PilotBound estimate · Riverside, CA · Checked September 13, 2026
What flight training at Riverside Flight Academy costs
Website riversideflightacademy.com
Phone (951) 588-6300
Section 1Cost estimate
Your plan
Estimate cost to reach
Flying
Garmin 530.
PilotBound estimate · Private
Examiner dataCost of your Private at Riverside Flight Academy
range $14.3K – $19K · about 6 months at 2×/week
Priced on Riverside Flight Academy's published rates: Cessna 172B at $150/hr + $60/hr instruction, checked September 13, 2026.
Against a minimums quote
+$6,360 on Riverside Flight Academy'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 Riverside Flight Academy's published rates. About $2,375 of this is one-time fees (written test, examiner/DPE checkride, medical, gear), typical national estimates, not Riverside Flight Academy'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 Riverside Flight Academy publishes
checked September 13, 2026Airframes built 1972 to 2017. Years of manufacture from the FAA aircraft registry, read September 16, 2026.
Rates include fuel, and a fuel surcharge is added to every flight without the amount being published, so the hourly figures here are a floor. Instruction is tiered: $60/hr primary, $70/hr advanced and $80/hr multi-engine. Three Redbird simulators are $80/hr for the Skyhawk and the Arrow and $90/hr for the Seminole. Ratings are also sold as fixed-price packages, including a multi-engine add-on at $5,995 covering up to eight hours of dual and two of checkride time with the examiner's fee separate.
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. Riverside Flight Academy does not state whether it trains under Part 61 or Part 141, so the estimate above is built on Part 61 hours.
Section 3Paying for it
Two ways to cover $16,655.
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 $16,655All six lenders in our comparison lend this much. That is whether a loan this size is on offer, not whether you would be approved.
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Section 4Add to my plan
Turn this into a plan.
Your $16,655 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
The marked one is what Riverside Flight Academy's site never answers. The rest are 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.
Which instructor rate applies to each rating I plan to do, and does the higher tier start on day one of that rating?
This school prices some instruction above its primary rate. Knowing when the step-up starts keeps the later ratings from surprising you.
Do you train under Part 61 or Part 141?Missing from their site
It changes the minimum hours, and for some students it changes financing eligibility.
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 Riverside Flight Academy?
- Riverside Flight Academy publishes $150 per hour for the Cessna 172B and $60 per hour for instruction on it, checked September 13, 2026. Applied to those published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate at about $16,655, in a range of $14,300 to $19,000. 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 Riverside Flight Academy.
- How long does it take to get a private pilot license at Riverside Flight Academy?
- Flying twice a week, PilotBound estimates about 6 months at Riverside Flight Academy 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 Riverside Flight Academy a Part 61 or Part 141 flight school?
- Riverside Flight Academy does not state on its own website whether it trains under Part 61 or Part 141, so we do not list one. It is worth asking directly before you enroll: Part 141 follows an FAA-approved syllabus and is generally what VA benefits require, while Part 61 is more flexible on scheduling.
- Do Riverside Flight Academy's aircraft rates include fuel?
- Riverside Flight Academy publishes $150 per hour for the Cessna 172B, 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 13, 2026.
- What ratings can you train for at Riverside Flight Academy?
- Riverside Flight Academy trains Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, Commercial Pilot, Multi-Engine (AMEL) and Flight Instructor. Instruction runs $60 to $80 per hour depending on the rating and the aircraft, since advanced and type-specific instruction is priced above the standard rate. PilotBound's estimator on this page prices any of these paths on Riverside Flight Academy's own published rates.
Section 7Sources
Estimates use Riverside Flight Academy's published Cessna 172B and instructor rates (checked September 13, 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 Riverside Flight Academy. 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 Riverside Flight Academy? Every figure here is yours, shown with its source and date.
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