Zero flight time to airline-ready is $89,000 at Van Nuys, and Simi Valley is close enough to do the whole thing without moving house or leaving Ventura County.
The figure is $89,000, and it covers the entire path: private certificate, instrument rating, commercial certificate, multi-engine, and the instructor certificates nearly everyone uses to build hours afterwards. One number, agreed before you begin, rather than an hourly rate that grows quietly over two years. Stratus Financial handles financing, we write payment plans in house, and the consultation where we walk through the arithmetic costs nothing at all.
Simi Valley suits this better than people expect. Housing costs less than the far side of the hill, families here tend to stay put, and a twenty-mile drive means you can train full time while living in a house you already have. We see Moorpark College students weighing this against a four-year degree, and people in their thirties who have priced out another twenty-five years of the commute they are already making every morning.
The timeline deserves plain language. Flying most days, the ratings take roughly twelve to eighteen months. After that you instruct, usually on this same field, until the logbook reaches the 1,500 hours an unrestricted ATP requires. Part-time training roughly doubles the first half of that. We will talk you through restricted-ATP eligibility and what airline hiring genuinely looks like right now before you commit a single dollar.
Five stages, each with an honest timescale attached, and none of them started before the last one is solid.
The stage where the actual flying is learned and the one everything else is stacked on top of. Solo comes between fifteen and twenty-five hours, the certificate a few months after that. Bought on its own it is $10,900, and nothing later in the program will paper over a weak foundation here.
Flying in cloud and after dark on instruments alone. This is the rating that turns flying from a hobby into a job. A solid share of it happens in the Redbird MCX full-motion simulator, where an approach can be repeated until it costs you no thought at all. Bought separately, $11,700.
Tighter tolerances, complex airplane work in the Piper Arrow II, and the certificate that makes it legal for someone to pay you for flying. Most of the hour building toward commercial minimums happens across this stage, and a field as busy as Van Nuys offers more ways to accumulate that time than a quiet one does.
The Seminole add-on, $5,100 on its own, then the CFI and CFII work. Teaching is how almost everyone gets from around 250 hours to 1,500, and that work exists here, which means you do not have to move to a town in the desert to find a first flying job.
You instruct, the numbers climb, and we help you time the applications properly. We will be straight about which operators are hiring at what minimums and about what a seniority list takes back in exchange for what it gives, because that conversation is more useful than an optimistic one.
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.
Full time means driving this most days, so it is worth knowing exactly. The 118 east out of Simi, through the Santa Susana Pass and down into Chatsworth, exit Balboa Blvd, then four miles south to 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A. Twenty miles, thirty minutes clear, closer to fifty if you set off at eight in the morning along with everybody else heading over the hill.
The way to make it painless is to fly the middle of the day and do ground work in the evening, which is exactly what 9 AM to 9 PM hours are for. There is a rail option too: the Ventura County Line runs from the Simi Valley station down to Burbank and Union Station, which becomes useful once you are instructing and interviewing rather than flying every morning. Parking at the school is free and on site, and across two years that stops being a small detail.
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 →Early hours are flown on the Piper Warrior or the Cessna 162 Skycatcher at $269 an hour, or the Diamond DA20 at $329 if you would rather have a canopy. The complex requirement is met in the Piper Arrow II, $349 an hour. After that comes the Cirrus SR22 Turbo at $649, which is where you meet a modern glass panel, an autopilot and a turbocharger, which between them describe the working environment of the rest of your career.
The twin work is done in the Piper Seminole, also at $649 an hour. Behind all of it the Redbird MCX full-motion simulator does the unglamorous heavy lifting of a professional program: holds, approaches, partial panel, engine failures and abnormal checklists, repeated for a fraction of the aircraft rate and logged as it goes. Every instructor here is FAA certified with more than fifteen years in the job.
Two years of flying over the same country teaches you to navigate by things you never noticed from the freeway.
The campus on the rise west of Simi, its buildings and playing fields standing clear against open farmland. A fair number of the people we start on this program come out of a community college, and this is the one Simi students usually mean.
The platform and the Ventura County Line running dead straight through town toward the pass. It makes a clean line feature to navigate from, and a genuinely useful way into Burbank when you are interviewing rather than flying.
The long strip of light-industrial roofs and yards on the south side of the arroyo. From the air it is the working half of a town that outsiders imagine is nothing but houses and school runs.
The freeway that leaves Simi through the hills to meet the 101. From 3,000 feet you see both valleys and the gap between them at once, which is the moment the map in your head stops being a map.
Everything from no experience to airline-ready: the private certificate, the instrument rating, the commercial certificate and multi-engine, plus the instructor certificates you will use to build hours. Financing runs through Stratus Financial and we also arrange in-house payment plans. Bought in pieces the individual prices hold, so the private is $10,900, the instrument rating $11,700 and the twin add-on $5,100.
Flying most days, the ratings take twelve to eighteen months. You then instruct, which is paid work, while building toward the 1,500 hours an airline wants; that stage commonly runs another eighteen months to two years depending on how much you fly. Part-time training roughly doubles the first half. Nobody here will quote you a shorter number than that.
No, and that is a large part of why this works from here. Every stage from your first lesson to your CFI checkride happens at Van Nuys, thirty minutes down the 118, and the instructing work that follows is on the same field. Staying in a home you already have through two years of training is worth a meaningful slice of the tuition.
You must be seventeen for the private certificate, able to read, speak and understand English, and able to hold an FAA medical certificate. Have a first class medical examined before you spend anything else; it is the one thing that can stop the plan outright and it is cheap to check. No college degree is required, although a few operators still like to see one.
It is an ordinary Southern California commute and shorter than plenty of our students' drives to work. The variable is timing rather than distance: leave at eight and the pass costs you twenty minutes, leave at ten and it costs you nothing. Students who build the week around mid-morning flights and evening ground sessions barely notice the drive at all.
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.
A professional flying career deserves a long conversation before it deserves a deposit, and ours is free, in person and carries no obligation whatsoever. Ring (818) 290-8249, or walk into Suite 108A at 7900 Balboa Blvd any day between 9 AM and 9 PM, and we will lay out the numbers, the schedule and the state of airline hiring in one sitting.
Or Send Us A Message And We'll Come Back To You The Same Day →