Nineteen miles east of Kanan Road, at the far end of the same freeway, with a fleet running from a two-seat trainer to a twin and a full-motion simulator.
Here is something most Oak Park residents work out only after their second lesson: they have been living underneath a flight school's practice area for years. Aircraft out of Van Nuys head west over Calabasas and the Simi Hills to do air work, which puts them over Kanan Road, Medea Creek and the ridge behind Oak Canyon Community Park on a routine Tuesday afternoon. If you have looked up from your garden and watched a small airplane doing lazy circles, that was somebody learning steep turns.
The community itself is unusual and worth naming properly. Oak Park is unincorporated Ventura County, a few thousand households wedged between Agoura Hills, Thousand Oaks and the Simi Hills, with its own school district that people move house to get into. The population skews toward engineers, physicians, teachers and people working at the Thousand Oaks biotech campuses or across in Warner Center. Which is to say: a lot of methodical, technically minded adults, and a lot of teenagers who are good at physics.
Both groups fit flight training well, for different reasons. The adults tend to want the private certificate at $10,900, treat it as a multi-year project, and fly on Saturday mornings. The teenagers want the $4,200 teen package, and a surprising number of them are looking straight at the airline track. We are open nine in the morning to nine at night every day, so a lesson can slot in after work or after school without anybody rearranging their entire week.
The first step for either is the same. A trial flight is $229 for sixty minutes, you fly the aircraft yourself with an instructor next to you, the time goes in a logbook and counts toward a certificate, and if you enroll within a day the whole amount comes off the course price. There is no pressure to enroll, and the in-person consultation beforehand costs nothing. Call (818) 290-8249 and someone who actually instructs will answer your questions.
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.
From anywhere in Oak Park you are on Kanan Road within two minutes. Take it north to the 101 at Agoura Hills and head south toward Los Angeles. The freeway runs past Liberty Canyon, Las Virgenes, Calabasas and Woodland Hills, then you exit at Balboa Boulevard and turn north. The 7900 block sits along the airport's western fence. Nineteen miles, and between twenty-five and thirty-five minutes for most of the day. From the western end of Oak Park, Lindero Canyon Road onto the 101 in Westlake Village is a touch quicker.
Be realistic about direction of travel. Going south toward the valley in the morning is the commute direction and the stretch through Calabasas thickens up from around half past seven. Coming home northbound between four and half past six is the genuinely slow one. Mid-morning, early afternoon and after seven in the evening the drive is easy. Plenty of Oak Park students book a ten o'clock lesson precisely because both legs are clear at that hour.
If the 101 is blocked at Topanga, which happens, get off at Valley Circle or Mulholland and take Roscoe Boulevard east. It runs straight through West Hills, Canoga Park, Winnetka and Northridge and meets Balboa a short distance from us. Parking at the school is free and on site. We are in Suite 108A; the complex is shared with a number of other aviation businesses, so the suite number is what you want, not just the street address.
Camarillo is a perfectly good airport and roughly the same drive up the 101, but we are not based there: every lesson here starts at Van Nuys Airport, Suite 108A. What Van Nuys adds is a fleet that runs from a two-seat trainer through a complex single to a twin, a full-motion simulator on site, maintenance in the same complex and busier airspace to learn in. You do not outgrow it and have to move schools.
Air work out of Van Nuys happens over the Simi Hills and the western valley, which is your back garden. Navigation exercises make far more sense when you can identify the ground without a chart, and your first solo cross-country is less daunting when the practice area is the terrain you drive through every day.
The Conejo Valley funnels Santa Ana winds hard, and there are days each autumn when nobody should be doing a first solo. The Redbird MCX is a full-motion device, and a session of approaches or emergency procedures in it counts toward your training, included in your package and $189 to book on its own. Weather stops flying; it does not have to stop progress.
Every instructor here is FAA-certified with fifteen years or more behind them. That is unusual in a business where many instructors are building hours toward an airline job and leave after eight months. Continuity matters enormously when a teenager is learning, and it is a large part of why the school holds a 5.0 rating across 100+ Google reviews.
