A Discovery Flight Near You: $229, 60 Minutes, and You Fly It
A discovery flight is a real flight lesson. You sit in the left seat and fly the aircraft yourself, an FAA-certificated instructor sits beside you, and the hour goes in a logbook as dual instruction toward your certificate. $229 for 60 minutes from Van Nuys Airport — 10 to 40 minutes from most of Los Angeles.
A discovery flight is your first flying lesson, and it costs $229
You sit in the left seat. That is the pilot’s seat, and it has a full set of controls in front of it — yoke, throttle, rudder pedals, trim wheel. An FAA-certificated flight instructor sits on your right with the second set. For most of the 60 minutes, the aeroplane does what you tell it to do.
The $229 covers all of it: the aircraft, the fuel, the instructor’s time on the ground and in the air, and the logbook entry at the end. There is no fuel surcharge and nothing added at the desk.
That logbook entry is the part almost nobody explains. The FAA does not care that it was your first day in a small aeroplane. Time flown with a certificated instructor is dual instruction, and it counts toward the 40 hours FAR 61.109 sets as the legal minimum for a private pilot certificate. Walk away afterwards and you still own that hour. Come back and you are one hour into forty.
Nothing is required in advance. No licence. No medical certificate. No ground school, no written exam, no paperwork beyond a name and a phone number. You show up 15 minutes early and you fly.
This is not a sightseeing ride, and the difference is not marketing language
Los Angeles sells a great many scenic air tours. Know which product you are buying.
On a tour you are a passenger. You sit behind or beside a commercial pilot, you keep your hands in your lap, and you get an hour of very good photographs. Nothing about that hour exists the next morning.
A discovery flight is a different trade entirely. You do the walkaround. You start the engine. You taxi the aircraft out to the run-up area yourself, steering with your feet, which is the part that catches everyone out. You do the takeoff. And when the propeller stops, someone writes the date, the aircraft registration and 1.0 hours into a logbook with your name on the front.
So take the honest test. If what you want is one beautiful hour and a camera roll, book an airplane tour over Los Angeles — we run those too and we would rather sell you the right thing. If any part of you wants to find out whether you could actually fly the aeroplane, a tour will never answer that question and $229 will.
| Sightseeing tour | Discovery flight | |
|---|---|---|
| Who flies the aircraft | A commercial pilot | You, from the left seat |
| Where you sit | Passenger seat | Left seat, full dual controls |
| The takeoff | Not yours | Yours, hands on the yoke |
| Flight time logged | None | 1.0 hours dual instruction |
| Counts toward a certificate | No | Yes, under FAR 61.109 |
| Credited if you enrol | No | Full $229 within 24 hours |
Where “near me” actually is: 7900 Balboa Blvd, Van Nuys
Our office is 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, Van Nuys, CA 91406, on the field at Van Nuys Airport (KVNY). Van Nuys sits in the middle of the San Fernando Valley, which is the whole reason it works as an answer to “near me” in a city this spread out. Most of Los Angeles is 10 to 40 minutes away, and you get here on the 405 or the 101 rather than crawling across the basin.
KVNY is a Class D field tucked under the LAX Class B shelf, and one of the busiest general aviation airports in the world. You will work a real control tower on your first flight, with business jets in the pattern around you. A few people find that idea intimidating on the drive over. Almost nobody finds it intimidating afterwards — it is usually the thing they talk about first.
Parking is free and on site. Arrive 15 minutes before your slot, walk into Suite 108A, and your instructor will meet you there. Phone (818) 290-8249, open 9am to 9pm, seven days a week.
Drive times to Van Nuys Airport
Typical off-peak times by car. Add 10 to 15 minutes on a weekday afternoon, and book a morning or evening slot if you are coming over a hill.
| Where you are coming from | Drive time |
|---|---|
| Sherman Oaks · Encino · Tarzana | 10–15 min |
| Woodland Hills · Northridge | 15–20 min |
| Burbank · Glendale | 20–25 min |
| Calabasas · Agoura Hills | 20–30 min |
| Santa Clarita | 25–35 min |
| Beverly Hills · West Hollywood | 25–35 min |
| Santa Monica · Culver City | 30–40 min |
| Pasadena | 30–40 min |
| Thousand Oaks · Simi Valley | 30–45 min |
Coming from further out? Call and we will find you a slot that misses the traffic. Full list of areas we serve: flight training service areas across Los Angeles.
