The airplane your first logbook gets written in.
Five Cessna 162 Skycatchers — the largest Skycatcher fleet in Los Angeles — sitting on the ramp at Van Nuys Airport with Garmin G300 glass panels and forgiving manners. It is the least expensive way to start a logbook here, and the airplane most of our students solo in.
Five identically configured Skycatchers, maintained in-house at Van Nuys. When one is down for an oil change, your lesson still happens — that is the entire point of running five of the same airplane.
Small engine, modern panel, honest handling — the cheapest honest hour in Los Angeles
The Cessna 162 Skycatcher was built for exactly one job: teaching people to fly without punishing them for learning. It is a two-seat, high-wing light-sport aircraft with a 100 hp Continental O-200-D up front, a wide side-by-side cabin, and control response deliberately tuned to be predictable rather than twitchy. Roll into a turn and it goes where you point it. Get slow and it tells you long before it does anything about it.
That gentleness is not a compromise — it is what lets a first-time student spend their attention on the radio, the traffic pattern and the runway instead of wrestling the airplane. Students who start in the Skycatcher tend to reach solo with fewer wasted hours, and every one of those hours is billed at the lowest aircraft rate we publish.
Glass panel from your very first lesson
Where the Skycatcher stops being a basic trainer is the panel. Ours fly behind the Garmin G300 glass flight display — a modern PFD/MFD presentation with a synthetic attitude display, moving map and GPS navigation. You learn the instrument scan on the same style of display you will see in an Arrow, a Cirrus or an airline flight deck, rather than learning steam gauges and re-learning glass two years later.
It also means your cross-country planning, your situational awareness in the Los Angeles Special Flight Rules corridor and your handling of the Van Nuys Class D pattern are all done with real, current avionics — from hour one.
Five identical airplanes means you actually fly
Most Los Angeles flight schools own one or two light-sport trainers. We run five Skycatchers — N60225, N7030B, N6039M, N179LC and N5208V — configured identically and maintained by our own shop on the field at Van Nuys. There is no re-learning a different panel layout because your regular airplane is in maintenance, and no three-week wait for a Saturday morning slot.
For a student flying two or three times a week, availability is the single biggest factor in how quickly and how cheaply they finish. This is the fleet that solves it.
Cessna 162 Skycatcher — full specification
The Skycatcher at Van Nuys
Two seats, a high wing and the entire San Fernando Valley out the window. This is what a normal Tuesday evening lesson looks like.
Fly the Skycatcher on the ground first
Before you spend a single aircraft hour, you can sit in our Redbird MCX full-motion simulator with a certified instructor and fly a Van Nuys departure, a lap of the pattern and a landing. It is the cheapest, lowest-pressure way to find out whether flying is for you — and if you enroll, sim time keeps working for you throughout the Private Pilot course, where you can repeat a stalled approach five times in an hour instead of once per flight.
Two certificates start in this airplane
The Skycatcher is the training aircraft for both of our entry-level certificates. Pick the one that matches how you actually want to fly — we will tell you honestly which is the better fit on a phone call.
Sport Pilot Certificate
The quickest legal path to flying yourself and one passenger in daylight VFR. The Cessna 162 is a light-sport aircraft, so it is the airplane this certificate is built around — and no FAA medical is required for most applicants.
Explore Sport Pilot The full certificate · most popularPrivate Pilot Certificate
The certificate most people mean when they say “pilot's license” — night flying, cross-country, more aircraft, and the required foundation for Instrument, Commercial and every airline pathway. Train it start to finish in the Skycatcher.
Explore Private PilotCessna 162 Skycatcher hourly rate
Where the Skycatcher sits in the path
Our six aircraft types are arranged as one continuous career ladder. The Skycatcher is rung one — where nearly everyone at Van Nuys starts.
Learn
Sport Pilot and Private Pilot. Basic handling, the pattern, cross-country and your first solo — from $179/hr wet on the package rate.
Go Complex
Retractable gear and a constant-speed prop — the FAR 61.129 requirement for Commercial. Complex Endorsement $999.
Go Twin
Two 180 hp engines with counter-rotating props. Multi-Engine Rating in an accelerated 7-day course, $5,100.
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Cessna 162 Skycatcher FAQ
The Skycatcher rents at $269 per hour standard and $179 per hour on the package rate for students enrolled in one of our courses. Both rates are wet — fuel is included, so there is no separate fuel bill after a cross-country. Instructor time is billed separately at $200/hr standard or $110/hr package for Private and Sport instruction. It is the least expensive aircraft on our line.
Five: N60225, N7030B, N6039M, N179LC and N5208V. That is the largest Skycatcher fleet in Los Angeles. They are configured identically, so a checkout in one is effectively a checkout in all five, and they are maintained by our own shop on the field at Van Nuys Airport. Practically, it means when one airplane is in for scheduled maintenance your lesson still happens.
It was purpose-built to be. The 162 is a two-seat, high-wing light-sport trainer with a 100 hp Continental O-200-D and deliberately predictable handling — it does not surprise a student. That forgiveness lets you spend attention on the radio, the traffic pattern and the landing instead of fighting the airplane, which is exactly why most of our students solo in it.
A Garmin G300 glass flight display — a modern PFD/MFD presentation with synthetic attitude, moving map and GPS navigation. You learn the glass instrument scan from your very first lesson rather than learning round gauges and having to re-learn glass later, which matters because the Arrow, the Cirrus and every airline flight deck you will ever see are glass.
Both. The Cessna 162 is a light-sport aircraft, which is what makes Sport Pilot ($8,400) training possible in it — but it is also a fully capable Private Pilot ($10,900) trainer, and most of our Private students complete the entire course in it, including night and cross-country requirements. On a phone call we will tell you honestly which certificate fits how you actually want to fly.
It cruises at about 118 knots — roughly 136 mph. That is genuinely useful for training cross-countries out of Van Nuys: Santa Barbara, Camarillo, Bakersfield and Palm Springs are all comfortably in range, and those are the trips your Private Pilot cross-country requirements are built around.
For Sport Pilot training in the Skycatcher, most applicants can use a valid U.S. driver's license in place of an FAA medical, provided they have never had a medical application denied or revoked. For the Private Pilot certificate you will need at least an FAA third-class medical from an Aviation Medical Examiner. We can point you to AMEs near Van Nuys — call (818) 290-8249 and we will walk you through it.
Different personalities. The Skycatcher is high wing, yoke controlled, glass panel, gentle and cheapest at $179/hr package. The Diamond DA20 is low wing, has a control stick and a bubble canopy, cruises faster at 130–138 kt and rents for $229/hr package. Students who want the most affordable path pick the 162; students who want a sportier feel and enormous visibility pick the DA20. You can fly both — many of our students do.
Yes, two ways. A discovery flight puts you in the left seat with an instructor over Los Angeles, and 100% of the cost credits toward your training if you enroll within 24 hours. Or start on the ground with a 1-hour Redbird MCX full-motion simulator demo for $189. Neither requires any prior experience.
Los Angeles Flight School is at Van Nuys Airport (KVNY) — 7900 Balboa Blvd. Suite 108A, Van Nuys, CA 91406. We are open 9 AM to 9 PM, seven days a week, which is how students fit lessons around real jobs. We serve Encino, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Calabasas, Woodland Hills, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Santa Clarita and the greater Los Angeles area.
Start your logbook in the Skycatcher.
Five airplanes, glass panels, $179 an hour on the package rate, and instructors seven days a week at Van Nuys Airport. Come fly one and see whether it clicks.