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.

Three numbers, published, with the hours attached to each: $10,900 for 40 logged hours, $15,900 for 60, $22,500 in a Cirrus SR22 Turbo. The 40-hour figure in 14 CFR 61.109 is a legal minimum, not a forecast, and the gap between the minimum and what people actually fly is where most PPL budgets go wrong.
Fixed package prices with the logged hours written into each one. Not an estimate, not a starting point, and not a number that moves once you have signed.
Most flight schools will not answer this question in public. You ring, you get an hourly rate for the aeroplane, a second hourly rate for the instructor, a shrug about how many hours it takes, and an invitation to come in and talk. That is not evasiveness for its own sake. It is because an hourly quote transfers all of the risk to you, and the school genuinely does not know how many hours you will need.
We price it the other way round. The programme has a number on it, the number includes the hours, and if the weather is bad in June or the marine layer eats a fortnight, that is our problem and not yours. The trade is straightforward: you commit up front, we absorb the variance.
Before the detail, the honest caveat. Three items in getting a private pilot certificate are not paid to any flight school anywhere in the United States, because no school receives the money. A medical certificate comes from an FAA-designated aviation medical examiner. The knowledge test is administered at an FAA-approved testing centre. The practical test — the checkride — is conducted by a designated pilot examiner. Nobody can bundle those three, and any school implying otherwise is either confused or selling you something.
This is the single most expensive misunderstanding in flight training, and it is the reason two schools can quote wildly different numbers for the same certificate.
14 CFR 61.109(a) sets the aeronautical experience required for a private pilot certificate in a single-engine aeroplane: 40 hours of flight time, of which at least 20 must be flight training from an authorised instructor and at least 10 must be solo. Inside those totals sit specific requirements — 3 hours of cross-country dual, 3 hours at night including a cross-country over 100 nautical miles and ten takeoffs and landings, 3 hours of instrument training, and 3 hours of test preparation within the two calendar months before the practical test. Then a 150-nautical-mile solo cross-country with three landings and one leg of at least 50 nautical miles.
Forty hours is the floor written into the regulation. It is not a prediction of how long it takes a person to become safe. The national average sits closer to 60 to 70 hours, and it has for decades. That is not a failure of students or of schools. It is what happens when a skill that depends on repetition meets weather, work schedules, aircraft availability and the ordinary human habit of forgetting things between Tuesday and the following Thursday.
So here is the trap. A school quotes you an hourly rate, multiplies it by 40, and hands you a total. The total is real arithmetic on an unreal number of hours. You budget for it, you enrol, and at hour 42 the money is gone and you are not finished. Twenty more hours of aeroplane and instructor then arrive as an unbudgeted bill, at the exact moment you are closest to the checkride and least able to walk away.
That is why our Comprehensive programme at $15,900 logs 60 hours rather than 40, and why we point most people at it. It is not the cheaper headline. It is the number that matches what actually happens, and a price you can finish at beats a price you can start at.
Set by 14 CFR 61.109(a) for a single-engine aeroplane. Twenty hours of instruction, ten hours solo, and the specific cross-country, night and instrument requirements inside those totals.
The national average for a private pilot certificate runs closer to 60 to 70 hours. Our Comprehensive programme logs 60 at $15,900 for exactly that reason.
Cadence beats everything else. Two or three flights a week and the last lesson is still in your hands when the next one starts. One flight a fortnight and you spend the first twenty minutes of every lesson relearning what you already paid for.
Same certificate at the end of all three. What changes is the number of hours you have paid for in advance and, on the Premium, the aeroplane you fly them in.
| Included | Standard | Comprehensive | Premium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-engine aircraft (Cessna · Piper · Diamond) | 38 hrs | 55 hrs | Cirrus SR22 Turbo, 38 hrs |
| Redbird MCX full-motion simulator | 2 hrs | 5 hrs | 2 hrs |
| Dual flight instruction | 30 hrs | 50 hrs | 30 hrs |
| Ground school | 3 hrs | 10 hrs | 3 hrs |
| Books and training materials | Included | Included | Included |
| Total logged flight time | 40 hours | 60 hours | 40 hours |
| Price | $10,900 | $15,900 | $22,500 |
Enrolled students fly single-engine aircraft at $179 an hour wet inside their package — that is the aeroplane and its fuel. Instructional hours sit inside the package price separately. Financing starts at $2,500 down through Stratus Financial or our in-house plans.
