A complete route from no flight time to airline-ready, run out of Van Nuys Airport fifteen miles north of Beverly Hills, priced at $89,000 with financing available.
This is a career track rather than a hobby program. $89,000 takes someone with no flight time through the private pilot certificate, the instrument rating, the commercial certificate and the multi-engine rating, in that order. What it does not buy is the 1,500 hours the airlines require, which most people build by instructing after the commercial and are paid for. That gap is the part worth understanding before anything else is discussed.
Anyone leaving a well-paid Westside career for this should look hard at the shape of airline pay rather than the headline figure. It is seniority-based and back-loaded: the early years are lean, the later ones are not, and the whole thing is bounded by a retirement age of 65 in the United States. The arithmetic looks very different at 26 than it does at 46, and we would rather work through it with you at the table than have you discover it in year three.
Full-time training works best when you treat it as a job you commute to, and fifteen miles over the Sepulveda Pass is a commute you will keep making. Van Nuys is one of the busiest general aviation airports in the world: two parallel runways, a control tower, Burbank's Class C alongside and the Los Angeles Class B shelf overhead. You will make more genuine decisions in your first hundred hours here than in a year at a quiet field.
Four certificates and ratings, then the hour building that follows them.
Roughly the first quarter of the program and the foundation of everything after it: solo flight, cross-country navigation, night flying, the FAA written exam and a checkride with an examiner. Every stage that follows assumes you can fly the aircraft without spending conscious attention on it.
Flying on instruments alone, in cloud and at night, on real clearances in real airspace. Los Angeles is among the better places in the country to learn this, precisely because the system is saturated and the controllers talk quickly. Bought on its own the Instrument Rating is $11,700.
Tighter tolerances, more demanding maneuvers and the legal right to be paid for flying. This is where the Piper Arrow II earns its keep, with retractable gear and a constant-speed propeller. The flying stops being merely correct at this point and starts being professional.
Flown in the Piper Seminole: engine failure identification, asymmetric handling, Vmc demonstrations and single-engine approaches. Short in hours, and the one rating that turns a commercial certificate into an employable one. Bought separately as an add-on it is $5,100.
Most graduates instruct, and Van Nuys carries more of that work on one field than almost any airport in the country. It is paid, it makes your own flying rigorous in a way nothing else does, and it is where the timeline is actually decided. We will be specific about all of it before you sign anything.
Every figure below is the real, published price. No "call for a quote," no hidden block-time minimums.
Everything from your first lesson to the flight hours and ratings an airline wants to see. One program, one price.
Prefer to pay as you progress? The same ratings, priced individually.
Before committing to a career, find out whether you love the flying.
From Beverly Hills the drive is the 405 north over the Sepulveda Pass and off at Roscoe Boulevard, then two miles west to Balboa. 7900 Balboa Boulevard sits on the right just south of the corner. Fifteen miles, about thirty minutes, and if you are training full time you will mostly be driving against the peak in both directions rather than with it.
For a morning start, leaving Beverly Hills before seven puts you at the airport with the pass still empty. Later in the day the canyon routes come into their own: Coldwater Canyon or Beverly Glen up to Mulholland and down into Sherman Oaks, then Victory or Burbank Boulevard west. Parking at 7900 Balboa is free and on site, which is not a small consideration when you are on the field five days a week for the better part of two years. Check in at Suite 108A.
Pick your aircraft, pick a date and time, and you are on the schedule. You fly the airplane yourself with an FAA-certified instructor beside you — and every flight is 100% credited toward training if you enroll within 24 hours.
Full-motion simulator with an instructor. No weight limit, no medical needed.
Reserve →You in the pilot's seat over Los Angeles, hands on the controls the whole way.
Book Now →One of you flies hands-on, the other takes in the skyline. Share the story.
Book Now →Premium Cirrus SR22 glass cockpit and extended air time over the LA basin.
Book Now →Twin-engine Piper Seminole and a genuine look at the professional path.
Book Now →The fleet is arranged as a progression rather than a menu. You begin in the Cessna 162 Skycatcher or the Piper Warrior at $269 an hour, or the Diamond DA20 at $329, where the work is learning to fly by hand and by eye. The Piper Arrow II at $349 then adds retractable gear and a constant-speed propeller for the complex and commercial stages.
