Take the controls with an FAA-certified instructor beside you — from your first discovery flight to the airline flight deck.
+45moreSafety & Track Record
A 100% safety record across seventeen years of daily flight instruction at Van Nuys.
Most flight schools quote you an hourly rate and let the total find its own level. We publish a fixed price for every programme, with the aircraft, the fuel and your instructor already inside the number.
The one cost billed outside your course price is the FAA-designated examiner’s checkride fee, which the examiner sets and invoices you directly.
Find Your Runway
Three ways to fly. Open the one that fits — see the commitment and exactly where to start.
Never flown before? Sit up front and take the controls over Los Angeles with an FAA-certified instructor beside you — the easiest, lowest-pressure way to find out if flying is for you.
Earn the certificate that lets you fly friends and family anywhere in the country. Train one-on-one in a Cessna, Piper or Diamond and log the 40+ hours to your FAA checkride.
Walk in with zero hours and walk out with every rating on one structured path, 260 logged hours, and CFI, CFII and MEI the day you finish — the ratings that let you get paid while you build time.
Three simple steps take you from the ground to your certificate — guided one-on-one by an FAA-certified instructor the whole way.
Take the controls on a real flight over Los Angeles with an instructor beside you. Enroll within 24 hours and the flight is credited toward your training.
Follow a structured, FAA-approved syllabus at your own pace — one-on-one dual instruction paired with Redbird MCX simulator sessions.
Pass your FAA checkride and earn a certificate that lasts a lifetime — then add ratings all the way to the airlines.
Train across a diverse, meticulously maintained fleet — from light-sport trainers to a turbocharged Cirrus and a twin-engine Seminole, each shown exactly as it sits on our Van Nuys ramp.
Turbocharged, glass-cockpit flagship with a whole-airframe parachute — our luxury discovery-flight aircraft.
4 seats · Turbo piston · CAPS parachute
Nimble, bubble-canopy trainer — a favorite for Private Pilot students learning the fundamentals.
2 seats · Single piston · Bubble canopy
Easy, economical light-sport trainer — perfect for your first hours and the Sport Pilot license.
2 seats · Single piston · Light-Sport
Retractable-gear, constant-speed-prop complex aircraft for building Commercial time.
4 seats · Retractable gear · Constant-speed prop
Stable, roomy four-seat cruiser — ideal for cross-country and instrument training.
4 seats · Single piston · Cross-country
Twin-engine trainer for your Multi-Engine rating and airline-track hours.
4 seats · Twin piston · Multi-engine
FAA-approved full-motion simulator — build real, loggable skills safely before every flight.
Full-motion · FAA AATD · Single & multiThe fastest, most affordable route into the left seat.
Explore →02The certificate every aviation journey begins with.
Explore →03Fly safely in clouds and low visibility, all year.
Explore →04The full path to a career on the flight deck.
Explore →Eight FAA programs from your first flight to the airlines — each taught one-on-one with the aircraft you’ll actually train in.
Your first flight over Los Angeles — take the controls with an instructor beside you.
The fastest, most affordable FAA license — earn it in as few as 20 flight hours.
The certificate every aviation journey begins with — most students finish in 3 to 6 months, or about 30 days full-time.
Fly safely in clouds and low visibility — the rating that makes you a true all-weather pilot.
Zero experience to airline pilot in about nine months, with full financing available.
Add the twin-engine rating airlines want — a fast add-on to your Private or Commercial.
An introduction to flight designed for young aviators, ages 10–15.
FAA-approved full-motion sim — loggable, cost-effective hours toward your ratings.
Two complete, all-inclusive tracks — whether you fly for the joy of it or for a career on the flight deck.
Where every aviation journey begins.
From $10,900
Explore Private PilotZero experience to airline in about 9 months.
$89,000 all-in
Explore Airline ProgramEverything in Private, plus:
Every Lesson Is A Real Flight
Van Nuys sits under some of the most interesting airspace in the country. You will be flying in it from your very first lesson.
FAA-certified instructors who fly every day, backed by a friendly office team that keeps your training on schedule — patient, professional, and invested in your success.
Two decades in the left seat, and the person most students meet on their very first flight.
Unhurried in the cockpit and endlessly patient on the ground — students name him in review after review.
Professional, warm, and just as comfortable with a first-timer as with a checkride candidate.
