PilotBound

PilotBound estimate · North Las Vegas, NV · Checked September 10, 2026

What flight training at Vegas Aviation costs

Website vegasaviation.com

Phone (888) 235-9834

Section 1Cost estimate

Your plan

Estimate cost to reach

Flying

A fleet of eight, priced as one line rather than per tail.

PilotBound estimate · Private

Examiner data

Cost of your Private at Vegas Aviation

$18,455

range $15.9K – $21K · about 6 months at 2×/week

Priced on Vegas Aviation's published rates: Cessna 172 at $175/hr + $60/hr instruction, checked September 10, 2026.

Against a minimums quote

at the FAA legal minimums$11,295
at the hours students actually take$18,455

+$7,160 on Vegas Aviation's own rates. Quotes usually price the 40-hour minimum; almost nobody finishes there.

Where it goes

$15.9K – $21K
Aircraft rental$12,600
Instruction$3,480
One-time costs$2,375
Aircraft + instruction$16,080
72 hrs in Cessna 172 @ $175/hr + 58 dual @ $60/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 Vegas Aviation's published rates. About $2,375 of this is one-time fees (written test, examiner/DPE checkride, medical, gear), typical national estimates, not Vegas Aviation'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 →

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Section 2The rate card

What Vegas Aviation publishes

checked September 10, 2026
Cessna 172 (180hp, dual Garmin G5, 430W)A fleet of eight, priced as one line rather than per tail.$175/hr fuel basis not stated
Beechcraft Duchess (twin)Two of them. Prices the multi-engine add-on and the MEI.$425/hr fuel basis not stated
Instruction$60/hr

Vegas Aviation publishes these as "starting at" rates and does not state whether fuel is included. Instruction is a flat $60/hr, billed on top of the aircraft rate, and the same figure covers ground, flight, single-engine and multi-engine. An AATD simulator is published at $75/hr and is not part of this estimate. The school publishes no complex single, so the commercial's ten complex-or-TAA hours are estimated at a regional average rather than a Vegas Aviation figure; its own commercial cost table does not itemize those hours either.

The examiner's checkride fee is not on this card: the examiner sets it, not the school. The estimate above includes PilotBound's own figure for it. Vegas Aviation's site does not state whether its rates include fuel.

See the published rates →Source 2 →

Section 3Discovery flight

$100

Checked September 14, 2026

A 30 to 60 minute lesson, depending on conditions.

Book on their siteCall (888) 235-9834

Discovery flight prices in Nevada

Section 4Paying for it

Two ways to cover $18,455.

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.

Money you keepScholarships you could apply for46 open to anyone. Top awards reach $22,200.No Nevada-only awards in the directory yet.
46
Money you pay backLenders that cover $18,455All 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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Section 5Add to my plan

Turn this into a plan.

Your $18,455 is the starting line. Turn it into a route to your checkride, every step in order with this cost built in.

Add to my plan

Section 6What to ask

What to ask when you call

The marked one is what Vegas Aviation's site never answers. The rest are what turns an hourly rate into a real bill.

  1. Do the published aircraft rates include fuel, or is fuel billed separately?Missing from their site

    The site does not say, and it is the difference between two rates that look identical and are not.

  2. 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.

  3. Does the instructor rate change for the Instrument, Commercial, or CFI, or is it flat across everything?

    Plenty of schools charge more for advanced instruction. A flat rate quoted for the Private can climb later.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

Section 7Questions

How much does it cost to get a private pilot license at Vegas Aviation?
Vegas Aviation publishes $175 per hour for the Cessna 172 and $60 per hour for instruction on it, checked September 10, 2026. Applied to those published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate at about $18,455, in a range of $15,900 to $21,000. 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 Vegas Aviation.
How long does it take to get a private pilot license at Vegas Aviation?
Flying twice a week, PilotBound estimates about 6 months at Vegas Aviation 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 Vegas Aviation a Part 61 or Part 141 flight school?
Vegas Aviation 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 Vegas Aviation's aircraft rates include fuel?
Vegas Aviation publishes $175 per hour for the Cessna 172, a rate that does not say whether fuel is included. Ask before you budget: if the rate turns out to be dry, fuel adds roughly $30 to $60 per hour on top. PilotBound's estimate uses the rate exactly as published. Rates checked September 10, 2026.
What ratings can you train for at Vegas Aviation?
Vegas Aviation trains Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, Commercial Pilot, Multi-Engine (AMEL), Flight Instructor, Instrument Instructor and Multi-Engine Instructor. Instruction is $60 per hour across the ratings it teaches. PilotBound's estimator on this page prices any of these paths on Vegas Aviation's own published rates.

Section 8Sources

Estimates use Vegas Aviation's published Cessna 172 and instructor rates (checked September 10, 2026), shown in USD for planning only. Real cost varies by student, weather, and pace. A range, not a quote.

PilotBound is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Vegas Aviation. 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.

Are you Vegas Aviation? Every figure here is yours, shown with its source and date.

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7 other schools fly from North Las Vegas Airport.

4 of them publish at least one rate. VGT is the identifier to give when you ask.

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