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.
Choosing a school
Part 61 Flight Schools: What The Term Means And How To Judge One
There is no such thing as an FAA Part 61 school certificate. Part 61 is the rule your certificate is issued under, not a licence the school holds — which is exactly why judging a Part 61 flight school takes more than reading a wall plaque.
We are a Part 61 school40 hours under 14 CFR 61.109(a)Instructors and aircraft are certificatedSeven questions to ask
61.109(a)40 hours, the private pilot minimum
11instructors on staff at Van Nuys
355flyable days a year at KVNY
5.0★85 reviews on Google
The short answer
Part 61 flight schools are not certificated. The people and the aircraft are.
A Part 61 flight school is a school that trains pilots without holding a pilot school certificate under 14 CFR part 141. The FAA does not issue a Part 61 certificate to a business, does not approve its syllabus and does not audit its lesson order. What the FAA certificates is the instructor, the aircraft and, at the end, the pilot.
That surprises people, and it should shape how you shop. Under 14 CFR 141.3 a school may not advertise as a certificated pilot school unless it holds that certificate, and 14 CFR 141.19 requires the certificate to be displayed. Everybody else — the large majority of flight training in the United States — operates under Part 61.
None of that makes the training less real. The aeronautical experience in 14 CFR 61.109, the knowledge areas in 14 CFR 61.105 and the areas of operation in 14 CFR 61.107 apply to you either way, and the Designated Pilot Examiner who signs your temporary certificate works from the same Airman Certification Standards.
What it does mean is that the quality control is the school’s own. There is no FAA-approved course outline behind a Part 61 school. So ask to see the syllabus, and be suspicious of any school that has not written one down.
The mechanism
What the FAA does certificate at a Part 61 school
The regulatory floor under a Part 61 school is not empty. It is just aimed at people and aeroplanes rather than at the company.
1
Your instructor
A flight instructor certificate is issued under 14 CFR 61.183 and its privileges may only be exercised if the recent-experience requirement in 14 CFR 61.197 has been met within the preceding 24 calendar months. Instructors also hold a commercial or airline transport pilot certificate and a current medical.
2
The aircraft
Every training aircraft holds an airworthiness certificate and must be airworthy under 14 CFR 91.7. Because instruction is given for hire, 14 CFR 91.409(b) requires a 100-hour inspection in addition to the annual, which is a far tighter cycle than a privately owned aeroplane sees.
3
Your endorsements
Solo requires a pre-solo knowledge test and a make-and-model endorsement under 14 CFR 61.87, kept current every 90 days. Solo cross-country requires a route-specific endorsement under 14 CFR 61.93. The knowledge test requires an endorsement under 14 CFR 61.35(a)(1).
4
Your medical
14 CFR 61.23(a)(3) requires a third-class medical certificate before you exercise student pilot privileges in an aeroplane. Not before your first lesson — before you fly solo.
5
The examiner
The practical test is given by an FAA inspector or a Designated Pilot Examiner appointed under 14 CFR part 183. The DPE does not work for the school and does not care which part you trained under.
6
Security screening
Non-US citizens seeking training toward a certificate need a TSA determination of eligibility under 49 CFR part 1552, and the school must verify it before instruction begins. That applies at Part 61 and Part 141 schools alike.
Regulated or not
What is checked, and what is left to the school
The honest map. The left column is enforced on any school in the country. The right column is where a Part 61 school differs from a Part 141 one, and where you have to do your own diligence.
| Checked by the FAA at every school | Left to the school under Part 61 |
|---|---|
| Instructor certification and recent experience, 14 CFR 61.183 and 61.197 | Whether the syllabus is written down at all |
| Aircraft airworthiness and 100-hour inspections, 14 CFR 91.7 and 91.409(b) | Stage checks and progress reviews between phases |
| Endorsements before solo, cross-country and the knowledge test, 14 CFR 61.87, 61.93, 61.35 | Whether a second instructor ever looks at your progress |
| The practical test standard, 14 CFR 61.43 and the ACS | Aircraft availability and how quickly you actually fly |
| Medical certification, 14 CFR 61.23 | Instructor turnover and whether you keep the same one |
| TSA eligibility for non-citizens, 49 CFR part 1552 | Whether prices are published or quoted per hour |
Diligence
Seven questions worth asking any Part 61 flight school
Ask them on the phone. The answers take four minutes and they separate schools far better than the regulation number does.
