Any aircraft with an engine of more than 200 horsepower requires a one-time logbook endorsement before you can act as pilot in command. That is FAR 61.31(f). There is no hour requirement, no written test and no checkride — an instructor trains you and signs your logbook, usually inside three to five hours.
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...
FAR 61.31(f) says no person may act as pilot in command of a high performance airplane — one with an engine of more than 200 horsepower — unless they have received and logged ground and flight training from an authorized instructor in a high performance airplane, and been endorsed in their logbook as proficient.
The wording matters more than people expect. A Piper Arrow with a 200 horsepower IO-360 is exactly at the line, not over it, so the Arrow is not a high performance airplane under the rule. A Cessna 182 at 230 horsepower is. A Cirrus SR22 at 310 horsepower certainly is. Pilots regularly assume the Arrow gives them the high performance endorsement because it is the aircraft they trained in for complex work. It does not.
There is no minimum hour requirement, no knowledge test, no practical test and no examiner. An instructor decides you are proficient and writes it in your logbook once. It does not expire, it does not need renewing, and it is not tied to a specific aircraft — the endorsement is for the category, so once you hold it you may fly any high performance single you are otherwise checked out in.
They live in adjacent paragraphs of the same regulation, they are often taught in the same aircraft, and almost everyone mixes them up. Here is the clean version.
About the engine, and nothing else. If it makes more than 200 horsepower, you need the endorsement, regardless of what the landing gear or the propeller do. A fixed-gear Cessna 182 needs it. A Cirrus SR22 at 310 horsepower needs it. Your training is about managing a bigger engine: cowl flaps, cylinder head and exhaust gas temperatures, leaning properly, a lot more torque and P-factor on the takeoff roll, and an aircraft that accelerates and descends faster than the one you learned in.
About the airframe. A complex airplane has retractable landing gear, flaps, and a controllable-pitch propeller — all three, not any one of them. Seaplanes substitute a controllable-pitch propeller including a full-feathering propeller for the gear requirement. The Piper Arrow is the textbook example and it is what we train in.
The content is different too. Complex training is gear discipline, prop and manifold pressure sequencing, and the workload that comes from having more levers and more checklist items in the pattern. Gear-up landings are almost entirely a transition-training failure, which is exactly why this endorsement exists.
A Cessna 182 is high performance but not complex — big engine, fixed gear. A Piper Arrow is complex but not high performance — retractable gear and a constant-speed prop, but exactly 200 horsepower. A Piper Saratoga with retractable gear is both. A Piper Warrior is neither.
There is a third endorsement in the same family that catches people out: pressurised aircraft capable of operating above 25,000 feet, under FAR 61.31(g). That one is rare in general aviation training and we mention it only so you know it exists.
Engine size drives high performance. Airframe drives complex. Read them separately and the confusion disappears.
High performance only. Fixed gear, so not complex.
Complex only. Exactly 200 hp is not more than 200.
High performance only. Fixed composite gear.
Both. Over 200 hp and retractable with a constant-speed prop.
Neither. Fixed gear, fixed-pitch prop, under the threshold.
A separate class rating entirely, not an endorsement. See the multi-engine page.
There is no syllabus mandated by the FAA. What follows is how we run it, and it maps to what an instructor is actually judging before signing.
Roughly an hour. Manifold pressure and RPM relationships, cowl flap use, cylinder head and exhaust gas temperature management, leaning technique in cruise and in the climb, and what actually damages an engine. Most of what makes a big engine expensive is heat, and most heat problems are pilot-induced.
More power usually means more useful load, and more useful load means a real chance of being over gross or out of center-of-gravity limits with four adults and full fuel. On a hot Van Nuys afternoon at density altitude, the performance charts stop being an exercise and start being the plan.
Torque, P-factor and the rudder input needed to keep it straight. A 310 horsepower airplane at full power on the roll needs a genuinely firm right foot, and pilots coming off a 160 horsepower trainer are consistently surprised by how much.
This is the real work. High performance singles do not want to descend and slow at the same time, and the commonest error is arriving at the pattern fast and high. You will fly a lot of approaches until the energy management is deliberate rather than lucky.
Engine failure at altitude, partial power loss, and go-arounds at full power where the trim change is significant. When the instructor is satisfied you are proficient, they write the endorsement in your logbook. That is the whole administrative process.
The Cirrus SR22 Turbo is high performance at 310 horsepower. The Piper Arrow is complex at exactly 200. They teach two different endorsements, and both aircraft are ours.
The Cirrus SR22 Turbo also carries the Premium Private Pilot Program at $22,500. Standard and Comprehensive students fly the Cessna, Piper and Diamond single-engine aircraft.
FAA-approved, fully enclosed and full-motion. Power settings, leaning, temperature management and go-arounds at full power are all cheaper to rehearse here, and it is never canceled for weather.
