The certificate takes forty hours by regulation and rather more in practice, and the only thing standing between Brentwood and the start of it is one ridge.
Brentwood sits on the wrong side of a mountain from its nearest working airport, which is the only genuinely awkward fact on this page. Bundy, Barrington and Kenter climb north off San Vicente into the Santa Monica Mountains. Sunset curls east past the Archer campus toward the freeway, and above all of it the 405 crosses the ridge beside the Getty. Van Nuys Airport is four miles down the far side of that cut, and a full FAA private pilot certificate is what waits there.
The people who come to us from these streets are mostly not chasing an airline job. They are clinicians and dentists working out of the Wilshire corridor offices, a couple of teachers, contractors who spend their days between here and the canyons, and a steady run of sixteen-year-olds whose parents decided a summer would be better spent this way. What they share is wanting to hold a certificate at the end of it, rather than a memory of one afternoon in a small airplane.
The standard private pilot course is $10,900 and that figure covers the whole thing: dual instruction, solo work, ground school, the written exam, the night requirement and the checkride with an FAA examiner. Forty flight hours is the legal minimum, and sixty to seventy is what most working adults actually log, because the minimum quietly assumes a student who never misses a week. Two lessons a week puts the checkride six to nine months out. One lesson a week stretches it past a year and costs more, not less.
Once the certificate is in your wallet the geography inverts. The ridge that makes the drive tedious becomes a four-minute crossing, and the coastline you know from the ground unrolls from the bay out to Point Dume in less time than Sunset takes at half past five. Santa Barbara is forty minutes of flying. Big Bear is sixty minutes. Catalina is lunch. That is the honest argument for spending a year of weeknights on the far side of the pass rather than in a queue on it.
Our Courses
Ten programs flown out of Van Nuys Airport, with real pricing on every one. Start with an hour at the controls, or go straight through to airline-hireable qualifications — it is the same ladder either way.
5.0 Average Rating
100+ Google Reviews
Start Here
The first hour at the controls, over Los Angeles, with an instructor beside you. It is the entry point to every course below — and the cheapest way to find out whether flying is actually for you.
From$229
Open 9 AM–9 PM, Seven Days · (818) 290-8249
CertificateMost Popular
The one most people mean by “learn to fly.” Fly with an instructor, fly alone, then carry passengers on your own certificate.
Fly With An Instructor Fly Solo Carry Passengers $10,900 Enroll Now
Youth Program
Ages 10–15. For young people who want to start before they can legally solo.
$4,200 View Course
Milestone
Enough training to take an aircraft around the pattern alone. The day everything changes.
$5,500 View Course
Certificate
A real certificate with fewer hours and narrower privileges. The shortest honest route to flying yourself.
$8,400 View Course
Bundle
Private Pilot with flight time, ground instruction and study materials bundled into one price.
$15,900 View CourseBundle
The same certificate as Private, with the most flight time before your checkride. Eighty logged hours, ground instruction and materials, all in one price.
80 Logged Hours Ground School Included Materials Included $22,500 View Course
Rating
The rating after Private. Turns a fair-weather pilot into a useful one who can file, launch and land in cloud.
$11,700 View Course
Rating
For pilots already certificated who are adding a twin. Trained in our own Piper Seminole.
$5,100 View Course
Our Fleet
Diamond DA20, Cessna 162, Piper Arrow II and our Piper Seminole twin — all on the field at Van Nuys.
View The FleetThe Full Route
Zero experience to airline-hireable qualifications, in one continuous program rather than nine separate ones. Financing is available, and every hour of it is flown out of Van Nuys.
$89,000Financing Available
Free In-Person Tour Before You Commit
Book It Or Gift It
Every discovery flight below can be booked for yourself in the next few minutes, or bought as a gift certificate that is emailed within minutes and never expires. Same flight, same price, either way.
Most Given
One person, one instructor, and no audience. Hands on the controls from the left seat, briefed before you go and debriefed after you land.
