Learn to fly over
Lake Superior.
Superior Flying Services is a small flight school at KSUW where four full-time instructors know every student by name. You don’t need experience, a plan, or a pilot in the family — you need one first flight.
Nobody here started out a pilot. One flight, one instructor, one afternoon — and nothing to decide once you land.
ROLLING OUT OF SUPERIOR ▾
Five airplanes. Four instructors. One field.
That is the entire school, and it is the point of it.
Part 61 · in-house maintenance · flying seven days a week
One flight, and you’ll know.
A Discovery Flight is a real first lesson: you sit in the left seat, you take the controls, and a certified flight instructor is beside you the whole time. The time you log counts toward your license.
- :01 Before you fly — Meet your instructor and walk the airplane
- :02 In the air — You take the controls
- :03 Back on the ramp — Log the time, ask anything
Calvin Kramp
CFII / MEI · Airport Manager, KSUW · B.S. Aviation Management & Flight Operations, University of Dubuque (2006)
You’ll fly with somebody who works at this airport every day.
$125 · Discovery Flight
You take the controls · it counts in your logbook
Maintained in our own hangar — which is why the airplanes are actually here.
N616SK Cessna 172 Skyhawk · The glass-panel trainer 
- Four Cessna 172s — 160 and 180 HP, VFR and IFR certified
- 1983 Piper Seneca III for multi-engine training
- Glass and steam gauges: dual G5s, Garmin G500, GTN 375, 430W
- PFC DCX Max advanced aviation training device — $65/hr
Fly with confidence.
Big-airport capability without the big-airport hassle: a full-service FBO, our own maintenance hangar, and instructors who fly with you from a first Discovery Flight all the way to a commercial checkride. Duluth is only fifteen minutes away — we’re closer than you think.
Maintenance in our own hangar
Our maintenance happens here on the field, not at a shop three states away. That means limited aircraft downtime — and a lesson that actually happens on the day you booked it.
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Scheduled around your life
Instruction is one-on-one and paced to how you learn. Lessons are scheduled around your availability, seven days a week, and ground school happens here too.
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Instructors at every level
Four full-time FAA-certified instructors cover Private through Instrument, Commercial, Multi-Engine and CFI — plus proficiency checks and flight reviews for pilots coming back after time away.
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A small school, on purpose
We’re the Twin Ports’ local aviation hub, and we stayed small deliberately: each student’s progress matters here, and you will never be a number on a dispatch board.
First lesson to airline minimums, without changing schools.
Don’t know which rating you want yet? Half an hour with Calvin sorts it →
We publish our rates. All of them.
Superior Flying publishes its rates: Cessna 172s from $145 per hour wet, instruction at $85 per hour, and a $125 Discovery Flight — and how often you fly is the single biggest factor in what a certificate ends up costing. You can also fund the whole path at once — how students pay for training.
Book a Discovery Flight — $125The five things people ask first.
Do I need any previous experience to start?
No. Most people who walk in here have never touched an airplane, and nothing about a first lesson assumes you have. A Discovery Flight is built for exactly that: you take the controls with a certified flight instructor beside you the whole time.
What is a Discovery Flight?
A Discovery Flight is a real introductory lesson, not a scenic ride — you sit at the controls of one of our Cessna 172s with an FAA-certified flight instructor next to you. It is $125, and the time you log counts toward your pilot license.
Is it safe?
Training aircraft are built for exactly this. Our Cessna 172s and the Piper Seneca have dual controls, so your instructor can take over instantly at any moment, and every airplane is maintained in our own hangar here on the field rather than shipped out to a shop. We also cancel for weather without argument — a lesson is easy to move, and no instructor here will fly you into conditions they aren’t comfortable in.
How much does it cost to earn a Private Pilot License?
We publish hourly rates rather than one package price, because the total depends on how often you fly. A Cessna 172 is $145–$155 per hour wet and instruction is $85 per hour, paid lesson by lesson. The FAA minimum for a Private Pilot certificate is 40 hours and most people need more — flying consistently is what keeps that number down. Call 715-394-6444 and we will work the figure out with you.
How do I get started?
Call us at 715-394-6444, or send the form on this site and we will call you back. From there the first step is a Discovery Flight: $125, one flight, one instructor, and time that counts toward your license.
Back on the ramp at Superior. Somebody is still in the office.
Ready for your first flight?
Book the flight, or call the field first — the phone is answered by somebody who flies here, and five minutes usually settles it.
Take the seat
$125 · one flight · it counts in your logbook
Book a Discovery Flight — $125 Speak to an advisorYou’re back over Duluth · Hermantown · Cloquet · Ashland