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.
Van Nuys Airport · KVNY
Learn To Fly From Canoga Park At Van Nuys Airport
This neighborhood built rocket engines for fifty years, so the idea that flying belongs to somebody else has always been a strange fit here. Our school is at Van Nuys Airport, eight miles east; Canoga Park is simply where our students drive from.
5.0★120+ reviews on Google
$5,500to a solo certificate
2,000+first flights flown safely
9-9open every day of the week
Local
Eight Miles, And A Neighborhood That Already Knows Engines
Canoga Park has been making hardware since long before the housing filled in around it. Rocket engines were assembled on Canoga Avenue for half a century, the ones that flew Apollo and later the Shuttle, and the long roofs along De Soto still hold machine shops, fabricators and suppliers of every size. This is a neighborhood of people who fix things, build things and read a manual without complaining. Flight training suits that temperament far better than it suits the version of aviation that shows up in advertising.
The airport is eight miles away. Not a drive you plan a day around, not a freeway trip, just Saticoy Street heading east until Balboa. That distance is the reason a lesson here can happen after work rather than instead of a weekend, and it is the single biggest factor in whether anyone actually finishes a certificate. Students who live twenty-five miles out cancel when a Tuesday goes wrong. Students from Winnetka Avenue turn up, fly their lesson, and are home for dinner.
There is more than one way in, priced accordingly. A solo certificate at $5,500 takes you through your first solo flight, which is the point at which most people know. A sport pilot license at $8,400 permits daylight flying in light aircraft. The full FAA private pilot certificate is $10,900 and carries no such restrictions: passengers, night flying, cross-country travel anywhere in the country. All three use the same hours, so nothing is wasted if you start small and carry on.
The people who come to us from these streets are mostly working around a rota: nurses at the hospitals up De Soto, machinists and technicians on shifts, contractors, delivery drivers, teachers, a steady number of parents booking for a sixteen-year-old. Flight training is entirely compatible with that if the school opens late and the drive is short. Ours does, and yours is. The rest is a matter of flying often enough that each lesson starts where the last one finished.
Courses & Pricing
Every Course We Teach
★★★★★
5.0 Rating
120+ Google Reviews
Course prices are packages, not hourly rates - the aircraft, your instructor, ground school and simulator time are all in the figure. Van Nuys Airport, KVNY. Financing Available Through Stratus & In-House Plans.
Start Here
Discovery Flight
The First Hour At The Controls. Credited Toward Your Training If You Enroll Within 24 Hours Of Landing.
From$229
Book A Discovery Flight
01
Discovery Flight
The first hour at the controls; credits toward training if you enroll within 24 hours of landing.
From$229
02
Teen Flight Training Ages 10–15
Starting before it is legal to solo.
$4,200
03
Multi-Engine Rating
For existing pilots adding a twin.
$5,100
04
Solo Certificate
Enough training to take an aircraft around the pattern alone.
$5,500
05
Sport Pilot
A real certificate, fewer hours, narrower privileges.
$8,400
06
Private Pilot Most Enrolled
The one most people mean by “learn to fly.”
$10,900
07
Instrument Rating
Turns a fair-weather pilot into a useful one.
$11,700
08
Comprehensive Private Pilot
Private with flight time, ground instruction and materials bundled.
$15,900
09
Premium Private Pilot
The most flight time before your checkride - 80 logged hours.
$22,500
10
Airline Pilot Program
Zero experience to airline-hireable qualifications.
$89,000
All Prices In USD. 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, Van Nuys, CA 91406 · Open 9 AM–9 PM, Seven Days. Free In-Person Tour Of The School
Book It Or Gift It
Fly It Yourself, Or Give The Flight To Someone Else
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
Two Seats
The Nice One
Twin Engine
Discovery Flight For One
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 It Or Gift It
Same Price Either Way
Discovery Flight For Two
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 It Or Gift It
Same Price Either Way
Luxury Discovery Flight
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
Bring A PassengerInstructor + 2 is our maximum+$100
$499Book It Or Gift It
Same Price Either Way
Multi-Engine Seminole
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 It Or Gift It
Same Price Either Way
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, 360 lb combined. Questions: (818) 290-8249, 9 AM–9 PM, seven days.