Hands-On Stick TimePre-Flight BriefingLoggable Flight Time
Flight Length
$229Book Or Gift
Same Price
Two Seats
The same flight with a passenger in the back seat, briefed and on the intercom. Couples book it; so do parents who would rather watch than hear about it.
One Passenger SeatPiper Warrior Or ArcherHeadsets For Both
Flight Length
$299Book Or Gift
Same Price
The Nice One
The nicest airplane we put a first-time flyer in. Glass cockpit, air conditioning, leather seats, and a parachute built into the airframe rather than strapped to the person.
Turbocharged Cirrus SR22Air ConditioningWhole-Airframe Parachute
Flight Length
$499Book Or Gift
Same Price
Twin Engine
Two engines, and the airplane instrument-rated pilots move into when they start thinking about a career. Flown from the left seat with a multi-engine instructor.
Piper Seminole TwinMulti-Engine DepartureCareer-Track Instructor
Flight Length
$499Book Or Gift
Same Price
Gift It issues a real gift certificate, emailed within minutes, which never expires and credits in full toward training. Flights are limited to 180 lb per person, 370 lb combined. Questions: (818) 290-8249, 9 AM–9 PM, seven days.
Bundy or Barrington north to Sunset, then east along Sunset to the 405 on-ramp near Church Lane. From there it is one freeway: north through the Sepulveda Pass, past the Getty Center exit and the Skirball, over the summit and down onto the Valley floor. Come off at Roscoe Boulevard, run west about a mile and a half, and turn south onto Balboa. The 7900 block is on the airport side of the street, and Suite 108A faces our own car park.
Fifteen miles, and the clock depends entirely on when you leave. Between four and seven the northbound pass is the worst stretch of freeway on the Westside and can take thirty minutes on its own. Before ten in the morning you are traveling against the flow, because everyone else is heading south into Century City, and the whole run takes twenty-five minutes. Brentwood students almost all settle into a mid-morning slot or a late-evening one, and it is the right instinct.
When the 405 is genuinely broken, Sepulveda Boulevard runs alongside it over the same ridge and comes out on Ventura Boulevard. Parking at our end is free and uncomplicated: our own lot, no barrier, no ticket machine, no attendant. The hangar complex is shared with roughly a dozen unrelated aviation businesses, so aim for Suite 108A rather than the street number alone. On a first visit, call (818) 290-8249 from Balboa and somebody will walk out and find you.
Nothing in flight training matters as much as frequency. Fly twice a week and each lesson starts where the last one ended. Fly once a fortnight and half of every hour goes on ground you already paid for, which is how a $10,900 certificate quietly becomes a $16,000 one. We instruct from nine in the morning until nine at night, seven days, so twice a week is achievable from your side of the hill.
The Redbird MCX is a full-motion machine, not a desktop toy, and a sixty-minute session in it is $189. Engine failures, instrument approaches, radio phraseology and diversions can be flown ten times in a sitting, paused mid-maneuver and repeated until they are dull. Doing that in an aircraft costs more and teaches less, because you cannot stop the airplane and ask a question.
The certificate requires solo navigation flights, and from Van Nuys they are genuinely worth flying. Santa Barbara up the coast, Camarillo across the Conejo grade, Oxnard, Bakersfield over the ridge, Big Bear into the mountains. You learn planning, fuel, weather calls and unfamiliar radio work on trips you would happily repeat afterwards with someone in the right seat.
Nobody has to hand over the whole figure on day one. Start with the $229 discovery flight, credited back if you enroll within a day, then move to a package. Stratus Financial handles outside financing and we run payment plans in house. The free consultation exists so you see the real numbers written down first.
Early lessons happen in the Cessna 162 Skycatcher, the Piper Warrior or the Diamond DA20. The DA20 is the one Westside students tend to fall for, because the canopy is a bubble and the view south over the Santa Monica Mountains is close to uninterrupted. None of the three is a complicated airplane, which is the point of a trainer: it should let a beginner make a mistake and correct it without drama. All carry modern radios and GPS, so nothing has to be unlearned later.
