We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A — inside Van Nuys Airport, not twenty minutes from it. If you live in Van Nuys, the drive is nil: you park for free, walk to the aircraft, and fly. The field recorded 355 flyable days in the twelve months to August 2026.
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...
There is no drive. We train pilots from Van Nuys at Van Nuys Airport, and the school is at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, on the Balboa Boulevard side of the field. From most Van Nuys addresses that is under ten minutes. From the streets either side of the airport it is closer to four.
The field fills the whole block between Roscoe Boulevard at the north end and Victory Boulevard at the south, with Balboa running down the west side and Woodley up the east. Because the airport occupies that block, the surface streets that would otherwise cut across it stop at the fence, so you come in on Balboa. Off the 405 it is the Roscoe or Victory exit and then west. Off the 101 it is Balboa north. Neither leg is long enough for traffic to matter much, which is the single biggest practical advantage of learning at your home field.
Parking is free and on site. That sounds trivial until you have paid for airport parking somewhere else twice a week for eight months.
Be honest with yourself about the time, though. A lesson is not an hour. Preflight, the brief, the flight, shutdown and the debrief run to about three hours door to door, and the debrief is the part that actually teaches you anything. Living five minutes away means all three of those hours go into flying instead of the Sepulveda Pass.
Van Nuys is a Class D tower field with two parallel runways sitting directly under the LAX Class B shelf. It handles more general aviation traffic than almost any airport in the world. That is the whole argument.
Start with the layout. KVNY has two parallel strips, 16L/34R and 16R/34L, running roughly north-south down the length of the field. The longer of the two takes the jet traffic and the arrivals that need the distance. The shorter parallel is where most of the training happens, which means you are not queueing behind a departing business jet every time you want to shoot a landing.
Now the airspace. The Class B shelf that protects arrivals into LAX sits over the top of the valley, and Van Nuys tucks in underneath it. You learn, from the first lesson, that altitude is not optional and that a clearance means something. Students who train at quiet uncontrolled fields often meet that idea for the first time on a cross-country, alone, with a controller talking quickly. Ours meet it on day one with an instructor in the right seat.
Then the radio. This is the part people underestimate and the part that makes Van Nuys graduates comfortable anywhere. Before you have flown a circuit you have pulled the ATIS, called ground, read back a taxi clearance, switched to tower, been sequenced behind traffic you had to find visually, and been told to make a short approach because something faster is on a three-mile final. By your solo it is automatic. Pilots who learned somewhere quiet spend their first year being nervous on the frequency. That is a real cost and nobody bills you for it.
The flying itself is good. A typical lesson from Van Nuys puts you over the Sepulveda Basin and Lake Balboa within a minute of the departure end, and the Santa Monica Mountains sit right there on the south side as your reference for everything. Ground reference maneuvers over the basin, steep turns and stalls out over the hills to the north, then back into the pattern. The visual landmarks are unmistakable, which matters more than it sounds when you are a student trying to hold a heading and think at the same time.
Here is the trade-off, and it is real. Van Nuys is busy. Some mornings you will sit at the hold short line behind four aircraft while a departure sequence clears, and a 1.2-hour lesson costs you 1.4. A quiet field would give you those minutes back. What it would not give you is the traffic scan, the sequencing, or a controller who expects a competent read-back. We think that trade is worth making, and after two hundred hours in the LA basin most of our graduates say the same. If you disagree, that is a fair position and you should train somewhere quieter.
One more thing that only applies here. Because we are based on the field rather than driving to it, a lesson that gets scrubbed for weather at 8am can often be rebuilt into a simulator hour or a ground session the same morning without anyone going home. That is a scheduling advantage, not a marketing line.
Van Nuys recorded 355 flyable days in the twelve months to August 2026. We pulled twelve months of NOAA ASOS observations and applied a 3,000-foot ceiling and 5 statute miles of visibility, which is what most schools use as the floor for student solo and early dual work. The method and the raw tables are published at our flyable days study.
For context: Phoenix Deer Valley came in at 356 and central Florida at 355. The two places American flight training moves to for the weather are level with the San Fernando Valley. Santa Monica managed 343 and Torrance 332, both of them coastal.
The gap is the marine layer, and the valley is on the right side of the hills for it. Van Nuys sits inland behind the Santa Monica Mountains, so the low cloud that pushes in overnight from the coast usually stops at the ridge. In August, 84% of 7am observations at Van Nuys met training minima against 48% at Santa Monica. Same morning, same sky, twelve miles apart.
June is the exception and you should plan around it. Only 40% of 7am slots at Van Nuys met minima in June. By 11am that is 93%, and from 1pm it is 97 to 100%. So in early summer, book afternoons. Because you live here, moving a lesson from 7am to 2pm costs you nothing but a diary change.
One school, one field, one page. No quotes, no discovery call before you are allowed to see a number.
| Course | Price |
|---|---|
| Private Pilot — Standard 40 hours logged, single-engine, books included | $10,900 |
| Private Pilot — Comprehensive 60 hours logged, 10 hours ground, 5 simulator hours | $15,900 |
| Private Pilot — Premium Cirrus SR22 Turbo throughout, 40 hours logged | $22,500 |
| Instrument Rating Fly in cloud and in the system, the rating that makes a license useful in LA | $11,700 |
| Multi-Engine add-on Piper Seminole, usually finished inside two weeks | $5,100 |
| Sport Pilot Lower minimum hours, day VFR, no medical certificate required | $8,400 |
| Solo Certificate Takes you to your first solo and stops there | $5,500 |
| Teen aviation, ages 10–15 Real instruction in a real aircraft, paced for a younger student | $4,200 |
| Zero-to-airline career track Private through commercial, instrument, multi and instructor ratings | $89,000 |
| Redbird MCX simulator session One hour in the full-motion box, loggable with an instructor | $189 |
| Discovery flight You fly it, it is logged dual, credited in full on enrollment within 24 hours | $229 / $299 / $399 / $499 / $699 |
Every aircraft on this ramp is ours. Inspected on our schedule, flown by our instructors every day, and parked a two-minute walk from the front door at 7900 Balboa.