Getting Here
Canoga Park To 7900 Balboa Blvd, Eight Miles
Saticoy Street is the cleanest run. Pick it up near Canoga Avenue or De Soto and drive east through Winnetka, Tampa and Reseda without a single awkward junction. Eight miles on, Saticoy meets Balboa Boulevard right at the south-west corner of the airfield. Turn north there and 7900 Balboa Boulevard is a short way up on your right, with Suite 108A facing our own lot. Fifteen to twenty minutes at almost any hour of the day.
Vanowen Street and Victory Boulevard run parallel and do the same job when Saticoy is dug up. Whichever you take, the only real delay in this part of the Valley is the school run between half past seven and half past eight, and again mid-afternoon. Nothing here depends on a freeway staying open, which is worth more to a training schedule than it sounds: your lesson time does not change because something happened on the 101 at Woodland Hills.
Parking is free, in our own lot, immediately outside the door, with no barrier and nobody to pay. That is the whole arrival: park, walk in, and your instructor is already outside with the aircraft. The hangar complex is shared with a number of unrelated aviation businesses, so head for Suite 108A rather than the street number on its own. On a first visit, ring (818) 290-8249 from Balboa and somebody will come out to you.
Why Van Nuys
Why The Short Drive Changes The Outcome
1
A Weeknight Lesson Is Genuinely Possible
We instruct until nine at night, every night. From Canoga Park that means leaving at six, flying at half past, and being home before nine, which is not a plan you could make from thirty miles away. Progress in flight training is decided almost entirely by frequency, and frequency is decided by whether a Tuesday evening lesson is realistic.
2
You Can Pay For It In The Order It Makes Sense
Start with a $229 discovery flight, take the solo certificate at $5,500 if you want a real milestone, then continue into the sport license or the full private course. Nothing is repeated and nothing is wasted. Stratus Financial handles financing and we run payment plans in house, so the money can follow your calendar.
3
The Practice Area Is Directly Over Your Street
The training airspace west and north-west of Van Nuys sits over Canoga Park, Winnetka and the hills beyond. You will be doing stalls, steep turns and ground reference work above roads you drive daily, which makes navigation far easier to learn. Most students spot their own roof somewhere inside the first three or four lessons.
4
The License Stays Usable Afterwards
A certificate that leads nowhere is an expensive souvenir. Once you are checked out you can carry on booking the aircraft you trained in, from the Piper Warrior up to the Piper Arrow II and the Cirrus SR22 Turbo, off the same ramp at Van Nuys. Eight miles from home means a Saturday flight to Santa Barbara stays a normal thing to do.
The Fleet
What You Will Be Flying, And What Your Package Covers
First lessons are flown in the Cessna 162 Skycatcher, the Piper Warrior or the Diamond DA20, and the aircraft is part of your package rather than a separate bill. None of them are complicated airplanes and that is deliberate: a trainer should let a beginner make an error and recover from it without drama. All carry modern radios and GPS, so nothing has to be unlearned later. We keep several available, because a single aircraft going in for its inspection should never be the reason a student loses a fortnight of momentum.
Further along the ramp there is a Piper Arrow II with retractable gear and a constant-speed propeller, a Cirrus SR22 Turbo with a glass panel and a parachute built into the airframe, and a twin-engine Piper Seminole used for the $5,100 multi-engine rating. Inside the building at Suite 108A, the Redbird MCX full-motion simulator is $189 for a one-hour session, and simulator time is already built into the private pilot packages. It is much the cheapest place to learn instrument procedures, engine failures and anything else worth practicing twenty times in a single sitting.
From The Air
Canoga Park From The Training Area
Four things you will use to find home on the way back in.
