PilotBound estimate · Racine, WI · Checked September 12, 2026
What flight training at Windborne Flight School costs
Website windborneflight.com
Phone 262-207-4070
Section 1Cost estimate
Your plan
Estimate cost to reach
Flying
Includes fuel and Wisconsin sales tax.
PilotBound estimate · Private
Examiner dataCost of your Private at Windborne Flight School
range $19.1K – $25.3K · about 6 months at 2×/week
Priced on Windborne's published rates: Piper Archer at $211/hr + $80/hr instruction, checked September 12, 2026.
Against a minimums quote
+$8,832 on Windborne's own rates. Quotes usually price the 40-hour minimum; almost nobody finishes there.
Where it goes
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
Examiner records (DPE dataset).
The hourly flying is priced on Windborne Flight School's published rates. About $2,375 of this is one-time fees (written test, examiner/DPE checkride, medical, gear), typical national estimates, not Windborne Flight School'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 →
Put this calculator on your siteSection 2The rate card
What Windborne publishes
checked September 12, 2026Airframe built 1979. Years of manufacture from the FAA aircraft registry, read October 4, 2026.
Both rates include fuel AND Wisconsin sales tax, so unlike most schools here there is nothing to add. Paying into a student account in blocks of $1,000 or more earns a 5% credit; the rates here are the standard ones.
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. Windborne does not state whether it trains under Part 61 or Part 141, so the estimate above is built on Part 61 hours.
Section 3Discovery flight
$200
Checked September 12, 2026
Weekdays. $250 at weekends.
Section 4Paying for it
Two ways to cover $22,207.
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 for51 open to anyone. Top awards reach $22,200.No Wisconsin-only awards in the directory yet.
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- Money you pay backLenders that cover $22,207Five of the 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 5Add to my plan
Turn this into a plan.
Your $22,207 is the starting line. Turn it into a route to your checkride, every step in order with this cost built in.
Add to my planSection 6In the app
Track it against Windborne's rates.
Windborne Flight School's rate card is in the PilotBound app. Choose Windborne when you set up and the app prices your training at its rates, then tracks every flight you log against the projection.
Scan to download on your iPhone
Section 7What to ask
What to ask when you call
The marked one is what Windborne's site never answers. The rest are what turns an hourly rate into a real bill.
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.
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.
Do you train under Part 61 or Part 141?Missing from their site
It changes the minimum hours, and for some students it changes financing eligibility.
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.
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.
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 8Questions
- How much does it cost to get a private pilot license at Windborne Flight School?
- Windborne Flight School publishes $211 per hour for the Piper Archer and $80 per hour for instruction on it, checked September 12, 2026. Applied to those published rates, PilotBound estimates a private pilot certificate at about $22,207, in a range of $19,100 to $25,300. 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 Windborne Flight School.
- How long does it take to get a private pilot license at Windborne Flight School?
- Flying twice a week, PilotBound estimates about 6 months at Windborne Flight School 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 Windborne Flight School a Part 61 or Part 141 flight school?
- Windborne Flight School does not state on its own website whether it trains under Part 61 or Part 141, so we do not list one. It is worth asking directly before you enroll: Part 141 follows an FAA-approved syllabus and is generally what VA benefits require, while Part 61 is more flexible on scheduling.
- Do Windborne Flight School's aircraft rates include fuel?
- Windborne Flight School publishes $211 per hour for the Piper Archer, 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 September 12, 2026.
- What ratings can you train for at Windborne Flight School?
- Windborne Flight School trains Private Pilot, Instrument Rating and Commercial Pilot. Instruction is $80 per hour across the ratings it teaches. PilotBound's estimator on this page prices any of these paths on Windborne Flight School's own published rates.
Section 9Sources
Estimates use Windborne Flight School's published Piper Archer and instructor rates (checked September 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 Windborne Flight School. 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 Windborne? Every figure here is yours, shown with its source and date.
One other school flies from John H Batten Airport.
It publishes at least one rate, so there is something to compare before you call. RAC is the identifier to give when you ask.
- Centurion Flight AcademyPublishes Cessna 150L at $120/hr, no instructor rateRacine
Other Wisconsin flight schools
- AJR Aviation · Platteville
- Aviation Services · Oshkosh
- Blue Airways · Bay City
- Burton Aviation · Hayward
- Capital Flight · Waukesha and Middleton
- CAVOK · Green Bay
- Central Wisconsin Aviation · Mosinee
- Centurion Flight Academy · Racine
- City of Cumberland · Cumberland
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