What flight training at Richmor Aviation costs

Scotia, NY · Checked October 20, 2026

Website richmorflightschool.com

Phone (518) 399-8171

Cost estimate

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Flying

Two-seat, and the airplane Richmor's own Private course is costed in. Includes fuel, billed on Hobbs time.

PilotBound estimate · Private

Examiner data

Cost of your Private at Richmor Aviation

$16,155

range $13.9K – $18.4K · about 6 months at 2×/week

Priced on Richmor's published rates: Cessna 152 at $135/hr + $70/hr instruction, checked October 20, 2026.

Against a minimums quote

at the FAA legal minimums$10,015
at the hours students actually take$16,155

+$6,140 on Richmor's own rates. Quotes usually price the 40-hour minimum; almost nobody finishes there.

Where it goes

$13.9K – $18.4K
Aircraft rental$9,720
Instruction$4,060
One-time costs$2,375
Aircraft + instruction$13,780
72 hrs in Cessna 152 @ $135/hr + 58 dual @ $70/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 Richmor Aviation's published rates. About $2,375 of this is one-time fees (written test, examiner/DPE checkride, medical, gear), typical national estimates, not Richmor 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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The rate card

What Richmor publishes

Checked October 20, 2026
Cessna 152Two-seat, and the airplane Richmor's own Private course is costed in. Includes fuel, billed on Hobbs time.$135/hr wet
Cessna 172Includes fuel, billed on Hobbs time. The airplane the Instrument course is costed in.$170/hr wet
Instruction$70/hr

Renting from Richmor means joining as a renter member, which is $25 a month on top of the hourly rate. The hourly rates include fuel and are billed on Hobbs time, and Richmor reserves the right to add a fuel surcharge on 30 days' notice. The instruction figure is what the courses itemise for ground and pre and post flight briefing, and it is also exactly the gap between each airplane's rental rate and its dual rate. The Instrument course flies 14 of its hours in a RedBird simulator, priced below the airplane. Richmor also has bases at Kingston-Ulster and Columbia County airports; these rates come from the operations manual that covers all three.

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. Richmor trains under both parts, and the estimate above is built on Part 61 hours.

Paying for it

Two ways to cover $16,155.

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 for50 open to anyone, plus 1 in New York. Top awards reach $22,200.
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Money you pay backLenders that cover $16,155All 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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Your $16,155 is the starting line. Turn it into a route to your checkride, every step in order with this cost built in.

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In the app

Track it against Richmor's rates.

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

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What to ask

What to ask when you call

What turns an hourly rate into a real bill.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

Questions

How much does it cost to get a private pilot license at Richmor Aviation?

Richmor Aviation publishes $135 per hour for the Cessna 152 and $70 per hour for instruction on it, checked October 20, 2026. Applied to those published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate at about $16,155, in a range of $13,900 to $18,400. 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 Richmor Aviation.

How long does it take to get a private pilot license at Richmor Aviation?

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

Richmor Aviation trains under both Part 61 and Part 141, so you can pick the structured FAA-approved course or the flexible path. Part 141 is the one that matters for VA benefits and for the lower paper minimum on the private certificate; Part 61 is the one that bends around a full-time job.

Do Richmor Aviation's aircraft rates include fuel?

Richmor Aviation publishes $135 per hour for the Cessna 152, a wet rate, so fuel is included in the hourly figure. A wet rate is the easier one to compare, because the number you see is the number you fly on. Rates checked October 20, 2026.

What ratings can you train for at Richmor Aviation?

Richmor Aviation trains Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, Commercial Pilot, Flight Instructor and Instrument Instructor. Instruction is $70 per hour across the ratings it teaches. PilotBound's estimator on this page prices any of these paths on Richmor Aviation's own published rates.

Sources

Estimates use Richmor Aviation's published Cessna 152 and instructor rates (checked October 20, 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 Richmor 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 Richmor? Every figure here is yours, shown with its source and date.

2 other schools fly from Schenectady County Airport.

1 of them publishes at least one rate. SCH is the identifier to give when you ask.

Other New York flight schools.

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