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2 to 3
Lessons a week
Flying often is the single biggest saving. Skills stick between lessons, so you spend less time relearning and more time moving forward.
Your first lesson is a real one.
A discovery flight is an hour in the left seat of a Cessna 172 with one of our instructors beside you. You preflight the aircraft together, take off together, and fly the airplane yourself over the Strait and the foothills. Afterward we talk through what training would look like for you.
$245one hour in the air, flat rate
- No experience needed, and no medical certificate.
- The hour goes in your logbook and counts toward a private pilot certificate if you continue.
- It makes a good gift. Call or email and we will set one up in someone else's name.
Start here
From first flight to check ride, in order.
Most students ask what comes next more often than anything else. This is the sequence, including the paperwork, so nothing arrives as a surprise.
Discovery flight
One hour with an instructor. It counts toward your certificate.
Proof of citizenship
US citizens show a passport or birth certificate with photo ID at the first lesson. Other nationals complete TSA's Flight Training Security Program first.
Student pilot certificate
Your instructor helps you apply online through the FAA's IACRA system. It is free and takes a few weeks to arrive.
Dual instruction
Lessons with your instructor: maneuvers, takeoffs and landings, radio work and emergencies, with ground time before and after each flight.
Medical, before solo
A third-class medical from an FAA aviation medical examiner. You need it to fly solo, not to start. BasicMed is not available to new students.
Knowledge test
The FAA written exam, taken at a testing center once your instructor signs you off. Most students take it midway through training.
First solo
Your instructor steps out and you fly the pattern alone. Solo cross-country flights follow.
Check ride
An oral exam and a flight with an FAA designated pilot examiner. Pass it and you are a private pilot.
To solo
16 years old
To earn the certificate
17 years old
Language
Read, speak and understand English
Medical
Third class, before first solo
Rates and cost
What it really costs.
The FAA minimum for a private pilot certificate is 40 hours, but very few people finish in 40. The national average is closer to 65. An estimate built on 40 hours would look good and leave you short.
| Published rates | Per hour |
| Cessna 172, wet | $175 |
| Pilot instruction | $70 |
| Advanced and specialty instruction | $80 |
| First flight | Flat |
| Discovery flight, one hour | $245 |
Wet means fuel is included. Instruction is billed at the same rate in the aircraft or on the ground. Advanced and specialty covers CFII and specialty training. Plus sales tax where applicable. Effective September 2026. Block time is discounted; ask our team for details.
A typical lesson costs about $350: 1.3 hours in the aircraft plus half an hour of briefing with your instructor. A solo flight of the same length is about $230.
Showing published September 2026 rates. Plus sales tax where applicable.
| Private pilot, estimated | FAA minimum40 hours | Realistic65 hours |
|---|---|---|
| Aircraft, Cessna 172 wet$175 per hour | $7,000 | $11,375 |
| Flight instruction30 and 50 dual hours at $70 | $2,100 | $3,500 |
| Ground instructionBriefings, debriefs, oral prep at $70 | $1,400 | $2,100 |
| Books, charts and online ground school | $400* | $400* |
| Third-class medical | $150* | $150* |
| FAA knowledge test | $175* | $175* |
| Examiner's check ride fee | $1,000* | $1,000* |
| Total | $12,225 | $18,700 |
* Paid to third parties and set by them, so these are typical figures rather than our prices. The examiner's fee varies most.
Every flight hour above or below 65 moves the total by about $260. Finish at 55 hours and it comes to roughly $16,100; need 75 and it is closer to $21,300. A headset is extra if you want your own.
Try your own numbers
How many hours, how often?
40, FAA minimum85
Lessons a week
Estimated total
$18,700
About
8 months
Roughly
$2,450 a month
Uses the standard rates and estimates above, before any block-time discount, with about 1.3 flight hours per lesson and one lesson in four lost to weather, maintenance or schedules. An estimate, not a quote.
Time
How long it takes.
5 to 8
Months, at that pace
Once a week works too, but plan on 12 to 18 months. If you plan one flight a week, expect to average about three a month once weather and maintenance take their share.
Seasons
Plan around the weather
Start ground school in the fall or winter, when low cloud cancels more flights, and do most of your flying from spring through summer when the days are long.
Expand your horizons
Private pilot first. Then the flying this region teaches best.
Main path
Private pilot certificate
Fly yourself and passengers anywhere in the country, day or night, in single-engine airplanes. Training follows the FAA's airman certification standards, with emphasis on judgment and on the airspace you will actually fly: coastal weather, mountain terrain and the busy airspace across the Sound.
- Minimum
- 40 hours, including 20 with an instructor and 10 solo
- Includes
- Cross-country, night and instrument-reference training
- Ends with
- FAA knowledge test and check ride
- Rate
- $175 aircraft, $70 instruction
Instrument rating
Fly in cloud and on instrument flight plans. On the Peninsula, where a marine layer can close the field on an otherwise good day, it is the rating that makes an airplane useful for travel. Train with our CFIIs in the simulator, in the 172, or a mix of both. The simulator lets you practice approaches and emergencies without waiting for the weather.
$80 instructionSimulator or aircraft
High-performance endorsement
The endorsement required to fly airplanes with more than 200 horsepower. Train in our Cessna 206, or bring your own high-performance airplane and fly with one of our instructors.
