An hour above the city with the controls in their hands, an instructor beside them, and the Hollywood Sign, the coast and the mountains laid out below the wing.
Hands-On From The Left Seat
Your instructor takes off and lands. Almost everything in between is yours: turns, climbs, descents, holding a heading over Los Angeles. How much depends on you and the conditions on the day.
Your instructor flies the takeoff from Van Nuys and talks you through it while you listen to the tower in your headset.
You fly the airplane. Turns, climbs, descents and holding a heading over Los Angeles, for roughly 50–80% of the flight depending on you and the conditions. Your instructor has an identical set of controls and handles the radio.
Your instructor lands and narrates the approach. Have your own logbook? Your instructor will be happy to sign it. Want to fly less and look more? Say so at the briefing.
Tap Takeoff, You Fly or Landing to see who is flying.
The Route You Fly
About an hour from Van Nuys Airport: Universal Studios, the Hollywood Sign, Griffith Observatory and a full circle around Downtown LA, then west just north of SoFi Stadium and LAX to the coast, from Venice Beach up to Malibu. Your instructor takes off and lands. You fly 50–80% of it.
01Instructor Takeoff
Wheels Up From Van Nuys
Your instructor takes off from one of the busiest general aviation airports in the world and talks you through every step. Once you are clear of the field, the controls are yours.
02You’re Flying
The Backlot From Above
The studio lots turn out to be far bigger than they look on TV, with the soundstages lined up like a small town.
03You’re Flying
Nine Letters On Mount Lee
The most famous sign in the world, seen from where almost nobody gets to see it: level with the hilltop.
04You’re Flying
The Domes On The Ridge
The white domes of Griffith Observatory on the slope of Mount Hollywood, with the whole Los Angeles basin laid out beyond them.
05You’re Flying
A Full Circle Around Downtown
In on the south side, then a full counterclockwise circle around the towers: up the east side, over the top and back around. The San Gabriel Mountains stand behind the skyline.
06You’re Flying
The Roof You Know From TV
We pass just north of the stadium and never fly over it. Its huge translucent roof, home of the Rams and the Chargers, sits right off your left wing.
07You’re Flying
Airliners On Final, Off Your Left Wing
Jets lining up for one of the busiest airports on Earth, off your left wing. We stay north of LAX and never fly over it.
08You’re Flying
Right Turn Up The Coast
The boardwalk, the skate park and the sand, then a right turn up the coast with all of Santa Monica Bay opening up ahead of you.
09You’re Flying
The Pier And The Ferris Wheel
The pier, the Ferris wheel and the beach, straight out of a thousand films.
10You’re Flying
The Mountains Meet The Pacific
Up the coast past the Palisades to Malibu, where the Santa Monica Mountains drop straight into the ocean.
11You’re Flying
Over The Hills To Warner Center
North over the Santa Monica Mountains to Warner Center in Woodland Hills, then east across the San Fernando Valley with Van Nuys straight ahead.
12Instructor Landing
Your Instructor Lands, Then A Quick Debrief
Have your own pilot logbook? Bring it and your instructor will be happy to sign it. Enroll within 24 hours of landing and 100% of what you paid is credited toward your training.
Book Your Flight · From $229Typical route. Weather and air traffic control set the final path on the day.
A discovery flight is not a sightseeing tour with a pilot up front and your recipient looking out of a window. It is a first flying lesson dressed as an adventure. After the takeoff roll the instructor hands over the controls, and from that point the person you bought it for is flying the airplane: turning it, climbing it, holding a heading over Los Angeles while somebody experienced sits beside them explaining what their hands are doing and why the aircraft responds the way it does.
The setting does a great deal of the work. Departing Van Nuys you are over the San Fernando Valley within a minute, with the Santa Monica Mountains rising along the southern edge and the Santa Susanas closing off the north-west. Turn one way and the coast at Malibu appears in a quarter of an hour; turn the other and Griffith Observatory, the Hollywood Sign and the downtown towers stand up out of the basin. Almost nowhere offers this much recognizable scenery inside one hour of flying.
The instructor decides the route on the day, based on the weather, the traffic and what the person in the left seat says they want to see. That flexibility is the reason these flights work as gifts. Somebody who grew up in the Valley usually wants to find their own street; a visitor wants the coastline and the sign; a nervous first-timer is better served by a gentle circuit over open ground to the north, and gets one without having to ask.
It also counts for something afterwards. The time is logged in a real logbook and applies toward a pilot certificate, and if the recipient decides to train with us within 24 hours, the full price of the flight is credited against their program. We have flown more than 2,000 of these safely from 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, and a good number of the students on our books arrived as somebody else's birthday present.
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.
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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, 360 lb combined. Questions: (818) 290-8249, 9 AM–9 PM, seven days.
They arrive at Suite 108A about twenty minutes before the flight, having parked in the free lot off Balboa Blvd. First comes a proper briefing at the desk: what the aircraft does, what the controls do, what the instructor will ask them to do and when. Nobody is thrown into an airplane cold. It is a real pre-flight briefing of the kind every lesson here starts with, and it usually settles any nerves in the room rather than in the air.
Then the walk-around. The instructor goes over the aircraft with them, explaining what is being checked and why, which is the moment most people realize how methodical this is. They sit in the left seat, the instructor in the right, headsets on so the two of them can talk normally over the engine. The instructor handles the radio work with Van Nuys tower and the takeoff itself, and the airplane is theirs shortly after the wheels leave the ground.
