Stick in your hand. Sky all around you.
The Diamond DA20-C1 is the airplane people fly once and then keep asking for. A control stick instead of a yoke, a bubble canopy that puts nothing but plexiglass between you and the San Gabriel Mountains, a composite airframe and 130–138 knots of cruise. It is, without much argument, the most fun aircraft on the Van Nuys line.
Two DA20-C1s, identically equipped and maintained in-house at Van Nuys. They book out faster than anything else we own — students who fly one tend to schedule the next lesson before they leave the ramp.
The one people request by name
Every flight school has a favourite airplane, and at Van Nuys it is the DA20. Sit down in one and two things register immediately. The first is the control stick between your knees where a yoke should be — light, direct, and connected to the airplane in a way a yoke never quite manages. The second is the bubble canopy: it closes over you like a fighter's, and suddenly there is no window frame, no wing above your head, nothing at all between you and the Verdugos, the Santa Monicas and the whole basin below.
Then you fly it. The DA20-C1 has a 125 hp Continental IO-240 hung on a slick composite airframe with a long, high-aspect-ratio wing, and it does not fly like a 125-horsepower airplane. It climbs willingly, cruises at 130–138 knots — faster than anything else in our training fleet — and glides like something that genuinely does not want to come down.
Composite airframe, modern airplane
The DA20 is not a 1970s aluminium design with new radios bolted in. It is a purpose-built composite aircraft: a moulded glass-reinforced structure with no rivet lines, no corrosion to chase, and aerodynamics that are simply cleaner than a riveted metal wing can be. That efficiency is where the speed comes from, and it is why the airplane feels tighter and quieter than its horsepower suggests.
The panel carries a Garmin 430 — a real IFR-capable GPS navigator with a moving map, the same box our Arrow and Seminole carry and the same one built into the Redbird MCX simulator. Learn it here and you already know it when you step up.
Who picks the DA20
Two kinds of students, mostly. The first are people who came to flying for the flying — who want the sportiest, most tactile airplane available and are happy to pay $50 an hour more for it. The second are commercial students, because time spent hand-flying a slick, fast, stick-controlled airplane sharpens the precision that Commercial manoeuvres — chandelles, lazy eights, eights-on-pylons — are graded on.
The trade is simple and worth stating plainly: two seats and a $229 package rate against the Skycatcher's $179. If your priority is the cheapest possible path to a certificate, fly the 162. If you want to enjoy every hour of it, fly this.
Diamond DA20-C1 — full specification
The DA20 at Van Nuys
Canopy up on the ramp, canopy down over the mountains. Two seats, one stick and nothing in the way of the view.
Fly it on the ground first
You do not have to guess whether a stick-and-canopy airplane suits you. Start with an hour in our Redbird MCX full-motion simulator alongside a certified instructor — fly a departure out of Van Nuys, a practice area manoeuvre and a landing back on 16R. The MCX carries a real Garmin 430, the same navigator in the DA20's panel, so the box you learn there is the box you will use in the airplane. And if you enroll, sim hours keep working for you: $120/hr on the package rate against $229 for the aircraft.
From first lesson to professional certificate
The DA20 is a Private Pilot trainer that also happens to be an excellent Commercial manoeuvres platform — precision hand-flying is what a slick, light, stick-controlled airplane rewards.
Private Pilot Certificate
Complete course cost. Learn to fly with a stick in your hand and a canopy over your head — night flying, cross-country, checkride prep and the foundation for every rating after it.
Explore Private Pilot Where it gets seriousCommercial Pilot License
The certificate that lets you be paid to fly. Chandelles, lazy eights and eights-on-pylons are graded on precision — and precision is exactly what a light composite airframe on a control stick teaches best.
Explore CommercialDiamond DA20-C1 hourly rate
Where the DA20 sits in the path
Our six aircraft types are arranged as one continuous career ladder. The DA20 is the sporty option on rung one — and it keeps earning its place through Commercial manoeuvre training.
Learn
Private Pilot, and Commercial manoeuvres later. Stick, canopy, 130–138 kt — $229/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, so there is no critical engine. Multi-Engine Rating $5,100 in 7 days.
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Diamond DA20-C1 FAQ
The DA20-C1 rents at $329 per hour standard and $229 per hour on the package rate for students enrolled in one of our courses. Both are wet — fuel included, with no separate fuel bill after a flight. Instructor time is billed separately at $200/hr standard or $110/hr package for Private instruction. The DA20 sits $50/hr above our Cessna 162 and Piper Warrior.
Because it is a different class of airplane. The DA20-C1 is a modern composite aircraft with a fuel-injected 125 hp Continental IO-240, a control stick, a bubble canopy, a Garmin 430 navigator and a 130–138 kt cruise — the fastest trainer on our line. Acquisition and maintenance costs are higher, and so is demand. If your priority is the lowest possible cost per hour, the Cessna 162 at $179/hr package is the right answer; if you want the best flying experience, this is.
Lighter and more direct. A centre stick moves with your wrist rather than your arms, so control inputs become smaller and more precise almost immediately — most students adapt within the first twenty minutes and then find yokes feel vague afterwards. There is nothing harder about it, and no additional training or endorsement is required to fly a stick-controlled airplane.
Two — N306EF and N308EF. Both are identically equipped and maintained by our own shop on the field at Van Nuys Airport. They are the most requested aircraft on our schedule, so if you want a Saturday morning slot in one, book ahead.
Yes — the DA20-C1 is a fully certificated Part 23 trainer and our Private Pilot course ($10,900) can be flown start to finish in it, including night and cross-country requirements. Many students split their training between the DA20 and the Cessna 162 to manage cost, which is completely normal and requires no extra paperwork.
Yes. It is an excellent platform for the Commercial Pilot License ($15,900) manoeuvres — chandelles, lazy eights and eights-on-pylons are graded on precision and energy management, and a light, slick, stick-controlled airframe teaches both better than a heavier trainer does. Note that the Commercial certificate also requires complex-aircraft time, which is flown in our Piper Arrow — retractable gear and a constant-speed prop, per FAR 61.129.
It cruises at 130 to 138 knots depending on altitude and power setting — roughly 150 to 159 mph, and comfortably the quickest airplane in our training fleet. From Van Nuys that makes Santa Barbara, Camarillo, Palm Springs, Big Bear and Mammoth all realistic day trips, and it makes the long cross-country legs in the Private syllabus genuinely fun.
On a July afternoon at Van Nuys, yes — a bubble canopy is a greenhouse on the ground. In practice you brief with the canopy open, taxi with ventilation on, and the moment you are rolling it is a non-issue; in cruise the airflow and altitude sort it out entirely. Our students who fly the DA20 in summer overwhelmingly schedule early morning or evening lessons, which is also when the air over the valley is smoothest.
Yes. Book a discovery flight — you will be in the left seat with the stick in your hand and an instructor beside you, over the Hollywood Sign, downtown Los Angeles and the coast. If you enroll within 24 hours, 100% of the cost credits toward your training. You can also start on the ground with a 1-hour Redbird MCX simulator demo for $189, which carries the same Garmin 430 as the DA20's panel.
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. We serve Encino, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Calabasas, Woodland Hills, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Santa Clarita, Pasadena and the greater Los Angeles area.
Come find out what a stick feels like.
One hour, one canopy, the whole Los Angeles basin. Book a discovery flight in the DA20 and decide afterwards — 100% of it credits toward your training if you enroll within 24 hours.