If you live in the Portland metro area and you are thinking about learning to fly, the obvious move might seem like driving to the closest airport with a flight school. That makes sense on paper. But once you actually start training, the airport you choose affects every single lesson — how much time you spend flying versus sitting on the ground, how much each hour costs you, and how quickly you build confidence in the pattern.
Southwest Washington Regional Airport (KKLS) in Kelso is about 50 minutes north of Portland on I-5, and for a lot of students it is a better training environment than the busier PDX-area fields. Here is why.
Less congestion means more actual flying time
The biggest hidden cost in flight training is time spent not flying. At a busy towered airport, you might taxi for ten minutes, hold short for landing traffic, wait for an IFR release, and then queue behind three other aircraft in the traffic pattern. Your lesson is billed by the hour — the Hobbs meter runs the whole time the engine is turning — but a meaningful chunk of that hour is spent sitting on a taxiway.
KKLS is an uncontrolled field. There is no control tower, no clearance delivery, no ground frequency to wait on. You start up, taxi to the runway, and you go. The traffic pattern at KKLS is usually quiet, especially on weekdays. You can fly four or five landings in the time it might take to get two at a congested airport.
For a student working toward a private pilot certificate under Part 61, that efficiency matters. Every lesson hour should have you in the air, learning, not burning avgas on the ramp waiting for a Cessna in front of you to clear.
The uncontrolled field advantage for student pilots
A common concern we hear is whether training at an uncontrolled airport somehow leaves you less prepared. It does not. In fact, the FAA's own training requirements under Part 61 include specific solo and cross-country experience that students can complete efficiently at a non-towered field. You learn CTAF communications, self-announce procedures, and traffic awareness — skills that transfer to every airport you will ever fly into.
When you do need tower experience, the region has options. KVUO (Vancouver) and KUAO (Aurora) are both towered fields within easy cross-country range, and your CFI will route you there for pattern work and radio practice. You get the calm home-base environment for most of your training and the controlled-field exposure when it counts.
Lower cost per lesson — here is the math
Cascade Air's Cessna 150L rents at $110 per hour, and the 152 at $115. The 172 runs $165 per hour. Instructor time is $58 per hour across the fleet. Those are published, honest rates.
If you are training at a busier airport and losing 15 minutes of each lesson to taxi and pattern delays, you are paying for fuel and instructor time without getting flight training in return. Over 60 hours of training — a realistic number for a Part 61 private pilot — that lost time adds up. At KKLS, you are in the air within minutes of engine start.
What you see when you fly out of Kelso
The flying itself is genuinely better here. On departure from KKLS, the Columbia River opens up in front of you — a navigation reference you cannot miss. Mount St. Helens sits to the northeast, and on a clear day you can see Mount Adams and Mount Hood. The Cowlitz River winds south through the industrial corridor of Longview-Kelso, and the coast range rises to the west.
Students who train at Cascade Air get to experience all of this from the cockpit of a Cessna 150, 152, or 172. If you progress into the 182RG for complex and high-performance endorsements, the views get even better — you are above most of the haze layer on a typical summer VFR day.
The fleet and the team
Cascade Air is family-owned and runs a fleet that includes two Cessna 150Ls, a 152, two 172s, a 182RG, and a Beechcraft Travel Air for multi-engine work. The instructors here — Dan, Ben, Kelly, and the rest of the team — are the kind of people who learn your name and your goals. You are not a number in a volume operation.
The airport itself has a single runway (Runway 12/30) at 4,000 feet, which is plenty for the training fleet. There is an FBO with fuel, a pilot lounge, and maintenance on site. You can fly, refuel, get maintenance, and rent — all from the same ramp.
The drive is worth it
Yes, 50 minutes from Portland is a real drive. But if you are committing to 60 hours of training over several months, the question is not whether the drive is convenient — it is whether the training environment gives you more for your money and your time. Most students who make the drive from Portland or Vancouver to Kelso find that the calmer airspace, shorter taxi times, and personal instruction more than make up for the extra miles.
If you want to see for yourself, book a discovery flight and experience KKLS from the cockpit. It is $180 in a Cessna 150/152 and $230 in a 172, and you will know within the first ten minutes whether this airport feels right for your training.