$80 instructionOur aircraft or yours
Complex endorsement
For airplanes with retractable landing gear, flaps and a controllable-pitch propeller. Our fleet is fixed-gear, so you bring the airplane and we bring the instructor. Your aircraft's insurance needs to cover instruction.
$80 instructionYour aircraft
Mountain flying
Density altitude, ridge and valley winds, turbulence, and always knowing your way out. The Olympics start just south of the runway, and our chief pilot has about 2,000 hours flying mountains.
$80 instruction
Grass and unimproved strips
Soft-field takeoffs and landings, short-field technique and reading a surface before you commit to it, on real turf and gravel strips around the region.
$80 instruction
Busy and towered airports
Fairchild has no control tower, so we take you to the ones that do. Class B and C airspace, tower and ground frequencies, and busy traffic, until a trip into Boeing Field or Paine feels routine.
$80 instruction
Flight review and IPC
For certificated pilots. Your flight review every 24 months, an instrument proficiency check, or a few flights to get comfortable again after time away. We build it around what you want to sharpen, in our aircraft or your own.
$70 flight review$80 IPC
Your instructors
Pilots who fly for a living, teaching the airspace they fly.
Our instructors fly Citizen Air's charter and SoundPass trips across the region, so the procedures you learn are the ones they use every week.
Jeff Well
Director of Operations
ATP · CFI · CFII · A&P
20,400+ hours
A former US Air Force instructor pilot, and for 27 years the head of Rite Bros. Aviation. More than 8,000 of his hours are in the Cessna 172.
Henny Jungemann
Chief Pilot
CFI · CFII · MEI · A&P/IA
10,400+ hours
Twenty-six years as a US Navy aviator and test pilot, then Beaver floatplanes in Alaska and for the US Forest Service. About 2,000 hours of mountain flying and more than 1,200 in tailwheel aircraft.
Daniel Weaver
Assistant Chief Pilot
CFI · Commercial ASEL, AMEL
2,600+ hours
More than 2,000 hours in the Cessna 172, most of them flown around the Peninsula and the Sound. Our company ground and flight instructor for the Cessna fleet.
Molly Timmons
Charter Pilot
CFI · Commercial ASEL, AMEL
1,000+ hours
Grew up in a pilot family and worked as a flight attendant for a major airline before learning to fly here in the Northwest. She knows the airplane from both the cabin and the cockpit.
Doug Peecher
Charter Pilot
CFI · CFII · Commercial ASEL, AMEL
1,100+ hours
Grew up flying with his family in the Northwest. Much of his time is in high-performance aircraft over mountain terrain in Colorado, Alaska and Canada.
Devin Santos
Charter Pilot
CFI · CFII · Commercial ASEL, AMEL
Training aircraft
The Cessna 172.
More pilots have learned in the 172 than in any other airplane. It is stable, forgiving and honest about what you ask of it, and its high wing keeps the ground in view on every approach. Ours carry traditional round-dial instruments with a Garmin 430 GPS, the panel you will find in most rental aircraft after you finish.
Citizen Air owns its training aircraft, and our own A&P and IA technicians maintain them in our own hangars. When something needs attention, the person fixing it works down the hall.
- Seats
- Four
- Wing
- High wing
- Instruments
- Round-dial six-pack, Garmin 430 GPS
- Rate
- $175 per hour, fuel included
- Maintained by
- Citizen Air, on the field
How we handle your money
Two ways to pay.
Pay as you fly
No deposit to start. You pay for each lesson after you fly it, at the rates on this page, and you can stop or pause at any time.
Save with block time
Pay for a block of hours in advance and we discount the rate. Talk to our team for current block options, the savings and the terms.
Who you are training with
Citizen Air is an FAA Part 135 air carrier and the full-service FBO on the field, with its own aircraft, hangars and maintenance team. Training is one part of an operation that flies every day.
Policies
Before your first lesson.
Scheduling
Book lessons by phone, email or at the front desk, and keep a regular slot if you can. Consistency matters more than any other factor in how long training takes.
Canceling
Give us 24 hours' notice if you need to cancel. Late cancellations and no-shows may be billed for the reserved instructor time.
Weather and maintenance
If we cancel for weather or the aircraft is unavailable, there is no charge. When the ceiling is low, we can often use the slot for ground instruction instead.
What to bring
Photo ID and proof of citizenship at your first lesson, your logbook once you have one, and a headset if you own one. Dress for the ramp; the preflight happens outside.
After your certificate
Keep flying.
Rent the airplane you trained in
Our 172s are available to certificated pilots at $175 an hour wet. You already know the aircraft, the checklists and the people who maintain it.
Aircraft rental →Add a rating
Instrument is the natural next step. High-performance and mountain training open up more airplanes and more places to go.
Training programs →Own a share
When you are flying often, fractional ownership in a Cirrus SR22 gives you a newer airplane on a predictable schedule, managed and maintained by us.
Fractional ownership →Questions
What students ask us.
Book a discovery flight or tell us where you are
Share your goals and schedule and we will reply within one business day to set a time and match you with an instructor. Or call +1 (360) 452-6226.
Send an enquiry