What flight training costs at Reno flight schools

4 schools train out of Reno. One publishes a full rate card, shown with its source and date next to a PilotBound estimate. The other 3 are listed with what they do publish.

One field: Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO). Updated October 16, 2026 · All Nevada flight schools

Estimate cost toflying
Showing 4 of 4 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 Reno$16K$21.2K
  • Reno, NV·biggestlittleflightschool.com

    $169/hr aircraft (wet)·$70/hr instructor

    Checked September 10, 2026·Source

    Published rates are wet. Instruction is posted per instructor: $70/hr primary and $80/hr advanced, the same two figures for every instructor on staff, with the chief pilot at a flat $80/hr. The site does not define where primary ends and advanced begins, so this estimate applies the advanced rate to everything past the Private. The advanced/complex line uses the Piper Arrow, the one retractable; the school also badges one $175 Cessna 172 as TAA-qualified, which can serve the commercial's ten complex-or-TAA hours for less. A PFC12 AATD simulator is published at $85/hr and is not part of this estimate. Multi-engine training is referred to Sierra Flight Training, a separate business at the same airport, so no multi-engine estimate is offered here even though the two Twin Comanches carry published rates.

    PilotBound estimate, Private

    $18,603

    range $16K to $21.2K

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

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  • Below: schools without a full published rate card. They cannot be priced, so they sit at the end of a cost sort.
  • FlyReno

    Part 61 & 141

    Reno, NV·RNO·flyreno.com

    $400/hr aircraft·instructor rate not published

    Checked September 13, 2026·Source·2 aircraft published

    A multi-engine-only Part 141 school: the Twin Comanche is $400/hr wet and the 310 $500/hr wet, multi-engine dual is $590/hr wet with instruction included, advanced ground $90/hr and simulator instruction $60/hr, plus a fixed-price multi add-on at $8,900 for up to 15 hours. No single-engine airplane and no separate instructor rate.

    No PilotBound estimate

    FlyReno does not publish an instructor rate

    What to ask FlyReno
  • Great Basin Aviation

    Part not stated

    Reno, NV·RNO·greatbasinaviation.com

    Checked October 16, 2026·Source

    Great Basin prices a discovery flight and nothing else by the hour. Its rate page is gone and the site now asks you to call: "Give us a call for rates on the most common requested services". The fleet page still names nine tails with their avionics, and points at a rate sheet it does not carry.

    No PilotBound estimate

    Great Basin Aviation does not publish an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    What to ask Great Basin Aviation
  • NV Flight

    Part not stated

    Reno, NV·RNO·nvflight.com

    No PilotBound estimate

    NV Flight does not publish an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    What to ask NV Flight

Estimates use the same method as every Nevada 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

Flight school costs in Reno, in numbers

Computed from the 1 Reno school that publishes both an aircraft and an instructor rate, on the same method every card below uses. The 3 listings without a full rate card are left out of every figure.

PilotBound Private estimate at the one school with published rates
$18,603
Published trainer rental, per hour
$169/hr
Published instruction, per hour
$70 to $80
Schools publishing a full rate card (aircraft and instructor)
1 of 4

Lowest published trainer rates in Reno

Part 141 flight schools in Reno

Airports with Reno flight schools

Common questions about Reno flight schools

How much does flight school cost in Reno?

Biggest Little Flight School in Reno is the one Reno school here with a full published rate card: $169 per hour for its Cessna 172N and $70 per hour for instruction, checked September 10, 2026. On those published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate at about $18,603. That is a PilotBound estimate, not a quote from the school.

How current are these Reno flight school rates?

Every rate here is the school's own published figure, linked to its source and dated; the newest check in Reno 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 3 more schools in Reno are listed without an estimate because they do not publish a full rate card. A school can correct or remove its listing anytime.

Which Reno airports have flight schools?

One field carries the listed schools: Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO) with 4. A school that does not state its field on the pages we read is counted in Reno without one.