After that come the two that matter to an employer: the Piper Seminole twin at $649 an hour, where the multi-engine rating is flown, and the Cirrus SR22 Turbo, also $649, whose glass cockpit is the closest thing on the ramp to a modern flight deck. The Redbird MCX full-motion simulator absorbs a large share of the instrument and procedures load, which is how professional training is run everywhere and is also the cheapest hour in the building.
Four features you will come to identify without thinking, because you will pass them several hundred times.
White travertine along the ridge directly above the 405, and probably the single most unmistakable structure from the air anywhere on the Westside. Coming north it is the marker that tells you the pass is next.
The notch the 405 climbs through between the Valley and the basin. It is the visual gateway on nearly every flight south, and often the exact place where the marine layer stops dead.
The whole curve from Malibu round to Palos Verdes, usually visible from the practice area on a clear day. Coastline is the easiest terrain feature in the world to navigate by, and you will lean on it constantly.
The steady line of airliners on final over the basin to the south. Seeing it from a training aircraft is a useful weekly reminder of the scale of the system you are working toward joining.
Everything from zero flight time to airline-ready: the private pilot certificate, the instrument rating, the commercial certificate and the multi-engine rating. It does not include the hours between a commercial certificate and the 1,500 the airlines want, which most people build by instructing and are paid to do. We will lay the whole sequence out at the free consultation before anything is committed.
Flown full time it is a couple of years to the point of airline hiring, of which the $89,000 program is the front portion. Part time takes considerably longer, and the difference is not linear, because skills decay between infrequent lessons. Weather, examiner availability and how many days a week you fly are the variables that actually decide it.
No. US airlines dropped the four-year degree as a hard requirement some years ago; what they want is the certificates, the hours and a clean record. A degree still helps at some carriers and is worth having for reasons that have nothing to do with aviation. Nobody here will refuse to train you for the lack of one.
Yes, and for most people that is the sensible version. Training is at Van Nuys, thirty minutes over the hill, so you sleep at home throughout and keep whatever else your life contains. The airport also carries enough flight instruction work that the hour-building stage can be done on the same field, which is not true of most training airports.
Sensible, and common. A Discovery Flight For One is $229 for sixty minutes, the time is loggable, and if you enroll within 24 hours the whole cost is credited against the program. The free consultation at Suite 108A costs nothing at all and is the better of the two places to start if you want numbers rather than sensation.
Book It Or Gift It
Every discovery flight below can be booked for yourself in the next few minutes, or bought as a gift certificate that is emailed within minutes and never expires. Same flight, same price, either way.
Most Given
One person, one instructor, and no audience. Hands on the controls from the left seat, briefed before you go and debriefed after you land.
Hands-On Stick TimePre-Flight BriefingLoggable Flight Time
Flight Length
$229Book Or Gift
Same Price
Two Seats
The same flight with a passenger in the back seat, briefed and on the intercom. Couples book it; so do parents who would rather watch than hear about it.
One Passenger SeatPiper Warrior Or ArcherHeadsets For Both
Flight Length
$299Book Or Gift
Same Price
The Nice One
The nicest airplane we put a first-time flyer in. Glass cockpit, air conditioning, leather seats, and a parachute built into the airframe rather than strapped to the person.
Turbocharged Cirrus SR22Air ConditioningWhole-Airframe Parachute
Flight Length
$499Book Or Gift
Same Price
Twin Engine
Two engines, and the airplane instrument-rated pilots move into when they start thinking about a career. Flown from the left seat with a multi-engine instructor.
Piper Seminole TwinMulti-Engine DepartureCareer-Track Instructor
Flight Length
$499Book Or Gift
Same Price
Gift It issues a real gift certificate, emailed within minutes, which never expires and credits in full toward training. Flights are limited to 180 lb per person, 370 lb combined. Questions: (818) 290-8249, 9 AM–9 PM, seven days.
Our Courses
Real pricing on every program we teach at Van Nuys Airport, beyond the pricing already shown above.
5.0 Average Rating
100+ Google Reviews
Youth Program
Ages 10–15. For young people who want to start before they can legally solo.
$4,200 View Course
Milestone
Enough training to take an aircraft around the pattern alone. The day everything changes.
$5,500 View Course
Certificate
A real certificate with fewer hours and narrower privileges. The shortest honest route to flying yourself.
$8,400 View Course
Bundle
Private Pilot with flight time, ground instruction and study materials bundled into one price.
