Private Pilot Training for Moorpark, at Van Nuys
Van Nuys Airport · KVNY

Private Pilot Training For Moorpark, At Van Nuys

Learn the certificate at a towered field forty minutes east, then spend your solo cross-countries flying back over the groves and the arroyo you grew up next to.

40 minutes down the 118Free, ungated parkingBooking until 9pm daily
Book A Discovery Flight Call (818) 290-8249
5.0★100+ reviews on Google
2,000+introductory flights, flown safely
FAAcertified instructors, 15+ years each
$10,900for the private pilot program
Local

Moorpark Is On The Route, Not Out Of The Way

Here is something Moorpark residents rarely know until they start training. The standard westbound cross-country legs out of Van Nuys go to Camarillo, Oxnard and Santa Paula, and the direct line to all three runs across the top of your town. Somewhere in the middle of your training you will plan a flight, file it, fly it alone, and look down at Campus Park Drive or the Arroyo Simi from three thousand feet with nobody else in the aircraft. Students who live under a route usually end up flying it.

The town itself reads beautifully from that height. Moorpark still has hard edges: the housing stops and the citrus starts, Underwood's fields lay out in long stripes off Los Angeles Avenue, and the arroyo cuts west toward Calleguas Creek in a line you could follow with a finger. Very little of Los Angeles County still looks like that from the air. It makes ground reference maneuvers easier to learn here than over tract housing, because there are actual straight field boundaries to fly along.

Who calls us from Moorpark is fairly consistent. Commuters who already drive the 118 east every morning, engineers from the Simi and Chatsworth industrial parks, growers and packers whose season peaks and then leaves them time, teachers, and Moorpark College students looking for a qualification that ends in a practical test rather than an essay. If your working week already points toward the valley, adding a Saturday morning is a much smaller change than the thirty-three miles suggest.

The first flight is $229 for sixty minutes, and you fly it. Instructor beside you, your hands on the controls for most of it, and the time logged toward your certificate. Enroll within twenty-four hours and the whole fee comes off your program. From there the standard private pilot course is $10,900, and the first in-person consultation costs nothing at all. We are open nine in the morning until nine at night, seven days a week, which is what makes the drive workable.

A training aircraft on a flight over the San Fernando Valley

Courses & Pricing

Every Course We Teach

★★★★★ 5.0 Rating 100+ Google Reviews

Course prices are packages, not hourly rates - the aircraft, your instructor, ground school and simulator time are all in the figure. Van Nuys Airport, KVNY. Financing Available Through Stratus & In-House Plans.

A student pilot smiling in the cockpit of a Diamond DA20 with the canopy raised on the Van Nuys Airport ramp at golden hour

Start Here

Discovery Flight

The First Hour At The Controls. Credited Toward Your Training If You Enroll Within 24 Hours Of Landing.

From$229
Book A Discovery Flight
01 Discovery Flight The first hour at the controls; credits toward training if you enroll within 24 hours of landing. From$229 02 Teen Flight Training Ages 10–15 Starting before it is legal to solo. $4,200 03 Multi-Engine Rating For existing pilots adding a twin. $5,100 04 Solo Certificate Enough training to take an aircraft around the pattern alone. $5,500 05 Sport Pilot A real certificate, fewer hours, narrower privileges. $8,400 06 Private Pilot Most Enrolled The one most people mean by “learn to fly.” $10,900 07 Instrument Rating Turns a fair-weather pilot into a useful one. $11,700 08 Comprehensive Private Pilot Private with flight time, ground instruction and materials bundled. $15,900 09 Premium Private Pilot The most flight time before your checkride - 80 logged hours. $22,500 10 Airline Pilot Program Zero experience to airline-hireable qualifications. $89,000
Enroll Now Get Course Information
See The Training Fleet Redbird MCX Simulator $189/Hr (818) 290-8249

All Prices In USD. 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, Van Nuys, CA 91406 · Open 9 AM–9 PM, Seven Days. Free In-Person Tour Of The School

Book It Or Gift It

Fly It Yourself, Or Give The Flight To Someone Else

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.

