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 · $229 · Van Nuys (KVNY)
A Discovery Flight for Nervous Flyers: You Fly It, We Are Pilot in Command
Sixty minutes from Van Nuys Airport in which you are the pilot flying and a certificated instructor is legally pilot in command. It is the step that removes loss of control and loss of information at the same time. It is also not the right first step for everybody, and this page says exactly who it is wrong for.
$229 for 60 minutesYou have the controlsInstructor is pilot in commandLand early any time you ask
$22960 minutes, Discovery Flight For One
60minutes airborne, plus a briefing before it
5.0★70 reviews on Google
355flyable days a year at Van Nuys
What it is
This is a lesson, not a ride, and that distinction is the entire point
A scenic tour puts you in the back and flies you around. A discovery flight puts you in the left seat and gives you the controls. On paper the difference is a seat allocation. In practice it is the difference between the condition that produces most fear of flying and the condition that removes it.
You will fly straight and level, turns, climbs and descents, over the San Fernando Valley or out towards the Malibu coastline depending on the air that morning. Your instructor handles the takeoff and the landing and is legally pilot in command for the whole flight under Part 61, which means a professional is operating the aircraft and you are being taught, not tested.
The hour is logged as dual instruction in a pilot logbook, which surprises people who booked it purely to deal with a fear and had no intention of becoming a pilot. The full $229 is credited against any programme if you enrol within 24 hours. Nobody will ask you to.
Read this first
When a flight school is the wrong first step
We build pilots. We are not a clinic, and this page is not medical advice.
A discovery flight is a real aircraft leaving a real runway, and once the wheels are up the exit is a landing rather than a door. That is exactly why it works for a lot of nervous flyers, and exactly why it is the wrong first step for somebody who has panic attacks.
If your fear includes a racing heart, tunnel vision, or a fear of losing control of yourself rather than of the aircraft, book the free consultation and tell us that on the phone. We will point you at a psychologist and at the $189 Redbird simulator session first, in that order, and we will still be here afterwards.
1
See a professional first if this is panic
If the thought of a flight brings on a racing heart, shortness of breath, sweating or a sense of dread you cannot talk yourself out of, that is a clinical picture and a licensed psychologist is the right first call. Cognitive behavioural therapy and graded exposure therapy have the strongest evidence behind them for specific phobias.
2
We are glad to be step two
Plenty of people arrive here after doing that work, with a therapist who has suggested real-world exposure as the next stage. Some bring their therapist’s notes. That is a good use of an hour in the Redbird or in the aircraft, and we will work to whatever plan you have been given.
3
What we actually offer
Two things, both honest: exposure to the real thing with a professional pilot sitting beside you, and an explanation of what is happening while it happens. No claims beyond that. We do not diagnose, we do not publish a success rate, and we will tell you on the phone if we think you should talk to someone else first.
The sequence
Exactly what happens, in order, with timings
Nothing on this list is a surprise on the day. That is deliberate: surprise is the ingredient we are trying to remove.
01
You arrive and nobody rushes you, 15 minutes
Suite 108A at 7900 Balboa Blvd. You meet your instructor on the ground, not on the ramp. If you have told us you are nervous this is where we spend the extra time, and there is no upper limit on it.
02
The briefing, 20 to 30 minutes
What makes an aircraft fly, what every control does, what we are going to do in what order, and what each noise will be before you hear it. You will also be told the two or three moments you are most likely to find unpleasant, in advance, which is the difference between a jolt and a shock.
03
The walkaround
You do the external inspection with the instructor: control surfaces, fuel, oil, tyres. This is the part nervous flyers report as unexpectedly steadying, because you have now personally checked the aircraft you are about to sit in.
04
Engine start, taxi and run-up, 10 minutes
Loud, and all of it on the ground. The engine run-up before departure is a deliberate power check at the hold short line. You will hear the magnetos being tested and the propeller cycled. It sounds alarming and it is the opposite of alarming.
