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.
Private Pilot Licence (PPL) · Van Nuys Airport, Los Angeles
PPL Academy: How To Choose Where To Train
A PPL academy is simply a flight school that trains people to a private pilot licence. There is no FAA category with that name, no accreditation attached to the word, and no reason to assume one school is better than another because it uses it. What separates them is aircraft availability, instructor continuity, whether the price is fixed, and whether anybody will tell you the truth about hours.
5.0★85 reviews on Google
11instructors, so a lesson booked is a lesson flown
355flyable days a year at Van Nuys, from our NOAA study
$10,900private pilot licence programme, published not quoted
The Direct Answer
What Is A PPL Academy?
A PPL academy is a flight school that takes people from no experience to a private pilot licence. The word academy carries no regulatory meaning at all. Every school in the United States that trains private pilots does so under either 14 CFR Part 61 or Part 141, and calling itself an academy, an institute or a flight centre changes nothing about the certificate you end up holding. The certificate is identical either way, and so is the checkride.
What genuinely differs between schools is mundane and rarely advertised: how many aircraft there are per student, whether the school owns them or brokers them, how long instructors stay, whether the price is a fixed package or an hourly meter, and how quickly a designated pilot examiner can be booked once you are ready. Those five things decide how long your PPL takes and what it costs. The marketing does not.
We are a Part 61 school at Van Nuys Airport. That is a structural choice rather than a lesser one, and the difference between Part 61 and Part 141 is set out properly on our Part 61 vs Part 141 page rather than compressed into a paragraph here.
The Checklist
Twelve Questions To Ask A PPL Academy Before You Pay Anybody
These are specific to private pilot training. Ask them of us too, and compare the answers.
| Ask this | Why it decides your outcome |
|---|---|
| Is the price fixed, or an hourly rate against an estimate? | An estimate is a forecast of your ability. A fixed package moves that risk to the school. Ours are $10,900, $15,900 and $22,500. |
| How many hours are in the package, and what happens if I need more? | 40 is the 14 CFR 61.109 legal minimum. AOPA puts what students actually need at 50 to 70. A school quoting 40 and nothing else is quoting the floor. |
| Does the school own its aircraft? | Owned aircraft are maintained on the school’s schedule. Brokered aircraft are maintained on somebody else’s, and disappear when the owner wants them. |
| How many students per aircraft? | This is the single best predictor of how long your PPL will take. Ask for the number, not a reassurance. |
| How long has my instructor been here, and how long will they stay? | Instructor turnover restarts your training in all the ways that matter. Somebody who remembers what you struggled with in March does not rediscover it in June. |
| Is ground school included, and how many hours? | 14 CFR 61.105 sets the knowledge areas and 61.103(d) requires an endorsement before the written test. Ours is 3 hours on the Standard programme and 10 on the Comprehensive. |
| Is simulator time included? | Procedures, instrument scan and emergencies transfer from a full-motion device at a fraction of an aircraft hour, and a simulator is never cancelled for weather. |
| How do I book a checkride, and how long is the wait? | Designated pilot examiner availability is a real bottleneck nationally. Ask what the current wait is at that school, in weeks. |
| What happens if I pause for three months? | Life interrupts training. Ask what happens to your money and your place, in writing, before you hand any of it over. |
| What is not included? | The honest list is short and every school has one. Ask for it rather than assuming. |
| Can I meet the instructor before I enrol? | You will spend forty to sixty hours in a small cockpit with this person. A school that will not arrange that is telling you something. |
| What is the airspace like here? | Training under a Class B shelf at a towered field means the radio work is real from lesson one and transfers anywhere. Quiet airspace is easier and teaches less. |
A longer, non-PPL-specific version of this checklist is on our how to choose a flight school page. It is written so that it is useful even if you go somewhere else.
How We Are Set Up
What PPL Training At Van Nuys Is Structurally
Four facts about the arrangement rather than four claims about the quality.
A Part 61 School, And The Syllabus Is Still A Syllabus
Training here is conducted under 14 CFR Part 61. The practical difference is flexibility in sequencing rather than a lower standard: the aeronautical experience in 14 CFR 61.109, the knowledge areas in 61.105 and the areas of operation in 61.107 are identical whichever part a school operates under, and the examiner tests against the same Airman Certification Standards. What Part 61 allows is fitting the order of lessons around a working adult’s calendar.
