Almost everyone arrives at a flight school asking for a private pilot license, because it is the phrase they know. For about a third of them it is the wrong answer — too much certificate, too much money, or not nearly enough. Find the profile that sounds like you and follow it to a certificate, an exact package price and a first lesson.
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.
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...
A pilot certificate is not a qualification you collect. It is a permission slip with a very specific shape, and the shape should match what you actually intend to do with an airplane. Someone who wants to fly a light aircraft around Southern California on clear mornings needs something quite different from someone who wants to take three people to Monterey in November.
So work backwards. Decide the flight you are imagining, then buy the certificate that makes it legal. The four profiles below cover almost everyone who calls us, and each one resolves to a single package with a single price. If you are between two of them, read the section further down — the overlaps are where the expensive mistakes happen.
One honest note before you start: nobody should commit to any of these before flying once. An hour in the aircraft resolves more indecision than a week of reading, and at $229 credited back on enrollment it is the cheapest research available.
Each route below lists the certificate, one exact package price, a realistic timeline for someone flying twice a week, and the flight to book first.
You want to go up on a clear Saturday morning, maybe take one friend, and land somewhere for breakfast. You are not trying to build a career and you are not planning to fly at night in weather. Start with the sport pilot certificate, and only move up to private if the limits start to annoy you — which for some people they never do.
You want four seats, a night arrival, and the ability to get to Big Bear or Santa Barbara or Las Vegas without the weather owning your weekend. That is a private pilot certificate, and then — genuinely, not as an upsell — an instrument rating, because a marine layer that burns off at 11am should not decide whether you go. Take the Comprehensive program: 60 hours logged rather than 40, which is what most people flying real trips actually need.
You want to be paid to fly. The path is fixed and long: private, instrument, commercial, multi-engine, then instructor ratings to build toward 1,500 hours and an ATP. Two to three years full time, and the hour-building phase is most of it. Anyone quoting you a shorter number is not counting the same things.
You are not sure you want a certificate at all. You might be frightened of flying, you might have wondered about it for thirty years, or you might be buying this for someone else. Do not start with a program. Start with an hour in the simulator or a discovery flight and decide afterwards — plenty of people stop there perfectly happily.
A discovery flight over Los Angeles, filmed from the aircraft. Whichever route you picked above, this is the lesson it starts with.
Discovery flight over Los Angeles from Van Nuys Airport. Sixty minutes, hands on the controls, logged as dual instruction.
When two routes look equally plausible, these are the variables that actually separate them.
This is the first question, not the last, because it changes everything downstream. A third-class medical is issued by an Aviation Medical Examiner and is required before you fly solo on the private pilot route. If a condition makes that genuinely uncertain, the sport pilot certificate — which needs no FAA medical if you hold a valid US driver's license — stops being the lighter option and becomes the only option. Speak to an AME before you file anything through MedXpress.
On a driver's license alone a sport pilot flies by day only and carries one passenger; 14 CFR 61.329 does allow night with training, an endorsement and a part 67 medical or BasicMed, and the aircraft must meet 14 CFR 61.316. If either of those limits would have stopped a flight you actually intend to make, take the private certificate at $10,900 instead of the sport certificate at $8,400. If neither does, the sport certificate is a genuinely good decision that a lot of schools will try to talk you out of.
Twice a week and a private certificate takes six to nine months. Once a fortnight and it takes closer to two years, because you spend the first twenty minutes of every lesson recovering what you lost. Our package price is fixed at enrollment and does not move, so a slow schedule costs you time rather than money — but the time is real. If your honest answer is once a month, take the sport certificate or wait until your schedule changes. This is the variable people lie to themselves about.
We own every airplane on this ramp. That is the difference between a school and a broker: the aircraft you fly today is inspected on our schedule, flown by our instructors daily, and still on the schedule next week.
Single-engine training on the Standard and Comprehensive programs is flown in the Cessna, Piper and Diamond aircraft. The Premium program is flown in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo with its full glass cockpit.
FAA-approved, fully enclosed, and it moves. Procedures, instrument scan, radio work and emergencies all transfer straight to the aircraft — and it is never canceled for weather. If you are still deciding between routes, an hour in here settles it faster than anything else on this page.
Simulator hours are built into every private pilot program — 2 hours on Standard and Premium, 5 hours on Comprehensive.
Every instructor here holds a commercial or ATP certificate plus a CFI and a current medical, and the instructor is legally pilot in command on every flight you make with us. That is not a formality — it is why a first lesson is safe on day one, whichever of the four routes above you are on.
