Our position, and we will defend it: learn the first thirty hours on analogue instruments, then transition to glass. Not because round dials are better, and not for nostalgia. Because a glass panel answers questions you have not learned to ask yet, and skipping that stage produces pilots who are excellent operators and mediocre aviators.
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.
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...
A primary flight display gives you an attitude indicator the size of the whole screen, a speed tape with a trend vector that shows where your airspeed will be in six seconds, an altitude tape, a moving map, and traffic. It is genuinely superior equipment. In cloud, at night, or on an approach into weather, it is not a close contest.
For a student in the first thirty hours it is a crutch, and a specific one. The trend vector tells you your airspeed is decaying before you have felt it decay. That sounds helpful and it is, right up until the day you fly an airplane without one and discover you never learned what a decaying airspeed feels like through the seat and the controls. Basic airmanship is a set of physical perceptions, and glass reliably delays their formation because it removes the need for them.
There is a second effect that instructors see constantly and it is harder to argue with. Students trained on glass from hour one look inside more. The panel is bright, information-dense and interesting, and the world outside the window is not. Then they fly the Van Nuys pattern on a Saturday with four other aircraft in it, and the traffic that matters is the one not showing on the display.
So: analogue first. Around hour thirty, once attitude flying is instinctive and the scan is built, glass is a three-to-five-hour transition and a genuine upgrade. Do it the other way round and the transition to analogue is longer and considerably less comfortable.
Steam gauge is a slightly unfair nickname — nothing in the panel runs on steam. It refers to the vacuum-driven and pitot-static analogue instruments that every aircraft used before flat-panel displays arrived in light aircraft around 2003.
Six instruments in a standard T layout: airspeed indicator, attitude indicator, altimeter across the top; turn coordinator, heading indicator, vertical speed indicator underneath. The attitude and heading indicators are usually vacuum-driven by an engine pump. The airspeed, altimeter and VSI run off the pitot-static system.
Each instrument does one thing and fails in a way you can learn. A vacuum pump failure takes the attitude indicator and the heading indicator and leaves everything else working, which is precisely why partial-panel flying is taught. That failure mode is slow, subtle and famously deadly, and every pilot who trained on analogue instruments has spent an hour learning to catch it.
A primary flight display replaces the six-pack with one screen, and a multi-function display beside it carries the moving map, engine instruments, weather and traffic. Attitude and heading come from a solid-state AHRS rather than spinning gyros, and air data comes from a digital computer rather than mechanical linkages.
The reliability is better. Solid-state sensors do not have the vacuum pump failure mode that kills people in cloud. The trade is that when a glass panel does fail, it fails differently — you can lose a whole display at once, and the reversion procedure has to be learned rather than intuited. The standby instruments are usually a small analogue set, which is a quiet argument for knowing how to read them.
The practical test standards do not care which you used. The Airman Certification Standards are written to be equipment-agnostic, and a private pilot checkride flown in a glass aircraft is judged on the same tolerances as one flown on analogue instruments: altitude within 100 feet, heading within 10 degrees, airspeed within 10 knots on most maneuvers.
One practical wrinkle worth knowing. If you take your checkride in a technically advanced aircraft you will be examined on that equipment, and examiners do ask searching questions about failure modes and reversion. Neither route is easier. They are just different orals.
This used to be a conversation about hourly rates. It is not any more. The panel you learn on is decided when you pick a program, and the price is fixed from that point.
Single-engine Cessna, Piper and Diamond aircraft with traditional six-pack panels, and nothing on the glareshield that will fly the airplane for you. This is the program most of our private students take, and this argument is part of the reason.
The same analogue single-engine aircraft with 55 hours of flying, 50 hours of dual, 10 hours of ground school and 5 hours in the Redbird. The one most students actually finish in, and the one we recommend if the scan is what you care about.
The whole certificate flown in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo: Perspective glass, 310 horsepower, CAPS parachute. If you already know the aircraft you will end up owning has a glass panel, starting there is a defensible choice and we will teach the attitude flying anyway.
| Program | Aircraft | Panel | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Private Pilot | Cessna · Piper · Diamond | traditional six-pack | $10,900 | building a scan in the first 30 hours |
| Comprehensive Private Pilot | Cessna · Piper · Diamond | traditional six-pack | $15,900 | 60 logged hours and 10 hours of ground |
| Premium Private Pilot | Cirrus SR22 Turbo | Cirrus Perspective glass | $22,500 | glass from lesson one, travel flying |
| Sport Pilot | Cessna 162 Skycatcher | Garmin G300 glass | $8,400 | light sport, glass exposure, 20-hour minimum |
| Instrument Rating | your choice of panel | either | $11,700 | the panel you will actually fly in weather |
| Redbird MCX simulator | full-motion | configurable either way | $189 | learning a new panel layout, procedures |
Enrolled students fly single-engine aircraft at $179 an hour wet, and that rate is already inside every program price above. The Redbird MCX can be configured for either panel, which makes it the cheapest place to learn a new layout — you can pause it, and it is never canceled for weather.
You can fly both here, and most of our students do. Every aircraft in this gallery is ours and is inspected every 100 hours under FAR 91.409(b).
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 with its full glass cockpit.
FAA-approved, fully enclosed and full-motion. It can be set up as a six-pack or as a glass PFD, so you can learn a new layout, pause mid-approach, and repeat a reversion drill five times in twenty minutes.
Simulator hours are built into every private pilot program — 2 hours on Standard and Premium, 5 hours on Comprehensive. Standalone sessions are $189.
The reason we can argue for analogue first is that our instructors teach attitude flying deliberately rather than letting the equipment do it. Every one of them 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.