01
Do you own your aircraft, or broker them?
A school that owns its fleet controls maintenance and scheduling. A school that leases from private owners does not, and your lesson can vanish because somebody flew to Mammoth for the weekend. Ours are ours.
02
How many instructors do you have?
One instructor is a single point of failure. Illness, a new airline class date or a scheduling clash and your training stops. There are eleven here for that reason.
03
Can I see the syllabus?
Part 61 does not require one. A serious school has one anyway. If the answer is vague, that is your answer.
04
What is the price, and what moves it?
Ask for the published number and what is excluded. We publish $10,900 for the Standard private pilot programme, $15,900 for the Comprehensive and $22,500 for the Premium, and the number you enrol at is the number you finish at.
05
How often can I actually fly?
Two or three lessons a week is what finishes near the minimum. One a fortnight is what turns 40 hours into 80, because every lesson starts by re-learning the last one.
06
Do you have a simulator, and is it in the price?
A full-motion device is where procedures and instrument work get cheap. Ours is a Redbird MCX, and 2 to 5 hours of it sit inside every private pilot programme.
07
What happens if the fit with my instructor is wrong?
You should be able to change without drama and without losing anything. At a Part 61 school there is no stage gate to repeat, which is one of the genuine advantages of the format.
Trade-offs
Where a Part 61 school wins, and where it does not
The advantage is sequencing. An instructor can teach the syllabus in the order that suits you and the weather. When the marine layer sits on the pattern, we go and do the instrument-reference hours required by 14 CFR 61.109(a)(3) instead of cancelling. An approved Part 141 course cannot rearrange itself that way without paperwork.
The second advantage is portability. Every hour properly logged counts. If you move city, change schools or stop for a year, your logbook comes with you intact. Moving into an approved course is where you can lose something: 14 CFR 141.77 caps credit for previous training at 50 percent of the requirements if it came from another approved course and 25 percent if it did not.
The disadvantage is real and worth saying. Nobody outside the building audits a Part 61 school. If you are using VA or GI Bill education benefits, 38 CFR 21.4263 requires a Part 141 pilot school certificate and we cannot help you. If you need an M-1 student visa, SEVP policy guidance 1207-04 requires Part 141 or Part 142 certification and, again, we cannot help you.
For everybody else — someone with a job, a family and a hundred and fifty miles of Southern California to explore — the flexibility usually wins. Our page on Part 61 vs Part 141 sets out the full comparison including the hour minimums.
The fleet
Aircraft we own, inspected on our schedule
Fleet ownership is the single biggest practical difference between two Part 61 schools that look identical on a website.
Single-engine training on the Standard and Comprehensive programmes is flown in the Cessna, Piper and Diamond aircraft.
Redbird MCX
The quality control a Part 61 school has to build itself
An approved course has stage checks written into it by regulation. We use the simulator for the same purpose, and it never gets cancelled for weather.
Between 2 and 5 hours of Redbird MCX time sit inside every private pilot programme. A single session is $189.
Your instructor
Career instructors, not hour-builders passing through
Under Part 61 the instructor is the school. There is no approved syllabus standing behind them and no chief instructor vetted under 14 CFR 141.35, so who sits in the right seat is the whole of the quality question.
Every instructor here holds a commercial or airline transport pilot certificate plus a CFI and a current medical, and is legally pilot in command on every training flight under 14 CFR 91.3. Eleven of them means your lesson is not hostage to one person’s calendar.
You are matched to one instructor and you keep them. If the fit is wrong you change, and nothing in your training resets.
What people say
5.0 Stars, 85 Reviews
On Google, the same three things come up again and again.
★
Instructors who actually teach
The most repeated compliment in our Google reviews is not the aircraft and it is not the price. It is the debrief.
★
Scheduling that works
Eleven instructors and a fleet we own means the lesson happens on the day we said it would.
★
Prices that do not move
The number you enrol at is the number you finish at. Reviewers mention it constantly.
Published prices
What training at this Part 61 school costs
Published, fixed, and the same at the end as at the start. Financing from $2,500 down.
