We train pilots from North Hollywood at Van Nuys Airport, 20 to 25 minutes west. A $229 discovery flight is a real lesson — you fly it, the hour is logged, and the full amount comes off your program if you enroll within 24 hours.
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
$399Book 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...
Twenty to twenty-five minutes off-peak. The 170 north to the 101 west, exit Balboa Blvd, and you are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A. If the freeway is doing what the freeway does at half past five, drop down to Victory or Vanowen and run straight across the valley floor instead. Both are boring, flat, predictable roads, and on a bad afternoon they beat the 101 outright.
Start from the NoHo Arts District and you are looking at the same numbers. There is no hill, no pass and no coastal crawl between you and the airport — it is a straight westward run across the middle of the valley.
Parking is a surface lot on Balboa. No structure, no validation ticket, no long walk from a remote garage. You park, you come in, you meet your instructor, and the preflight starts at the airplane.
People weigh the drive far too heavily when they pick a school, so here is the arithmetic. A lesson is a three-hour commitment by the time you have done the weather brief, the walkaround, the flight and the debrief. Twenty-five minutes of driving is about a seventh of your day at the airport. What actually decides how fast you finish is whether an instructor and an aircraft are free when you can fly, and that is a function of how many of each the school has, not how far away it is.
We train pilots from North Hollywood at Van Nuys Airport, about 20 minutes away, alongside students from Valley Village, Toluca Lake, Burbank and Studio City.
North Hollywood is one of the very few areas we serve where someone could realistically reach the valley without owning a car.
The B Line terminates at North Hollywood station. If you live on the subway in Hollywood, Koreatown or downtown and you have been quietly assuming flight training is only for people with a car and a garage, this is the corner of the map where that assumption breaks down.
The honest caveat: the last leg still needs wheels. Van Nuys Airport is not on the rail network and the walk from any station is not a walk. Plan on a rideshare, a bike on the train, or a lift from the NoHo end. It is one short hop, not a two-hour odyssey, but it is not nothing and we would rather say so than let you find out on the morning of your first lesson.
Where this genuinely helps is the ground school and simulator side. Redbird sessions at $189 and ground work do not depend on weather or on an aircraft being free, which makes them easier to slot into a day when you are already traveling in.
They mean: where can I train without the drive killing the habit. Fair question. The better one is where can I train and still be a competent pilot at the end, because those two answers are not always the same airport.
Van Nuys is a Class D field under the LAX Class B shelf and one of the busiest general aviation airports in the world. From lesson one you are working a real tower, on a real frequency, with real traffic sequenced behind you. Read-backs, hold-short clearances, extended downwinds for spacing — you get all of it as a matter of routine rather than as a special exercise before a checkride.
Two parallel runways, full-length taxiways, long tower hours and published instrument approaches you will use again when you come back for the instrument rating. It is not a training-only field you outgrow in a year.
The downside, plainly: it is busy. Some mornings you will be third in line for departure and watch eight or nine minutes tick past on the Hobbs while you hold short. That is real money and we are not going to pretend it is not. What you buy with it is a student who is not frightened of a microphone, which is worth more than the taxi time costs.
Add eleven instructors and a fleet we own outright. Lessons happen. That single fact governs your total cost more than any hourly figure on any price list.
North Hollywood sits mid-valley, inland, roughly between Burbank and the airport. That position shows up on the radio.
Burbank is Class C. On transits you hear its traffic working, and you hear how a Class C arrival sequence is put together, long before anyone asks you to fly into one. Students who train at fields with nothing busy nearby meet Class C for the first time on a cross-country, cold, with a workload already high. Hearing it in the background for months first is a genuine head start, and it costs you nothing.
Your own flying goes the other way. The standard training departure from Van Nuys takes you north-west over the Sepulveda Basin toward the open west end of the valley, where the airwork happens — steep turns, stalls, slow flight, ground reference. Cross-countries from there run out toward Camarillo, Santa Paula and the Conejo Valley. So you spend your training hours pointing away from home, over ground most North Hollywood residents have only seen from the 101.
Not an estimate. Twelve months of NOAA observations at Van Nuys, 1 August 2025 to 1 August 2026.
Van Nuys recorded 355 flyable days measured against a 3,000 ft ceiling and 5 statute miles of visibility, the standard most schools apply to student solo and early dual instruction. Santa Monica came in at 343 and Torrance at 332. Against basic VFR minimums of 1,000 ft and 3 miles, Van Nuys reached 363 days.