The Fleet Is Ours
Cessna, Piper and Diamond single-engine trainers on the Standard and Comprehensive private pilot programmes, a Cirrus SR22 Turbo with a glass cockpit on the Premium, a Piper Arrow for complex and high-performance time, and a Piper Seminole for the multi-engine add-on. 14 CFR 91.409(b) requires a 100-hour inspection on any aircraft used to give flight instruction for hire, in addition to the annual inspection, and we schedule those around the training rather than the other way round.
Eleven Instructors And A Matching Process
Every instructor holds a commercial or ATP certificate plus a CFI and a current medical, and is legally pilot in command on every training flight under 14 CFR 91.3(a). You are matched to one and you can change if the fit is wrong — say so at the desk, nobody will be offended, and it is a far better outcome than quietly flying less often. Eleven of them is also why a lesson booked for Tuesday tends to happen on Tuesday.
A Full-Motion Simulator, And The Weather To Not Need It
The Redbird MCX is FAA-approved, fully enclosed and it moves. Two hours of it sit inside the Standard and Premium private pilot programmes and five inside the Comprehensive, and a stand-alone session is $189. Meanwhile our study of twelve months of NOAA hourly observations at Van Nuys counted 355 days a year meeting a 3,000-foot ceiling and 5 statute miles of visibility, which is the number that decides how often a PPL student actually flies.
Words That Mean Nothing
Four Things A PPL Academy Can Call Itself That Carry No Weight
None of these is a lie. None of them tells you anything either.
1
Academy
No FAA meaning. A school under Part 61 or Part 141 may call itself anything it likes, and the certificate you receive is the same document.
2
FAA-Approved
Aircraft, simulators and Part 141 curricula receive FAA approval. The phrase applied loosely to a whole school tells you nothing about which of those it means. Ask which.
3
Accelerated
Sometimes a genuine intensive programme, sometimes just a word. The honest version of accelerated is flying five days a week, and the constraint is aircraft and instructor availability, not willingness.
4
Success Rate
We publish no pass rates, no graduate counts and no placement figures, because a school choosing which students to count can produce any number it likes. We publish prices instead.
What It Costs Here
PPL Training In Los Angeles, Priced And Published
Aircraft, instructor, ground school, simulator time and books are inside every figure. The number you enrol at is the number you finish at.
Standard Private Pilot
$10,900
40 logged hours, the 14 CFR 61.109 minimum. Right if you can fly two or three times a week and study between lessons.
- ✓Single-engine Cessna, Piper or Diamond — 38 hrs
- ✓Dual flight instruction — 30 hrs
- ✓Redbird full-motion simulator — 2 hrs
- ✓Ground school — 3 hrs
- ✓Books and materials included
Most chosen
Comprehensive Private Pilot
$15,900
60 logged hours and ten hours of ground school. Built around what most students actually use rather than the legal minimum.
- ✓Single-engine Cessna, Piper or Diamond — 55 hrs
- ✓Dual flight instruction — 50 hrs
- ✓Redbird full-motion simulator — 5 hrs
- ✓Ground school — 10 hrs
- ✓Books and materials included
Premium Private Pilot
$22,500
The same syllabus flown in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo with a glass cockpit and a whole-airframe parachute.
- ✓Cirrus SR22 Turbo, glass cockpit — 38 hrs
- ✓Dual flight instruction — 30 hrs
- ✓Redbird full-motion simulator — 2 hrs
- ✓Ground school — 3 hrs
- ✓Books and materials included
Come and look before you commit. A $229 discovery flight is a real lesson, logged as dual instruction under 14 CFR 61.51, and the full price comes off any private pilot programme if you enrol within 24 hours. A free in-person consultation costs nothing and is the better first step if you have a list of questions.
Enrolled students fly single-engine aircraft at $179 an hour, wet. That is the only hourly figure we publish. Financing through Stratus Financial and our in-house payment plans starts at $2,500 down. Other programmes: Sport Pilot $8,400, Instrument Rating $11,700, Multi-Engine add-on $5,100, Solo Certificate $5,500, Teens aged 10 to 15 $4,200.