Beyond the trainers there is the Piper Arrow II, with retractable gear and a constant-speed propeller for complex endorsements, and the Cirrus SR22 Turbo, a glass-panel aircraft with a whole-airframe parachute that will carry four people to Santa Barbara without anyone thinking about it. The twin-engine Piper Seminole is used for multi-engine training later on, and that rating is a $5,100 package. All of them live on our ramp at Van Nuys Airport, beside Suite 108A at 7900 Balboa Boulevard. Instructors are FAA-certified with more than fifteen years behind them, and aircraft come out of maintenance on schedule rather than when a student complains.
Four things you will use to find your own neighborhood on the way home.
A run of pale travertine blocks laid along the top of the ridge, with the tram line cut into the hillside beneath it. From the air it is the brightest thing between the Valley and the sea.
Dark water folded into the hills just east of the freeway, invisible from every road you drive. It is a feature that only exists if you fly, and students pick it out on almost every flight south.
Ten lanes carved through the ridge with Sepulveda Boulevard threaded beside them. Seen from above, the road you spent thirty minutes on becomes a gray line you cross in four minutes.
A long green trench running up behind Brentwood with a fire road along the floor and no houses in it. Against a hillside of red roofs it reads as a dark stripe.
Fifteen miles and twenty-five to forty minutes, depending on the hour. Sunset to the 405, north over the Sepulveda Pass, off at Roscoe and west to Balboa. Mid-morning and after seven in the evening are the fast windows. Between four and seven, the pass alone can add thirty minutes.
In our own lot at 7900 Balboa Boulevard, immediately outside the door. No gate, no ticket machine, nothing to pay. The complex holds a number of unrelated aviation businesses, so look for Suite 108A rather than the street number alone. First visit, ring (818) 290-8249 from Balboa and we will come out.
Yes, and several do. There is no minimum age to begin instruction, solo flight is legal at sixteen and the certificate can be issued at seventeen. The teen package is $4,200. Starting at fourteen is sensible timing rather than early, and a parent free to drive the pass twice a week is the real constraint.
Dual flight instruction, your solo hours, ground school for the FAA written exam, the night and cross-country requirements, and preparation for the practical test with an examiner. Aircraft and instructor time are both inside the figure. If you expect to need more flying than the standard package holds, the comprehensive course at $15,900 carries a larger block, which is why we show you the arithmetic in person first.
Forty is the FAA minimum and very few working adults finish there. Sixty to seventy is the realistic range, and the variable that moves it is how often you fly. Students holding two fixed slots a week land near the bottom of it. Students who cancel whenever a Tuesday goes wrong land near the top.
You need a third-class medical certificate before you fly solo, not before your first lesson. For most people the examination is straightforward, and it is worth doing early so any surprises appear before you have spent money. You also need to read, speak and understand English, and be seventeen to hold the certificate.
Both. Stratus Financial provides outside financing, and we run payment plans in house so the cost spreads across the months you are flying. The $229 discovery flight is credited in full against tuition if you enroll within twenty-four hours. Nothing has to be decided at the consultation, which is free.
Call (818) 290-8249 and book either a free in-person consultation or a discovery flight. The consultation is a walk round the aircraft and the simulator with the numbers and the timeline set out honestly. The discovery flight puts you at the controls the same day. We are open every day from nine until nine.
Drive the pass one morning when it is empty, park outside the door, and let an instructor take you round a training aircraft before you decide anything at all. Call (818) 290-8249 for a free consultation, or book the $229 discovery flight and open a logbook the same day.
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.
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...
Reviews shown verbatim, exactly as each reviewer published them.
Aviation News
Notes from the flight line at Van Nuys — weather, regulation changes, checkride questions and the cost of training, written up as they come.
Open 7 days · 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Los Angeles Flight School
