Nineteen miles and one mountain pass from Hollywood and Vine, we teach people who work in production, and people who simply want to see this city from above it.
The Santa Monica Mountains are the reason Hollywood does not have an airport. There is one gap in that ridge at the Cahuenga Pass, the 101 goes through it past the Bowl, and on the far side the ground flattens into the valley floor where Van Nuys Airport sits. From Hollywood Boulevard that is nineteen miles of freeway with no surface streets involved. It is a shorter run than most people in Hollywood assume, and it ends at a field with a control tower, maintenance hangars and a proper fleet.
Hollywood work does not fit a fixed timetable, which is the recurring theme in conversations we have with people from Franklin Avenue, Beachwood Canyon and the blocks around Gower. A camera assistant on a Sunset Bronson show has a different week every week. A composer works nights. An agent's diary changes at four in the afternoon. Because we take bookings one lesson at a time from nine in the morning to nine at night, seven days, training here bends around a production calendar instead of fighting it.
There is a second Hollywood audience and we should be honest about it: people who do not want a license at all. They want to take a partner up for sixty minutes on an anniversary, or put a friend in the left seat of a Cirrus for a birthday. That is a completely legitimate reason to come. An introductory flight for two starts at $299 for the hour, or $399 in the SR22 with its glass panel and leather seats, and nobody will push you toward a course afterwards.
If you do want the license, the numbers are plain. A sport pilot certificate is $8,400 and is enough for day flying in light aircraft. The standard private pilot program is $10,900 and is what most people mean when they say they want to learn to fly. An instrument rating afterwards is $11,700. Every figure is the whole course. We will sit down with you for free, without a deposit, and go through which one actually matches what you want.
Our Courses
Ten programs flown out of Van Nuys Airport, with real pricing on every one. Start with an hour at the controls, or go straight through to airline-hireable qualifications — it is the same ladder either way.
5.0 Average Rating
100+ Google Reviews
Start Here
The first hour at the controls, over Los Angeles, with an instructor beside you. It is the entry point to every course below — and the cheapest way to find out whether flying is actually for you.
From$229
Open 9 AM–9 PM, Seven Days · (818) 290-8249
CertificateMost Popular
The one most people mean by “learn to fly.” Fly with an instructor, fly alone, then carry passengers on your own certificate.
Fly With An Instructor Fly Solo Carry Passengers $10,900 Enroll Now
Youth Program
Ages 10–15. For young people who want to start before they can legally solo.
$4,200 View Course
Milestone
Enough training to take an aircraft around the pattern alone. The day everything changes.
$5,500 View Course
Certificate
A real certificate with fewer hours and narrower privileges. The shortest honest route to flying yourself.
$8,400 View Course
Bundle
Private Pilot with flight time, ground instruction and study materials bundled into one price.
$15,900 View CourseBundle
The same certificate as Private, with the most flight time before your checkride. Eighty logged hours, ground instruction and materials, all in one price.
80 Logged Hours Ground School Included Materials Included $22,500 View Course
Rating
The rating after Private. Turns a fair-weather pilot into a useful one who can file, launch and land in cloud.
$11,700 View Course
Rating
For pilots already certificated who are adding a twin. Trained in our own Piper Seminole.
$5,100 View Course
Our Fleet
Diamond DA20, Cessna 162, Piper Arrow II and our Piper Seminole twin — all on the field at Van Nuys.
View The FleetThe Full Route
Zero experience to airline-hireable qualifications, in one continuous program rather than nine separate ones. Financing is available, and every hour of it is flown out of Van Nuys.
$89,000Financing Available
Free In-Person Tour Before You Commit
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.
Get on the 101 wherever you normally do, Highland, Cahuenga, Vine or Sunset, and head north. You climb the Cahuenga Pass past the Bowl, drop past Universal City, and at the Ventura split you stay with the 101 as it swings west. From there it is Studio City, Sherman Oaks, Encino and Tarzana, then off at Balboa Boulevard and north to the airport. Roughly nineteen miles. Twenty-five minutes at ten in the morning, thirty-five to forty-five at six in the evening.
When the 101 is properly stopped, and in this city it sometimes is, the canyons are the alternative. Laurel Canyon Boulevard climbs over Mulholland and drops you onto Ventura Boulevard in Studio City, from where Victory or Sherman Way runs west to Balboa. It is not faster in normal traffic and the canyon is narrow, but it moves when the freeway does not. Coldwater Canyon does the same thing a little further west and comes out near Ventura and Beverly Glen.
We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, along the western edge of the field. Parking is free and it is a car park, not a valet stand, so leave the two dollars in your pocket. The complex houses a number of unrelated aviation businesses, so use the suite number rather than the street number alone. Give yourself a few extra minutes the first time and the front desk will walk you out to the aircraft.