The whole spread is the marine layer. Coastal fields lose mornings to it for weeks at a time in May and June. North Hollywood is inland, mid-valley, with the Santa Monica Mountains and the Hollywood Hills sitting between you and the ocean, and that ridgeline does most of the work of keeping your training days intact.
The detail worth acting on is time of day rather than time of year. In June, only 40% of 7am observations at Van Nuys met training minimums. By 11am it was 93%. From 1pm, 97 to 100%. In August at 7am, Van Nuys was flyable 84% of the time against 48% at Santa Monica.
So book mid-morning or early afternoon and stop booking dawn slots in late spring. That one change removes most of the cancellations a Los Angeles student would otherwise absorb, and cancellations are what turn a six-month certificate into an eighteen-month one.
One airport, one page, every certificate. No quote form and no call-for-pricing.
Start with a discovery flight. $229 for 60 minutes. It is a lesson, not a ride: you are in the left seat, you handle the controls, and the time is loggable dual instruction that counts toward your certificate. Enroll within 24 hours and the whole $229 comes off the program price.
Private pilot is what most people are here for. FAR 61.109 sets the legal minimum at 40 hours and the national average lands between 60 and 75. Standard is $10,900 and built on 40 logged hours. Comprehensive is $15,900 and built on 60, which is why most students finish inside it without paying more. Premium is $22,500 and flown entirely in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo.
Sport pilot is $8,400. Shorter, cheaper, and genuinely limited — daytime VFR in light aircraft. If you want to carry three passengers to Big Bear on a Friday night it is the wrong certificate, and we will tell you that before you pay.
The Solo Certificate at $5,500 takes you to first solo and stops. It exists for people who want proof they can do this before committing to the whole thing.
Instrument rating at $11,700 is the rating that makes a certificate useful in this city, because it converts a gray June morning from a cancellation into a departure. Multi-engine is a $5,100 add-on in the Piper Seminole. Commercial and the zero-to-airline path is $89,000 from no certificate to airline-ready.
Teen aviation runs $4,200 for ages 10 to 15. They cannot solo at that age. They can fly the aircraft, learn the airspace and log real time that carries forward. Redbird MCX simulator sessions are $189 and are the cheapest useful hour in aviation.
Enrolled students fly at $179 an hour, wet, single-engine.
| Course or service | What it is | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery Flight For One | 60 minutes, you fly, time is logged | $229 |
| Discovery Flight For One | 90 minutes | $299 |
| Discovery Flight For Two | 60 minutes, two passengers | $299 |
| Discovery Flight For Two | 120 minutes | $499 |
| Luxury Cirrus discovery flight for two | Cirrus SR22 Turbo, 120 minutes | $699 |
| Redbird MCX simulator session | Full-motion, FAA-approved, per session | $189 |
| Teen aviation course | Ages 10–15 | $4,200 |
| Solo Certificate | Train to first solo | $5,500 |
| Sport Pilot certificate | Light aircraft, daytime VFR | $8,400 |
| Private Pilot — Standard | 40 hours logged, Cessna · Piper · Diamond | $10,900 |
| Private Pilot — Comprehensive | 60 hours logged, most chosen | $15,900 |
| Private Pilot — Premium | 40 hours logged, Cirrus SR22 Turbo | $22,500 |
| Instrument rating | Fly in cloud, legally and competently | $11,700 |
| Multi-engine add-on | Piper Seminole | $5,100 |
| Zero-to-airline program | No certificate to airline-ready | $89,000 |
| Package flight rate, enrolled students | Single-engine, wet, fuel included | $179/hr |
Not brokered, not leased in from a stranger, not a tired airframe with twelve thousand hours on it. We inspect them on our schedule and our instructors fly them every day.
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.
An FAA-approved Redbird MCX. Procedures, instrument scan, radio work and engine failures all transfer straight to the aircraft.
Simulator hours are built into every private pilot program: 2 on Standard and Premium, 5 on Comprehensive. Additional sessions are $189.
Every instructor here holds a commercial or ATP certificate plus a CFI and a current medical, and is legally pilot in command on every flight you fly with them.
Depth of staff is what makes a schedule survive real life. A two-instructor school stops when someone is ill, someone is out on a checkride and someone takes a fortnight off. Eleven does not stop. If your slot is Thursday at 11am, it has to hold up against other people’s holidays, and with eleven it does.