05
Takeoff, flown by the instructor
You keep your hands on the controls if you want to follow along, or in your lap if you do not. Van Nuys is a Class D field under the Los Angeles Class B shelf, so the radio is busy and you will hear the instructor talking to the tower throughout.
06
You fly, 30 to 45 minutes
The instructor hands you the controls once we are clear of the pattern. Straight and level first, then gentle turns. Almost everybody discovers in the first two minutes that the aircraft is stable and wants to keep flying without help, which is not what most people expect.
07
The bit where the fear usually changes shape
It is normally a small bump handled while you are the one holding the controls. Something that would have been frightening in row 24 is a texture in the air you flew through. We will talk about it on the radio while it is happening.
08
Landing, debrief and your logbook
The instructor lands. Then twenty minutes at the table going through what happened and answering whatever you did not want to ask in front of anyone. Your logbook entry gets signed. Nobody sells you anything at this table.
Why it works
Four conditions go away in one hour
The reason a discovery flight does something a book cannot is not motivational. It is that a passenger cabin removes four specific things, and the left seat gives all four back simultaneously.
You can see. Windows on three sides, a horizon in front of you, and the ground you already know from the freeway. You can interpret the sounds, because you are causing them — you moved the throttle, so the noise change is yours. You can influence the outcome, because your hands are on the controls and the aircraft is responding to you. And the person responsible for your safety is sitting 18 inches away and answering questions rather than being an anonymous voice behind a locked door.
That is a testable claim rather than a slogan, and the test costs $229 and an hour. It is also worth saying what it does not do: it will not automatically make a full 737 cabin comfortable, because a 737 cabin restores three of those four conditions. What it tends to change is the meaning of the noises, which travels with you.
The mechanism, in full: why loss of control causes fear of flying
The noises
Every noise you will hear, named before you hear it
The commercial-flight list, because most people booking this are frightened of airliners rather than of trainers. Your instructor will do the small-aircraft version on the day.
| What you hear or feel | When | What it actually is |
|---|---|---|
| A rising whine, then a solid thunk under the floor | At the gate, before pushback | Hydraulic pumps coming up to pressure, then the door or jetbridge latching. Nothing has moved yet. |
| A rhythmic barking, like a large dog, every couple of seconds | On the ground and during taxi | On Airbus A320-family jets this is the Power Transfer Unit, a pump that borrows pressure from one hydraulic system to feed another when the second engine is not running. It is famous, it is normal, and it stops once both engines are turning. |
| Engines spool up, a firm push into the seat | Takeoff roll | Takeoff thrust. The push you feel is roughly a quarter of the force gravity is already applying to you sitting still. |
| A heavy clunk and the wind noise suddenly drops | 10 to 20 seconds after the wheels leave | The landing gear folding into the wheel wells and the doors closing over it. The aircraft gets quieter and faster at the same time, which is why the drop in noise feels like a loss of power. |
| The engine note falls away sharply and the nose lowers | Between 800 and 3,000 feet above the airport | A thrust cutback. FAA Advisory Circular 91-53A lets crews reduce power for noise abatement at no less than 800 feet above field elevation and hold the profile to 3,000 feet. This is the single most misread moment in airline flying: it feels exactly like an engine quitting, and it is a scheduled power reduction the crew makes on purpose. |
| A grinding, whirring noise, and the wing visibly gets thinner | Climbing through roughly 1,000 to 3,000 feet | Flaps and slats retracting on a speed schedule. Big wing for slow flight, small wing for fast flight. The wing is meant to change shape. |
| Small repeated jolts, like a car on a cattle grid | Any phase of flight | Air is not smooth. It has texture, layers and rising columns over hot ground, and the aircraft is riding over them. Nothing is breaking. |
| The wingtip flexing up and down several feet | Turbulence, and on every takeoff | The wing is a spring, deliberately. It is designed to bend so that gust loads are absorbed rather than resisted. A wing that did not move would be the problem. |
| Engines go quiet and the floor seems to fall away | Top of descent, 30 to 40 minutes before landing | Power back towards idle to start down. The sinking feeling is your inner ear reporting a change in vertical speed of a few hundred feet a minute, which it exaggerates badly. |
| A rumble and a shudder, and panels lift off the top of the wing | Descent, and again after touchdown | Speedbrakes and spoilers. They spoil the lift on purpose to let the aircraft come down or stay down. |
| A whine, then a firm mechanical thump under your feet | Five to ten minutes before landing | Landing gear extending and locking. The thump is the locks engaging, and the crew wants to hear it. |
| A loud roar immediately after the wheels touch | Landing rollout | Reverse thrust. Loudest noise of the whole flight, made while you are already on the ground doing 130 knots and slowing. |
Power reduction altitudes are from FAA Advisory Circular 91-53A, Noise Abatement Departure Profile. Everything else on this table is what the aircraft is doing mechanically at that moment.
