The airplane that turns a private pilot into a professional one.
Retractable gear. A constant-speed prop. Two hundred horsepower and a checklist that finally punishes sloppiness. The Piper Arrow is where flying stops being a hobby and starts being a job — and it's the airplane the FAA's commercial requirements are built around.
The career step in our fleet
Every airplane before this one forgives you. The Piper Arrow doesn't — and that's the entire point. Put the gear where it doesn't belong and the airplane tells you. Leave the prop coarse on a go-around and the airplane tells you. Nothing about it is dangerous; everything about it is demanding in the way a job is demanding.
That's why it sits exactly where it does in a professional pilot's logbook. Under FAR 61.129, commercial single-engine applicants must log training in a complex, technically advanced or turbine airplane — and a complex airplane means retractable landing gear, flaps and a controllable-pitch propeller. Our Arrow is all three, with the manifold pressure and prop levers to prove it.
Flown well, it cruises around 135 knots on 200 horsepower — genuinely quicker than the Warrior or the Skycatcher, which changes the character of a cross-country. LA to Santa Barbara stops being a project. But speed isn't the lesson. The lesson is that from here on, the airplane expects you to run the flow, hit the numbers and think two minutes ahead.
What the Arrow actually teaches you
Gear discipline — a verbal, physical, every-single-time habit. Power management with two levers instead of one, so you learn what manifold pressure and RPM really do to an engine. Approach speeds that punish being fast. And the professional habit that carries into every jet cockpit afterwards: configure early, verify out loud, never assume.
It's also a capable IFR platform. With the Garmin 430 and a stable low-wing airframe, plenty of our instrument students fly their approaches, holds and IFR cross-countries in this airplane, then walk out with a complex endorsement in the same logbook.
One airplane, one configuration
We operate a single Arrow — N316EF — maintained in-house here at Van Nuys. One tail means one panel, one set of speeds, one flow. You never lose a lesson re-learning where a switch lives.
The spec sheet
Everything that makes the Arrow a complex airplane — and everything the FAA cares about when it's time to sign your logbook.
Complex, by the book: retractable gear + flaps + controllable-pitch propeller. That's the FAA's definition, and this airplane checks all three boxes.
The Arrow at Van Nuys
Flying seven days a week out of KVNY — over the San Fernando Valley, the coast and the Class B shelf.
Complex Endorsement — $999
Five hours. One logbook entry. A privilege that never expires.
Under FAR 61.31(e) you may not act as pilot in command of a complex airplane — retractable gear, flaps and a controllable-pitch prop — until an instructor has trained you and signed your logbook. That signature is the complex endorsement, and once it's there, it's there for life. No renewal, no expiry, no checkride.
It also matters for your career. FAR 61.129 requires commercial single-engine applicants to log ten hours of training in a complex, technically advanced or turbine-powered airplane. Do that training in our Arrow and the same hours count twice — toward the endorsement and toward the certificate.
- ✓3 hours in the Arrow — gear flows, prop control, complex approaches and go-arounds
- ✓1 hour Redbird simulator — gear failures and emergency extensions you can't safely practise in the airplane
- ✓1 hour ground instruction — systems, hydraulics, constant-speed prop theory, POH limitations
- ✓Logbook endorsement on completion — FAR 61.31(e), permanent
- ✓Hours count toward the complex/TAA training required by FAR 61.129
- ✓Flexible scheduling, 7 days a week, 9 AM – 9 PM
Piper Arrow · N316EF
Fly it on the ground first
A gear-up warning horn is a much better teacher on a simulator than in an airplane. Before you touch the Arrow — or between lessons in it — our Redbird MCX full-motion simulator lets you rehearse gear failures, manual extensions, engine-out approaches and complex checklist flows until the flow is automatic. One hour of your complex endorsement happens right here.
Where the Arrow fits in your training
This is a commercial-track airplane. Here are the programs that put you in it — and exactly what it costs to fly.
Commercial Pilot License
The certificate that lets you be paid to fly. Complex training in the Arrow is built into the syllabus, alongside the precision manoeuvres — chandelles, lazy eights, eights-on-pylons — the checkride demands.
Airline Career Program
Private through CFI in one structured path. The Arrow is the airplane in the middle of it — where the habits that airline training assumes you already have actually get built.
Instrument Rating
The Arrow is one of our three IFR training aircraft. Garmin 430, stable low-wing platform, real approaches into real LA airspace — plus 20 hours on the Redbird MCX.
Piper Arrow hourly rate
All rates are wet — fuel is included, no surprise fuel surcharge at the end of the flight. Effective March 2026.