The flight runs for the time you bought, and then the instructor lands it. Afterwards there is a logbook entry with their name in it and a conversation about what they did well, which is worth staying for. The whole visit takes roughly twice the flying time. Anybody not flying is welcome to wait in the office and photograph the aircraft leaving and returning.
People who would love this rarely book it alone, because it sits in the category of things that feel extravagant when self-purchased and perfect when given. That gap is exactly where good presents live. Nearly everybody who takes one of these has wanted to for years without ever getting round to it.
Ask somebody about a meal out three years ago and they will struggle. Ask about the first time they flew an airplane over their own city and you get the whole story, including the bit where the instructor let go of the controls. It occupies a different part of the memory from most gifts.
The person who already owns everything, the one who insists they want nothing, the teenager who is impossible to please. An hour of flying sidesteps the entire problem because it is not an object competing with their other objects. It is a morning they did not know they were going to have.
Discovery Flight For Two at $299 puts you in the back for the whole flight, which makes this a shared thing rather than something you hand over and hear about later. Parents and children in particular tend to buy this version, and either one can be the person doing the flying.
Flights for one usually go out in the Cessna 162 Skycatcher or the Diamond DA20, both two-seaters with excellent visibility; the DA20 has a bubble canopy that puts the whole sky and most of the ground in view at once. For a flight with a passenger the Piper Warrior is the usual aircraft, a four-seat low-wing type with room in the back and enough capacity to carry three people comfortably, which is why we ask about weights when a booking is made.
The Cirrus SR22 Turbo is a different proposition altogether: turbocharged, quick, with a glass cockpit and an airframe parachute system, and comfortable enough that ninety minutes in it feels like a proper journey rather than a flight. The twin-engine Piper Seminole is the enthusiast's aircraft, with two engines to manage and retractable gear. Every aircraft in the fleet is maintained on site and flown most days, which is not true of every ramp at Van Nuys.
The exact route depends on weather and traffic, but these are the sights that come up most often.
Sitting on the south side of Mount Lee above Beachwood Canyon, and considerably smaller from the air than everybody expects. It is the shot most people want, and it comes on the eastern leg along with Griffith Observatory below it.
Over the Santa Monica Mountains and suddenly the Pacific fills the windscreen from Santa Monica round to Point Dume. On a clear afternoon Catalina sits on the horizon, and the water changes color where the shelf drops away.
The cluster of high-rises standing alone out of a very flat basin, visible from most of the Valley on a clear day. Seen from a few thousand feet it becomes obvious how much of Los Angeles is low and how little of it is tall.
The ridge along the north-west edge of the Valley, with Simi Valley beyond it and the reservoirs above Santa Clarita further on. It is the quieter direction, and where an instructor will head first with a nervous passenger aboard.
Yes, for most of the flight. The instructor manages the takeoff, the radio and the landing, and hands over the controls once you are clear of the airport. Your recipient does the turns, the climbs and the straight-and-level work with coaching throughout. The instructor has a full set of controls and can take over instantly, which is what makes it safe to hand over at all.
Sixty minutes at $229 covers the Valley, the mountains and a look toward the basin, and it is what most people buy. Ninety at $299 is the better choice if you specifically want the coast, since it removes any need to rush the turn for home. Two hours at $399 suits somebody who is fairly certain they want to learn to fly.
Only one person can be at the controls at a time, but they can swap partway through if both want a go. Say so at the briefing and the instructor will plan the flight around it. The person in the back still gets the full view and hears everything through a headset, so nobody is left out of the conversation.
Absolutely, and most people do. Phones and cameras are fine in the aircraft as long as nothing is left loose near the controls. The instructor will often take the airplane for a moment so your recipient can concentrate on a shot. People on the ground can photograph the departure from the ramp side of the fence by the office.
Comfortable clothes and flat, closed shoes; sunglasses are genuinely useful over Los Angeles. Bring photo identification. Headsets are provided. Avoid a heavy meal beforehand, and skip a big night out the evening before, which does more for comfort in light turbulence than anything else.
It is less common than people fear, particularly for the person flying, because handling the controls anticipates the movement rather than reacting to it. Morning flights are usually smoother than hot afternoons. Tell the instructor beforehand if it is a concern and the flight will be planned gently, staying over the flatter ground to the north.
Yes. The instructor makes a logbook entry and that time counts toward the requirements for a certificate, exactly like any other lesson. If your recipient enrolls in a program with us within 24 hours of flying, the entire cost of the discovery flight is credited against the price of that program.
We move the flight rather than fly something unpleasant or unsafe, and there is no charge for a weather reschedule. Routes are sometimes adjusted on the day for the same reasons. If your recipient needs to change the date themselves, ask them to let us know at least 48 hours ahead, as a rebooking fee applies inside that window.
Call (818) 290-8249 any day between 9 AM and 9 PM and we will help you choose the aircraft and the duration, then email the certificate straight away. Tell us who it is for and roughly what they are like.
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 SchoolFully Automated Booking
Our smart booking system shows real open dates and times. Pick yours online and you are confirmed straight away by text message and email.
Choose your time in the aircraft
You spend exactly 60 minutes in the aircraft.
Please book in advance. Aircraft and instructor time is reserved ahead, so choose your date early.
What you receive the moment you book
Text Message
You're booked! Discovery Flight, 60 min in the aircraft, on the date and time you chose. Details are in your email.
Email Confirmation
Example of the confirmations sent after booking.