Simulator hours are built into every private pilot program — 2 hours on Standard and Premium, 5 hours on Comprehensive. Standalone sessions are $189.
There is no examiner and no checkride for a high performance endorsement, which means the only quality control is the instructor signing your logbook. Every instructor here 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.
They are also blunt. If three hours has not got you there because energy management in the descent is still ragged, they will say so and fly a fourth. Nobody here signs an endorsement to keep a customer happy, and the reason we can afford that position is that we are not selling hours by the hour.
Eleven instructors means you can fly this as a block over a week rather than one lesson a month. If the aircraft you are actually buying or joining a partnership in is a Cessna 182 or a Bonanza, tell us at the consultation — training in the type you will fly is worth more than training in ours and transitioning again.
On Google, the same three things come up again and again — and on an endorsement with no checkride, the first one is what you are actually buying.
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.
Our Piper Arrow is the aircraft for complex training and for the 10 hours FAR 61.129 requires before a commercial checkride. It is not a high performance airplane, and we will not sign a 61.31(f) endorsement off the back of Arrow time, because 200 horsepower is not more than 200 horsepower. We would rather lose the sale than write an endorsement that does not hold up.
The Cirrus SR22 Turbo is 310 horsepower, turbocharged, glass-panelled, and fitted with the CAPS whole-airframe parachute. It is a genuinely high performance airplane and a demanding transition for a pilot coming out of a Warrior. Most people need more than the three hours they expected, and the extra time is almost always spent on energy management in the descent rather than anything to do with the engine.
The same aircraft carries our Premium Private Pilot Program at $22,500, so if you are not certificated yet and you already know you want to end up in a high performance glass single, there is a route that starts in it on day one rather than transitioning into it later.
The high performance endorsement is a few hours of training with an instructor, not a program. If you are not a pilot yet, one of these is the starting point — and the Premium program puts you in a 310 horsepower Cirrus from lesson one.
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.
Enrolled students fly single-engine aircraft at $179 an hour wet, and endorsement training is arranged around your program rather than sold as walk-up hire. Financing from $2,500 down with monthly plans. Also available: Instrument Rating $11,700 · Multi-engine add-on $5,100 · Sport Pilot $8,400. Redbird MCX simulator sessions $189. Call (818) 290-8249 to arrange endorsement training.
The endorsement is straightforward. The useful conversation is about the specific aircraft you want to end up in, because that determines whether three hours is realistic or optimistic. The in-person consultation is free and takes about thirty minutes. Call (818) 290-8249, 9am to 9pm, seven days. 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, Van Nuys.
A one-time logbook endorsement required under FAR 61.31(f) before you can act as pilot in command of an airplane with an engine of more than 200 horsepower. An authorized instructor gives you ground and flight training and signs your logbook. There is no written test, no checkride and no expiry date.
The FAA sets no minimum. Most pilots need three to five hours of combined ground and flight training, and the instructor signs when satisfied you are proficient. Transitioning from a 160 horsepower trainer straight into a 310 horsepower Cirrus SR22 often takes longer, usually because of energy management in the descent rather than the engine.
High performance under FAR 61.31(f) is about the engine: more than 200 horsepower. Complex under FAR 61.31(e) is about the airframe: retractable landing gear, flaps and a controllable-pitch propeller, all three. A Cessna 182 is high performance but not complex; a Piper Arrow is complex but not high performance.
No. The Arrow has a 200 horsepower engine, and FAR 61.31(f) applies to engines of more than 200 horsepower. It is a complex airplane under FAR 61.31(e) because it has retractable gear, flaps and a constant-speed propeller, and it is also the aircraft used for the 10 complex hours FAR 61.129 requires before a commercial checkride.
No. There is no practical test, no FAA knowledge test and no examiner. Your instructor makes the proficiency judgment and writes a single endorsement in your logbook after typically three to five hours. That is the entire process, which is why this is one of the quickest things you can add to a certificate.
No. It is a one-time endorsement with no renewal requirement and it applies to the airplane category rather than a specific make and model. You will still need a checkout in each individual aircraft, and you still need a flight review within 24 calendar months under FAR 61.56.
The Cirrus SR22 Turbo, which is 310 horsepower, turbocharged and fitted with a Perspective glass cockpit and the CAPS whole-airframe parachute. It is the same aircraft our Premium Private Pilot Program at $22,500 is flown in, and we own and maintain it ourselves.
Yes. The SR22 has a 310 horsepower engine, comfortably over the 200 horsepower threshold in FAR 61.31(f). You will need the endorsement plus a type-specific checkout, and Cirrus transition training also covers the CAPS whole-airframe parachute system and the Perspective glass cockpit.
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
