A full career track from no hours at all to airline-ready, flown out of Van Nuys eight miles west of North Hollywood, priced at $89,000 with financing available.
North Hollywood is full of people who are very good at work that does not pay steadily. Theater, post-production, music, crew work, hospitality around the station. The ceiling can be high and the floor moves without warning. Airline flying is close to the opposite bargain: slow to enter, expensive up front, rigidly structured, and once you have seniority, one of the most predictable careers there is. That trade is the honest reason most people make this change.
The Airline Pilot Program is $89,000 and takes you from zero hours to the certificates and ratings an airline expects: private, instrument, commercial, multi-engine, and the instructor ratings most pilots use to build the rest of their time. Financing is available through Stratus Financial and we run in-house payment plans as well. Nobody should commit to this on a first visit, which is exactly why the consultation is free and takes as long as it takes.
Training at Van Nuys is not just an accident of geography. It is one of the busiest general aviation airports in the world, with a control tower and two parallel runways, so you learn to work a busy radio from your first hour rather than discovering it later. Burbank's Class C airspace sits immediately northeast of North Hollywood and the LA Basin is minutes south. The airspace you train in is the airspace you will work in.
Five stages, each a certificate or rating in its own right.
The foundation and the longest single stage. Roughly 55 to 70 hours in the Cessna 162 Skycatcher, Piper Warrior or Diamond DA20, ending in a checkride that lets you carry passengers. Everything that follows is added on top of this, so it is worth flying often enough to build the habits properly.
Flying the aircraft on instruments alone, in cloud, in haze and at night. It is $11,700 as a standalone rating and included here. A good share of it happens in the Redbird MCX simulator, which costs less than the aircraft and lets you fly approaches into airports you would otherwise spend an hour reaching.
The certificate that lets you be paid to fly, plus the flight time that goes with it. The complex-aircraft work moves you into the Piper Arrow II with its retractable gear and constant-speed propeller, and the tolerances on every maneuver tighten considerably from the private standard.
The Piper Seminole, and the asymmetric-thrust work that a second engine brings: Vmc demonstrations, engine failures at every phase of flight, single-engine approaches. It is $5,100 as a standalone add-on and is included in the program here.
Most pilots reach the 1,500 hours an airline transport pilot certificate requires by instructing. It pays while you build, it is the fastest honest route, and teaching a maneuver to somebody else is how you find out whether you truly understand it yourself.
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 North Hollywood the run is eight miles of surface street rather than freeway. Victory Boulevard west to Balboa Boulevard, north for about a mile and a half, and 7900 Balboa is on the right between Saticoy and Roscoe with the airport immediately behind it. Sherman Way and Vanowen are both good alternatives from the north side of the neighborhood. Fifteen minutes off-peak, closer to twenty-five at the wrong hour.
You will be making this drive several times a week for the better part of two years, so it is worth doing once before you commit to anything. Parking at 7900 Balboa is free and on site. If you rely on transit, the G Line busway from North Hollywood station reaches the Balboa stop on Victory Boulevard, but the field is still about a mile and a half north of there, and a car makes a training schedule far easier to hold.
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 →You start where everyone starts: the Cessna 162 Skycatcher or the Piper Warrior at $269 an hour, or the Diamond DA20 at $329. The point of these aircraft is learning to fly by hand and by eye before any automation is involved. The Piper Arrow II at $349 an hour comes next, adding retractable gear and a constant-speed propeller for the complex and commercial work.
The Piper Seminole at $649 an hour is the twin. The Cirrus SR22 Turbo at the same rate is the glass-cockpit aircraft, and it earns its place because the panel logic is far closer to what you will meet in a jet than a set of round dials is. The Redbird MCX full-motion simulator carries a large part of the instrument workload and takes real money out of that stage.
Four features you will come to identify without thinking, because you will pass them hundreds of times.
Class C airspace immediately northeast of North Hollywood, with airline traffic on the approach for most of the day. Learning to operate alongside it is one of the more useful things about training on this side of the Valley.
The busway runs dead straight west from North Hollywood station along the old rail alignment. It is the clearest man-made line on the Valley floor and a genuinely handy reference on a hazy morning.
The ridge behind Burbank that closes off the northeast corner of the Valley. It marks one edge of the working area and it is the first landmark to disappear when the visibility starts dropping.
The gap in the hills where the 101 drops south past Universal City toward Hollywood. It is the standard visual gate between the Valley and the basin, and you will use it constantly.
The full sequence from zero hours to airline-ready: private, instrument, commercial, multi-engine, and the instructor ratings most pilots use to build hours. It is a program price rather than an hourly estimate, which is the point, because the ratings bought piecemeal, such as the $11,700 instrument or the $5,100 multi-engine, add up differently. Financing runs through Stratus Financial or an in-house plan.
Around two years to finish the ratings if you treat it as a full-time commitment, then a further period instructing to reach the 1,500 hours an airline transport pilot certificate requires. Part-time is possible and takes longer. At the free consultation we will map a schedule against the week you actually have, not an idealized one.
Many people do, and North Hollywood has more than its share of shift work and freelance schedules that make it feasible. We fly 9 AM to 9 PM seven days a week, so early mornings and evenings are both real options. Full-time progress is faster and cheaper in total, but part-time is a legitimate route and plenty of our students take it.
Flight time costs less in quiet places and you get what you pay for. Van Nuys is one of the busiest general aviation airports in the world, with a tower and two parallel runways, so radio work, sequencing and traffic awareness are trained into you from the first lesson instead of bolted on afterwards. Our instructors are FAA-certified with 15 or more years of experience, and our Google rating is a 5.0.
There is no upper age limit on any of the certificates, and the mandatory airline retirement age gives you a working horizon to plan against rather than a closed door. What matters is holding a first-class medical certificate and looking clearly at the numbers. Career changers in their thirties and forties are an ordinary part of this program, not an exception to it.
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 amount of money and a long commitment, and it deserves an hour of straight conversation before anything gets signed. Call (818) 290-8249 or come to Suite 108A at 7900 Balboa Boulevard, fifteen minutes from North Hollywood, and the consultation costs nothing.
Or Send Us A Message And We'll Come Back To You The Same Day →