PilotBound

PilotBound estimate · Keene, NH · Checked September 8, 2026

What flight training at Monadnock Choppers costs

Website monadnockchoppers.com

Section 1Cost estimate

Your plan

Estimate cost to reach

Flying

PilotBound estimate · Private

Examiner data

Cost of your Private at Monadnock Choppers

$17,525

range $15.1K – $20K · about 6 months at 2×/week

Priced on Monadnock Choppers's published rates: Piper PA-28 140/160 Cherokee at $150/hr + $75/hr instruction, checked September 8, 2026.

Against a minimums quote

at the FAA legal minimums$10,775
at the hours students actually take$17,525

+$6,750 on Monadnock Choppers's own rates. Quotes usually price the 40-hour minimum; almost nobody finishes there.

Where it goes

$15.1K – $20K
Aircraft rental$10,800
Instruction$4,350
One-time costs$2,375
Aircraft + instruction$15,150
72 hrs in Piper PA-28 140/160 Cherokee @ $150/hr + 58 dual @ $75/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 Monadnock Choppers's published rates. About $2,375 of this is one-time fees (written test, examiner/DPE checkride, medical, gear), typical national estimates, not Monadnock Choppers'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 Monadnock Choppers publishes

checked September 8, 2026
Aeronca 7AC ChampTailwheel. Cheapest here and the aircraft for a tailwheel endorsement rather than a primary trainer.$125/hr fuel basis not stated
Piper PA-28 140/160 Cherokee$150/hr fuel basis not stated
Cessna 172M SkyhawkMonadnock calls this its most popular aircraft and points advanced training at it.$175/hr fuel basis not stated
Instruction$75/hr

Rental rates EXCLUDE instruction, which Monadnock states outright, so a dual hour is the aircraft plus $75. The site does not say whether fuel is included. The helicopter side (an Enstrom 280FX and a Robinson R44) is not modeled here. Its home page still shows an older Cherokee rate and a lower Aeronca rate than the rates page does; the rates page is used. Discovery and photography flights are priced separately by aircraft.

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. Monadnock Choppers's site does not state whether its rates include fuel.

See the published rates →Source 2 →

Section 3Paying for it

Two ways to cover $17,525.

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, plus 1 in New Hampshire. Top awards reach $22,200.
47
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.
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Section 4Add to my plan

Turn this into a plan.

Your $17,525 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 5What to ask

What to ask when you call

The marked one is what Monadnock Choppers'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 6Questions

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 September 8, 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 on top. PilotBound's estimate uses the rate exactly as published. Rates checked September 8, 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.

Section 7Sources

Estimates use Monadnock Choppers's published Piper PA-28 140/160 Cherokee and instructor rates (checked September 8, 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. Disclaimer & removal policy.

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

Send your fuel basis

One other school flies from Dillant-Hopkins Airport.

It does not publish a rate either, so that one is a phone call too. EEN is the identifier to give when you ask.

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