PilotBound
Aerial photo of Dillant Hopkins Airport, Keene, NH
Imagery: USDA NAIP

Monadnock Choppers

Part 61 flight training from Private Pilot through Flight Instructor at Dillant Hopkins Airport.

Checked October 12, 2026 by Samip Shah

At a glance

  • 3 aircraft types.
  • A private pilot certificate here, flying 2x a week, is estimated at $17,525.

Basics

Training rulesPart 61
CertificatesPrivate Pilot, Instrument Rating, Commercial Pilot, Flight Instructor
Websitemonadnockchoppers.com

Aircraft and rates

3 types

An Aeronca Champ
An Aeronca Champ (N2394E), not this school’s aircraft. Photo: Tomás Del Coro from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Aeronca 7AC Champ

Tailwheel.

Rate (fuel basis not stated)
$125/hr

Instruction and rate notes

Checked October 12, 2026
Instruction$75/hr

Rental excludes instruction, so a dual hour is the aircraft plus $75. The school also flies an Enstrom 280FX and a Robinson R44 helicopter, not priced here. The home page still shows an older Cherokee rate and a lower Aeronca rate than the rates page, which is what's shown. Discovery and photography flights are priced by aircraft.

The examiner's checkride fee is paid separately. The website doesn't say whether rates include fuel.

See the published rates →monadnockchoppers.com/airplane-flight-training →

Airport

  • Aerial photo of Dillant Hopkins Airport

    Dillant Hopkins KEEN

    Home field · 2 runways · longest 6,201 ft · asphalt

    View on the map

Aerial imagery: USDA NAIP imagery via the USGS National Map

Weather

306
flyable days a year
May to Sep
most flyable months
23 of 28
in February, the fewest
Flyable 306Low clouds or poor visibility 59
If you start in

In an average year, January to June has 151 flyable days out of 181. That is the six months your estimate covers, marked under the chart.

What counts as a flyable day

Clouds no lower than 3,000 feet and visibility of 5 miles or more (VFR weather) for at least half the hours between 9 am and 5 pm. Hourly observations from the airport's own weather station, 2016 to 2025. Source: Iowa Environmental Mesonet ASOS archive, Iowa State University.

What it costs

Certificate

Flying

Hours

72 hrs
What students typically take.
Where this comes fromExaminer records (DPE dataset).

PilotBound estimate

$17,525

Usually $15,100 to $20,000 · about 6 months

  • Airplane72 hrs in Piper PA-28 140/160 Cherokee × $150/hr$10,800
  • Instructor58 hrs dual × $75/hr$4,350
  • One-time feesWritten test, checkride, medical, headset and more$2,375
    • Knowledge (written) test$175
    • Checkride / DPE fee$800
    • Medical certificate$150
    • Headset$700
    • Ground school / test prep$300
    • Books, charts & supplies$250

The hourly flying is priced on Monadnock Choppers's published rates. The one-time fees are typical national figures, not Monadnock Choppers's prices, and several are set by third parties.

Paying for it

Two ways to cover $17,525.

Win what you can first, then borrow only what is left.

Money you keepScholarships you could apply for43 open to anyone, plus 1 in New Hampshire. Top awards reach $22,200.
44
Money you pay backLenders that cover $17,525All six lenders in our comparison lend this much. That is whether a loan this size is on offer, not whether you would be approved.
6 of 6
See scholarshipsCompare lenders

What to ask when you call

Not on their website

  1. Do the published aircraft rates include fuel, or is fuel billed separately?

    Two rates that look the same can differ by the cost of fuel.

Also ask

  1. What gets billed on top of the hourly rates, and roughly how much per hour does it add?

    Ask for the all-in hourly number, not the base rate.

  2. Do you offer block rates or prepay discounts, and what is the refund policy if I stop partway?

    Block discounts are rarely published, and the refund terms matter more than the discount.

  3. What do you charge for the written test, the checkride, and the examiner's fee?

    The examiner's fee alone runs $800 to $1,200 in most of the country.

  4. How many trainers and how many full-time instructors do you have right now?

    Availability sets your pace, and pace drives your total more than the hourly rate.

In the app

Track it against Monadnock Choppers's rates.

Monadnock Choppers's rate card is in the PilotBound app. Choose Monadnock Choppers when you set up and the app prices your training at its rates, then tracks every flight you log against the projection.

Download on the App Store

Questions

How much does it cost to get a private pilot license at Monadnock Choppers?

Monadnock Choppers publishes $150 per hour for the Piper PA-28 140/160 Cherokee and $75 per hour for instruction on it, checked October 12, 2026. Applied to those published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate at about $17,525, in a range of $15,100 to $20,000. 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 Monadnock Choppers.

How long does it take to get a private pilot license at Monadnock Choppers?

Flying twice a week, PilotBound estimates about 6 months at Monadnock Choppers 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 Monadnock Choppers a Part 61 or Part 141 flight school?

Monadnock Choppers 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 Monadnock Choppers's aircraft rates include fuel?

Monadnock Choppers publishes $150 per hour for the Piper PA-28 140/160 Cherokee, 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. Rates checked October 12, 2026.

What ratings can you train for at Monadnock Choppers?

Monadnock Choppers trains Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, Commercial Pilot and Flight Instructor. Instruction is $75 per hour across the ratings it teaches. PilotBound's estimator on this page prices any of these paths on Monadnock Choppers's own published rates.

Sources

Estimates use Monadnock Choppers's published Piper PA-28 140/160 Cherokee and instructor rates (checked October 12, 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 Monadnock Choppers. 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. Methodology · Disclaimer & removal policy.

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

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