Flight School Rates at Van Nuys Airport
Every aircraft, every program, the simulator, ground instruction and the FAA fees that are not ours. In text, on this page, readable on a phone at a red light. You should not have to ring a flight school to find out what an hour costs.
A rate sheet you can read is not a big ask
Go looking for flight school prices in Los Angeles and you will find three things: call for pricing, a contact form, and a photograph of a laminated price list taped to a counter, dated 2021, at an angle, slightly out of focus. One of the largest operations on this field publishes theirs exactly that way. You cannot search it, you cannot copy it into a spreadsheet, a screen reader cannot read it, and nobody has updated it in years.
Ours is text. All of it, on this page, in the same place, updated when it changes. That is not a marketing position so much as basic manners toward someone trying to work out whether they can afford to start.
There is a practical reason too. If you cannot see a rate before you visit, you cannot compare schools, and if you cannot compare schools you end up choosing on the strength of a sales conversation. That is a bad way to spend $10,900.
Hourly aircraft rates, wet
Wet means fuel and oil are in the number. Solo rate is what you pay when you fly the aircraft alone after your instructor has signed you off, and it is the same as the rental rate. Dual is the same aircraft with a certified flight instructor in the right seat.
| Aircraft | Solo / rental, wet | Dual instruction | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cessna 162 Skycatcher | $269/hr | $269/hr + instructor | 2 |
| Piper Warrior | $269/hr | $269/hr + instructor | 4 |
| Diamond DA20 | $329/hr | $329/hr + instructor | 2 |
| Piper Arrow | $349/hr | $349/hr + instructor | 4 |
| Cirrus SR22 Turbo | $649/hr | $649/hr + instructor | 4 |
| Piper Seminole | $649/hr | $649/hr + instructor | 4 |
| Fuel, every aircraft above | included | included | — |
Used for — Cessna 162: sport, private, rental. Piper Warrior: private, instrument, hour building. Diamond DA20: private, rental. Piper Arrow: commercial, complex endorsement. Cirrus SR22 Turbo: transition, travel, premium program. Piper Seminole: multi-engine rating, ATP path.
One number is not on this page, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise: the standalone instructor hourly rate for pay-as-you-go students. It varies with instructor experience and we quote it directly. Call (818) 290-8249 and you will have it in ten seconds. Inside every program price below, instructor time and briefings are already included and there is no separate hourly instruction charge at all.
Six aircraft, and why you would sit in each one
Every rate above belongs to an aeroplane you can walk out and look at on the ramp.
Cessna 162 Skycatcher
Two seats, light sport, and the cheapest legal way to log an hour with us. Used for sport pilot training and by private students who want to keep the hourly number down.
Piper Warrior
Four seats at the price of two. The Warrior is the aircraft we put most private students in and the one we would recommend to almost anybody who asks what to train in.
Diamond DA20
A bubble canopy, a stick instead of a yoke, and the best visibility of anything we operate. Students who fly it tend to be attached to it. It costs $60 an hour more than the Warrior, which over a certificate is about $2,400.
Piper Arrow
Retractable gear and a constant-speed propeller. This is the complex aircraft you need for the 10 hours FAR 61.129 requires before a commercial checkride, and the one you will take that checkride in.
Cirrus SR22 Turbo
Glass cockpit, turbocharged, and a whole-airframe CAPS parachute. It is a superb travelling aeroplane and a poor first trainer, and we will say so before we rent it to you.
Piper Seminole
Two engines, and the aircraft every multi-engine add-on is flown in. You need very few hours in it, which is the only reason the rating is affordable.
The school behind the rate sheet
Two minutes at 7900 Balboa Blvd — the aircraft, the instructors and the airport these numbers buy you time at.
LA Flight School, 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, Van Nuys, CA 91406. Call (818) 290-8249, 9am to 9pm, seven days.
The rest of the price list
Program prices are fixed. They are lower per hour than the hourly rates above, and they include instruction, ground school, briefings and materials.
Certificate and rating programs
These are the all-in prices. Each includes flight instruction, solo time, ground school, briefings, training materials and a syllabus. FAA written exams, examiner fees and medicals are separate and listed further down, because they are paid to other people.
| Program | Price |
|---|---|
| Teen Aviation Course, ages 10 to 15 | $4,200 |
| Solo Certificate program | $5,500 |
| Multi-Engine add-on rating | $5,100 |
| Sport Pilot certificate | $8,400 |
| Private Pilot, standard | $10,900 |
| Private Pilot, comprehensive | $15,900 |
| Private Pilot, premium | $22,500 |
| Instrument Rating | $11,700 |
| Commercial and airline, zero to airline | $89,000 |
Ground instruction
Included. Not discounted, not bundled, not billed at a reduced rate — included, at zero additional cost, in every program price above. That covers ground school, the pre-flight briefing where your instructor explains the manoeuvre, and the post-flight debrief where you find out how it went.