Honesty
Who should not book this, and what we will not claim
A short list, because leaving it out would make everything else on this page less believable.
1
If you have panic attacks, not yet
Start with a licensed psychologist. Cognitive behavioural therapy with graded exposure is the best-supported approach for specific phobias, and an aircraft at 2,500 feet is a poor place to discover you needed it. Book the free consultation and tell us; we will say the same thing on the phone.
2
If you want a promised outcome, we do not sell one
We publish no success rate for this because we have run no study, and a number invented for a landing page would be worthless. What we can describe is exactly what happens in the hour, which is what this page does.
3
If somebody else booked it for you as a surprise
Please do not. Surprise is the exact ingredient that makes flying frightening, and a gift certificate sprung on a nervous person on the morning of the flight goes badly. Gift it with the date open and let them call us.
4
If the weather is marginal, we will move it
Van Nuys averages 355 flyable days a year against a 3,000 foot ceiling and 5 statute miles, so this is rare, and we would rather reschedule than fly a nervous first-timer in an unnecessarily bumpy afternoon. There is no charge for moving it.
The fleet
The aircraft you would fly
Owned and maintained here, and inspected every 100 hours under FAR 91.409(b) because they are used for instruction for hire.
Single-engine training is flown in the Cessna, Piper and Diamond aircraft. The Cirrus SR22 Turbo carries a whole-airframe CAPS parachute, which is the aircraft most nervous first-timers ask about by name.
Redbird MCX
If an aircraft is too big a step, start on the ground
The Redbird MCX is full-motion, FAA-approved and fully enclosed, and it does not leave the building.
A $189 simulator session is a legitimate rehearsal for this flight: same instructor, same noises, same motion, with a stop button. Plenty of people do the simulator first and the aircraft two weeks later, and that is the sequence we recommend if you are unsure.
Your instructor
The instructor is legally pilot in command, and that is not a formality
Under Part 61 the certificated flight instructor in the right seat is the pilot in command for the entire flight. Every instructor here holds a commercial or airline transport pilot certificate, a flight instructor certificate and a current medical. The aircraft is being operated by a professional whatever you are doing with your hands.
They can take the controls in under a second and will say so out loud when they do. If you want to stop, the answer is yes, immediately, with no argument about the money. On a local flight from Van Nuys you are never more than a few minutes from the runway you left.
What people say
5.0 Stars, 70 Reviews
Seventy reviews, all on Google. The thing that comes up most from first-timers is the briefing, not the view over the Hollywood Hills.
★
Instructors who explain, not perform
The line that comes up most in our Google reviews is about the briefing table, not the flight. People who arrive nervous mention being told what was about to happen before it happened.
★
Nobody is rushed off the ramp
Eleven instructors and a fleet we own means an hour on the ground before an hour in the air is a scheduling decision, not a favour.
★
The number does not move
You book at $229 or $189 and that is what it costs. Reviewers mention the absence of surprises about as often as they mention the view.