A student's hands on the control stick and a kneeboard in a training aircraft, the instrument panel lit in front of them Most Given The Hollywood sign on its ridge seen past the wing of a light aircraft, with the San Fernando Valley beyond Two Seats A Cirrus SR22 Turbo parked on the ramp with both gullwing doors raised, showing the leather interior and glass cockpit The Nice One The flight school's Piper Seminole twin-engine training aircraft parked inside the hangar at Van Nuys Twin Engine

Discovery Flight For One

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 It Or Gift It
Same Price Either Way

Discovery Flight For Two

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 It Or Gift It
Same Price Either Way

Luxury Discovery Flight

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

Bring A PassengerInstructor + 2 is our maximum+$100

$499Book It Or Gift It
Same Price Either Way

Multi-Engine Seminole

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 It Or Gift It
Same Price Either Way

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.

Getting Here

Thirty-Three Miles East, And The Two Ways To Do It

The default is Los Angeles Avenue east until it turns into the 118 at the Simi Valley line. Stay on the freeway past Madera and Yosemite, over the Rocky Peak grade at the Santa Susana Pass, and down onto the valley floor at Chatsworth. Come off at Balboa Boulevard and turn south. Balboa carries you six straight miles through Granada Hills and Northridge, across Devonshire, Nordhoff and Roscoe, and the airport boundary appears on the left just after Saticoy.

The southern option is the 23 down to the 101 and east through Thousand Oaks, Agoura Hills and Woodland Hills, exiting at Balboa in Encino. It is a few miles longer, considerably prettier, and the one to take when the pass is stacked up in the eight o'clock crush. Either way you are looking at roughly forty minutes outside peak hours, and both routes end at the same gate on the western fence of the airport.

There is also a train, which almost nobody thinks of. Metrolink's Ventura County Line stops at Moorpark station on High Street and runs east through Simi Valley and Chatsworth to Van Nuys station, a short rideshare from the airport. It is a commuter timetable rather than an all-day one, so check it before relying on it. However you arrive, our lot at 7900 Balboa is free and never full, and the office is Suite 108A inside a shared hangar complex.

The entrance to LA Flight School at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A
Why Van Nuys

What A Towered Field Gives A Ventura County Student

1

Radio Work You Cannot Get At A Quiet Strip

Van Nuys runs two parallel runways with a full-time tower and constant traffic, so clearances, readbacks and sequencing are simply part of lesson three. Pilots who learn somewhere silent often reach the checkride still dreading the microphone, and that habit is far harder to fix later than it was to build correctly at the start.

2

Cross-Countries That Go Somewhere

The certificate requires solo cross-country flying, including one leg over a hundred and fifty miles with three full-stop landings. From Van Nuys those flights naturally run west over Moorpark to Camarillo, Santa Paula and Santa Barbara, so you build real navigation experience across country you can already name from the ground.

3

One Ramp From First Lesson To Twin

Trainers, a complex single, a glass-panel Cirrus, a twin and a full-motion simulator all live at the same address. Nothing in your progression forces a change of school, instructor or airport, and that matters most to the people driving furthest, because a second location means a second commute for as long as you fly.

4

Evenings And Weekends, All Year

Nine in the morning to nine at night, every day of the week. For growers in season, shift workers and anyone whose Saturday belongs to a family calendar, that range decides whether a certificate gets finished or quietly abandoned at thirty hours. Southern California weather removes most of the remaining excuses.

The Fleet

The Aircraft, And What Each Is For

You will start in the Cessna 162 Skycatcher or the Piper Warrior. Both are light enough to teach feel and stable enough to forgive a bad day, and both will tell you honestly when your feet are lazy on the rudder. The Diamond DA20 has a bubble canopy that puts the whole Santa Susana ridge in view at once. Your package covers the aircraft and the instructor together, so moving between the three costs you nothing. When the schedule is full or the wind is wrong, a $189 sixty-minute session in the Redbird MCX full-motion simulator keeps procedures and instrument scan sharp.

