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.
Zero Time To Airline Ready · Pasadena
Airline Pilot Program For Pasadena Career Changers
The route from no flight time to airline-ready costs $89,000 and takes a couple of serious years, flown out of Van Nuys Airport twenty-four miles west of Pasadena.
2,000+Discovery flights flown safely
5.0★Our Google rating, 100+ reviews
35 minFrom Pasadena to the flight line
9AM–9PMSeven days a week at KVNY
Airline Pilot Program · Pasadena, Los Angeles County
The Whole Cost, Written Down Before You Start
The number is $89,000, and it covers the sequence from zero time to airline-ready: private, instrument, commercial, multi-engine and flight instructor. We put it in one figure because career changers deserve to see the whole thing rather than discover it a rating at a time. Financing runs through Stratus Financial and we also write in-house payment plans. The free consultation at Suite 108A is where the arithmetic gets done properly, against your actual calendar.
Pasadena sends us a particular kind of candidate. People finishing at Pasadena City College who want a trade with a license at the end of it, engineers at JPL who have spent a decade around aerospace without ever holding the controls, and mid-career professionals who have run the numbers on the rest of their working life and did not like the answer. That last group asks the best questions, and we would rather they asked them now than after a deposit.
We will be straight about the risk as well as the price. This is a multi-year commitment that depends on you flying three or four times a week without long gaps, and on hiring conditions nobody can promise you. What we control is the training: seven aircraft, a twin, a glass-panel Cirrus, a Redbird MCX simulator, instructors with 15 or more years in the seat, and a field open 9 AM to 9 PM every day of the week.
How It Works
The Sequence, In Order, With No Shortcuts — Start To Certificate
Five certificates and ratings, each one a prerequisite for the next, all flown from 7900 Balboa Blvd.
1
Private Pilot Certificate
The foundation, and the stage where most people find out how quickly they learn. Solo, cross-country, night, the knowledge test and a checkride with an FAA examiner. On the full-time track this is the first three to four months. Bought separately it runs $10,900 for the standard program, which is a useful sanity check on the $89,000 total.
2
Instrument Rating
Flying by reference to instruments alone, in cloud, on approaches to minimums. This is where the Redbird MCX earns its keep, because you can fly a Burbank ILS, a hold and a missed approach three times in an hour without burning fuel. Separately the instrument rating is $11,700. Los Angeles marine layer season gives you real conditions rather than just a view-limiting device.
3
Commercial Certificate
Tighter tolerances, complex aircraft time in the Piper Arrow II at $349 an hour, and the commercial maneuvers: chandelles, lazy eights, eights on pylons, power-off 180s. This is also where you accumulate the bulk of your total time. The standard expected of you goes up sharply here, which is the point of it.
4
Multi-Engine Rating
The Piper Seminole, and the first time asymmetric thrust stops being a diagram in a book. Vmc demonstrations, drag demonstrations, engine-out procedures and single-engine approaches. As a standalone add-on this is $5,100, and Seminole time is $649 an hour. It is short, intense and usually the part people enjoy most.
5
Flight Instructor Certificate And Time Building
Teaching is how nearly everyone builds toward the 1,500 hours the FAA requires for an airline transport pilot certificate. It is also the stage that makes you genuinely good, because explaining a lazy eight to somebody else exposes every gap in your own understanding. Instructing based at Van Nuys means real traffic, real airspace and steady hours.
Transparent Pricing
Airline Pilot Program Pricing For Pasadena Students
Every figure below is the real, published price. No "call for a quote," no hidden block-time minimums.
Complete Career Track
Zero To Airline Ready
Everything from your first lesson to the flight hours and ratings an airline wants to see. One program, one price.
$89,000complete
- ✓Private Pilot Certificate
- ✓Instrument Rating
- ✓Commercial Pilot Certificate
- ✓Multi-Engine Rating
- ✓Time-building toward ATP minimums
- ✓Financing available through Stratus
Or Build It Stage By Stage
Prefer to pay as you progress? The same ratings, priced individually.