Primary training runs on the Cessna 162 Skycatcher, the Piper Warrior and the Diamond DA20, all of them at Van Nuys and all of them covered by the package you enroll on. The Warrior is a low-wing aircraft with a stable, honest feel that suits people who want to fly cross-country later. The DA20 has a canopy you can see out of in every direction, which is genuinely useful for the ground reference work you will be doing over the Simi Hills. Most students try more than one before deciding what they like.
The rest of the fleet is what makes staying here worthwhile. The Piper Arrow II brings retractable gear and a constant-speed propeller for complex and commercial time. The Cirrus SR22 Turbo is a full glass panel with an airframe parachute, and it is the airplane most private owners in this part of Ventura County end up buying. The Piper Seminole is our twin, and the multi-engine rating flown in it is a $5,100 package. The Redbird MCX full-motion simulator underpins all of it, and is $189 to book on its own.
Head west from Van Nuys at two and a half thousand feet and the Conejo Valley opens up in under ten minutes.
The sharp conical peak standing over the 101 at the Agoura Hills and Kanan junction, unmistakable because nothing else nearby comes to a point like that. Instructors use it constantly as a turning reference on the way out to the western practice area.
Two long grassy valleys running north from the 101 into the Simi Hills, pale gold most of the year with dark rows of valley oak along the canyon floors. From above you can trace the whole trail network in a single glance.
The span carrying open habitat over ten lanes of the 101 just east of Chesebro Road. It is a strange and obvious thing from the air, a green bridge over a freeway, and it links the Simi Hills to the Santa Monica Mountains.
A dark irregular lake set into the hills west of Oak Park, ringed by houses and backed by the steep ridge that separates the Conejo Valley from Malibu. On a clear day the ocean shows up behind it before you have finished climbing out.
Twenty-five to thirty-five minutes down the 101 for most of the day. Southbound mornings and northbound late afternoons are the slow legs, so mid-morning and evening lessons are the easy ones. It is one freeway from Kanan Road to the Balboa exit, so the timing is predictable even when it is busy.
You certainly could. The honest difference is depth: Van Nuys gives you a bigger fleet, a full-motion simulator, on-field maintenance and busier airspace to learn radio work in. If you may eventually want an instrument rating, a complex endorsement or a twin, it is easier to do all of it in one place with the same instructors.
They can start flight training at any age and fly the aircraft from the first lesson. The FAA sets sixteen as the minimum age to solo and seventeen for a private certificate. The $4,200 teen package is designed to fill the years before that productively rather than waiting, and parents are welcome to sit in on briefings.
On site and free. We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, along the western boundary of the airport. Head to the suite rather than the ramp; the hangar complex houses several unrelated aviation businesses and the suite number is the reliable way to find us. First-timers should allow ten extra minutes.
The standard program is $10,900 and the comprehensive version is $15,900. There is a premium program at $22,500 with the largest block of instruction included. If you only want to reach supervised solo rather than a full certificate, that is $5,500. All of these are complete course prices, covering the aircraft, your instructor, ground school and simulator time.
It does. The time is logged as instruction received and counts toward your certificate, so it is not a sightseeing ride with no value. If you decide to enroll within twenty-four hours, the full cost is credited against your program. In practice the introductory hour becomes lesson one.
Twice a week is the sweet spot. At that rate skills stack rather than decay and most people finish a private certificate inside a year. Once a fortnight roughly doubles the hours, because every lesson begins by rebuilding the last one.
Yes. Stratus Financial handles aviation lending and we run payment plans through the school directly. Which makes sense depends on the program and your timeline. Book the free consultation, bring your questions, and we will put actual figures on paper.
Call (818) 290-8249 and we will book you a mid-morning slot, when both directions of the 101 are clear and the air over the Simi Hills is still smooth. Or drive over to 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, and walk out to the aircraft with us first.
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