Thorough without being dry — expect a real answer to every question you think to ask.
Builds confidence quickly, which makes him a favourite wit h teens and with anyone nearing first solo.
Calm and methodical — she will break a manoeuvre down as many times as it takes for it to click.
Direct and encouraging in equal measure, so you always know exactly where you stand.
Debriefs like a coach: what worked, what did not, and precisely what to fix next lesson.
Makes radio calls and Los Angeles airspace feel routine long before you expect them to.
Takes the intimidation out of instrument work and twin-engine flying, one control at a time.
Keeps schedules, paperwork and progress moving so the only thing you think about is flying.
The first friendly voice most people hear, and the one who makes booking painless.
Our full-motion Redbird MCX is an FAA-approved Advanced Aviation Training Device — so the hours you fly count toward your certificates and ratings, at a fraction of the cost of the aircraft.
★★★★★5.0 · 70 Google reviews
“I did a sunset flight and Alex let us fly. The Cirrus was really fun to fly — some of the coolest views I’ve ever seen. 10/10 would fly with them again.”
Ethan Pilon · Google review
I did a sunset flight and Alex let us fly. The website was easy to book and the Cirrus was really fun to fly — some of the coolest views I’ve ever seen. 10/10 would fly with them again!
Ethan PilonGoogle · Oct 2024✓We gifted our teenage son his first flying lesson. Alex greeted us and gave a reassuring brief that made us all feel at ease — confident, clear and very professional. He was so excited!
Tania AndersGoogle · Jun 2025✓Very professional and great airplanes. I love the flight simulators, and the pricing is very fair compared to any other flight school in the area.
George AttallahGoogle · Apr 2024✓I couldn’t be happier with my experience. I got my Private Pilot License here and I’m now working on my Instrument Rating. My instructor Joseph was patient, knowledgeable and absolutely amazing.
Nazanin JalalianGoogle · Dec 2025✓I got two discovery flights for my kids. Alex made sure they felt comfortable and let them take the controls with his help. The Cirrus was amazing — I definitely recommend this school!
Sanaz D.Google · 2025✓Last-minute booking to surprise my wife. She was scared of flying, but Alex was easygoing and knew how to make her enjoy her first flight. Highly recommend.
Rakkad A.Google · 2024✓An amazing experience from start to finish. Flying the Diamond over LA, Hollywood and Malibu — the views and the feel of the controls were just awesome.
Mena M.Google · 2025✓Still have questions? Call (818) 290-8249 — a real advisor answers 7 days a week.
Yes. On a discovery flight you take the controls with a certified instructor beside you from the very first minute.
None at all. Most of our students arrive having never touched an aircraft, and we start from the beginning.
A Sport Pilot licence can take as few as 20 flight hours. Most students earn their Private Pilot certificate in 3 to 6 months training two to three times a week; an accelerated full-time schedule can finish in about 30 days.
Programs start at $229 for a discovery flight and run to $89,000 for the full airline career track. Every program is quoted as one fixed price.
Van Nuys Airport (KVNY) in Los Angeles, open seven days a week from 9 AM to 9 PM.
Yes. In-house payment plans and third-party financing are both available — ask us about low monthly payments.
Ready When You Are
Book a discovery flight over Los Angeles, or get in touch with our team — we’re here to help you plan the fastest path to your certificate.
Choosing A School
Check three things before anything else: whether the school owns the aircraft you will train in, whether the price is fixed in writing, and whether you can still book the same instructor six weeks out. Those answers predict what your training will cost and how long it will take more reliably than any brochure does.
A search for a flight school near me returns whatever is closest to you. That is a fine place to start and a poor place to stop, because two schools eight miles apart can differ by thousands of dollars and a year of your time. Drive time matters — a forty-minute commute kills more training than weather does — but it is the fourth question, not the first.
What follows is the checklist we would hand our own family.
The Checklist
Eight questions, and what the answers tell you. Most of this has nothing to do with us; it works just as well at a school that is not ours.
Many schools own no aircraft at all. They arrange access to aeroplanes owned by private individuals and take a cut. That is legal and often fine, until an owner sells mid-training or defers a maintenance item because it is his money.
Worrying: "we have access to a number of aircraft."
Reassuring: a count of aircraft the school owns, and a maintenance shop they can name.
