PilotBound

Published rates, sourced · Updated September 8, 2026

What flight training costs at Bellingham flight schools

3 schools train out of Bellingham. 2 publish 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 one is listed with what they do publish.

Across the 2 Bellingham schools here with published rates, trainer rentals run $165 to $175 per hour and instruction $65 to $70, and PilotBound's private pilot estimate lands between $18,025 and $19,035, with a median of $18,530.

One field: Bellingham International Airport (BLI). Whole state instead? Washington flight schools

Flight school costs in Bellingham, in numbers

Computed from the 2 Bellingham schools that publish both an aircraft and an instructor rate, on the same method every card below uses. The 1 listing without a full rate card is left out of every figure.

$18,530
Median PilotBound Private estimate across the 2 schools with published rates
$165 to $175
Published trainer rental, per hour
$65 to $70
Published instruction, per hour
2 of 3
Schools publishing a full rate card (aircraft and instructor)

Lowest published trainer rates in Bellingham

Airports with Bellingham 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 Bellingham

lowest $15.5Khighest $21.7K

  • Command Aviation

    Part not stated
    Lowest in WA

    Bellingham, WA·commandaviation.net

    Published rates

    $165/hr aircraft (wet)+$65/hr instructor

    Checked August 17, 2026·Source

    This estimate uses Command Aviation's published wet rates. A $1,500 block payment buys 10% off aircraft and instruction, and block payments by credit card carry a 3% fee. Aircraft rental is taxable and instruction is not, so a solo hour costs more than a dual one implies. Headset rental $10, full-service fuel fee $10.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $18,025

    range $15.5K – $20.5K

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

    Add to my planCommand cost breakdown →

  • Bellingham Aviation Services

    Part not stated
    Largest fleet

    Bellingham, WA·bli-jet.com

    Published rates

    $175/hr aircraft (wet)+$70/hr instructor

    Checked September 8, 2026·Source

    Rates are wet: "Fuel is included in all aircraft rental rates." The school notes a fuel surcharge may apply in periods of unusually high fuel costs. A 10-hour block deposit takes 10% off the AIRCRAFT rate only, and the packet says outright that "block rate purchases do not apply to instructor rates", so instruction stays $70/hr either way. One unusual billing detail worth knowing: instruction and its associated rental are non-taxable, while renting an aircraft WITHOUT an instructor is taxable, so solo hours cost more than the sticker. The One-G Cessna 172 simulator, an AATD good for Part 61 and Part 141 instrument time, is $75/hr. Training materials are $199 to $250 and a headset rents for $10.

    PilotBound estimate · Private

    $19,035

    range $16.4K – $21.7K

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

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

  • Shepherd Aero Pilot Training

    Part not stated

    Bellingham, WA·BLI·shepherd.aero

    Published rates

    aircraft rate not published+instructor rate not published

    No PilotBound estimate

    Shepherd Aero does not publish an aircraft rate and an instructor rate

    Nothing to total without it.

    See what to ask themWhat they do publish →

Flight schools in other Washington cities

All Washington flight schoolsFlight school costs by state

Common questions about Bellingham flight schools

How much does flight school cost in Bellingham?
Across the 2 Bellingham flight schools here that publish full rates, trainer rentals run $165 to $175 per hour and instruction $65 to $70 per hour, checked as recently as September 8, 2026. On each school's own published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate between $18,025 and $19,035, with a median of $18,530. These are PilotBound estimates built on published rates, not quotes from the schools.
What is the cheapest flight school in Bellingham?
Command Aviation in Bellingham publishes the lowest trainer rental of the 2 Bellingham schools listed here, $165 per hour for its Piper Warrior II, a wet rate, so fuel is included in the hourly figure, checked August 17, 2026. The lowest hourly rate is not automatically the lowest total: instructor rates, fuel basis, and the hours you actually fly decide that, which is what the per-school estimates on this page hold constant.
How current are these Bellingham flight school rates?
Every rate here is the school's own published figure, linked to its source and dated; the newest check in Bellingham is September 8, 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 one more school in Bellingham is listed without an estimate because it does not publish a full rate card. A school can correct or remove its listing anytime.
Which Bellingham airports have flight schools?
One field carries the listed schools: Bellingham International Airport (BLI) with 3. A school that does not state its field on the pages we read is counted in Bellingham without one.

Estimates use the same method as every Washington 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