PilotBound

What flight training costs at Flying Cloud (FCM)

3 schools train at Flying Cloud Airport, Minneapolis. 2 publish a full rate card, shown with its source and date next to a PilotBound estimate. The other one is listed with what they do publish.

Updated October 16, 2026 · All Minnesota flight schools

Estimate cost toflying
Showing 3 of 3 schools

Totals to reach your Private goal at this pace. 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. How we estimate.

Private estimate range across Flying Cloud$18.8K$26.3K

  • Inflight Pilot Training

    Part not stated
    Lowest in MNLargest fleet

    Eden Prairie, MN·inflightpilottraining.com

    $150/hr aircraft (wet)·$150/hr instructor

    Checked October 16, 2026·Source

    This estimate uses Inflight's standard non-member (retail) rates. Inflight members pay roughly $30 to $40 per hour less on aircraft and $30 per hour less on instruction under its paid membership tiers.

    PilotBound estimate, Private

    $21,875

    range $18.8K to $24.9K

    ~72 hrs on their published rates, plus one-time fees.

    Add to my planInflight cost breakdown →

  • AV8 Flight School

    Part 61 & 141

    Eden Prairie, MN·av8flight.com

    $215/hr aircraft (wet)·$90/hr instructor

    Checked September 12, 2026·Source

    Rates are wet and include fuel. They exclude instruction, taxes and MAC fees, which the Metropolitan Airports Commission charges at Flying Cloud and which AV8 does not quantify. AV8 states that it charges no membership fee of any kind. Simulators are $60/hr for the FMX and $49/hr for the crosswind trainer. Instruction in a customer's own aircraft is $100/hr.

    PilotBound estimate, Private

    $23,075

    range $19.8K to $26.3K

    ~72 hrs on their published rates, plus one-time fees.

    Add to my planAV8 cost breakdown →
  • Below: schools without a full published rate card. They cannot be priced, so they sit at the end of a cost sort.

  • Thunderbird Aviation

    Part 61 & 141

    Eden Prairie and Crystal, MN·FCM·thunderbirdaviation.com

    No PilotBound estimate

    Thunderbird does not publish an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    What to ask Thunderbird

Estimates use the same method as every Minnesota school page: PilotBound's own completion-hours model times each school's published rates, plus the one-time fees most quotes leave out. They are ours, not the schools' quotes, and we are not affiliated with the schools. How these estimates work·Disclaimer & removal policy

Discovery flights at FCM 2

Minnesota discovery flights →

Flight school costs at Flying Cloud, in numbers

Computed from the 2 Flying Cloud schools that publish both an aircraft and an instructor rate, on the same method every card above uses. The 1 listing without a full rate card is left out of every figure.

Median PilotBound Private estimate across the 2 schools with published rates
$22,475
Published trainer rental, per hour
$150 to $215
Published instruction, per hour
$90 to $150
Schools publishing a full rate card (aircraft and instructor)
2 of 3

Lowest published trainer rates at Flying Cloud

Part 141 flight schools at Flying Cloud

Other Minnesota airports with flight schools.

All Minnesota flight schools →

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Common questions about flight schools at FCM

How much does flight school cost at Flying Cloud?

Across the 2 Flying Cloud flight schools here that publish full rates, trainer rentals run $150 to $215 per hour and instruction $90 to $150 per hour, checked as recently as October 16, 2026. On each school's own published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate between $21,875 and $23,075, with a median of $22,475. These are PilotBound estimates built on published rates, not quotes from the schools.

What is the cheapest flight school at Flying Cloud?

Inflight Pilot Training in Eden Prairie publishes the lowest trainer rental of the 2 Flying Cloud schools listed here, $150 per hour for its Cessna 152, a wet rate, so fuel is included in the hourly figure, checked October 16, 2026. The lowest hourly rate is not automatically the lowest total: instructor rates, fuel basis, and the hours you actually fly decide that, which is what the per-school estimates on this page hold constant.

How current are these Flying Cloud flight school rates?

Every rate here is the school's own published figure, linked to its source and dated; the newest check at Flying Cloud is October 16, 2026, and each card and school page shows the exact date its rates were read. The directory is re-checked on a monthly cycle, and one more school at Flying Cloud is listed without an estimate because it does not publish a full rate card. A school can correct or remove its listing anytime.

Can I take a discovery flight at FCM?

2 of the 3 schools at Flying Cloud Airport publish a discovery flight price: AV8 Flight School at $305, checked September 14, 2026 and Thunderbird Aviation at $149, checked September 14, 2026. Each is the school's own published price, and the listing says what it includes.