We own our fleet outright, which is why we can publish a schedule and hold it.
Nothing else moves your final bill as much. An hourly quote is a rate, not a price; the total depends on how many hours you need, and that is a number the school influences more than you do. The FAA minimum is 40 hours under 14 CFR 61.109. The national average is closer to 60 to 70.
Worrying: an hourly rate and "it depends on the student."
Reassuring: a written total, plus a list of what is billed outside it.
Every programme is published here as one fixed price, with aircraft, fuel and instructional hours inside the number.
Fleet size means nothing on its own. The ratio decides whether you fly twice a week or twice a month, and momentum is what finishes certificates. Fly weekly and you spend ten minutes recovering the last lesson; fly monthly and you spend thirty relearning what you paid for.
Worrying: they do not track it, or they answer with the fleet number.
Reassuring: a real ratio, and what happens when an aircraft goes down.
Ask us on the phone and we will tell you the ratio that week.
Instructing is the entry-level job in commercial aviation, and many CFIs are building toward the 1,500 hours an unrestricted ATP requires under 14 CFR 61.159. Turnover is therefore normal, and being handed to a third instructor at hour 35 costs money, because the new one must re-verify everything before signing.
Worrying: "we'll match you with whoever is free."
Reassuring: a named CFI, and a stated handover process when one leaves.
You get one assigned CFI. If the pairing is not working, ask for another — that is a normal request.
Life interrupts training. A job moves, a baby arrives, money gets tight. What matters is what the school does with your balance and your slot while you are away. Some prepaid blocks expire. Some do not.
Worrying: anything that is not in writing.
Reassuring: a written policy on expiry, refunds and re-entry.
Ask for our pause policy before you enrol and we will put it in writing.
A discovery flight is real training if the school logs it as dual instruction received, in which case the time counts toward the 40-hour minimum. Flown as a scenic ride, it does not. That difference is an hour of instruction.
Worrying: "it's a tour, but it's a great way to see the city."
Reassuring: it is logged, you hold the controls, and the fee comes off your programme.
Our $229 discovery flight is logged dual instruction, credited in full when you enrol within 24 hours.
Ask to see the booking system, not a description of it. A school running at capacity has a two or three week wall in front of it, and that wall turns a six-month certificate into an eighteen-month one. Ask for the earliest Saturday slot; weekends break first.
Worrying: "call each week and we'll fit you in."
Reassuring: you can see and hold a slot yourself, weeks out.
We fly 9 AM to 9 PM, seven days, which is what keeps evening and weekend slots open.
Even an honest fixed price has things outside it, and honest schools list them unprompted. Expect an FAA-designated examiner's checkride fee, set and invoiced by the examiner. Expect a headset, a medical, the knowledge test fee and books. A school that pretends none of this exists is the problem.
Worrying: "nothing, it's all included" — nobody controls the examiner's fee.
Reassuring: an itemised list you can photograph.
The one cost billed outside our course prices is the designated examiner's checkride fee.
Cost
A private pilot certificate is $10,900 here, fixed. We quote a total rather than a rate because the gap between the FAA minimum and the real world is where hourly billing does its damage.
Under 14 CFR 61.109 a private pilot applicant needs at least 40 hours of flight time. Almost nobody finishes in 40, and the commonly cited national average is nearer 60 to 70. The reasons are ordinary: weather cancellations, a fortnight between lessons, an aircraft in maintenance, a manoeuvre that takes four attempts. None of that is the student's fault and all of it is billable on a meter.
Twenty-five extra hours is not a rounding error. It is the whole distance between the number you were quoted and the number you pay. A fixed price moves that risk onto the school, which controls the scheduling, maintenance and teaching that decide how many hours you need, and it makes lending possible: a bank will underwrite a total but not a meter.
| Programme | Covers | Fixed Price |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery Flight | Logged dual instruction | $229 |
| Redbird MCX Session | Full-motion simulator | $189 |
| Teen Programme, Ages 10–15 | Younger students | $4,200 |
| Solo Certificate | Training to first solo | $5,500 |
| Sport Pilot | Light-sport, day VFR | $8,400 |
| Private Pilot — Standard | Aircraft, fuel, instruction, ground | $10,900 |
| Private Pilot — Comprehensive | Most chosen. Extra flight time | $15,900 |
| Private Pilot — Premium | Cirrus SR22 Turbo | $22,500 |
| Instrument Rating | On instruments, under IFR | $11,700 |
| Multi-Engine Add-On | Piper Seminole add-on | $5,100 |
| Zero To Airline | Full professional track | $89,000 |
Enrolled students fly single-engine aircraft at $179 an hour wet, fuel included; instructional hours sit inside your programme price. The examiner's checkride fee is billed by the examiner. Financing from $2,500 down. Detail on the private pilot cost breakdown.