There are eleven, and between them they are current on both sides of this argument: the six-pack singles and the Cirrus Perspective. That matters when you transition, because the person teaching you the glass panel has spent years on raw data and knows exactly which underlying relationship the screen is hiding from you.
You are matched to one instructor for continuity and can change if the fit is wrong. The thing our reviews mention most is not the aircraft or the avionics — it is the debrief afterwards.
On Google, three things come up again and again — and none of them is the avionics.
The most repeated compliment in our reviews is not the aircraft or the price — it is the debrief.
Eleven instructors and a fleet we own means lessons happen when we say they will.
The number you enroll at is the number you finish at. Reviewers mention this constantly.
Everything above applies to primary training. Once you are flying an instrument rating, the calculation reverses. A glass panel with an integrated moving map, coupled approaches and terrain awareness reduces workload at exactly the moment workload is the thing trying to kill you, and the safety case for it in single-pilot IFR is strong enough that we would not argue against it.
That is also when the earlier analogue work pays off. A pilot who built a scan on six separate instruments already understands what each piece of information is for, and reads a PFD as a familiar set of facts arranged differently. A pilot who only ever saw the integrated picture has to learn the underlying relationships during instrument training, which is a bad time to be doing it.
Practical answer for most people: the Standard or Comprehensive program on analogue, then a glass transition of three to five hours, then the $11,700 instrument rating on whichever panel you will actually fly afterwards. If you own or are buying a glass aircraft, do the instrument rating in that aircraft.
None of this is mandatory. It is how we would spend the money if it were ours.
The Piper or the Diamond on the Standard or Comprehensive program. Attitude flying against the horizon, airspeed felt as much as read, and an instrument scan built on six discrete sources. Your instructor will cover the instruments regularly, which is annoying and is the point.
An hour or two in the Cessna with the Garmin G300, or a Redbird session configured as a PFD. Not a transition, just a look, so the layout is not novel later. Cheap and worth doing.
Three to five hours onto glass. PFD and MFD layout, the trend vector, autopilot modes, and failure and reversion procedures. Most of the time goes on the last of those, because that is the part that is genuinely different.
$11,700 with ground instruction included. Use the Redbird MCX for procedures and approaches; it is better training than the airplane for repetition and it is never weather-canceled.
Flying only glass makes partial-panel analogue work uncomfortable within about a year. An hour in a six-pack single every few months keeps the raw-data scan alive.
This is the cleanest way to answer the question: pick the panel by picking the program. Enrolled students fly single-engine aircraft at $179 an hour wet, and that is already inside each fixed price.
Forty hours logged, flown in our Cessna, Piper and Diamond single-engine aircraft.
Sixty hours logged and ten hours of ground school. The one most students finish in.
The whole certificate flown in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo with its full glass cockpit.
Financing from $2,500 down with monthly plans. Also available: Sport Pilot $8,400 in the Garmin G300 Cessna · Instrument Rating $11,700 on either panel · Multi-engine add-on $5,100 · zero-to-airline $89,000. Redbird MCX simulator sessions are $189 and can be configured as a six-pack or a glass PFD.
Book sixty minutes in a traditional-panel trainer and decide with your hands rather than by reading. It is a real lesson, it is loggable, and it is credited in full against a program if you enroll within 24 hours. Call (818) 290-8249, 9am to 9pm, seven days. 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, Van Nuys.
Learn the first 30 hours on analogue instruments, then transition to glass in three to five hours. A glass panel supplies information such as an airspeed trend vector before you have learned to sense it yourself, which delays basic airmanship. Our Standard $10,900 and Comprehensive $15,900 programs are flown on analogue panels for exactly this reason.
It is the nickname for a traditional analogue panel: six instruments in a standard T layout — airspeed, attitude, altimeter, turn coordinator, heading indicator and vertical speed. Nothing runs on steam; the attitude and heading indicators are vacuum-driven gyros and the rest are pitot-static. Our Piper, Diamond and Arrow aircraft all use one.
No, it is easier to read and harder to master. The basic display is more intuitive than six separate dials, but the systems knowledge behind it — AHRS, air data computers, autopilot modes and reversion procedures — is deeper. Examiners test that knowledge if you take a checkride in a technically advanced aircraft.
Three to five hours for most pilots, covering PFD and MFD layout, autopilot modes and failure and reversion procedures. Doing the procedural portion in the Redbird MCX at $189 a session is the cheapest way to shorten the aircraft time, because you can pause it and repeat a reversion drill five times in twenty minutes.
Yes. The Premium Private Pilot Program at $22,500 is flown entirely in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo with its full Cirrus Perspective glass panel, and the Cessna 162 Skycatcher on the $8,400 Sport Pilot Program has a Garmin G300. The Redbird MCX full-motion simulator can also be configured for glass.
The Airman Certification Standards are equipment-agnostic and the tolerances are identical — altitude within 100 feet, heading within 10 degrees, airspeed within 10 knots on most maneuvers. What changes is the oral: fly a technically advanced aircraft and you will be examined on its systems, failure modes and reversion procedures.
For instrument flying, generally yes. Solid-state attitude sensing removes the vacuum pump failure that has killed a great many pilots in cloud, and integrated terrain and traffic reduce workload when workload is dangerous. In day VFR primary training over the first 30 hours the safety difference is small, and the training difference matters more.
Whichever panel you will actually fly in weather afterwards. If you own or are buying a glass aircraft, train in it. Our instrument rating is $11,700 with ground instruction included, and a large part of the procedural work is best done in the Redbird MCX regardless of which panel you choose.
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