All 70 reviews are on Google. We do not aggregate ratings from anywhere else, and we do not publish a figure we cannot point at.
What it costs
Book the conversation, the simulator, or the flight
In that order on purpose. The consultation is free and nothing gets booked at the end of it unless you ask.
Start here
Free Consultation
$0 / 30 min
Sit down with an instructor at Van Nuys and ask everything, including the questions you think sound stupid. Nothing is booked at the end of it unless you want it booked. If we think a psychologist should see you before an aircraft does, we will say so here.
Redbird MCX Simulator Session
$189 / session
A full-motion, FAA-approved, fully enclosed simulator on the ground. Turbulence, engine sounds, weather and motion, with a stop button and a door you can open. The safest possible first exposure, and it is never cancelled for weather.
Discovery Flight For One
$229 / 60 min
A real aircraft, a real hour, and you fly it. Your instructor is legally pilot in command and can take the controls at any moment. The time is logged as dual instruction, and the full price is credited against any programme if you enrol within 24 hours.
If it turns into something bigger
Discovery Flight For Two
$299 / 60 min
Bring the person who talked you into this. One of you flies, the other sits behind and watches. The 90 and 120-minute versions are $399 and $499.
Sport Pilot
$8,400
The shortest legal route to flying yourself: day VFR, one passenger, no Class B airspace without an endorsement. A real certificate with real limits, and a smaller commitment than a private pilot licence.
Standard Private Pilot
$10,900
The 40-hour package that meets the FAR 61.109 minimum. Most people who start this because they were frightened of flying never intended to get a licence, and then did.
- Single-engine (Cessna · Piper · Diamond)38 hrs
- Redbird full-motion simulator2 hrs
- Dual flight instruction30 hrs
- Ground school3 hrs
- Books & training materialsIncluded
The Comprehensive Private Pilot programme is $15,900 for 60 logged hours and the Premium programme is $22,500 in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo. Instrument Rating $11,700, Multi-Engine add-on $5,100, Solo Certificate $5,500, Teens aged 10 to 15 $4,200. Financing starts at $2,500 down through Stratus Financial or our in-house plans. Enrolled students fly single-engine aircraft at $179 an hour wet inside their package. Aircraft are available to qualified pilots who have checked out with us — call for availability.
$500 off any private pilot program this summer. Standard $10,400 · Comprehensive $15,400 · Premium $22,000. Ask when you enroll.
Next step
Call first if you are not sure this is the right step
Thirty minutes with an instructor, no cost, nothing booked. Tell us honestly what happens to you on an aircraft and we will tell you honestly whether the simulator, the discovery flight, or a psychologist should come first.
Prefer to write it down first? Use the contact form, or read what a discovery flight actually involves before you decide anything.
Free consultation
$0
Sit down with an instructor at Van Nuys, ask everything, book nothing. Thirty minutes, no obligation, and you can bring someone with you.
Fear of flying
Fear of flying: the complete guideHow to overcome fear of flyingWhy loss of control causes fear of flyingFear of flying simulator sessionAre small plane flights safe? An honest answer
FAQ
Discovery Flights For Nervous Flyers, Answered
Yes, and a lot of people book them for exactly that reason, but tell us when you book because it changes how the flight is run. A Discovery Flight For One is $229 for 60 minutes from Van Nuys, you fly the aircraft and a certificated instructor is legally pilot in command. If your fear includes panic attacks, see a psychologist first and treat the flight as a later step.
No. You are the pilot flying for most of the hour by default, but you can hand the controls back at any moment or never take them at all, and the instructor is pilot in command throughout under Part 61. Most nervous flyers find the opposite problem: they do not want to give the controls back.
You say so and we return to Van Nuys, with no argument about the money. The instructor can take the controls in under a second, and on a local flight you are only a few minutes from the runway you departed from. Knowing that exit exists is part of why these flights usually go better than people expect.