People search for the cost of an “aircraft license” constantly, and the phrase is worth untangling because the confusion costs money. Aircraft are not licensed to people. An aircraft holds an airworthiness certificate and a registration, both issued to the machine. A person holds a pilot certificate, and in the United States the FAA calls it a certificate rather than a licence, although almost everybody outside the regulations says licence and nobody minds.
So the cost of an aircraft licence is really one of two very different numbers. If you mean the cost of being allowed to fly an aeroplane yourself, that is the private pilot certificate on this page: $10,900, $15,900 or $22,500 with us. If you mean the cost of owning one, that is a different conversation entirely and it starts with an annual inspection, hangarage and insurance rather than with training.
There is a third meaning worth knowing about. A pilot certificate carries category and class ratings — aeroplane single-engine land, aeroplane multi-engine land, and so on — and adding a class is cheaper than starting again. Our multi-engine add-on is $5,100 for a pilot who already holds a certificate. The certificate itself does not expire. What expires is currency: a flight review every 24 calendar months under 14 CFR 61.56, and three takeoffs and landings in the preceding 90 days before you carry passengers under 14 CFR 61.57.

Ranked by how much difference they make, not by how often schools mention them.
Two to three lessons a week is the difference between finishing near 45 hours and finishing near 75. Flying once a fortnight means paying an instructor to reteach the previous lesson, every lesson. This is the biggest single lever and it costs nothing to pull.
The aeroplane is the most expensive classroom ever built. Arriving with the manoeuvre already understood turns a training flight into practice instead of a lecture at $179 an hour for the aircraft. Ten hours of ground school sit inside the Comprehensive programme for this reason.
We measured 355 flyable days a year at Van Nuys against a 3,000-foot ceiling and 5 statute miles of visibility. In places with a real winter, a student can lose six weeks of continuity and pay for it in relearning. The full study publishes the method and every airport we measured.
A Cirrus SR22 Turbo is a superb aircraft and the Premium programme costs $22,500 because of it. Learning to fly in an aeroplane more capable than the licence requires is the most common way people overspend on a PPL. Buy it if you intend to own or fly something like it. Do not buy it to feel serious.
A practical test you are not ready for costs the examiner’s time twice and adds weeks. Your instructor decides when you go, and a school that pushes students to the test early to clear the schedule is doing you no favours.
Under an hourly model the school has no exposure to how long you take. Every extra hour is revenue. Under a package model the school has a direct financial interest in you finishing efficiently, because the hours are already sold. That is not a moral claim about anybody. It is just where the incentives sit, and it is worth knowing which side of that line the school you are talking to stands on.
What a fixed price does not do is cover unlimited hours. The Standard programme is 40 logged hours and the Comprehensive is 60. If you exhaust them you buy more, at the package rate, and we will have told you at hour 35 that it is coming rather than at hour 39. The point of the model is not that overruns are impossible. It is that you can see one arriving from a long way off.
The reason we push most people toward the $15,900 Comprehensive programme rather than the $10,900 Standard is that the Standard is honestly priced for the person it suits: someone flying two or three times a week with time to study, who will finish close to the minimum. That person exists. They are not the majority, and a school that sells everyone the 40-hour package knows that.

Every school in the country has the same three, because the money goes to somebody else.
Issued by an FAA-designated aviation medical examiner, not by a flight school. You do not need one to start dual instruction, and you do need one under 14 CFR 61.23 before you fly solo. Get it early rather than late, because finding out about a deferral at hour 18 is worse than finding out at hour 0.
The written exam, administered at an FAA-approved testing centre. You need your instructor’s endorsement to sit it, and passing it before the flying gets serious removes a large piece of scheduling risk from the back half of the course.
The practical test is conducted by a designated pilot examiner who is independent of the school. Ten hours of ground school on the Comprehensive programme exist partly so that the oral portion of that test is not the first time anybody has asked you these questions.
Headsets, a logbook and training materials are included in every programme. Our complete published fee position, including everything we do and do not charge for, is on the pilot training cost page.
Almost nobody writes a cheque for $15,900. Financing starts at $2,500 down through Stratus Financial or our own in-house payment plans, with monthly terms after that. The practical effect is that the decision stops being “do I have sixteen thousand dollars” and becomes “can I carry a monthly payment while I train”, which is a question most people can actually answer.
A word of caution that cuts against our own interest. Financing a flight training programme you then fly once a month is the worst of both worlds: you pay interest on hours you are not using, and the hours you do use are less effective because of the gaps. If your schedule genuinely will not support two flights a week, the honest options are Sport Pilot at $8,400 — a real certificate with real limits — or waiting six months for a period when it will.
