Pilot Training Cost

Pilot training costs $10,900 for a private pilot certificate on the Standard program at LA Flight School, Van Nuys Airport. Sport pilot is $8,400, an instrument rating is $11,700, and the complete zero-to-airline path with every certificate included is $89,000. Those are fixed package prices, not estimates.

Our published fees are Sport Pilot $8,400, Private Pilot Standard $10,900, Comprehensive $15,900, Premium $22,500, Instrument Rating $11,700, Multi-Engine add-on $5,100, Solo Certificate $5,500, teens aged 10 to 15 $4,200 and zero-to-airline $89,000. Each includes aircraft time, dual instruction, Redbird simulator hours, ground school and books.

Because a published price is a commitment. A spread with a low and a high end cannot be held against a school later, and a low headline figure advertises better. We publish one number per program and it is the number you finish at, which is why the $10,900 Standard program quotes 40 logged hours and the $15,900 Comprehensive quotes 60.

Forty hours is the legal minimum under 14 CFR 61.109, but the national average is closer to 60 or 70 hours. That gap is exactly why a fixed-price package protects you: the Comprehensive program at $15,900 is built on 60 logged hours, so a student on an ordinary schedule finishes without the price moving.

Three things sit outside every flight school package because they are not the school's to sell: your FAA medical certificate, which comes from an aviation medical examiner; the FAA knowledge test, taken and paid for at an approved testing center; and the Designated Pilot Examiner who conducts your checkride, paid directly on the day. Books and training materials are included in all our programs.

Enrolled students fly single-engine aircraft at $179 an hour wet, which covers the aircraft and its fuel. Instructional hours are inside the program price rather than added to that figure. We sell training packages rather than hourly blocks, because hourly pricing is what lets a total drift upward after you have committed.

Yes. Programs start from $2,500 down with monthly payment plans available, through aviation lenders and through our own in-house plans. Because the program price is fixed at enrollment, the monthly figure is calculated against a number that will not change while you train.

Yes, measurably. Flying twice a week means a lesson starts where the last one ended; flying once a month means the first part of each lesson is spent re-learning. Van Nuys gets 355 flyable days a year by our own count of twelve months of observations, which is why Los Angeles is a cheaper place to train than most of the country.

A $229 discovery flight, which is 60 minutes of real dual instruction with you flying the aircraft, and the time is loggable toward a certificate. The whole $229 is credited against any program if you enroll within 24 hours. A $189 Redbird MCX simulator session is the alternative if the weather is poor or you would rather start on the ground.

$89,000 for our complete program, which covers the private, instrument, commercial, multi-engine and flight instructor certificates. Most graduates then spend a year or more instructing to reach the 1,500 hours 14 CFR 61.159 requires, and are paid to do it instead of paying for it. It is a long and financially lean few years, and it is worth being honest with yourself about that before you start.