Six discovery flights, and which one to actually book
Prices are the total for the flight, not per person.
| Discovery flight | 60 min | 90 min | 120 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery Flight For One — single-engine trainer, you in the left seat | $229 | $299 | $399 |
| Discovery Flight For Two — you fly, someone you like rides along | $299 | $399 | $499 |
| Luxury Cirrus For Two — SR22 Turbo, glass panel, airframe parachute | $399 | $549 | $699 |
| Multi-Engine Seminole — twin-engine Piper Seminole over Los Angeles | $499 | $699 | $899 |
| Redbird full-motion simulator — never cancelled for weather | $189 | — | — |
| Camarillo lunch flight for two — fly out, eat, fly home | $699 flat | ||
Book the $229 60-minute Discovery Flight For One. That is not a reflex toward the cheapest thing on the list — it is that the first hour is where all of the learning happens, and 90 minutes mostly buys you more sightseeing rather than more instruction. Upgrade if the point is the afternoon rather than the lesson.
The Flight For Two at $299 is the right pick when someone is coming to watch. One of you flies from the left seat, the other rides behind. Only the person on the controls logs the time. The Luxury Cirrus at $399 puts you in an SR22 Turbo with a full glass cockpit and a whole-airframe parachute; it is a far nicer aeroplane and a slightly worse first trainer, which is a fair trade if you already know you want to fly. The Multi-Engine Seminole at $499 is for people who are already flying or already certain.
And if your real worry is motion sickness or nerves rather than money, book the $189 Redbird session first. It is an FAA-approved full-motion simulator, it never cancels for weather, and you can stop it at any moment. Nobody has ever been embarrassed in a simulator.
What actually happens, minute by minute
This is the standard 60-minute Discovery Flight For One at Van Nuys. The clock moves around with traffic and wind. The sequence does not.
You arrive, 15 minutes early
Suite 108A, straight off the ramp. Your instructor introduces themselves, asks what you want out of the hour, then pulls up the weather, the notices to airmen and the aircraft paperwork in front of you. Bring photo ID. Wear closed-toe shoes and bring sunglasses.
The preflight walkaround, together
You go out to the aeroplane and physically inspect it. Fuel drained into a clear tester and held up to the light for water. Oil on the dipstick. Every control surface moved by hand. Tyres, brakes, static port, propeller. Ten minutes, and it is the first thing every pilot on earth does before every flight.
Start, taxi and run-up
Headsets on, radios live, and you will hear Van Nuys Ground before the aircraft moves an inch. On the ground you steer with your feet, not the yoke, and everybody gets it wrong for the first fifty feet. At the run-up pad the engine goes to 1,700 RPM and the instructor checks the magnetos while you watch the gauges.
Your takeoff
Line up on the runway centreline. Throttle full forward — your hand on it. Keep straight with the rudder pedals, watch the airspeed come alive, and at around 55 knots ease the yoke back. The aeroplane leaves the ground because you told it to. The instructor’s hands stay close to the controls and off them.
The hour over Los Angeles
Climb out over the Valley, then some genuine airwork: turns onto a heading, climbs and descents, and the moment the trim wheel suddenly makes sense. After that we go somewhere worth looking at — the Hollywood Sign and the ridgeline of the Santa Monica Mountains on a clear day, or west over Malibu and down the coast. You are flying for nearly all of it.
Pattern, landing, debrief
Back into the Van Nuys traffic pattern, downwind, base, final. You fly the approach with the instructor’s hands riding along and they take the last few seconds over the threshold. Then a debrief at the desk, your logbook entry signed, and a straight answer about what you did well and what you would work on next time.
Who can book one, honestly
Two of these are hard limits and we would rather tell you now than at the aircraft.
No experience needed
Never touched a control column, never sat in a small aircraft, never wanted to until last Tuesday. That is the normal customer, not the exception.
No licence needed
You do not need a pilot certificate of any kind. Your instructor is the legal pilot in command for the whole flight, start to shutdown.
No medical certificate
An FAA medical is required before you fly solo, not before your first lesson. If you enrol, that comes later and we will walk you through it.
Ages 10 and up
Ten is our floor, and it is about reach and attention span rather than paperwork. Anyone under 18 needs a parent or guardian on site to sign. There is no upper age limit whatsoever.
Weight and height limits are real
Light aircraft have hard weight-and-balance numbers, and they are not a suggestion — an out-of-limits aeroplane does not fly the way the performance charts say. Tell us your approximate weight and height when you book and we will put you in the right airframe, or say honestly if we cannot.
Passenger limits
The Flight For One is one seat. The Flight For Two carries two of you plus the instructor, and the combined weight still has to work. Mention extra people when you book, not on the day.
About 300 flyable days a year, and the ones that are not
Los Angeles gets roughly 300 flyable days a year. That single fact is most of why the region is full of flight schools, and it is genuinely one of the easiest places on earth to learn to fly.