There is also a $500 discount running on every private pilot programme this summer. Ask for it when you enrol rather than assuming it is applied.

Every aircraft on this ramp is ours. Under 14 CFR 91.409(b) an aeroplane used for instruction for hire carries a 100-hour inspection on top of its annual, which is a higher maintenance standard than a privately owned aircraft has to meet.






The Standard and Comprehensive programmes are flown in the single-engine Cessna, Piper and Diamond aircraft. The Premium programme is flown in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo with its full glass cockpit and CAPS whole-airframe parachute. The Piper Seminole is the twin used for the $5,100 multi-engine add-on.
A Redbird MCX. Full motion, fully enclosed and FAA-approved. Procedures, radio work and instrument scan all transfer directly to the aircraft.
Simulator hours are the cheapest hours in any flight training budget and the only ones weather cannot take from you. A stand-alone $189 session is also the least expensive way to sit at a set of controls before spending anything larger.
Every instructor here holds a commercial or ATP certificate, a flight instructor certificate and a current medical. On every flight they are the legal pilot in command under 14 CFR 91.3(a).
Instructor availability is a cost item, even though it never appears on a price list. A school with three instructors and forty students produces exactly the fortnightly training cadence that pushes a 40-hour licence to 75 hours. Eleven instructors and a fleet we own is the reason we can sell a fixed number of hours without flinching.
You are matched to one instructor and you can change without a conversation if the fit is wrong. That matters more for cost than people expect: a student who dreads the lesson flies less often, and a student who flies less often pays more.

The compliment that repeats is not about price. It is that the number people enrol at is the number they finish at.
The line that repeats through our Google reviews is about the twenty minutes at the table before the engine starts. People remember being told what was about to happen before it happened.
Eleven instructors and a fleet we own. Reviewers mention scheduling more often than they mention the aircraft, which tells you what most people find hard about learning to fly.
You book at $229 and that is what it costs. Nobody writes a five-star review about a surprise invoice, and the absence of one comes up constantly.
All 70 of those reviews are on Google. We do not aggregate a rating from anywhere else and we do not publish a figure we cannot point at.
Enrolment opens a form rather than a shopping cart, because a training programme should start with a conversation about your schedule. The free consultation button beside every option does the same thing with less commitment.
Forty logged hours, which meets the 14 CFR 61.109 minimum. The right package if you can fly two or three times a week and study between lessons. Honest about what it is.
Sixty logged hours and ten hours of ground school. The national average for a private pilot certificate is closer to 60 to 70 hours, and this is the package that matches reality rather than the regulation.
The same 40-hour syllabus flown in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo, glass cockpit and a whole-airframe parachute. Worth it if you intend to own or fly something like it. Not worth it to feel serious.
The cheapest legal route to flying yourself. Day VFR, one passenger, no Class B airspace without an endorsement, and no medical certificate required if you hold a valid US driver licence.
The rating that turns a Los Angeles marine layer from a cancellation into a departure. The natural next purchase after a private pilot licence, and the one that makes the licence useful.
Adding aeroplane multi-engine land to a certificate you already hold, flown in the Piper Seminole. Cheaper than any route that starts from nothing, which is the general rule with ratings.
An hour at the controls before you spend anything larger. Logged as dual instruction under 14 CFR 61.51, and credited in full against any programme if you enrol within 24 hours.
Full-motion, FAA-approved, on the ground. The cheapest hour of instruction we sell and the one no weather cancels.
Bring your schedule and your budget and we will tell you which of the three programmes fits, including when the answer is none of them yet.
Solo Certificate $5,500. Teens aged 10 to 15 $4,200. Zero to airline $89,000, and an unrestricted ATP still requires 1,500 hours under 14 CFR 61.159 — we do not place anybody in a job. Financing from $2,500 down. Enrolled students fly single-engine aircraft at $179 an hour wet inside their package. Aircraft are available to qualified pilots who have checked out with us — call for availability.
A $229 discovery flight tells you more about whether $15,900 is money well spent than any page can, and the whole amount comes off a programme if you enrol within 24 hours. If you would rather talk numbers first, the consultation is free and nothing is booked at the end of it.
Would rather write it down? Use the contact form, or read how far Van Nuys is from where you are before you pick a time.
A private pilot licence costs $10,900 for 40 logged hours, $15,900 for 60 logged hours, or $22,500 flown in a Cirrus SR22 Turbo. Those are fixed package prices that include the aircraft, the instruction, simulator time, ground school and materials. Financing starts at $2,500 down.