$500 off any private pilot program this summer. Standard $10,400 · Comprehensive $15,400 · Premium $22,000. Ask when you enroll.
What People Say
5.0 Stars, 85 Google Reviews
All 85 are on Google. We do not aggregate a rating from anywhere else and we do not publish a figure we cannot point at.
★
The Briefing, Not The View
The compliment that repeats is about the twenty minutes at the table before the engine starts. People remember being told what was going to happen before it happened.
★
Lessons That Actually Happen
Eleven instructors and a fleet we own. Reviewers mention scheduling more often than they mention the aircraft.
★
The Number Does Not Move
You enrol at $10,900 and you finish at $10,900. Nobody writes a five-star review about a surprise invoice.
Next Step
Come And See The Ramp Before You Choose Anybody
7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, Van Nuys, CA 91406, open 9am to 9pm seven days a week. Park outside, walk in, and ask every question on this page in person. Or book a $229 discovery flight and answer the bigger question first: whether you actually want to do this. It is logged as dual instruction under 14 CFR 61.51 and credited in full against any programme if you enrol within 24 hours.
Discovery Flight For One
$229
60 minutes · you fly the aircraft · credited in full on enrolment within 24 hours
Book A Discovery Flight
Or Call (818) 290-8249
Keep Reading
The Private Pilot Licence
Private Pilot License (PPL): The Complete GuidePPL Cost: What A Private Pilot Licence CostsPPL Pilot: What The Licence Lets You DoPrivate Pilot License RequirementsThe Private Pilot Checkride, Start To Finish
FAQ
PPL Academy Questions
A flight school that trains students to a private pilot licence. The word academy has no regulatory meaning — every school in the United States trains private pilots under 14 CFR Part 61 or Part 141, and the certificate issued is identical either way.
At Van Nuys, $10,900 for the Standard programme with 40 logged hours, $15,900 for the Comprehensive with 60, and $22,500 for the Premium flown in a Cirrus SR22 Turbo. Aircraft, instructor, ground school, simulator time and books are inside those figures, and financing starts at $2,500 down.
Three to six months flying two or three times a week. 14 CFR 61.109 sets 40 hours as the minimum and AOPA puts what students actually need at 50 to 70. The variables that decide it are how often you fly, how much you study between lessons, and how many students the school has per aircraft.
Less than people expect. The aeronautical experience in 14 CFR 61.109, the knowledge areas in 61.105 and the areas of operation in 61.107 are the same, and so is the checkride. Part 141 requires an FAA-approved curriculum and can reduce some minimums for later certificates; Part 61 allows the sequence to be fitted around your calendar.
Whether the price is fixed or an estimate, how many hours the package contains and what happens if you need more, whether the school owns its aircraft, how many students there are per aircraft, how long instructors stay, whether ground school and simulator time are included, and the current wait for a designated pilot examiner.
Not before your first lessons. 14 CFR 61.23 requires at least a third-class medical before you fly solo, not before you fly with an instructor. Get it done in the first few weeks anyway, so that a deferral does not ambush you when you are otherwise ready to solo.
Yes, and most of our students do. We fly from 9am to 9pm seven days a week, and 355 days a year at Van Nuys meet a 3,000-foot ceiling and 5 statute miles of visibility on our own study of NOAA observations. Two lessons a week, one of them at a weekend, is the pattern that works.
Cessna, Piper and Diamond single-engine trainers on the Standard and Comprehensive programmes, and a Cirrus SR22 Turbo with a glass cockpit on the Premium. All are owned and maintained by the school. 14 CFR 91.409(b) requires a 100-hour inspection on any aircraft used for instruction for hire, on top of the annual.
It is the cheapest decision you will make. $229 for 60 minutes with you flying and a CFI as pilot in command, logged as dual instruction under 14 CFR 61.51 and counting toward the 40 hours in 14 CFR 61.109. The full price comes off any programme if you enrol within 24 hours.
7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, Van Nuys, CA 91406, on Van Nuys Airport (KVNY). Open 9am to 9pm, seven days. Van Nuys is a Class D field beneath the Los Angeles Class B shelf, which means the radio work you learn here transfers to any airspace in the country. Call (818) 290-8249.
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.