PilotBound

Published rates, sourced · Updated September 13, 2026

What flight training costs at Columbus flight schools

3 schools train out of Columbus. One publishes a full rate card, shown with the source and the date it was read, next to a PilotBound estimate for your Private pilot certificate. The other 2 are listed with what they do publish.

Capital City Aviation in Columbus is the one Columbus school here with a full published rate card: $185 per hour for its Cessna 172N Skyhawk plus $80 per hour instruction, a PilotBound private pilot estimate of about $20,335.

2 fields: The Ohio State University Airport - Don Scott Field (OSU) and CMH (CMH). Whole state instead? Ohio flight schools

Flight school costs in Columbus, in numbers

Computed from the 1 Columbus school that publishes both an aircraft and an instructor rate, on the same method every card below uses. The 2 listings without a full rate card are left out of every figure.

$20,335
PilotBound Private estimate at the one school with published rates
$185/hr
Published trainer rental, per hour
$80 to $105
Published instruction, per hour
1 of 3
Schools publishing a full rate card (aircraft and instructor)

Lowest published trainer rates in Columbus

Airports with Columbus flight schools

Estimate cost toflying
Showing 3 of 3 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 Columbus

lowest $17.5Khighest $23.2K

  • Capital City Aviation

    Part 61

    Columbus, OH·capitalcityaviation.com

    Published rates

    $185/hr aircraft (wet)+$80/hr instructor

    Checked September 5, 2026·Source

    Rates include fuel, stated outright, and every aircraft in the fleet is IFR certified. This is a members' club, not a walk-in school: joining costs a one-time $250 and then $45 a month, neither of which is in the hourly rates. You get three introductory flights before you have to join. Instruction is $75/hr in everything except the Cirrus line, where a Training Center Instructor is $95/hr and a Cirrus Standardized Instructor Pilot is $115/hr, flight and ground alike, with day rates for transition courses. Two simulators are priced separately, a Cirrus dual-cockpit AATD at $110/hr and a Gleim BATD at $60/hr which is dual only.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $20,335

    range $17.5K – $23.2K

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

    Add to my planCapital City cost breakdown →
  • Below: schools without a full published rate card. They cannot be priced, so they sit at the end of a cost sort.

  • Capital City Jet Center, Inc

    Part not stated

    Columbus, OH·CMH·capitalcityjet.com

    Published rates

    aircraft rate not published+instructor rate not published

    No PilotBound estimate

    Capital City does not publish an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    Nothing to total without it.

    See what to ask themWhat they do publish →

  • Northwest Flyers

    Part not stated

    Columbus, OH·OSU·columbusnorthwestflyers.com

    Published rates

    $135/hr aircraft+instructor rate not published

    Checked September 13, 2026·Source·2 aircraft published

    A recreational flying club whose aircraft pages state a club member rental rate, wet, per tail; a 1978 Cessna 172N and a Cherokee Six are also in the fleet. Dues and the instructor are not priced on the site.

    No PilotBound estimate

    Northwest Flyers does not publish an instructor rate

    Nothing to total without it.

    See what to ask themWhat they do publish →

Flight schools in other Ohio cities

All Ohio flight schoolsFlight school costs by state

Common questions about Columbus flight schools

How much does flight school cost in Columbus?
Capital City Aviation in Columbus is the one Columbus school here with a full published rate card: $185 per hour for its Cessna 172N Skyhawk and $80 per hour for instruction, checked September 5, 2026. On those published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate at about $20,335. That is a PilotBound estimate, not a quote from the school.
How current are these Columbus flight school rates?
Every rate here is the school's own published figure, linked to its source and dated; the newest check in Columbus is September 13, 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 2 more schools in Columbus are listed without an estimate because they do not publish a full rate card. A school can correct or remove its listing anytime.
Which Columbus airports have flight schools?
2 fields carry the listed schools: The Ohio State University Airport - Don Scott Field (OSU) with 2, and CMH (CMH) with one. A school that does not state its field on the pages we read is counted in Columbus without one.

Estimates use the same method as every Ohio 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