There are eleven of them, which means your training is not hostage to one person's calendar. You are matched to an instructor when you enroll, and if the fit is wrong you change. Nobody here treats that as a complaint.
They fly here as a career rather than treating the school as a waiting room for an airline class date. It shows up in the debrief, which is the part of the lesson our reviewers mention most.
On Google, the same three things come up again and again.
The most repeated compliment in our reviews is not the aircraft or the price — it is the debrief.
Eleven instructors and a fleet we own means lessons happen when we say they will.
The number you enroll at is the number you finish at. Reviewers mention this constantly.
A discovery flight is a real lesson — you fly the aircraft, the time is loggable dual instruction, and the full price is credited against any program if you enroll within 24 hours.
Full-motion, FAA-approved, on the ground. The right first step if the airplane feels like too much.
You fly it. Logged as dual instruction. Credited in full against any program within 24 hours. 90 min $299, 120 min $399.
Bring the person who will be sitting in the back for the next twenty years. 90 min $399, 120 min $499.
Book for twoCareer-minded? The multi-engine Piper Seminole flight is $499 and the Cirrus SR22 Turbo for two is $499. Programs: Sport $8,400 · Private $10,900 Standard, $15,900 Comprehensive, $22,500 Premium · Instrument $11,700 · Multi-engine add-on $5,100 · Teens 10–15 $4,200 · Solo Certificate $5,500 · Zero-to-airline $89,000. Enrolled students train at $179 an hour wet, single-engine, fixed at enrollment. Financing from $2,500 down.
Sixty minutes over Los Angeles with your hands on the controls, logged as real instruction. If you enroll within 24 hours the whole $229 comes off whichever program you chose. Call (818) 290-8249 or book online.
If you want to fly for fun in daylight with one passenger, the sport pilot certificate at $8,400 and 20 flight hours is enough. If you want night flying, more passengers or longer trips, take the private pilot certificate at $10,900 and 40 hours minimum under FAR 61.109. If you want to be paid to fly, our zero-to-airline program is $89,000 and takes you to the 1,500 hours an ATP requires.
A sport pilot certificate requires 20 flight hours, needs no FAA medical if you hold a valid US driver's license, and limits you to one passenger and to aircraft meeting the performance limits in 14 CFR 61.316; night flying is available under 14 CFR 61.329 only with training, an endorsement and a part 67 medical or BasicMed. A private pilot certificate requires 40 hours and a third-class medical, and lets you fly at night and carry more passengers. Ours are $8,400 and $10,900 respectively.
A sport pilot certificate takes three to five months flying twice a week; a private pilot certificate takes six to nine months. The full path to an airline job takes two to three years, because building from 250 hours to the 1,500 required for an ATP is most of the timeline, not the certificates themselves.
Yes. An instrument rating is added to an existing certificate, and it requires 50 hours of cross-country pilot-in-command time plus 40 hours of instrument time under FAR 61.65. Our instrument rating program is $11,700. Most private pilots fly for several months after their checkride before they have the cross-country hours to start.
Yes, and it is the sensible order. Early training is identical whichever certificate you eventually take, so the first ten hours are never wasted. A $229 discovery flight is logged as real dual instruction and the full amount is credited against any program if you enroll within 24 hours.
The sport pilot certificate at $8,400 in our program, requiring 20 flight hours rather than 40. It is the cheapest route to legally flying an aircraft alone, and for a pilot who only ever intends daytime local flying with one passenger, it is not a compromise at all.
Yes — our Solo Certificate program is $5,500 and takes you to the point where your instructor endorses you to fly the aircraft alone. Most students solo between 15 and 25 flight hours. You will not hold a pilot certificate at the end of it, but you will have flown an airplane by yourself.
Discovery Flight For One at $229 for 60 minutes covers almost everyone. Book the $299 two-person flight if you want a partner or family member to see what they are agreeing to, the $499 multi-engine Piper Seminole if you are career-minded, and the $189 Redbird simulator if the idea of leaving the ground is the obstacle.
$179 an hour, wet, single-engine — the package rate for enrolled students. It is already built into every program price on this page and it is fixed when you enroll, so the number you start at is the number you finish at. Financing starts from $2,500 down with monthly plans available.
The Standard program at $10,900 and the Comprehensive at $15,900 are flown in our Cessna, Piper and Diamond single-engine aircraft. The Premium program at $22,500 is flown in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo with a full glass cockpit, and the $5,100 multi-engine add-on is flown in the Piper Seminole. We own and maintain all of them.
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.
Loved 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.
Aviation News
Notes from the flight line at Van Nuys — weather, regulation changes, checkride questions and the cost of training, written up as they come.
Open 7 days · 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Los Angeles Flight School