Instruction billed separately: Flight Instructor $200 / $110 package · Advanced CFI (Multi/Instrument) $150 / $120 package.
Complex time at $229 an hour wet is unusually affordable for Los Angeles — and it's the reason our commercial students don't ration their complex hours. Rates are per aircraft hour and do not include instructor time.
One fleet, designed as a career ladder
Six aircraft types, arranged so each one hands you to the next. The Arrow is step two.
Skycatcher · Warrior · DA20
Where the logbook starts. Glass-cockpit Cessna 162, the classic Piper Warrior, or the stick-and-canopy Diamond DA20. Sport, Private and the early instrument work all happen here.
Piper Arrow · N316EF
Retractable gear and a constant-speed prop. The complex endorsement, the FAR 61.129 hours, and the professional habits that everything after this assumes you already have.
Piper Seminole · N311EF
Two 180 hp engines and counter-rotating props — no critical engine. The multi-engine rating is the line on a resume airlines read first, and it's a 7-day accelerated course here.
Step 4 is the Cirrus SR22 Turbo — 310 hp, FL250, Garmin Perspective, CAPS. See the whole fleet →
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Piper Arrow FAQ
The FAA defines a complex airplane as one with retractable landing gear, flaps and a controllable-pitch (constant-speed) propeller. The Arrow has all three. That combination is why it flies differently from a Warrior or a Skycatcher — you're managing gear position, manifold pressure and RPM as separate decisions on every phase of flight.
$999 for the complete program — 5 hours total: 3 hours of flight training in the Arrow, 1 hour on our Redbird full-motion simulator, and 1 hour of ground instruction. On satisfactory completion your instructor signs the FAR 61.31(e) endorsement in your logbook. Most pilots finish it inside a week.
FAR 61.129 requires commercial single-engine applicants to log 10 hours of training in a complex airplane, a technically advanced airplane (TAA), or a turbine-powered airplane. The Arrow satisfies the complex path, and it's the airplane our Commercial students use for those hours. Doing them here means the same flying counts toward both the endorsement and the certificate.
To act as pilot in command of it, yes — FAR 61.31(e) requires a one-time logbook endorsement from an authorized instructor. You can absolutely fly it with one of our CFIs before you have that endorsement; in fact that's exactly what the 3 flight hours in the $999 program are. Once endorsed, it never expires and never needs renewing.
$349 per hour standard and $229 per hour on the package rate once you're enrolled in a course. Both are wet — fuel is included. Instruction is billed separately at $200/hr ($110 package) for a Flight Instructor, or $150/hr ($120 package) for an Advanced CFI on multi-engine and instrument work.
One — N316EF. It's maintained in-house at Van Nuys Airport alongside the rest of our 12-aircraft line. Because there's only one configuration, every lesson starts from the same panel, the same speeds and the same checklist flow. If the Arrow is down for scheduled maintenance we'll move you to another aircraft or another slot rather than leave you waiting.
Yes. The Arrow is one of the three aircraft in our Instrument Rating course ($11,700), alongside the Piper Warrior and Diamond DA20. It carries a Garmin 430 IFR navigator and is a stable, quick platform for approaches, holds and IFR cross-countries in Los Angeles airspace. Plenty of students finish their instrument rating and complex endorsement in the same airplane.
It cruises at roughly 135 knots on its 200 hp Lycoming IO-360. That's meaningfully quicker than the trainers below it, which changes two things: cross-country legs cover real distance, and you have less time to think on an approach. Both are exactly the pressures commercial and instrument training are meant to introduce.
An FAA Private Pilot certificate and a current medical. You don't need an instrument rating, and you don't need a minimum number of hours beyond your certificate. If you're a U.S. citizen, bring proof of citizenship to your first lesson; if you're not, we'll walk you through TSA flight-training security approval.
Yes — a 1-hour Redbird MCX simulator demo is $189, flown with a certified instructor. It's a genuinely useful way to see how complex procedures and gear failures are taught before you commit to the airplane. See the simulator page →
Los Angeles Flight School operates from Van Nuys Airport (KVNY) — 7900 Balboa Blvd. Suite 108A, Van Nuys, CA 91406. We're open 9 AM to 9 PM, seven days a week, and we serve Encino, Sherman Oaks, Studio City, Calabasas, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Santa Clarita, Pasadena, Canoga Park and the greater Los Angeles area. Call (818) 290-8249.
Get the gear-up habit. Get the endorsement.
Five hours in the Piper Arrow is the shortest distance between a private pilot certificate and a professional one. Van Nuys Airport (KVNY) · Open 7 days, 9 AM – 9 PM.