🚀
The Old Rocket Engine Plant
A long block of pale industrial roofs along Canoga Avenue where engines for Apollo and the Shuttle were assembled. From the air it is plainly a factory site rather than a warehouse park, and it anchors the whole neighborhood.
🌾
The Pierce College Farm
Actual fields, paddocks and barns on the south side of Victory, the only working farmland left in this half of the Valley. A block of open green in a grid of rooftops is visible from a very long way out.
🚌
The G Line Busway
A dedicated road with no cars on it, running dead straight east from the Canoga station and ignoring every block boundary in its path. Once you have used it as a heading reference you will never lose it again.
🌳
Lanark Park And The School Fields
Rectangles of playing surface scattered through an otherwise unbroken grid, greenest in winter and pale by August. In a neighborhood this dense, the parks and the school ovals are what give you your position.
FAQ
Common Questions
About eight miles and fifteen to twenty minutes, east on Saticoy Street and then north on Balboa. Vanowen and Victory work equally well. No freeway is involved, so the timing barely shifts between mid-morning and the evening peak. It is one of the shortest runs to a training airport anywhere in Los Angeles.
No. We fly only from Van Nuys Airport, and Van Nuys is the nearest airport to Canoga Park with a full training fleet. The alternatives you might read about, Camarillo to the west and Whiteman to the north-east, are other schools' airfields and both considerably further. That is a genuine advantage of living here, and it is why so many students on our books come from these few square miles.
A discovery flight at $229. You fly the aircraft, the hour is logged toward a certificate, and the whole amount is credited against tuition if you enroll within a day. After that, the solo certificate at $5,500 is the natural next commitment, and the sport license at $8,400 or private certificate at $10,900 follow from there.
Yes, and many people here do. We fly from nine in the morning until nine at night, seven days a week, so an early lesson before a day shift or a late one after an afternoon rota are both ordinary bookings. Block scheduling holds fixed slots weeks ahead, which is what makes an irregular rota workable.
Twice a week is the target and it is the difference between finishing and drifting. At that rate a private certificate takes six to nine months. Once a fortnight, each lesson starts with revision of the last one and the total hours climb, which makes the license considerably more expensive than the headline price suggests.
Instruction can start at any age. Solo flight is legal at sixteen and a private certificate at seventeen, so beginning at fourteen or fifteen is well timed rather than premature. The teen package is $4,200. Parents usually sit in on the ground briefings early on, which we encourage rather than tolerate.
Yes, and it is the point of the exercise. After your certificate and a checkout with an instructor, the Cessna 162, Piper Warrior, Diamond DA20, Piper Arrow II and Cirrus SR22 Turbo are all yours to book from our ramp at Van Nuys Airport. Renting eight miles from your house is what turns a certificate into something you use most months.
Nothing at all. You meet an instructor, walk out to the aircraft, look at the simulator and talk through cost, medicals and timelines with nobody selling at you. Bring your questions and, if you have one, your calendar. Call (818) 290-8249 and we will find you a slot, including evenings and weekends.
Talk To Us
Eight Miles East, Most Evenings Free
Drive Saticoy after work one evening this week, park outside the door and see what the aircraft look like up close before you decide anything. Call (818) 290-8249 for a free consultation, or book the $229 discovery flight and start a logbook the same night.
Discovery Flight For One
$229
60 minutes, hands on the controls, fully loggable
Book A Discovery Flight
Or Call (818) 290-8249
Keep Reading Before You Book
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
Over 120 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
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...
See Discovery Flight Details — $229
Reviews shown verbatim, exactly as each reviewer published them.
Aviation News
Latest From The Field
Notes from the flight line at Van Nuys — weather, regulation changes, checkride questions and the cost of training, written up as they come.
Van Nuys Airport · KVNY
(818) 290-8249
7900 Balboa Blvd. Suite 108A
Van Nuys, CA 91406 Get directions →
Open the full contact page
Open 7 days · 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Los Angeles Flight School7900 Balboa Blvd. Suite 108A
Van Nuys, CA 91406 Get directions →
★★★★★
5.0 · 120+ Google reviews