Because most of them are hourly rates multiplied by the 40-hour legal minimum in 14 CFR 61.109, and almost nobody finishes in 40 hours. The national average is closer to 60 to 70. A quote built on 40 hours is arithmetic on a number the school does not expect you to hit.
Forty hours is the legal minimum under 14 CFR 61.109(a) — 20 hours of instruction and 10 hours solo, with specific cross-country, night and instrument requirements inside those totals. It is enough for a student flying two or three times a week who studies between lessons. For most people the realistic figure is 60 to 70 hours, which is why our Comprehensive programme logs 60.
A Sport Pilot certificate at $8,400. It is a real certificate with real limits: day VFR, one passenger, and no Class B airspace without an endorsement, but it needs no medical certificate if you hold a valid US driver licence. If you want the full private pilot certificate, the cheapest route is the highest lesson cadence you can sustain.
Three things, and no flight school in the country includes them because the money goes elsewhere. The medical certificate is issued by an FAA-designated aviation medical examiner. The knowledge test is administered at an FAA-approved testing centre. The practical test is conducted by an independent designated pilot examiner. Headsets, logbook and training materials are included in our programmes.
Aircraft are not licensed to people. An aircraft holds an airworthiness certificate and a registration; a person holds a pilot certificate. If you mean the cost of being allowed to fly one yourself, that is a private pilot certificate at $10,900, $15,900 or $22,500 with us.
Yes. Financing starts at $2,500 down with monthly plans through Stratus Financial or our in-house arrangements. The caution worth stating: financing a programme you then fly once a month costs you interest and effectiveness at the same time. Two flights a week is what makes the money work.
Substantially. Cadence is the single largest controllable variable in PPL cost. Two to three lessons a week keeps the previous lesson live and typically lands a student near 45 hours; one lesson a fortnight means paying to relearn the last lesson every time and typically pushes the total past 70.
At two to three lessons a week, four to six months is realistic. At one lesson a week, a year or more, and the hours total climbs with it. Weather is the other variable, and at Van Nuys we measured 355 days a year meeting a 3,000-foot ceiling and 5 statute miles of visibility.
Not to begin. You can receive dual instruction with no certificate at all. A medical under 14 CFR 61.23 is required before you fly solo, which happens early in a private pilot course, so get it done in the first few weeks rather than discovering an issue at hour 18.
Yes, twice over. The hour is logged as dual instruction under 14 CFR 61.51 and counts toward the 40 hours 61.109 requires, and the full $229 comes off any programme price if you enrol within 24 hours of the flight.
It is the package rate enrolled students pay for a single-engine aircraft, wet — the aeroplane and its fuel. Instructional hours are counted separately inside the programme price. It is not a walk-in rate and it applies to students enrolled in a programme.
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.
INSTRUMENT RATING
I'm currently working on my instrument rating at essence, and it has been Fantastic so far, my instructor is Alex and he is very knowledgeable and patient...
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...
KIDS FIRST FLIGHT
Had a great experience with this company. My son has been very into airplanes and his flight simulator on the computer so for his 11th birthday treated...
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...
HANDS-ON FLIGHT
One of the best flight experiences I've ever done! If you're looking for a fun flight, beautiful views, and even taking control of the plane, Essence...
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...
SKY PROPOSAL
Unforgettable private flight with Essence—smooth journey and a magical moment as I proposed to my girl in the skies! Highly recommend!
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...
DISCOVERY FLIGHT
This was my first flight at Essence and it will be one I will never forget for several reasons. Joseph was an awesome instructor, demonstrating...
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...
GIFT FLIGHT
Great experience with first ever discovery flight! Would highly recommend! Got it as a gift for my dad and he had a great time flying!
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.
INSTRUMENT RATING
I'm currently working on my instrument rating at essence, and it has been Fantastic so far, my instructor is Alex and he is very knowledgeable and patient...
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...
KIDS FIRST FLIGHT
Had a great experience with this company. My son has been very into airplanes and his flight simulator on the computer so for his 11th birthday treated...
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...
HANDS-ON FLIGHT
One of the best flight experiences I've ever done! If you're looking for a fun flight, beautiful views, and even taking control of the plane, Essence...
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...
SKY PROPOSAL
Unforgettable private flight with Essence—smooth journey and a magical moment as I proposed to my girl in the skies! Highly recommend!
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...
DISCOVERY FLIGHT
This was my first flight at Essence and it will be one I will never forget for several reasons. Joseph was an awesome instructor, demonstrating...
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...
GIFT FLIGHT
Great experience with first ever discovery flight! Would highly recommend! Got it as a gift for my dad and he had a great time flying!
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.