PilotBound

Published rates, sourced · Updated September 16, 2026

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.

Across the 7 Montana schools here with published rates, trainer rentals run $119 to $184 per hour and instruction $55 to $100, and PilotBound's private pilot estimate lands between $15,285 and $20,553, with a median of $17,375.

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 1–12 of 20 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

lowest $13.1Khighest $23.4K

  • Angle of Attack AEROnautics

    Part not stated
    Lowest in MT

    Anaconda, MT·aoaaeronautics.com

    Published rates

    $135/hr aircraft (fuel basis not stated)+$55/hr instructor

    Checked September 5, 2026·Source

    The Cessna 172 is $135/hr, instruction $55/hr and the AATD simulator $85/hr, all from the school's rates block; wet or dry is not stated. The Cessna 310R is sold as a packaged multi-engine add-on rather than by the hour and is not priced here. Training is by appointment only. Butte Aviation, rated, shares the same Butte address.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $15,285

    range $13.1K – $17.4K

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

    Add to my planAoA AEROnautics cost breakdown →

  • Fly With Virga

    Part not stated

    Livingston, MT·flywithvirga.com

    Published rates

    $119/hr aircraft (dry, fuel billed separately)+$75/hr instructor

    Checked September 12, 2026·Source

    The aircraft is billed DRY on TACH time: the renter buys fuel afterwards for what was burned, and the school's own example is that a local flight logging 1.0 hour pays 0.8 tach. It estimates 6 to 7 gallons per hour, so add current avgas to the figure here. Instruction is billed on BLOCK time, engine start to shutdown, which is a different clock from the aircraft's. Cross-country reservations averaging 4 hours a day drop to $99/hr, and $98/hr if you fly to First Flight Airport. Ground instruction is $65/hr. A footnote on the same page works its rounding example from $109/hr rather than the $119/hr headline, so confirm which is current.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $15,293

    range $13.2K – $17.4K

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

    Add to my planFly With Virga cost breakdown →

  • Butte Aviation

    Part not stated

    Butte, MT·butteaviation.com

    Published rates

    $150/hr aircraft (fuel basis not stated)+$60/hr instructor

    Checked September 5, 2026·Source

    Aircraft rental for training is $150/hr and the instructor $60/hr on the flight-school page, which does not say whether fuel is included. A blog post on the same site quotes the airplane at $130/hr, so the figure has moved; the flight-school page is used. Upset recovery, spin, high-performance and complex training are also offered.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $16,655

    range $14.3K – $19K

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

    Add to my planButte Aviation cost breakdown →

  • Blue Goose Aviation

    Part not stated

    Polson, MT·bluegooseaviation.com

    Published rates

    $160/hr aircraft (fuel basis not stated)+$60/hr instructor

    Checked September 12, 2026·Source

    Blue Goose publishes its three aircraft at two different price sets on two pages, about $20 apart, with no date on either. The higher figures from the aircraft-for-rent page are used here. Instruction in a student's own aircraft is $70/hr, which is not the rate used. Two simulators are $50/hr each plus the instructor. The Cessna 182G is insured for dual only.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $17,375

    range $14.9K – $19.8K

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

    Add to my planBlue Goose cost breakdown →

  • Northstar Jet Flight School

    Part 61

    Missoula, MT·neptuneaviation.com/flightschool/

    Published rates

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

    Checked September 16, 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

    $18,025

    range $15.5K – $20.5K

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

    Add to my planNorthstar Jet cost breakdown →

  • Cloud Catcher Aviation

    Part not stated

    Great Falls, MT·cloudcatcherav.com

    Published rates

    $175/hr aircraft (wet)+$85/hr instructor

    Checked September 12, 2026·Source

    Both aircraft carry a block rate $5/hr lower when ten hours are bought up front; the standard rates are used here. The instructor rate is published on the ground-training page and the site gives no separate figure for flight instruction. Cloud Catcher will also instruct in a student's own aircraft.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $19,905

    range $17.1K – $22.7K

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

    Add to my planCloud Catcher cost breakdown →

  • Ridgeline Aviation

    Part not stated
    Largest fleet2 locations

    Bozeman & Billings, MT·flyridgelinemt.com

    Published rates

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

    Checked September 8, 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

    $20,553

    range $17.7K – $23.4K

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

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

  • A-Tec Aircraft Maintenance Center

    Part not stated

    Hamilton, MT·HRF

    Published rates

    aircraft rate not published+instructor rate not published

    No PilotBound estimate

    A-Tec does not publish a website, an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    Nothing to total without it.

    See what to ask themWhat they do publish →

  • Backcountry Flying Experience

    Part not stated

    Bigfork, MT·S27·backcountryflyingexperience.com

    Published rates

    aircraft rate not published+instructor rate not published

    No PilotBound estimate

    Backcountry Flying does not publish an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    Nothing to total without it.

    See what to ask themWhat they do publish →

  • Bitterroot Aviation

    Part not stated

    Stevensville, MT·32S·bitterrootaviation.com

    Published rates

    aircraft rate not published+instructor rate not published

    No PilotBound estimate

    Bitterroot does not publish an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    Nothing to total without it.

    See what to ask themWhat they do publish →

  • Bridger Aviation Services

    Part not stated

    Three Forks, MT·9S5

    Published rates

    aircraft rate not published+instructor rate not published

    No PilotBound estimate

    Bridger Aviation does not publish a website, an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    Nothing to total without it.

    See what to ask themWhat they do publish →

  • Dillon Flying Service

    Part not stated

    Dillon, MT·DLN·dillonflyingservice.com

    Published rates

    aircraft rate not published+instructor rate not published

    No PilotBound estimate

    Dillon Flying does not publish an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    Nothing to total without it.

    See what to ask themWhat they do publish →

Flight school costs in Montana, in numbers

Computed from the 7 Montana schools that publish both an aircraft and an instructor rate, on the same method every card above uses. The 13 listings without a full rate card are left out of every figure.

$17,375
Median PilotBound Private estimate across the 7 schools with published rates
$119 to $184
Published trainer rental, per hour
$55 to $100
Published instruction, per hour
7 of 20
Schools publishing a full rate card (aircraft and instructor)

Lowest published trainer rates in Montana

Part 141 flight schools in Montana

Airports with more than one Montana flight school

Discovery flights in Montana

2 Montana schools publish a discovery flight price, median $112. See each price with its source

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.

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.

Common questions about Montana flight schools

How much does flight school cost in Montana?
Across the 7 Montana flight schools here that publish full rates, trainer rentals run $119 to $184 per hour and instruction $55 to $100 per hour, checked as recently as September 16, 2026. On each school's own published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate between $15,285 and $20,553, with a median of $17,375. These are PilotBound estimates built on published rates, not quotes from the schools.
What is the cheapest flight school in Montana?
Fly With Virga in Livingston publishes the lowest trainer rental of the 7 Montana schools listed here, $119 per hour for its Champ, a dry rate, so fuel is billed separately on top, checked September 12, 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 Montana flight school rates?
Every rate here is the school's own published figure, linked to its source and dated; the newest check in Montana is September 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 13 more schools in Montana are listed without an estimate because they do not publish a full rate card. A school can correct or remove its listing anytime.