Boise, ID 83705
Mon-Sat: 9am-4pm
Take Your Flying Into The Idaho Backcountry.
Our Backcountry Flying Course is built for pilots who want to take their skills off the pavement and into the Idaho backcountry. You will fly with one of our backcountry-qualified instructors, plan and brief real mountain trips, and put your hands on the skills that turn paved-runway pilots into backcountry pilots.
Carmel Aviation has trained pilots at Boise Airport since 2022. Since then, 108 of our students have passed their FAA checkrides. That same instructor team now delivers backcountry training at our approved strips.
- 100s Students Trained
- 108 Checkride Passes Since 2022
- 62 First Solos Since 2022
- 2 Gold Seal CFIs on Staff
- 64 Private Pilots Certified Since 2022
What the Backcountry Course Covers
Roughly 4 to 6 hours of flight training across 3 to 4 flights, paired with focused ground instruction. Built for current Private Pilots who want to operate confidently in the mountains.
Talk To The Front Desk
Ground Training
We cover what you need to think and plan like a backcountry pilot: aircraft performance, mountain weather theory, backcountry operations, and more. You leave the classroom able to read a mountain forecast and brief a backcountry trip.
Flight Training
Hands-on training in short and soft field operations, energy management principles, and canyon flying procedures. You build the airplane-handling skills that mountain operations demand.
Real Landings At Approved Strips
You make actual landings at our approved backcountry strips. Not pattern work pretending to be backcountry. Real strips, real terrain, real decision-making with your instructor beside you.
Backcountry-Qualified Instructors
You are paired with one of our instructors who are qualified to teach backcountry operations. You learn from someone who actually flies the mountains, not someone reading from a syllabus.
What Changes When You Are Backcountry Trained?
Backcountry training is not just a list of new skills. It changes how you read terrain, weather, and your airplane.
Access To Idaho's Backcountry
Idaho has one of the richest backcountry strip networks in the country. Once you are trained and current, that whole network becomes flying you can actually plan and complete.
Sharper Decision-Making Everywhere
The judgment you build in mountain operations carries back to every flight you take. Performance planning, weather reading, energy management. The standard you train to in the backcountry raises the floor on the rest of your flying.
Confidence In The Mountains
The difference between a paved-runway pilot and a backcountry pilot is not just skill. It is the calm that comes from doing this work with someone qualified the first time, not figuring it out alone.
Backcountry Flying Course FAQ
You should hold at least a Private Pilot certificate with 50 hours of pilot in command time, 25 of those hours in the last six months, and 10 hours in a Cessna 172 in the last 90 days. If you are close but not quite there, talk to us anyway. Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis.
Plan on roughly 4 to 6 hours of flight training spread across 3 to 4 flights, plus ground instruction. The total calendar time depends on how often you can fly and on mountain weather. Idaho weather is the variable that most often shifts the schedule.
Training is conducted in a Cessna 172. That is why we require 10 hours in a C172 in the last 90 days before you start the course. You should be current and comfortable in the airplane before we add mountain terrain to the workload.
Total cost depends on flight time and ground instruction needed. The primary expenses are aircraft rental time and instructor fees. Reach out and we will walk you through a realistic estimate based on your goals and your recency in the airplane.
Stop by the office or reach out through our contact page and we will pair you with one of our backcountry-qualified instructors. This is a course unlike anything else we offer, and we are excited to share it with you.
