Nine miles down the 118 from Truman Street, with entry-level programs starting at $4,200 and a fleet you can grow into rather than outgrow.
The city of San Fernando is two and a half square miles with its own council, its own police and Los Angeles wrapped completely around it. From Maclay Avenue to our door is nine miles. That number decides more about whether somebody finishes a pilot certificate than talent, money or ambition, because the single thing that stops people is the trip. When flying is a fifteen-minute drive, a Wednesday morning lesson before work is realistic. When it is a forty-minute haul each way, it quietly stops happening.
This is a working city, and we write these pages knowing it. The businesses along San Fernando Road and Glenoaks are body shops, fabricators, food processing and trades, and a lot of the people who call us are on shift patterns rather than office hours. So we start at nine and we stop at nine, every day of the week, and we book lessons one at a time. A six-day week with a Sunday morning slot is a completely normal way to earn a certificate here.
Cost is the other honest question, so here it is without decoration. If you want to reach supervised solo and no further, the solo certificate program is $5,500. A sport pilot license is $8,400. The full private pilot certificate is $10,900. A first flight to see whether any of it is for you is $229 for the hour, or $189 in the full-motion simulator. Those are complete program prices, and nothing is metered on top of them afterwards.
There is a career answer too, and San Fernando has plenty of people for whom it is the right one. The zero-to-airline program is $89,000, financed through Stratus Financial or a plan we run in house. It is a serious sum and we will not pretend otherwise, but it is a trade qualification with a clear wage at the end, and we would rather walk you through the real monthly figure at a table than have you guess at it from a website.
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.
The quick way is the 118. Pick it up from the San Fernando end, run west past Granada Hills and Porter Ranch, exit at Balboa Boulevard and turn south. You pass through Granada Hills and Northridge, cross Devonshire, Nordhoff and Roscoe, and the 7900 block of Balboa runs along the western fence of the airport. It is nine miles and about fifteen minutes. Traffic on that stretch of the 118 is genuinely light compared with anything further south.
If the freeway is closed or you simply prefer surface streets, San Fernando Mission Boulevard runs west from the city, past the Mission itself and out through Granada Hills, and meets Balboa. Turn south there and stay on Balboa the rest of the way. It is a couple of minutes longer with the lights, but it is a straightforward two-turn route and it never surprises you. Coming from the Sylmar side, Rinaldi Street to Balboa does the same job.
Parking is free and on the property, which is not a small thing when you are visiting two or three times a week. Our office is Suite 108A at 7900 Balboa Blvd. Come to the suite rather than trying to spot us from the road, because the hangar complex is shared with a number of unrelated aviation companies. On a first visit allow ten minutes over your estimate and someone will bring you out to the aircraft.
The difference between somebody who earns a license and somebody who stops at twenty hours is almost always how often they flew. Living fifteen minutes away lets you fly twice a week without rearranging your life. Every skill you build stays built instead of needing rebuilding, and the total hours, and therefore the total cost, come down.
Whiteman in Pacoima is nearer to you than we are and it is a real airport, though it is not ours. Our aircraft, our instructors and our office are all at Van Nuys. What Van Nuys adds is an eight-thousand-foot main runway with a parallel alongside it, a tower working all day, maintenance in the same complex and a fleet that runs from a two-seat trainer to a twin. You will not have to move schools to get an instrument rating or multi-engine time.
Nine in the morning to nine at night, every day including Sundays. Lessons are booked individually, not as a fixed weekly appointment you forfeit when overtime lands. If you work nights, morning slots are wide open. If you work days, we are still flying at seven in the evening in summer.
Every program on this page is a complete figure. There is no separate instructor rate appearing on the invoice afterwards, no fuel surcharge and no membership fee. If you want an itemised breakdown before you commit, ask for it at the free in-person consultation. We will also tell you honestly if a cheaper program suits you better.
Training starts in the Cessna 162 Skycatcher, the Piper Warrior or the Diamond DA20, and your program covers the aircraft and the instructor together. These are the aircraft you will spend your first fifty hours in and they are chosen for exactly that: light, honest and unforgiving of sloppiness in a way that teaches rather than punishes. Flying north out of Van Nuys in any of them, you are over Sylmar and looking at the wall of the San Gabriels inside five minutes of takeoff.
Past that the fleet keeps pace with you. The Piper Arrow II has retractable gear and a constant-speed propeller, which the commercial certificate requires. The Cirrus SR22 Turbo is glass cockpit and carries a parachute for the whole airframe. The Piper Seminole is the twin used for the multi-engine rating, a $5,100 package. Underneath everything sits the Redbird MCX full-motion simulator, $189 for a sixty-minute session, which is where a lot of the hard learning actually happens.
Take off toward the north and San Fernando is beneath the wing before you have finished the climb checklist.
The long white convento building with its nineteen arches, sitting in green grounds just over the city line in Mission Hills. It is the largest freestanding adobe in California and from the air the roofline is impossible to confuse with anything else nearby.
An enormous earthen embankment across the Tujunga Wash with a lake, a swimming basin and horse trails spread across the flood plain behind it. It reads as a vast pale bowl of gravel and water where the mountains meet the valley floor.
A single short runway laid diagonally into the grid at Pacoima, with rows of small aircraft parked along it. Seeing your local field from above at a thousand feet is one of the moments students remember from an early lesson.
The stacked ramps where the 5, the 14 and the 210 meet at the top of the valley, a concrete knot draped over the hillside. Beyond it the San Gabriel Mountains rise abruptly, and in winter the peaks behind it carry snow.
About nine miles and fifteen minutes on the 118 to the Balboa exit, then south. San Fernando Mission Boulevard to Balboa is a straightforward all-surface alternative that takes a few minutes longer. Very few people anywhere in Los Angeles live this close to a full-service training airport, and it makes a real difference to how quickly you progress.
None. The in-person consultation is free and there is no deposit. Come to 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, look at the aircraft, ask what a certificate would really cost you, then go home and think about it. Plenty of people do exactly that.
A sixty-minute session in the Redbird MCX simulator at $189, or a discovery flight in an aircraft at $229. The simulator never gets canceled for weather; the aircraft is the real thing and the hour is loggable. Enroll within twenty-four hours of a discovery flight and the whole $229 comes off your program.
In our free car park at 7900 Balboa Blvd, on the western side of the field. No meters, no permits, no fee. Come to Suite 108A rather than trying to find us from the ramp side; the complex holds several unrelated aviation businesses and the suite number is the thing that gets you to the right office.
Yes, and plenty of our students do. We are open nine to nine seven days a week and lessons are booked individually rather than as a standing weekly slot. Tell us your pattern and we will work with it. Early mornings and Sundays are the easiest to get consistently.
No, but non-citizens must be vetted through the TSA's Alien Flight Student Program before starting training toward a certificate. It is an online application with fingerprinting and it is routine. We will tell you what to submit and when, so it is not a surprise halfway through.
Nothing at all for a discovery flight. Before soloing you need a student pilot certificate and a medical from an FAA-designated aviation medical examiner, of which there are several in the north valley. Most healthy applicants clear it easily. Raise concerns early and we will point you at the right examiner.
Yes. The $89,000 zero-to-airline track is usually financed, through Stratus Financial or an in-house plan. What matters is understanding the monthly repayment against the timeline, and that is a conversation to have in person. Call (818) 290-8249 and book a consultation with us.
Call (818) 290-8249 and book a first flight, whether that is $189 in the simulator or $229 in an airplane over Hansen Dam and the Mission. We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, open nine to nine, and the drive back to San Fernando afterwards takes about fifteen minutes.
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