$10,900stage one
- ✓Private Pilot — $10,900
- ✓Instrument Rating — $11,700
- ✓Multi-Engine Rating — $5,100
- ✓Commercial & time-building quoted on your hours
Start With One Hour
Before committing to a career, find out whether you love the flying.
$229discovery flight
- ✓You fly it yourself, hands-on
- ✓Loggable toward the program
- ✓100% credited if you enroll in 24 hrs
$89,000 is a career investment, not a hobby purchase — and it is why we publish it openly. Financing is available through Stratus Financial and in-house payment plans, and a free in-person consultation at Van Nuys will map the whole timeline against your budget before you commit a dollar.
Getting Here From Pasadena
35 Minutes And 24 Miles From Pasadena
The commute is the 210 west into the 134 west, past the Colorado Street Bridge and straight through Glendale and Burbank, then the 101 north to the Balboa Boulevard exit and four miles up through the Sepulveda Basin. Twenty-four miles, thirty-five minutes in ordinary conditions. Parking at 7900 Balboa is free and the lot is directly outside Suite 108A, which matters more than it sounds when you are doing this four times a week for two years.
Treat the drive as part of the plan rather than an afterthought. Westbound on the 134 from 7:30 to 9:30 and eastbound from 4 to 7 are both slow, and doing that twice a day for months is what quietly wears people down. The fix is scheduling: because the school runs 9 AM to 9 PM, full-time students from Pasadena tend to arrive around ten and stay for a long block, or come in the evening and drive home on an empty freeway. Some move closer to the Valley for the intensive phase, and that is a reasonable thing to consider rather than a failure of nerve.
Book A Discovery Flight
Book Your Discovery Flight From Pasadena
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.
No Weather Cancellations
Redbird Simulator
$189
1 hour
Full-motion simulator with an instructor. No weight limit, no medical needed.
Reserve →
Most Popular
Discovery Flight For One
$229
60 minutes
You in the pilot's seat over Los Angeles, hands on the controls the whole way.
Book Now →
Most Gifted
Discovery Flight For Two
$299
60 minutes
One of you flies hands-on, the other takes in the skyline. Share the story.
Book Now →
The Showstopper
Luxury Discovery Flight
$499
60 minutes
Premium Cirrus SR22 glass cockpit and extended air time over the LA basin.
Book Now →
The Pro Move
Multi-Engine Discovery
$499
60 minutes
Twin-engine Piper Seminole and a genuine look at the professional path.
Book Now →
The Aircraft You'll Fly
The Aircraft You Progress Through
You will start in the Cessna 162 Skycatcher, the Piper Warrior or the Diamond DA20, at $269 to $329 an hour. Complex and commercial work moves to the Piper Arrow II at $349. The Cirrus SR22 Turbo at $649 an hour is a glass-cockpit, turbocharged, parachute-equipped airplane that flies more like what you will meet later, and it is available to you rather than reserved for demonstration flights.
The twin is a Piper Seminole, also $649 an hour, and the Redbird MCX is a full-motion simulator that carries a large share of the instrument syllabus. Having all of it under one roof is the operational argument for driving here rather than to a closer field: you never have to pause a career program to go and find an aircraft type somebody else has. That continuity is worth more over two years than twenty minutes of freeway.
What You'll See From The Air
Pasadena From The Training Environment
You will be over this ground hundreds of times before you finish, so it is worth knowing what you are looking at.
🚀
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The campus at the mouth of the Arroyo Seco below the Angeles front, tucked against the hills at the top of the city. A lot of our Pasadena career changers are leaving a desk somewhere in it.
🎓
The Caltech Campus
The tight rectangle of olive trees, courtyards and low buildings south of Colorado on California Boulevard. It reads from the air as an unusually orderly block in an otherwise leafy grid.
