PilotBound estimate · Cameron Park, CA · Checked September 12, 2026
What flight training at Foothill Flight Center costs
Website foothillflightcenter.com
Phone (530) 303 8137
Section 1Cost estimate
Your plan
Estimate cost to reach
Flying
Two-seat tailwheel trainer. The fleet page lists it for Sport Pilot, Private Pilot, and tailwheel endorsements.
PilotBound estimate · Private
Examiner dataCost of your Private at Foothill Flight Center
range $17.2K – $22.9K · about 6 months at 2×/week
Priced on Foothill Flight Center's published rates: Rans S-7LS Courier at $165/hr + $100/hr instruction, checked September 12, 2026.
Against a minimums quote
+$7,880 on Foothill Flight Center's own rates. Quotes usually price the 40-hour minimum; almost nobody finishes there.
Where it goes
One-time fees ($2,375)
- Knowledge (written) test$175
- Checkride / DPE fee$800
- Medical certificate$150
- Headset$700
- Ground school / test prep$300
- Books, charts & supplies$250
Examiner records (DPE dataset).
The hourly flying is priced on Foothill Flight Center's published rates. About $2,375 of this is one-time fees (written test, examiner/DPE checkride, medical, gear), typical national estimates, not Foothill Flight Center's prices, and several are set by third parties.
Estimates use PilotBound's own completion-hours model, examiner-completion data where it exists and FAA minimums where it does not, applied to each school's published rates. They are PilotBound estimates, not the school's quote, and will differ from a school's own figures. Full methodology and sources →
Put this calculator on your siteSection 2The rate card
What Foothill Flight Center publishes
checked September 12, 2026Rates are wet. The instruction rate is stamped effective July 2024. Foothill is a tailwheel and aerobatic specialist: every airplane on the current fleet page is a taildragger, two of them aerobatic types used for spin and upset training rather than primary instruction.
The examiner's checkride fee is not on this card: the examiner sets it, not the school. The estimate above includes PilotBound's own figure for it.
Section 3Paying for it
Two ways to cover $20,055.
Win what you can first, then borrow only what is left. Neither figure assumes anything about you: one is what our scholarship directory holds, the other is what the lenders publish.
- Money you keepScholarships you could apply for46 open to anyone, plus 1 in California. Top awards reach $22,200.
- Hiller Aviation Museum Flight Training Scholarship$15,000 · San Francisco Bay Area · Opens Feb 5, 2027
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- Money you pay backLenders that cover $20,055Five of the six lenders in our comparison lend this much. That is whether a loan this size is on offer, not whether you would be approved.
- 5 of 6
Section 4Add to my plan
Turn this into a plan.
Your $20,055 is the starting line. Turn it into a route to your checkride, every step in order with this cost built in.
Add to my planSection 5What to ask
What to ask when you call
What turns an hourly rate into a real bill.
What gets billed on top of the hourly rates, and roughly how much per hour does it add?
The site notes extras beyond the hourly figures. Ask for the all-in number per hour, not the base rate.
Does the instructor rate change for the Instrument, Commercial, or CFI, or is it flat across everything?
Plenty of schools charge more for advanced instruction. A flat rate quoted for the Private can climb later.
Do you offer block rates or prepay discounts, and what is the refund policy if I stop partway?
Block discounts are common and rarely published. The refund terms matter more than the discount.
What do you charge for the written test, the checkride, and the examiner's fee?
The DPE fee alone runs $800 to $1,200 in most of the country and is almost never in a quoted hourly rate.
How many trainers and how many full-time instructors do you have right now?
Availability decides your pace, and pace decides your total more than the hourly rate does.
Section 6Questions
- How much does it cost to get a private pilot license at Foothill Flight Center?
- Foothill Flight Center publishes $165 per hour for the Rans S-7LS Courier and $100 per hour for instruction on it, checked September 12, 2026. Applied to those published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate at about $20,055, in a range of $17,200 to $22,900. That covers roughly 72 hours of flying and instruction plus the one-time fees most quotes leave out, including the written test, the examiner's checkride fee, a medical, and study materials. It is a PilotBound estimate built on the school's published rates, not a quote from Foothill Flight Center.
- How long does it take to get a private pilot license at Foothill Flight Center?
- Flying twice a week, PilotBound estimates about 6 months at Foothill Flight Center to reach the private pilot checkride, at roughly 72 hours. Pace is the single biggest variable: flying once a week typically stretches the timeline and raises the total, because time between lessons gets spent re-learning. Weather, aircraft availability, and instructor turnover all push the same direction.
- Is Foothill Flight Center a Part 61 or Part 141 flight school?
- Foothill Flight Center trains under Part 61, the flexible path. There is no FAA-approved syllabus to follow, so lessons can be scheduled around your life and adapted to your pace. The tradeoff is a slightly higher paper minimum for the private certificate (40 hours versus 35) and, for most students, no VA benefit eligibility.
- Do Foothill Flight Center's aircraft rates include fuel?
- Foothill Flight Center publishes $165 per hour for the Rans S-7LS Courier, a wet rate, so fuel is included in the hourly figure. A wet rate is the easier one to compare, because the number you see is the number you fly on. Rates checked September 12, 2026.
- What ratings can you train for at Foothill Flight Center?
- Foothill Flight Center trains Private Pilot. Instruction is $100 per hour across the ratings it teaches. PilotBound's estimator on this page prices any of these paths on Foothill Flight Center's own published rates.
Section 7Sources
Estimates use Foothill Flight Center's published Rans S-7LS Courier and instructor rates (checked September 12, 2026), shown in USD for planning only. Real cost varies by student, weather, and pace. A range, not a quote.
PilotBound is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Foothill Flight Center. School names are used only to identify the school. Estimates use PilotBound's own completion-hours model, examiner-completion data where it exists and FAA minimums where it does not, applied to each school's published rates. They are PilotBound estimates, not the school's quote, and will differ from a school's own figures. Disclaimer & removal policy.
Are you Foothill Flight Center? Every figure here is yours, shown with its source and date.
2 other schools fly from Cameron Airpark.
1 of them publishes at least one rate. O61 is the identifier to give when you ask.
- Peterson AviationFull rate card, Cessna 172 at $195/hr and $80/hr instructionCameron Park
- FlightimePublishes no ratesCameron Airpark
Other California flight schools
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- A.F.I.T. Accelerated Flight and Instrument Training · Newport Beach
- Above All Aviation · Santa Barbara
- Acampo Flying Club · Acampo
- Aces High Aviation · Long Beach
- ActivePILOT Flight Academy · Van Nuys
- Advantage Aviation · Palo Alto
- Adventure Air · Chino
- Adventure Flight · Lincoln
All California flight schoolsAll Cameron Park flight schools
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