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What flight training costs at Montana flight schools

Every listing shows the school's own published rates with the source and date, next to an honest PilotBound estimate for your Private pilot certificate. Add any school to your plan to map your whole route on their real rates.

Search, filter by city, and sort by cost. Each card marks where it falls among the state's schools on cost. Estimates are ours, not quotes, and we are not affiliated with these schools. See a wrong number? Every card has a correct-this-listing link.

Estimate cost toflying
Showing 2 of 2 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 Montana

$15.5K more affordablepricier $23.4K

  • Northstar Jet Flight School

    Part 61
    Lowest in MT

    Missoula, MT·neptuneaviation.com/flightschool/

    Published rates

    $165/hr aircraft (wet)+$65/hr instructor

    Verified July 27, 2026·Source

    The school publishes one blanket $165/hr wet aircraft rate (fuel included); individual aircraft/tails are not itemized. Instruction $65/hr.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $15.5K–$20.5K

    ~72 hrs on their published rates, plus one-time fees. An estimate, not a quote.

    Add to my planSee the full breakdown →

    PilotBound is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Northstar Jet Flight School. School names are used only to identify the school.

  • Ridgeline Aviation

    Part not stated
    Largest fleet2 locations

    Bozeman & Billings, MT·flyridgelinemt.com

    Published rates

    $184/hr aircraft (wet)+$85/hr instructor

    Verified July 22, 2026·Source

    Instructor rates vary by base: primary instruction is $85/hr at Bozeman and $72/hr at Billings (advanced $100/$85). This estimate uses the Bozeman rates.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $17.7K–$23.4K

    ~72 hrs on their published rates, plus one-time fees. An estimate, not a quote.

    Add to my planSee the full breakdown →

    PilotBound is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Ridgeline Aviation. School names are used only to identify the school.

How these estimates work

We apply one consistent method to every school: PilotBound's own completion-hours model, examiner-completion data where it exists (like the Private and Commercial) and FAA minimums where no credible public data exists (like the Instrument and CFI), times that school's published aircraft and instructor rates (linked on every card, with the date we verified them), plus the one-time fees most quotes leave out. Holding the hours model identical across schools means the only thing that changes card to card is the school's actual rates.

So the number is PilotBound's estimate, not the school's quote, and it will differ from a school's own cost figures, which are often based on FAA-minimum hours. The schools do not set or endorse it. The result is a range, not a promise.

Want a number tied to your own pace and aircraft choice? Run the estimator or read the full methodology.

These estimates are ours, not the schools' quotes, and we are not affiliated with the schools. A school can correct or remove its listing anytime. Disclaimer & removal policy.