The exception has a name: May Gray and June Gloom. The marine layer pushes in off the Pacific overnight and sits on the Valley until late morning, and when the ceiling is lower than a training flight needs, we do not go. That is not caution as theatre. A first lesson flown in cloud teaches you nothing and has talked more than one person out of aviation entirely.
If we cancel, we rebook you at no charge and there is no clock running on the booking. If you are travelling in from out of town in late May or June, take an afternoon slot — the layer usually burns off by noon — or book the $189 Redbird full-motion simulator session, which flies in any weather at any hour.
The aeroplanes you would actually be flying
Every aircraft on this ramp is ours. We own them, we maintain them on our own schedule, and our instructors fly them every day. A discovery flight for one goes out in a single-engine trainer; the Cirrus and the Seminole are the upgrade options.
More on what we operate and why: training aircraft at our Van Nuys flight school.
Nervous about the real thing? Start in the simulator for $189
A full-motion, fully enclosed, FAA-approved Redbird MCX. It pitches and rolls, the panel is real, and it is the one option on this page that is never cancelled for weather.
Simulator hours are built into every private pilot program — 2 hours on Standard and Premium, 5 hours on Comprehensive. Read more about the full-motion Redbird MCX simulator at Van Nuys Airport.
Career instructors, not hour-builders passing through
The single biggest variable in a first flight is the person sitting on your right. Every instructor here holds a commercial or ATP certificate plus a CFI and a current medical, and on your discovery flight they are the legal pilot in command from start to shutdown. Nothing about the flight depends on you getting it right.
There are eleven of them, which matters more than it sounds like it does. A one-instructor school schedules you around one person’s life. We can put you in the air on a Tuesday evening or a Sunday morning. You get matched to an instructor, and if the fit is wrong you change — that is a normal request, not an awkward one.
Tell them at the start what you actually want from the hour. Someone who wants to know whether they could do this for a living gets a different sixty minutes from someone who has wanted to see the Hollywood Sign from 2,500 feet since they were nine.
4.9 stars, 500+ reviews
Across Google and Yelp, the same three things come up over and over on discovery flight reviews.
The debrief, not the view
The most repeated compliment is not the aeroplane or the coastline. It is that someone sat down afterwards and told them honestly how they flew.
Nobody upsold them
You will not get a sales pitch strapped to your first hour. If you want to talk about programs, ask. If you do not, the flight is the whole product.
Prices that do not move
$229 is $229. Reviewers mention this constantly, because the alternative is common enough in this industry to be worth writing about.
Pick your discovery flight
Every price below is the total for the flight. The full cost is credited against any training program if you enrol within 24 hours.
Discovery Flight For One
Single-engine trainer, you in the left seat, 1.0 hours of dual instruction logged. 90 minutes $299, 120 minutes $399.
- You fly the aircraft Yes
- You do the takeoff Yes
- Logged toward your licence 1.0 hr
- Licence or medical needed No
Discovery Flight For Two
One of you flies, one rides along. 90 minutes $399, 120 minutes $499. Tell us both weights when you book.
- Seats 2 + instructor
- Who logs the time Left seat
- 90 minutes $399
- 120 minutes $499
Luxury Cirrus For Two
Cirrus SR22 Turbo, full glass cockpit, CAPS whole-airframe parachute. 90 minutes $549, 120 minutes $699.
- Aircraft Cirrus SR22T
- Panel Glass
- 90 minutes $549
- 120 minutes $699
Multi-Engine Seminole
Twin-engine Piper Seminole over Los Angeles. 90 minutes $699, 120 minutes $899. For people who are already flying or already sure.
- Engines Two
- 90 minutes $699
- 120 minutes $899
Redbird Full-Motion Simulator
FAA-approved full-motion simulator. Never cancelled for weather, and you can stop it at any moment. The right first step if nerves or motion sickness are the real question.
- Motion Full
- Weather cancellations None
- Session $189
Camarillo Lunch Flight For Two
Fly out over the Santa Monica Mountains to Camarillo, eat lunch on the field, fly home. The best gift on this page and the worst way to test whether you want a licence.
- Seats 2 + instructor
- Price $699 flat
The $229 comes straight back if you enrol within 24 hours
Enrol in any of our flight training programs within 24 hours of your discovery flight and the full $229 is credited against the tuition. Not half of it, not a voucher with conditions — the whole amount comes off the program price.
Twenty-four hours is deliberate, and we will say why. The decision is easiest to make while you can still feel what the aeroplane did under your hands. Left for three weeks, most people talk themselves out of things they wanted.
