PilotBound
PilotBound

PilotBound estimate · Greenwood & Danville, IN · Checked September 3, 2026

What flight training at BOLDFlight costs

Website flyboldflight.com

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Flying

PilotBound estimate · Private

Examiner data

Cost of your Private at BOLDFlight

$18,745

range $16.1K – $21.4K · about 6 months at 2×/week

Priced on BOLDFlight's published rates: Piper Cherokee at $175/hr + $65/hr instruction, checked September 3, 2026.

Against a minimums quote

at the FAA legal minimums$11,455
at the hours students actually take$18,745

+$7,290 on BOLDFlight's own rates. Quotes usually price the 40-hour minimum; almost nobody finishes there.

Where it goes

$16.1K – $21.4K
Aircraft rental$12,600
Instruction$3,770
One-time costs$2,375
Aircraft + instruction$16,370
72 hrs in Piper Cherokee @ $175/hr + 58 dual @ $65/hr

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
Hours at a steady pace72 hrs

Examiner records (DPE dataset).

The hourly flying is priced on BOLDFlight's published rates. About $2,375 of this is one-time fees (written test, examiner/DPE checkride, medical, gear), typical national estimates, not BOLDFlight'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 →

What BOLDFlight publishes

checked September 3, 2026

Greenwood (Indy South Greenwood, KHFY)

Piper Cherokee$175/hr wet
Piper Archer II$195/hr wet

Danville (Hendricks County, 2R2)

Cessna 172 (N5346D)$195/hr wet
Cessna 172 (N1057F)$195/hr wet
Cessna 172 (N6392Y)$195/hr wet
Cessna 172 (N4893G)The sheet prices this tail above the other 172s and does not say why.$225/hr wet
Cessna 172 (N678RB)The sheet prices this tail above the other 172s and does not say why.$225/hr wet
Instructionstandard $65/hr · instrument instruction $70/hr$65 – $70/hr

Rates include fuel and exclude tax, per the school's 2026 rate sheet. BOLDFlight publishes no rates on its site and sent the sheet to PilotBound on September 3, 2026; the source link is that sheet. Instruction is $65/hr, or $70/hr for instrument work. A 5% discount applies to $1,000 or more prepaid. The sheet also prices a five-day multi-engine add-on at Greenwood at $5,495 with additional hours at $450, which is a course rather than an hourly twin rate and is not modeled, and an introductory flight at $149 for 30 minutes or $199 for an hour, tax included.

Not published: the examiner's checkride fee. Listed as missing rather than guessed.

See the published rates→

Paying for it

Two ways to cover $18,745.

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.

Scholarships you could apply forTop awards reach $22,200. Every dollar won is a dollar you never finance.
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Lenders that cover $18,745All 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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Next leg

Turn this into a plan.

Your $18,745 is the starting line. Turn it into a route to your checkride, every step in order with this cost built in.

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What to ask when you call

What turns an hourly rate into a real bill.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

Estimates use BOLDFlight's published Piper Cherokee and instructor rates (checked September 3, 2026), shown in USD for planning only. Real cost varies by student, weather, and pace. An honest range, not a quote.

PilotBound is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by BOLDFlight. 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.

Common questions about BOLDFlight

How much does it cost to get a private pilot license at BOLDFlight?
BOLDFlight publishes $175 per hour for the Piper Cherokee and $65 per hour for instruction on it, checked September 3, 2026. Applied to those published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate at about $18,745, in a range of $16,100 to $21,400. 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 BOLDFlight.
How long does it take to get a private pilot license at BOLDFlight?
Flying twice a week, PilotBound estimates about 6 months at BOLDFlight 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 BOLDFlight a Part 61 or Part 141 flight school?
BOLDFlight 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 BOLDFlight's aircraft rates include fuel?
BOLDFlight publishes $175 per hour for the Piper Cherokee, 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 3, 2026.
What ratings can you train for at BOLDFlight?
BOLDFlight trains Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, Commercial Pilot and Multi-Engine (AMEL). Instruction runs $65 to $70 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 BOLDFlight's own published rates.

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