Standard Private Pilot
$10,900
40 hours logged. Cessna, Piper or Diamond, 30 hours dual, 2 hours Redbird, 3 hours ground school.
- Aircraft 38 hrs
- Dual instruction 30 hrs
- Ground school 3 hrs
Most chosen
Comprehensive Private Pilot
$15,900
60 hours logged, 10 hours of ground school and 5 hours of simulator. The margin most students actually use.
- Aircraft 55 hrs
- Dual instruction 50 hrs
- Redbird simulator 5 hrs
Sport Pilot
$8,400
The shortest legal route to acting as pilot in command, at 20 hours under 14 CFR 61.313.
- Minimum hours 20
- Driver licence medical Yes
- Ground school Included
$500 off any private pilot program this summer. Standard $10,400 · Comprehensive $15,400 · Premium $22,000. Ask when you enroll.
Your next step
Come and ask the seven questions in person
Thirty minutes at Van Nuys, free. Walk the ramp, look at the aircraft, read the syllabus and get a straight answer about how quickly you would actually finish.
Discovery Flight For One
$229
60 minutes · you fly the aircraft · credited in full on enrolment within 24 hours
Part 61 and Part 141
Part 61 vs Part 141 comparedPart 61 flight training explainedPart 141 flight schoolsFAA certified flight schoolsPart 61 flight school in Los Angeles
FAQ
Part 61 Flight Schools — Common Questions
A Part 61 flight school is one that trains pilots without holding a pilot school certificate under 14 CFR part 141. The FAA issues no Part 61 certificate to a school. It certificates the instructor under 14 CFR 61.183, the aircraft under the airworthiness rules, and finally you. Most flight training in the United States is done this way.
No school is “FAA approved” unless it holds a Part 141 certificate, and 14 CFR 141.3 forbids advertising as a certificated pilot school without one. A Part 61 school is FAA regulated rather than FAA certificated: its instructors, aircraft, endorsements and the practical test are all governed by 14 CFR part 61 and part 91.
The legal minimum is 40 hours under 14 CFR 61.109(a), including 20 hours of dual instruction and 10 hours of solo. AOPA puts the national average at 50 to 70 hours. What decides where you land in that band is how often you fly, not which part your school operates under.
Usually about the same for a private pilot certificate, because both routes converge on the same 50 to 70 real hours. Our Standard private pilot programme is $10,900. The genuine saving at Part 141 is at commercial level, where 14 CFR 61.129(i) allows 190 hours against the 250 required by 14 CFR 61.129(a).
No. 38 CFR 21.4263 requires a flight course to be offered by a school holding an FAA pilot school certificate under 14 CFR part 141 for approval under chapters 30 and 33. We are a Part 61 school and cannot accept those benefits. We say so up front.
No. SEVP policy guidance 1207-04, issued under 8 CFR 214.3, requires a flight training provider to hold FAA Part 141 or Part 142 certification to be SEVP-certified, and only an SEVP-certified school can issue an I-20. Visitors already in the US on other visa categories should read our international student pilot guide before booking anything.
Not to start. 14 CFR 61.23(a)(3) requires a third-class medical certificate before you exercise student pilot privileges, which in practice means before your first solo — commonly somewhere between 15 and 25 hours in. A discovery flight requires no medical at all.
Ask to see the written syllabus, ask who owns the aircraft, and ask how many instructors are on staff. If a school claims Part 141 status, 14 CFR 141.19 requires the certificate to be displayed, so ask to see it. Instructor certificates can be checked against the FAA Airmen Inquiry database.
No. The plastic certificate records your name, certificate number, level and ratings. There is no field for the part you trained under, and no employer has ever asked. An unrestricted ATP still requires 1,500 hours under 14 CFR 61.159 whichever route you took.
Two to three lessons a week. At that cadence most students finish a private pilot certificate in three to six months and close to the 40-hour minimum. At one lesson a fortnight the first fifteen minutes of every flight are spent recovering the last one, and the total climbs fast.
No Cost, No Obligation
Get The Full Training Plan And Price Sheet
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.
- Every package price, itemised
- Financing from $2,500 down
- A timeline based on your schedule
Loved On Google
Seventy Reviews. 5.0 Stars.
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
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...
See Discovery Flight Details — $229
Reviews shown verbatim, exactly as each reviewer published them.