Hollywood is boxed in by mountains to the north and the Class B shelves over the basin to the south. Van Nuys is the closest airport with a full-time tower, an eight-thousand-foot runway, on-field maintenance and a fleet deep enough that a canceled aircraft does not cancel your lesson. Twenty-five minutes of freeway buys all of that.
Plenty of schools have one type in three colors. We run everything from a two-seat Cessna 162 to a Cirrus SR22 Turbo and a Piper Seminole twin, and your package covers the aircraft and the instructor together. If you start on the trainer and want to move to the glass panel later, you can, without changing schools or starting again with new instructors.
We are open nine to nine every day of the week, and lessons are booked individually rather than as a fixed weekly slot you lose if a shoot runs long. That matters more in Hollywood than almost anywhere. Evening lessons, early Sunday lessons and a fortnight off between projects are all normal here.
Our FAA-certified instructors carry fifteen years or more of experience each. That shows up in the small things: knowing when to take the controls and when to let you make a mess of an approach and learn from it. It is also why the school holds a 5.0 rating on Google across 100+ reviews.
You will learn in one of three trainers. The Cessna 162 Skycatcher, the Piper Warrior, and the Diamond DA20 with its glider-like wing and enormous bubble canopy. For a first flight out of Van Nuys the DA20 is hard to beat, because the view from it eastbound down the Santa Monica Mountains toward Cahuenga and the sign on Mount Lee is essentially unobstructed. Instructors will happily explain the differences and let you try more than one before you settle.
After the basics the fleet keeps going. The Piper Arrow II has retractable gear and a constant-speed propeller, which is what commercial training requires. The Cirrus SR22 Turbo is the glass-cockpit cross-country airplane with a parachute built into the airframe. The Piper Seminole is our twin, used for the multi-engine rating at $5,100. And the Redbird MCX full-motion simulator handles procedures, emergencies and instrument approaches on the ground, at $189 for a sixty-minute session.
Turn southeast out of Van Nuys and the whole neighborhood arranges itself in about four minutes.
A dark green teardrop of water held back by the Mulholland Dam, tucked in the hills directly behind the sign on Mount Lee. It is invisible from most of the city and startlingly obvious from the air, which is why so many first-timers point at it.
The shell sits in Bolton Canyon just west of the 101, a pale half-shape with terraced parking spiralling up the hillside behind it. On a summer evening flight you can see the crowd filling the benches before you can see anything else in Hollywood.
Three copper domes on the south face of Mount Hollywood, gone green with age and set against the brown ridge behind them. It is the marker most instructors use when they are pointing out where Hollywood stops and Los Feliz begins.
The last major studio lot still inside Hollywood, a dense block of soundstages and standing sets off Melrose. Immediately north of it sit the lawns and mausoleums of Hollywood Forever, an unmistakable green rectangle against the grid.
On most flights that head southeast from Van Nuys, yes, along with Mount Lee, the reservoir behind it and Griffith Park. We cannot promise a route, because air traffic control and other traffic decide where we go on the day. Tell your instructor it matters to you and they will build the flight around it where the airspace allows.
Twenty-five minutes off-peak and around forty at the worst of the evening. It is one freeway the whole way with no surface-street navigation, which makes it more predictable than the distance suggests. Most Hollywood students book mid-morning or after seven in the evening and rarely deal with real traffic.
Yes, and it is a large share of what we do. Sixty minutes for two people is $299, ninety minutes $399, two hours $499. In the Cirrus SR22 those become $499, $699 and $949. Call (818) 290-8249 and we will arrange it; the recipient books their own date, so it does not have to be pinned to a particular day.
In our free car park at 7900 Balboa Blvd. There is no charge, no meter and no time limit. Come to Suite 108A rather than looking for us on the ramp, because the building is shared with several unrelated aviation companies and the suite number is what gets you to the right desk.
None. No medical certificate, no license, no prior training, and no need to know anything about airplanes when you walk in. The instructor handles the radio and the difficult parts. You fly the aircraft in level flight and turns, which is most of the hour.
Sport pilot at $8,400 is limited to lighter aircraft, daytime flying and one passenger. The private certificate at $10,900 has none of those limits and is the one to take if you might eventually fly at night or into busier airspace. We will talk you through which fits.
First solo typically arrives between fifteen and twenty-five hours, depending entirely on how often you fly. Twice a week gets people there in a couple of months. Once a month does not, because each lesson is spent recovering the last one. Frequency decides this, not talent.
Yes. We work with Stratus Financial and also run payment plans in house. For the larger programs, particularly the $89,000 airline track, financing is how most people do it. Come in for the free consultation and we will lay out the monthly commitment.
Call (818) 290-8249 or come up the 101 to 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, and see the aircraft before you decide anything. We fly seven days a week, and the slot after work is usually the one Hollywood people take.
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