Single-engine training on the Standard and Comprehensive programs is flown in the Cessna, Piper and Diamond aircraft. The Premium program is flown entirely in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo.
FAA-approved, fully enclosed, and it moves. Procedures, instrument scan, radio work and engine failures all transfer straight to the aircraft, and it is never canceled for weather.
Simulator time is built into every private pilot program — 2 hours on Standard and Premium, 5 hours on Comprehensive. A standalone session with an instructor is $189.
Every instructor here holds a commercial or ATP certificate, a CFI and a current medical, and is legally pilot in command on every flight you make with them. That is the licensing floor. What matters more is that they teach here as a career rather than sitting out 500 hours waiting for a regional to call.
Eleven of them is the number that makes scheduling work. One instructor with a full book means your lesson moves when they get sick, take a checkride, or go on holiday, and two lost weeks in the middle of your training will cost you money in re-learning. With a team this size and a fleet we own, the slot holds.
You are matched to one instructor and you keep them. If the fit is wrong — and sometimes it is, for reasons that have nothing to do with either of you — say so and we will move you. Nobody here takes it personally, and a student who dreads a lesson does not learn.
On Google, the same three things come up again and again.
The most repeated compliment in our reviews is not the aircraft and it is not the price. It is the twenty minutes after the engine stops, when someone sits down and tells you exactly what happened on that third landing.
Eleven instructors and a fleet we own. Reviewers mention lessons happening when they were booked, which is a low bar the industry regularly fails to clear.
You enroll at $10,900, $15,900 or $22,500, and that is what you pay. No fuel surcharge halfway through, no revised quote at hour thirty.
FAR 61.109 sets the legal minimum at 40 hours. The national average is 60 to 75. Pick the program that matches how often you can realistically fly, not the one with the smallest number on it.
40 hours logged. The program most students finish on if they fly twice a week and do the reading.
60 hours logged and ten hours of ground. Built for the person who wants the hours already paid for.
Every hour in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo, glass cockpit and whole-airframe parachute. 40 hours logged.
Financing starts at $2,500 down with monthly plans through Stratus Financial or in house. The enrolled hourly rate is $179 wet on single-engine aircraft, and it does not move between the day you sign and the day you pass.
Sixty minutes, you are on the controls from the moment the wheels leave 16L, and the hour is logged as dual instruction toward your certificate. Enroll within 24 hours and the full price comes off your program. We are open 9am to 9pm, seven days, at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A.
Yes. LA Flight School is at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, inside Van Nuys Airport itself, so for a Van Nuys resident the drive is under ten minutes and often under five. Parking is free and on site. We are open 9am to 9pm, seven days, on (818) 290-8249.
We are on the field at Van Nuys Airport, which makes us the closest flight training you can get to a Van Nuys address without walking. The school operates from Suite 108A at 7900 Balboa Blvd on the Balboa Boulevard side of KVNY, with 11 instructors and a fleet we own.
The Standard Private Pilot Program is $10,900 for 40 hours logged, the Comprehensive is $15,900 for 60 hours, and the Premium in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo is $22,500. Enrolled students fly at $179 an hour wet on single-engine aircraft. Financing starts at $2,500 down.
Flying twice a week, most students finish in six to nine months. FAR 61.109 sets the legal minimum at 40 hours and the national average is 60 to 75 hours, which is why the Comprehensive program is built around 60. Flying once a fortnight roughly doubles the calendar time and the cost.
355. We measured twelve months of NOAA observations at Van Nuys to August 2026 against a 3,000-foot ceiling and 5 miles of visibility. That puts KVNY level with Phoenix Deer Valley at 356 and central Florida at 355, and ahead of coastal Santa Monica at 343.
No, and the traffic is the reason to train here. KVNY is a Class D tower field with two parallel runways under the LAX Class B shelf, so you are working a radio and a traffic scan from lesson one. The honest cost is a few extra minutes at the hold short line on a busy morning.
The Sepulveda Basin and Lake Balboa are under you within a minute of the departure end, with the Santa Monica Mountains along the south side as a permanent visual reference. Ground reference work happens over the basin, and airwork over the hills to the north.
A discovery flight is a real lesson: you handle the controls and the time is logged as dual instruction toward your certificate. Sixty minutes is $229, ninety is $299, two hours is $399, and the whole amount is credited against any program if you enroll within 24 hours.
We are a training school rather than an open rental counter, so aircraft go to enrolled and checked-out students on package pricing at $179 an hour wet, not to walk-up hire. If you want continued access after your checkride, ask about a checkout on the Piper or Diamond at your free consultation.
No. You can fly dual instruction, including a discovery flight, with no medical at all. You need at least a third-class medical before your first solo, and the Sport Pilot route at $8,400 does not require one because a valid driver license suffices.
Yes. The teen aviation program runs for ages 10 to 15 at $4,200 and it is real instruction in a real aircraft at Van Nuys, not a simulator club. A student can legally solo at 16 and hold a private pilot certificate at 17, so starting at 14 is not early.
Afternoons in May and June, mornings the rest of the year. Only 40% of 7am observations in June met training minima, rising to 93% by 11am and 97 to 100% from 1pm. In August, 84% of 7am slots at Van Nuys were flyable against 48% at coastal Santa Monica.
Yes, parking is free and on site, a two-minute walk from the aircraft. The office is Suite 108A and it is open 9am to 9pm every day of the week, including weekends, on (818) 290-8249.
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
