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.
Van Nuys Airport · KVNY
Private Pilot Certificate Training For Glendale
The certificate that lets you carry passengers at night over your own city starts eighteen miles west of Brand Boulevard, on the Balboa side of Van Nuys Airport.
5.0★100+ reviews on Google
2,000+discovery flights flown safely
40 hrsthe FAA minimum for the certificate
$10,900standard private pilot course
Local
What A Glendale Beginner Is Actually Signing Up For
Glendale runs uphill. The city starts at the Los Angeles River near Atwater and climbs north through Kenneth Village and Sparr Heights until it runs out of room against the Verdugos above Montrose. That vertical spread matters to a student pilot: the weather at your house is not the weather four miles away. The June marine layer that grays the south end of town often thins before La Crescenta, and Van Nuys, out on the open valley floor, is frequently clear while you are still under it. We are at Van Nuys Airport itself, Suite 108A at 7900 Balboa Boulevard. Glendale is where our students drive from, not where the school is.
Glendale is also a headquarters town, and that shapes who calls us. Dine Brands and Public Storage run national companies from offices here, ServiceTitan fills a tower on North Brand, and Glendale Community College turns out people in their twenties who want a qualification with a practical examination at the end of it. Add the nurses at Glendale Memorial and USC Verdugo Hills, the machine shops on San Fernando Road and the family businesses in Montrose, and you have a city of odd free hours.
The certificate has a night requirement, and Glendale makes it genuinely enjoyable. The FAA asks for three hours of instruction after dark, ten takeoffs and landings at night, and one night cross country of more than a hundred miles. Flown from Van Nuys, that usually means turning east. The Verdugos go completely black, the 134 and the 2 draw two bright lines that meet near the zoo, and the grid you drive every week becomes a lit map underneath you.
Starting costs less than most people assume. A discovery flight is $229 for sixty minutes and you fly it yourself, hands on the yoke, with an instructor in the right seat. The time is logged toward the certificate, and the whole fee comes off your course if you enroll within twenty-four hours. The standard private pilot program is $10,900 from zero experience. We are open nine in the morning to nine at night, and the first consultation is free.
Training Packages
The Private Pilot Ladder, With Real Prices
Five ways into the same certificate, priced as whole programs rather than an hourly rate that grows.
Most Popular
Standard Private Pilot
$10,900
The full FAA Private Pilot Certificate. Where most students start.
Learn MorePremium Private Pilot
$22,500
The widest margin of hours for students who want no surprises.
Learn MoreInstrument Rating
$11,700
The rating that makes a license useful in Southern California weather.
Learn MoreEvery course above is a package, not an hourly rate — the price covers the aircraft, your instructor, ground school and the simulator time in that package. Financing is available through Stratus Financial and through in-house payment plans, and a discovery flight is credited in full against any package if you enroll within 24 hours. All training is flown from Van Nuys Airport (KVNY), 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A.
Discovery Flights
Try It First — A Discovery Flight From Van Nuys
You fly the aircraft from the left seat with an instructor beside you. The time is loggable and counts toward a certificate.
Luxury Cirrus For Two
$499/ 60 min
The SR22 Turbo, glass cockpit. 90 min $699, 120 min $949.
Learn MoreRedbird Simulator Session
$189/ 1 hr
FAA-approved full-motion MCX, on the field at Van Nuys.
Learn MoreGetting Here
Glendale To 7900 Balboa Blvd, By Where You Live
If you are anywhere between Adams Hill and the Americana, the 134 west is the spine of the trip. Ride it through Burbank and Toluca Lake, stay left where it becomes the 101 north, then come off at Balboa Boulevard in Encino and turn right. Balboa runs five miles north from there, over the Sepulveda Basin and past Victory and Vanowen, and the airport fence appears on your right shortly before Saticoy. Outside the peaks it is a twenty-five minute drive.
From Montrose, La Crescenta or the top of Verdugo Road, do not go south at all. Take the 210 west, move onto the 118 west at the interchange above Sylmar, then drop south on Balboa through Granada Hills and Northridge. It is a faster road at almost every hour and it skips the Cahuenga corridor entirely. Coming off a shift in south Glendale after five, the 5 north to the 170 north and west on Victory works better than either of the freeway spines.
Parking is free, on site and never full, which is worth something at the end of any Los Angeles drive. Come to Suite 108A. The 7900 Balboa complex is a shared hangar site with a number of unrelated aviation businesses in it, so use the suite number rather than looking for a sign from the road. First visit, give yourself ten spare minutes and someone will walk you out to the aircraft rather than pointing at a gate.
Why Van Nuys
Four Reasons Glendale Students End Up Here
1
You Learn To Talk On The Radio Early
Van Nuys is a towered field with two parallel runways and steady traffic, so clearances and sequencing are part of your first few lessons rather than something you postpone. Pilots who train at quiet uncontrolled strips often reach their checkride still tense on the radio, and unlearning that takes longer than learning it properly did.
2
The Whole Certificate Is On One Site
Ground instruction, the Redbird MCX full motion simulator, the aircraft and checkride preparation all sit at one address. Nothing in your training needs a second airport or a second drive. For someone coming over from Glendale two evenings a week, that missing friction is the difference between finishing and stalling at thirty hours.
