Sixteen miles and one mountain pass separate Culver City from the nearest field where a beginner can start at zero and still be flying the same aircraft in three years.
Look up from Culver City and there is traffic constantly overhead, none of which you can join. LAX is three miles south-west and out of the question. Hawthorne runs mostly to business jets. Santa Monica is scheduled to close at the end of 2028, so beginning a two-year course there means planning your own relocation from the first lesson. The nearest field that can carry somebody from a first flight to a multi-engine rating without a change of school sits sixteen miles north, on the other side of the Sepulveda Pass.
The people who make that drive from this part of town mostly work around the studios and the tech offices that have grown into them: Sony on Washington, the newer campuses in the Hayden Tract, the Playa Vista blocks built around Howard Hughes's old assembly hangar. It is an industry of irregular weeks, which is fatal to a Tuesday evening class and no problem at all for flight training. You book the slot you can keep, and if a shoot runs long you move it.
There is a reward specific to living here. Once your instructor lets you off the leash, the coastal route home passes directly over your own postcode: down from Malibu, along the sand at the bluffs, past Marina del Rey with the runways of LAX laid out ahead and the Class B floor overhead. Culver City appears as a neat rectangle of low white buildings between the Baldwin Hills and the creek. Recognizing your own street from two thousand feet is a strange and durable pleasure.
What the certificate buys afterwards is time, which is the scarce commodity on this side of town. Catalina is roughly thirty minutes once you are feet-wet, Santa Barbara about forty-five, and Palm Springs and Big Bear inside sixty, none of it involving the 405 in either direction. Renting a Warrior or a Cessna 162 from our ramp at Van Nuys afterwards keeps all of that within reach without buying an airplane or a hangar.
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.
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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, 360 lb combined. Questions: (818) 290-8249, 9 AM–9 PM, seven days.
The default is the 405 northbound, joined at Sepulveda, Culver Boulevard or the 90. You climb through the pass, cross the ridge and drop onto the Valley floor at Sherman Oaks. Leave at Victory Boulevard or Roscoe Boulevard and head west; both meet Balboa within a mile of us. Turn onto Balboa and the airport fence runs along your left until number 7900 appears on the right. Twenty-five minutes at a good hour, closer to fifty in the evening peak.
Sepulveda Boulevard is the surface twin of that freeway and it runs the entire way, over the same pass, alongside the reservoir and down into Sherman Oaks. It is slower on paper and steadier in practice, and it keeps moving on the afternoons when the northbound lanes have stopped. From Sepulveda you can stay on it all the way north to Roscoe, or cut across on Ventura Boulevard and up Balboa, which is the prettier of the two.
Because the drive is real, most Culver City students make each visit count: a flight plus a ground session, or two flights the same afternoon, or a lesson followed by a Redbird session. Parking is free and it is our own lot outside Suite 108A, no barrier and nothing to validate, which after years of Westside garages takes some getting used to. Call (818) 290-8249 as you exit and someone will watch for you.
Coastal navigation from Van Nuys runs out over Malibu and back along the shoreline past the Marina, which puts Culver City directly under your left wing on a routine training flight. Very few students get a practice area that includes their own neighborhood, and it makes chart work stick in a way that abstract exercises never quite do.
The layer that sits on the Westside until noon in June has usually lifted off the Valley floor well before that, and the practice areas north of the field are often in sun while the beach is gray. Across a year of training that is worth several weeks of progress you would otherwise reschedule.
The Redbird MCX is a full-motion trainer at $189 for a sixty-minute session, and an instructor can reset an approach in seconds instead of flying ten miles back out to try again. When the weather or the freeway rules out flying, that session still counts and still teaches. It is the cheapest seat we have for a reason.
We instruct from nine in the morning until nine at night, seven days a week, and you can block-book consecutive hours rather than take what is left. Two flights in one afternoon, or a flight and a ground session, turns a long drive into a productive half day instead of an errand.
Students start in the Cessna 162 Skycatcher, the Piper Warrior or the Diamond DA20, and the package covers the aircraft and the instructor together. The 162 sits high-winged with the roof over you, which suits ground reference work along the coast; the Warrior and the DA20 sit low, with the wing out of the way when you roll into a turn. Most people try both in the first few lessons before settling. All three are honest, unhurried machines that let a beginner get things slightly wrong and learn from it.
The rest of the ramp is what you graduate into. The Piper Arrow II adds retractable gear and a constant-speed propeller, the Cirrus SR22 Turbo brings a glass panel, turbocharging and an airframe parachute, and the twin-engine Piper Seminole is where the $5,100 multi-engine rating is flown. Indoors, the Redbird MCX simulator is $189 for a sixty-minute session and handles the procedure work an aircraft would take far longer to teach. It all sits on one apron at Van Nuys Airport, sixteen miles north of Culver City, so nobody changes schools to move up a step.
Four things that identify the neighborhood instantly from the coast route.
A straight pale scar of concrete steps up the hillside, with the park's lawns and ponds spread beside it. It is the only high ground for miles and it lines up neatly on the run in from the sea.
The enormous flat-roofed shed where the Spruce Goose was built, now ringed by offices on what used to be a private runway. From the air the old alignment of that runway is still obvious in the street plan.
The rail trench cuts a hard diagonal across a grid where everything else runs square, threading between studios and low industrial blocks. Follow it east toward downtown, or west and it ends at the beach.
A tangle of ramps beside the mall car parks that looks far more elegant from above than it feels from inside. It marks the point where the flat coastal plain gives way to the hills.
Twenty-five minutes up the 405 at a sensible hour and up to fifty in the evening peak. Sepulveda Boulevard runs the same route on the surface and is the better bet when the freeway stalls. Most students book late mornings or evenings, which also gives smoother air over the practice areas.
Santa Monica is scheduled to close at the end of 2028. A private certificate takes most people the better part of a year and an instrument rating afterwards takes longer, so starting there means planning around a deadline that is not yours. There is also no twin, no complex single and no full-motion simulator on that field.
The standard course is $10,900 and the premium version $22,500, which buys more instructor time and a faster path rather than a different certificate. If you would rather set a smaller first target, the solo certificate is $5,500. Financing runs through Stratus Financial or through payment plans we operate ourselves.
Yes, and a good number of our students do. We fly seven days a week from nine in the morning until nine at night, so slots exist outside a normal working day. The thing to protect is frequency rather than a particular weekday: two flights most weeks will finish a certificate, one flight a month will not.
In our own free lot immediately outside Suite 108A, at 7900 Balboa Boulevard. No barrier, no ticket, no validation and no walk from a structure. On a first visit ring (818) 290-8249 as you come off the freeway and somebody will meet you at the entrance.
The legal minimum is forty. The honest range for somebody flying around a job is sixty to seventy-five, and the biggest variable is how often you get in the aircraft. Every long gap costs part of the following lesson to revision, which is why frequency matters more than aptitude.
You will learn the airspace around it properly, which is a large part of the value of training in this basin. Los Angeles Class B sits over the coastal route in shelves, and your instructor will teach you to fly beneath and beside them with the correct calls. Pilots trained at quiet airports find this daunting later on.
A discovery flight from $229 for one, or $299 for a pair. You fly the airplane yourself with an instructor beside you, the time is logged toward your certificate, and the full cost comes off your course if you enroll within twenty-four hours. If you would rather ask questions on the ground first, the consultation is free.
Come over the pass once and see what a Tuesday evening at Van Nuys looks like before committing a penny. Call (818) 290-8249 for a free consultation, or book a $229 discovery flight and fly the coast back toward your own neighborhood.
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