This matters more than it sounds. A school that bills ground at $60 to $90 an hour and gives you an hour of it per lesson has added $3,600 to $5,400 to a private pilot certificate without ever quoting you a higher headline price.
| Ground item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Ground school | included in all programs |
| Pre-flight and post-flight briefings | included |
| Syllabus, logbook and charts | included |
| Checkride preparation and mock oral | included |
Redbird MCX full-motion simulator
$189 an hour. It is FAA approved, it moves, and it is the only thing on this rate sheet that is never cancelled for weather. For instrument procedures, emergency drills and anything you want to repeat six times in forty minutes, it is better training than the aeroplane and $160 an hour cheaper than the Arrow.
| Simulator item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Redbird MCX, per hour | $189 |
| Simulator discovery session | $189 |
| Weather cancellations | none |
Fees paid to other people
None of the following goes to us. They are set by the FAA, by the testing centres and by independent designated pilot examiners, and they apply at every flight school in the country. We list them so your budget is right, not so the headline number looks smaller.
| Third-party fee | Cost |
|---|---|
| FAA knowledge test, per exam | about $175 |
| DPE checkride fee, per checkride | $800 to $1,000 |
| Third-class medical certificate | $100 to $175 |
| Student pilot certificate via IACRA | free |
| Headset, charts and apps | $400 to $1,500 |
Aircraft that are maintained because the law is strict, not because we are nice
Any aeroplane used for instruction for hire falls under FAR 91.409(b), which requires a full inspection every 100 hours on top of the annual. In practice our trainers go through that cycle several times a year, which is a great deal more scrutiny than a privately owned aircraft that flies eighty hours and gets looked at once.
That inspection cycle is a real cost and it is inside the $269. So is fuel, so is insurance, so is the hangar. A school quoting you $190 an hour for a four-seat aircraft is either quoting dry, quoting tach time, or economising somewhere you would not choose to economise.
Van Nuys itself is part of what you are buying. Roughly 300 flyable days a year, a Class D tower under the Class B shelf of one of the busiest airspace systems on earth, and a control environment that will make you competent on the radio faster than almost anywhere else in the country. It is harder for the first month. It is better for the next forty years.
Buy one hour and see whether the rest of this page matters
A discovery flight is a real lesson at a below-rate price. You fly the aircraft, the time is loggable dual instruction, and the full amount is credited against any program if you enrol within 24 hours.
Redbird Simulator Session
Full motion, FAA approved, on the ground. The cheapest hour on the rate sheet.
Book a sessionDiscovery Flight For One
You fly it, instructor included, which is less than the $269 hourly rate for the same aircraft. 90 min $299, 120 min $399.
Book nowLuxury Cirrus For Two
The SR22 Turbo, glass cockpit, two passengers, over the coast. 90 min $549, 120 min $699.
Book the CirrusAlso available: Discovery Flight For Two from $299, the Piper Seminole twin from $499, and the Camarillo lunch flight for two at $699 flat. All are credited in full against a program on enrolment within 24 hours.
You have the numbers. Now go and fly one of the aircraft.
Sixty minutes over Los Angeles with your hands on the controls, logged as real dual instruction, for less than our hourly rental rate. Enrol within 24 hours and the $229 comes off your program. Call (818) 290-8249, 9am to 9pm, seven days. 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, Van Nuys.
Rate sheet questions
A sport pilot certificate is $8,400 and a private pilot certificate is $10,900 in our standard program at Van Nuys Airport. Add roughly $1,100 to $1,350 in FAA and examiner fees, which covers a $175 written exam, an $800 to $1,000 checkride and a $100 to $175 medical. A commercial certificate as part of the full airline program is $89,000.
Aircraft start at $269 an hour wet for a Cessna 162 or Piper Warrior, $329 for a Diamond DA20, $349 for a Piper Arrow and $649 for a Cirrus SR22 Turbo or Piper Seminole. The Redbird MCX simulator is $189 an hour. Programs run from $4,200 for the teen course to $89,000 for zero to airline.
$269 an hour wet for a Piper Warrior or Cessna 162, up to $649 an hour for the Cirrus SR22 Turbo. Fuel is included in every rate. You need a current certificate, a current medical where required, and a checkout with one of our instructors in the specific aircraft before you can take it alone.
Wet. Fuel and oil are included in every hourly rate on this page, so $269 for a Warrior hour is $269. A dry rate excludes fuel, which typically adds $60 to $90 for every hour you fly, and it is the most common way a rate sheet is made to look cheaper than it is.
Nothing extra. Ground school, pre-flight briefings, post-flight debriefs and checkride preparation are all included in every program price. Schools that bill ground separately typically charge $60 to $90 an hour, which across a private pilot certificate adds $3,600 to $5,400 to what you were quoted.
$189 an hour in the Redbird MCX, which is a full-motion FAA-approved simulator. That is $80 an hour less than our cheapest aircraft and $160 less than the Piper Arrow, and it is never cancelled for weather. For instrument approaches and emergency procedures it is better training than the aeroplane.
Program prices are fixed at the price you enrol at for the duration of that program. Hourly rental rates can move with fuel, as they do at every school. If you are comparing us with anyone else, ask them the same question and get the answer in writing before you pay a deposit.
An hour in the Redbird MCX simulator at $189, then a Cessna 162 or Piper Warrior at $269 an hour wet. If you have never flown before, the cheapest genuinely useful hour is the $229 discovery flight, which includes an instructor and is credited back in full if you enrol within 24 hours.