We match you to one instructor and keep you there, because continuity halfway through a syllabus is worth a lot. If the fit is wrong, and occasionally it is for reasons that have nothing to do with anyone being bad at their job, tell us and we will move you without any awkwardness. A student who dreads the cockpit learns slowly and quits.
They are here as a career, not as a waiting room between airline applications. The most repeated compliment in our reviews is the debrief, which is exactly what you would expect from people who intend to still be teaching next year.
On Google, three themes repeat.
Not the aircraft, not the price. The twenty minutes after shutdown is what reviewers write about.
Eleven instructors and a fleet we own means the slot you booked is the slot you fly.
What you enroll at is what you finish at. No mid-program repricing and no fuel surcharge appearing in month four.
Same syllabus, same instructors, same airport. What changes is the hours in the package and the airplane you fly them in.
The FAR 61.109 minimum path. Right if you can fly two or three times a week and hold momentum.
Built on what people actually take rather than the legal floor. Most students finish inside it without paying a cent more.
The whole certificate flown in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo, glass cockpit and CAPS parachute included.
Financing from $2,500 down, monthly plans through Stratus Financial and in-house. Enrolled students fly at $179 an hour, wet.
Book the 60-minute discovery flight. You fly it, the hour goes in a logbook, and the full $229 comes off your program if you enroll within 24 hours. If the money is the part that worries you, take the free consultation first — it happens at the airport and nobody will sell at you.
The closest full-service flight school to North Hollywood is LA Flight School at Van Nuys Airport, 7900 Balboa Blvd, 20 to 25 minutes west. We run private pilot, instrument, commercial, multi-engine, sport pilot, teen and simulator courses from one place, and a 60-minute discovery flight costs $229.
Take the 170 north to the 101 west and exit at Balboa Blvd, or run Victory or Vanowen straight across the valley floor if the freeway is slow. It is 20 to 25 minutes off-peak to 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, where you park in a surface lot and walk to the aircraft.
Partly. The Metro B Line terminates at North Hollywood station, which makes this one of the few areas we serve that is reachable without a car. The last leg to Van Nuys Airport still needs one, so plan on a short rideshare or a lift for that final stretch.
The Standard program is $10,900 for 40 logged hours, Comprehensive is $15,900 for 60 logged hours, and Premium in a Cirrus SR22 Turbo is $22,500. Financing starts at $2,500 down. Most students finish inside Comprehensive, which is why we recommend it over the minimum-hours option.
You sit in the left seat and fly the aircraft with an instructor beside you, and the 60 minutes is loggable dual instruction that counts toward your certificate. It costs $229, and the full amount is credited against any program if you enroll within 24 hours.
Yes. Van Nuys is a Class D field under the LAX Class B shelf and one of the busiest general aviation airports in the world, so radio work starts on lesson one. Because North Hollywood sits between Burbank and Van Nuys, you also hear Burbank Class C traffic on transits, which is useful exposure long before you fly into one.
Van Nuys recorded 355 flyable days in the twelve months to August 2026, against a 3,000 ft ceiling and 5 statute miles of visibility. Santa Monica recorded 343 and Torrance 332. The full method and the raw observation tables are published at /pages/flyable-days-flight-training-study.
Much less than on the coast. North Hollywood is inland and mid-valley, with the hills between it and the ocean. Even so, in June only 40% of 7am observations at Van Nuys met training minimums, rising to 93% at 11am and 97 to 100% from 1pm, so book later in the day in late spring.
Mid-morning or early afternoon. From 1pm in June, 97 to 100% of Van Nuys observations met training minimums against 40% at 7am. Those hours are also less contested than evenings and weekends, so aircraft and instructor availability is better.
Yes. The teen aviation course covers ages 10 to 15 and costs $4,200. Students that age cannot solo, but they fly the aircraft, learn the airspace and log real time that carries straight into a private pilot program later.
Sport pilot is $8,400, the Solo Certificate is $5,500, the instrument rating is $11,700, the multi-engine add-on in the Piper Seminole is $5,100 and the zero-to-airline program is $89,000. A Redbird MCX full-motion simulator session is $189 and can be booked on its own.
Two lessons a week. At one lesson every two weeks you spend the first half of each flight recovering what you already knew, which is how a six-month certificate becomes an eighteen-month one. With eleven instructors on staff, holding two slots a week is realistic.
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