Fleet & Field
Two things decide how transferable your training is: who controls the aeroplanes, and what kind of airspace you learn to talk in.
We own our fleet — Cirrus, Diamond, Piper and Cessna aircraft on our own certificate rather than brokered from private owners. Ownership is a scheduling point, not a bragging point: the school decides when an aeroplane flies and when it goes into maintenance, and neither decision belongs to an owner whose holiday plans you never hear about.
On a ramp visit, look at the tyres and the leading edges. A worn interior is normal on a trainer; a wrecked one means deferred care. Ask how a squawk gets reported, and what happens to your 8 AM lesson when that aircraft goes down.
Van Nuys is a Class D field under the Los Angeles Class B shelf, and that geography is an underrated part of training here. You are talking to a control tower from your first lesson, and minutes after departure you are working approach control and reading a chart with real vertical structure. Radio work learned in that environment transfers to any airport in the country. The reverse is not true.
A Redbird MCX full-motion simulator sits on site at $189 a session. Its value is repetition rather than logbook credit: fly an engine failure five times in an hour, freeze it mid-manoeuvre and debrief it, which no aeroplane permits at any price.
Original Research
Van Nuys had 355 flyable days in the year we studied. We pulled NOAA hourly observations for 15 airports and counted the days that met basic VFR training minimums, because nobody in this market had published the number.
Weather cancellations are the quiet tax on flight training. Every scrubbed lesson costs the drive, the momentum and a few hundred dollars of relearning next time. A school with 200 usable days a year is not worse at teaching; it simply gets fewer chances, and across a certificate that compounds into months.
Southern California also packs mountains, coastline, desert and dense controlled airspace within thirty minutes of the ramp, so cross-country planning here is real planning. The marine layer off the Pacific is useful for teaching the go or no-go decision on an actual morning.
The honest downsides: this is not a cheap region to fly in, the airspace asks more of you early, and the drive to the field can be the hardest part of the day.
Source: our analysis of NOAA hourly surface observations at 15 airports, counting days meeting basic VFR training minimums.
Keep Reading
Questions
Compare four things in order: whether the school owns its aircraft, whether the price is fixed in writing, how many students share each aeroplane, and how far ahead you can book. Drive time is the fifth test, not the first.
The FAA minimum is 40 hours of flight time under 14 CFR 61.109. The commonly cited national average is nearer 60 to 70 hours, because weather, maintenance and gaps between lessons all add time.
A fixed price moves the risk of needing extra hours onto the school, which controls scheduling and maintenance. An hourly rate leaves the 20 to 30 hour gap between the 40-hour minimum and the real-world average on your card. Our private pilot programmes are $10,900, $15,900 and $22,500.
It counts when the school logs it as dual instruction received, in which case the time applies toward the 40 hours required by 14 CFR 61.109. A scenic ride does not. Our $229 discovery flight is logged instruction, credited in full toward your programme when you enrol within 24 hours.
There is no minimum age to take lessons with an instructor. You must be 16 to fly an aeroplane solo and 17 to hold a private pilot certificate. Our teen programme, ages 10 to 15, is $4,200.
No. You can fly with an instructor from day one without one. You need at least a third-class medical, issued under 14 CFR 61.23 by an FAA-designated Aviation Medical Examiner, before you fly solo. If your history is complicated, book that examination early.
Ask for the policy in writing before you enrol anywhere. Pin down whether prepaid funds expire and how many review hours the school expects on your return. A three-month pause typically costs a couple of hours of refresher flying.
355 at Van Nuys, from our own analysis of NOAA hourly surface observations at 15 airports, counting days that met basic VFR training minimums. The method is in our flyable days study.
Yes, and visit every school on your shortlist. We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, Van Nuys, CA 91406, open 9 AM to 9 PM seven days a week. Ask to see the booking calendar and the ramp, not just the classroom.