$15,900 View CourseBundle
The same certificate as Private, with the most flight time before your checkride. Eighty logged hours, ground instruction and materials, all in one price.
80 Logged Hours Ground School Included Materials Included $22,500 View Course
Our Fleet
Diamond DA20, Cessna 162, Piper Arrow II and our Piper Seminole twin — all on the field at Van Nuys.
View The FleetLoved On Google
Every review below is real and shown verbatim, in the reviewer’s own words — written by the people who learned to fly here, not by us.
SAFETY FIRST
Very safety and detail oriented. Pre-flight briefing explained everything there was. To my knowledge, this flight school is exceptional in their ability.
DISCOVERY FLIGHT
I recently had the chance to take my first-ever discovery flight, and it was nothing short of amazing! From the moment I stepped into the cockpit, the...
SUNSET CIRRUS
It was a great flight! I did a sunset flight and Alex let us fly an awesome. Website was easy to book, and the plane itself was really fun to fly...
FLYING LESSON
We had a great flying lesson with Ralph and came away with a much better understanding of both the aircraft and the principles of flight. Ralph is a...
KIDS LUXURY FLIGHT
I got 2 luxury discovery flights for my kids. I wanted them to have the experience of flying. Our instructor Alex was amazing he made sure they feel...
HONEYMOON SURPRISE
Last minute booking to surprise my wife on our honeymoon. She had no experience with flying and was scared of flying, but Alex was very easygoing and knew...
FULL-MOTION SIM
Amazing flight school in van nuys airport. I have been a student here for the past few months and i could not be happier. I started doing a lot of...
DISCOVERY FOR TWO
I booked a Discovery Flight for Two for my girlfriend's birthday and it was the perfect gift for her. She couldn't have been more excited to get to...
SIMULATORS
Very professional and great airplanes. I love the flight simulators. The pricing is very fair compared to any other flight school
TEEN FIRST LESSON
We gifted our teenage son his first flying lesson. He was so excited! Alex greeted us and gave a reassuring brief that made us all feel comfortable and at...
FIRST-TIME FLYER
Flying is my husband's hobby and I was incredibly anxious and apprehensive about the discovery flight. However, I felt completely safe and at ease once we...
SAFETY FIRST
Very safety and detail oriented. Pre-flight briefing explained everything there was. To my knowledge, this flight school is exceptional in their ability.
DISCOVERY FLIGHT
I recently had the chance to take my first-ever discovery flight, and it was nothing short of amazing! From the moment I stepped into the cockpit, the...
SUNSET CIRRUS
It was a great flight! I did a sunset flight and Alex let us fly an awesome. Website was easy to book, and the plane itself was really fun to fly...
FLYING LESSON
We had a great flying lesson with Ralph and came away with a much better understanding of both the aircraft and the principles of flight. Ralph is a...
KIDS LUXURY FLIGHT
I got 2 luxury discovery flights for my kids. I wanted them to have the experience of flying. Our instructor Alex was amazing he made sure they feel...
HONEYMOON SURPRISE
Last minute booking to surprise my wife on our honeymoon. She had no experience with flying and was scared of flying, but Alex was very easygoing and knew...
FULL-MOTION SIM
Amazing flight school in van nuys airport. I have been a student here for the past few months and i could not be happier. I started doing a lot of...
DISCOVERY FOR TWO
I booked a Discovery Flight for Two for my girlfriend's birthday and it was the perfect gift for her. She couldn't have been more excited to get to...
SIMULATORS
Very professional and great airplanes. I love the flight simulators. The pricing is very fair compared to any other flight school
TEEN FIRST LESSON
We gifted our teenage son his first flying lesson. He was so excited! Alex greeted us and gave a reassuring brief that made us all feel comfortable and at...
FIRST-TIME FLYER
Flying is my husband's hobby and I was incredibly anxious and apprehensive about the discovery flight. However, I felt completely safe and at ease once we...
Reviews shown verbatim, exactly as each reviewer published them.
This is a large sum and a serious change of direction, and it deserves an hour of plain conversation before anything is decided. Call (818) 290-8249 or come to Suite 108A at 7900 Balboa Boulevard between 9 AM and 9 PM, and we will go through the numbers, the timeline and the parts that never appear in a brochure.
Or Send Us A Message And We'll Come Back To You The Same Day →