leave home, every flight has a defined objective, and you leave with a debrief that sets up the next lesson. No wasted trips.
Transparent, simple rates.
Aircraft rental is $115 an hour and instruction is $55 an hour, billed as flown. You will always know what your training has cost and what remains.
Rates
What it costs.
You pay for the airplane, the instructor, and fuel at actual cost. Nothing else.
Aircraft rental
$115/hour
Our Piper Warrior, billed on the Hobbs meter. This is a dry rate: fuel is billed separately at what it actually costs, not folded into a padded hourly number.
Flight & ground instruction
$55/hour
One rate for instruction, in the airplane or on the ground. No club membership, no insurance surcharge, no fee for the briefing before and after your flight.
Discovery flight
$150 flat
30 minutes of flight time and about two hours with an instructor. No commitment attached. It is the best way to find out if flying is for you.
Available 7 AM–8 PM daily
Common questions
Questions from Opelika students.
Is the drive from Opelika worth it?
Students who make it work schedule fewer, longer, better-prepared lessons: ground work and a flight in the same visit. Prepared correctly, a 45-minute drive is a small part of a productive training day.
I started training somewhere else. Can I finish here?
Yes. Bring your logbook, we will fly together, and you will get an honest written assessment of where you actually are and what finishing will take.
Do you only train university students?
No. Most inquiries from the Auburn-Opelika area are working adults and teenagers. Auburn University students sometimes train here too, and our Auburn page covers that in detail.
Start with a conversation.
Tell us where you are and what you want to fly. We will give you an honest read on what training from Opelika would look like.
Available 7 AM–8 PM daily