The programs are fixed price and the number you enrol at is the number you finish at. Standard Private Pilot is $10,900 with 40 hours logged. Comprehensive is $15,900 with 60 hours logged, and it is the one most people should take, because the national average to a private certificate is 60 to 75 hours rather than the 40-hour legal minimum in FAR 61.109. Premium is $22,500 and flies the Cirrus SR22 Turbo throughout. Enrolled students train at the $179 an hour package rate, wet, single-engine. Financing starts at $2,500 down.
None of which you need to have an opinion about before booking an hour.
Ten minutes from you, and you will know by the first turn
Van Nuys Airport, seven days a week, 9am to 9pm. Pick a slot, arrive 15 minutes early, and fly the aeroplane yourself for an hour. If it turns out flying is not for you, that is a $229 answer to a question most people carry around for thirty years.
Before you book
What is a discovery flight?Your first flight lesson: what to expectFlying lessons at Van Nuys AirportFlight training questions, answeredAreas we serve across Los AngelesDiscovery flights near me: the questions people actually ask
Straight answers with the numbers in them.
A discovery flight is an introductory flying lesson where you fly the aircraft yourself from the left seat with an FAA-certificated flight instructor beside you. At LA Flight School it is $229 for 60 minutes, departing Van Nuys Airport (KVNY) in Los Angeles. The hour is logged as dual instruction and counts toward the 40 hours FAR 61.109 requires for a private pilot certificate.
$229 for 60 minutes for one person, $299 for 90 minutes and $399 for 120 minutes. A Discovery Flight For Two starts at $299, a Cirrus SR22 Turbo flight at $399, a twin-engine Piper Seminole flight at $499, and a Redbird full-motion simulator session at $189. Each price is the total for the flight and includes the aircraft, the fuel, the instructor and your logbook entry.
Yes. You sit in the left seat with a full set of controls and you fly the aircraft for most of the 60 minutes, including the takeoff. Your instructor is the legal pilot in command, works the radio and takes the final few seconds of the landing. On a sightseeing tour you are a passenger; on a discovery flight you are the one flying.
The standard discovery flight is 60 minutes of flight time, with 90-minute and 120-minute options. Allow about two hours at the airport in total: a 15-minute briefing, roughly 10 minutes of preflight walkaround, the flight itself, then the debrief and logbook entry. Arrive 15 minutes before your booked slot.
No. No pilot certificate, no FAA medical certificate and no prior experience are required to book a discovery flight. Bring photo ID and that is it. A medical certificate only becomes necessary later, before your first solo flight.
Yes. Book the Discovery Flight For Two at $299 for 60 minutes, which carries two of you plus the instructor. Only the person in the left seat logs the flight time. Tell us everyone's approximate weight when you book, because light aircraft have hard weight-and-balance limits that cannot be stretched.
For $229 it is the cheapest honest answer to whether you want to spend $10,900 on a private pilot certificate. Most people know inside the first 20 minutes whether flying an aircraft feels right, and the hour is logged toward a licence either way. If you do enrol within 24 hours, the full $229 comes off your tuition.
Ages 10 and up, with a parent or guardian present to sign for anyone under 18. There is no upper age limit at all. Weight and height limits do apply because of aircraft weight and balance, so mention your approximate weight when you book and we will assign the right aircraft.
Yes. Time flown with a certificated flight instructor is dual instruction and is logged toward the 40-hour minimum set by FAR 61.109. A 60-minute discovery flight puts 1.0 hours in your logbook on day one. The national average to a private pilot certificate is 60 to 75 hours, so it is a real start rather than a token one.
We cancel and rebook you at no charge, with no expiry on the booking. Los Angeles has roughly 300 flyable days a year, but the marine layer in May and June often holds morning ceilings too low for a training flight. Book an afternoon slot in late spring, or take the $189 Redbird full-motion simulator session, which never cancels for weather.
We fly from Van Nuys Airport (KVNY), 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, Van Nuys, CA 91406. That is 10 to 15 minutes from Sherman Oaks, Encino and Tarzana, 20 to 25 minutes from Burbank and Glendale, 25 to 35 minutes from Beverly Hills, and 30 to 40 minutes from Santa Monica and Pasadena. Call (818) 290-8249, open 9am to 9pm, seven days a week.
Closed-toe shoes, comfortable clothes and sunglasses. Skip anything loose enough to catch on the controls, and leave hats behind for the walkaround. Bring photo ID and arrive 15 minutes early; headsets are provided at no extra cost.
Get the full training plan and price sheet
The three private pilot packages, what each one includes, the financing options and a realistic timeline built around how often you can actually fly. Sent to you in one email. Nobody will pressure you.
- Every package price, itemised
- Financing from $2,500 down
- A timeline based on your schedule