3
Clear Air When The Basin Is Gray
The valley floor burns off earlier than the ground on your side of the Verdugos, and the coastal fields lose whole mornings that we simply do not lose. Across a four to six month course that adds up to a meaningful number of lessons that actually happened, which is the real currency here.
4
Numbers You Can Plan Around
Programs are quoted as whole prices, not as a meter that quietly runs while you fly. Financing runs through Stratus Financial or an in-house payment plan, the discovery flight is credited back if you enroll within a day, and the first consultation is free. You can cost the certificate before spending anything.
The Fleet
The Aircraft You Will Spend Those Hours In
Most of a private course happens in the Cessna 162 Skycatcher or the Piper Warrior, both covered by your package along with the instructor. They are forgiving without being numb, and they are honest about sloppy rudder work, which is exactly what you want in the first twenty hours. The Diamond DA20 is the one to ask for on a clear afternoon: the bubble canopy leaves nothing between you and the Verdugo ridgeline, and its handling rewards a light touch. The Redbird MCX simulator, $189 for a sixty-minute session, lets you drill procedures on a day the aircraft schedule is full.
After the checkride the same ramp keeps going. The Piper Arrow II brings retractable gear and a constant speed propeller, which is what commercial time and complex endorsements are flown in. The Cirrus SR22 Turbo has a full glass panel and a parachute for the entire airframe, and it turns a weekend into Monterey or Sedona rather than a long day on the 5. The Piper Seminole is the twin used for the multi-engine rating, which is a $5,100 package. One airport, one set of instructors, no starting over.
From The Air
Glendale From Two Thousand Five Hundred Feet
Turn east out of Van Nuys and Glendale sorts itself out under the wing in about six minutes.
🏢
The Grayson Power Plant
The stacks and switchyard on San Fernando Road, where Glendale Water and Power generates for a city that runs its own utility. It is the most industrial object in Glendale and the easiest thing to point at from the air.
🏰
Brand Library And Brand Park
The white Moorish house at the top of Mountain Street, all arches and domes, with the park and its fire road climbing behind. From above it looks planted rather than built, right where the street grid gives up.
⛳
Scholl Canyon
The terraced bench cut into the hills above Eagle Rock, half landfill and half golf course, with the access road switchbacking up the side. Nothing else on that ridge has such obviously engineered contours.
🌲
Deukmejian Wilderness Park
The old vineyard bowl at the head of the Crescenta Valley, where the San Gabriels rise straight out of the housing tracts. It marks the top of Glendale and makes a clean visual boundary on a foothill run.
FAQ
Common Questions
Eighteen miles, and twenty-five to forty minutes depending on when you leave. A nine in the morning Saturday slot is a clean run on the 134 and the 101. A five in the afternoon weekday slot is the worst version of it, which is why most Glendale students book early or after seven.
Whiteman in Pacoima is closer if you live at the north end of the city, but it is uncontrolled, so you lose the tower work and sequencing that Van Nuys gives you from lesson one. Hollywood Burbank is closer still and is an air carrier airport, not a place to practice steep turns. Ten extra minutes buys a better training environment. We fly from neither of those fields; our aircraft, instructors and simulator are all at Van Nuys.
That is what most people here do. We are open nine to nine, seven days a week, and lessons are booked one slot at a time rather than as a fixed weekly class. Two flights a week finishes a private certificate in four to six months. One a week works but stretches the calendar.
The standard program is $10,900. The comprehensive version, with much more dual instruction and simulator time included, is $15,900, and the premium version is $22,500. A discovery flight is $229 for sixty minutes and the full amount is credited if you enroll within twenty-four hours. Financing runs through Stratus Financial or an in-house plan.
Forty hours is the FAA minimum and very few people finish there. Sixty to seventy is realistic for an adult training twice a week around a job. The variables are how often you fly and how much ground study you do at home. Students who fly once a fortnight spend paid time re-learning.
Not to fly with an instructor. You need one before your first solo, so see an aviation medical examiner in your first few weeks rather than the night before. Most people qualify for a third class medical easily. If anything in your history looks complicated, find out early rather than after buying a program.
Three hours of night instruction, ten takeoffs and landings to a full stop after dark, and one night cross country over a hundred miles. From Van Nuys those flights usually head east over the Verdugos or north over the passes. We fly until nine at night, so in winter it fits ordinary weekday slots.
An FAA designated examiner spends a couple of hours on an oral covering regulations, weather, systems and your planned cross country, then flies with you for about ninety minutes. You will have flown every task on that test many times first. Your instructor signs you off when the standard is consistent, not at a particular hour count.
Talk To Us
Book A First Flight From Glendale
Call (818) 290-8249 and we will find a slot that works around the 134, early morning or after seven at night. We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, open nine to nine daily, parking free.
Discovery Flight For One
$229
60 minutes, hands on the controls, fully loggable
Book A Discovery Flight
Or 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
Over 100 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.
Aviation News
Latest From The Field
Notes from the flight line at Van Nuys — weather, regulation changes, checkride questions and the cost of training, written up as they come.
Van Nuys Airport · KVNY
(818) 290-8249
7900 Balboa Blvd. Suite 108A
Van Nuys, CA 91406 Get directions →
Open the full contact page
Open 7 days · 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Los Angeles Flight School7900 Balboa Blvd. Suite 108A
Van Nuys, CA 91406 Get directions →
★★★★★
5.0 · 100+ Google reviews