🔀
The 210 And 134 Interchange
The junction on the west side of Pasadena where your drive begins, sitting right above the Arroyo. From two thousand feet the whole commute you just made is visible as one continuous line of concrete.
🐎
Santa Anita Park
The turf and dirt ovals in Arcadia with the San Gabriels standing directly behind the grandstand. A precise landmark for the eastern edge of the basin and a good reference on a diversion.
Questions From Pasadena
Airline Pilot Program FAQ
$89,000 from zero time to airline-ready, covering the private certificate, instrument rating, commercial certificate, multi-engine rating and flight instructor certificate. The same ratings are available individually if you would rather pay as you go, for example the instrument rating at $11,700 and the multi-engine add-on at $5,100. Financing is available through Stratus Financial and we also run in-house payment plans.
Flying full time and without long gaps, the certificate and rating sequence through flight instructor typically takes eighteen months to two years. After that most pilots instruct while building toward the 1,500 hours the FAA requires for an airline transport pilot certificate. The main variable is frequency: three or four flights a week keeps you moving, one a week does not.
It is, if you schedule around the freeway rather than into it. The 210 to the 134 west runs twenty-four miles and about thirty-five minutes, but westbound at 8 AM and eastbound at 5 PM are the two windows to avoid. Because we are open 9 AM to 9 PM seven days a week, Pasadena students usually take a long mid-morning block or an evening block. Some relocate to the Valley for the intensive phase, and plenty do not.
Part time works for the private and instrument stages, and a good number of people get through both while employed. The commercial and instructor stages are much harder to do around a full-time job because they need frequency and long blocks. Pasadena City College and Caltech students often fly mid-morning between classes, which is also when the drive is at its easiest.
Get an FAA first-class medical certificate first. It is the requirement that matters most for a professional path and it is far better to know where you stand before writing a large check. Then come to the free consultation at Suite 108A with your real calendar and your real budget, and we will build the sequence around both.
Book It Or Gift It
Fly It Yourself, Or Give The Flight To Someone Else
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
Two Seats
The Nice One
Twin Engine
Discovery Flight For One
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 It Or Gift It
Same Price Either Way
Discovery Flight For Two
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 It Or Gift It
Same Price Either Way
Luxury Discovery Flight
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
Bring A PassengerInstructor + 2 is our maximum+$100
$499Book It Or Gift It
Same Price Either Way
Multi-Engine Seminole
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 It Or Gift It
Same Price Either Way
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.
Courses & Pricing
The Rest Of What We Teach
★★★★★
5.0 Rating
100+ Google Reviews
Course prices are packages, not hourly rates - the aircraft, your instructor, ground school and simulator time are all in the figure. Van Nuys Airport, KVNY. Financing Available Through Stratus & In-House Plans.
01
Teen Flight Training Ages 10–15
Starting before it is legal to solo.
$4,200
02
Solo Certificate
Enough training to take an aircraft around the pattern alone.
$5,500
03
Sport Pilot
A real certificate, fewer hours, narrower privileges.
$8,400
04
Comprehensive Private Pilot
Private with flight time, ground instruction and materials bundled.
$15,900
05
Premium Private Pilot
The most flight time before your checkride - 80 logged hours.
$22,500
All Prices In USD. 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, Van Nuys, CA 91406 · Open 9 AM–9 PM, Seven Days. Free In-Person Tour Of The School
Loved On Google
Over 100 Reviews. 5.0 Stars.
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
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...
See Discovery Flight Details — $229
Reviews shown verbatim, exactly as each reviewer published them.
Talk To A Real Instructor
Train For The Airlines, 35 Minutes From Pasadena
This is a large decision and it should start with a conversation, not a deposit. Call (818) 290-8249 or come to 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, and we will walk through the $89,000 line by line, the financing, and what the next two years would honestly look like with a Pasadena address.
Or Send Us A Message And We'll Come Back To You The Same Day →Airline Pilot Program
$89,000
Zero Time To Airline Ready
Book A Discovery Flight
Full Airline Pilot Program Details