Sixty minutes airborne on the $229 option, and about two hours at the airport in total. That covers a 20 to 30 minute briefing, the walkaround, engine start and taxi, the flight itself, and roughly twenty minutes of debrief afterwards. Ninety and 120-minute versions are $299 and $399.
They are different operations and comparing them with one number would be misleading. What is true is that the aircraft is maintained under FAR 91.409(b) with 100-hour inspections because it is used for instruction for hire, and that a certificated professional is pilot in command throughout. The meaningful difference for a nervous flyer is not statistical, it is that you can see out and you have the controls.
We do not publish a success rate for this, because we have run no study and a number invented for a landing page would be worthless. What a discovery flight reliably does is remove loss of control and loss of information for one hour and give you an explanation for every noise you hear. What that is worth to you is individual, and we would rather say so than promise an outcome.
Yes. A companion can wait in the office and join the briefing and the debrief, which many nervous flyers find helps. If you want them in the aircraft, the Discovery Flight For Two is $299 for 60 minutes and one of you flies while the other sits behind.
Early morning. Thermal turbulence is generated by the sun heating the ground, so it builds through the day and collapses overnight, which makes a 7am departure from Van Nuys routinely smooth. Van Nuys averages 355 flyable days a year against a 3,000 foot ceiling and 5 statute miles of visibility.
Neither. A discovery flight requires no licence, no medical certificate and no experience, because you are flying under the supervision of a certificated instructor who is pilot in command. A medical certificate only becomes relevant later, before a first solo.
Yes. The hour is logged as dual instruction with a certificated flight instructor and is the first entry in a pilot logbook. If you go on to enrol in a programme within 24 hours, the full $229 is credited against it, and the FAR 61.109 minimum for a private pilot certificate is 40 hours.
No Cost, No Obligation
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
Loved On Google
Seventy 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
INSTRUMENT RATING
★★★★★
I'm currently working on my instrument rating at essence, and it has been Fantastic so far, my instructor is Alex and he is very knowledgeable and patient...
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...
KIDS FIRST FLIGHT
★★★★★
Had a great experience with this company. My son has been very into airplanes and his flight simulator on the computer so for his 11th birthday treated...
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...
HANDS-ON FLIGHT
★★★★★
One of the best flight experiences I've ever done! If you're looking for a fun flight, beautiful views, and even taking control of the plane, Essence...
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...
SKY PROPOSAL
★★★★★
Unforgettable private flight with Essence—smooth journey and a magical moment as I proposed to my girl in the skies! Highly recommend!
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...
DISCOVERY FLIGHT
★★★★★
This was my first flight at Essence and it will be one I will never forget for several reasons. Joseph was an awesome instructor, demonstrating...
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...
GIFT FLIGHT
★★★★★
Great experience with first ever discovery flight! Would highly recommend! Got it as a gift for my dad and he had a great time flying!
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.
INSTRUMENT RATING
★★★★★
I'm currently working on my instrument rating at essence, and it has been Fantastic so far, my instructor is Alex and he is very knowledgeable and patient...
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...
KIDS FIRST FLIGHT
★★★★★
Had a great experience with this company. My son has been very into airplanes and his flight simulator on the computer so for his 11th birthday treated...
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...
HANDS-ON FLIGHT
★★★★★
One of the best flight experiences I've ever done! If you're looking for a fun flight, beautiful views, and even taking control of the plane, Essence...
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...
SKY PROPOSAL
★★★★★
Unforgettable private flight with Essence—smooth journey and a magical moment as I proposed to my girl in the skies! Highly recommend!
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...
DISCOVERY FLIGHT
★★★★★
This was my first flight at Essence and it will be one I will never forget for several reasons. Joseph was an awesome instructor, demonstrating...
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...
GIFT FLIGHT
★★★★★
Great experience with first ever discovery flight! Would highly recommend! Got it as a gift for my dad and he had a great time flying!
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.