Once the certificate is in your pocket, flying regularly is what makes it worth having. The same trainers stay open to you, along with the Piper Arrow II and its retractable gear and constant-speed propeller, and the Cirrus SR22 Turbo with its glass panel and airframe parachute; a checkout with one of our instructors is all it takes. From Van Nuys that puts Santa Ynez, Big Bear or Monterey inside a day, and a lunch run over your own roof inside an afternoon. The Piper Seminole waits for the $5,100 multi-engine rating later.

Training aircraft and the Redbird MCX simulator at LA Flight School
From The Air

What Moorpark Looks Like From Three Thousand Feet

Fly west out of Van Nuys, over the pass, and Moorpark arrives about twelve minutes later.

🦒

Moorpark College

The campus terraces above Campus Park Drive, with the teaching zoo enclosures laid out at the eastern end of it. It is the largest single set of buildings for miles and makes an obvious first checkpoint on a westbound leg.

🎃

Underwood Family Farms

Long striped rows off Los Angeles Avenue that change color with the season, and a parking field that fills up every October. Straight crop boundaries like these are what instructors point at when teaching you to hold a ground track.

💧

The Arroyo Simi

The channel that runs the length of the valley and heads west toward Calleguas Creek and the Oxnard plain. Follow it with your eye and it hands you the whole route from Simi Valley to the coast in one line.

🍋

Balcom Canyon And The Citrus Terraces

The zigzag road climbing north out of the groves toward Fillmore, with orchard blocks stacked on the hillsides either side of it. It marks the point where farmland stops being flat and the Topatopa country begins.

FAQ

Common Questions

Thirty-three miles and about forty minutes outside peak hours, on one freeway and one boulevard. The eight o'clock eastbound crush at the Santa Susana Pass is the slow part, and after that it is an easy road. Most students out here book mid-morning or evening slots for that reason, and we take bookings up to nine at night.

Sometimes. Metrolink's Ventura County Line stops at Moorpark station on High Street and runs through to Van Nuys station, which is a short rideshare from the airport. The timetable is built for commuters, so service is thin midday and at weekends. Check it against your lesson slot before you plan on it, but it does work for some people.

Repeatedly. The practice areas and the standard westbound cross-country legs from Van Nuys both take you over the Santa Susanas and across your part of Ventura County. Camarillo and Santa Paula are common destinations for the required cross-country flights, and the direct routes run more or less over the town. They are places you fly to; every lesson starts and finishes at Van Nuys Airport, where the school is.

The standard program is $10,900. The comprehensive version, which includes considerably more dual instruction and simulator time, is $15,900. A discovery flight is $229 for sixty minutes and is credited in full if you enroll within twenty-four hours. Financing runs through Stratus Financial or an in-house payment plan, and the first consultation is free.

Four to six months at two lessons a week is a normal pace for an adult with a job. One lesson a week works but stretches to nine months or more, and costs more overall, because part of each session goes on recovering skills that faded. The forty-hour FAA minimum is a legal floor, not a plan.

You can start at any age, solo at sixteen and hold a private certificate at seventeen. A medical certificate is not needed to fly with an instructor, but it is required before your first solo, so see an aviation medical examiner early in your training. Most people clear a third class medical without any difficulty.

The FAA knowledge test is usually taken partway through flight training, before the solo cross-country phase. Ground instruction here is built around getting you ready for it. The result is valid for twenty-four calendar months, which is a good reason not to sit it in your first fortnight and then let the flying drift.

Logged hours never expire, so a break does not erase your training. Two things do have clocks on them: the knowledge test result runs out after twenty-four calendar months, and skills fade, so expect a couple of refresher lessons after a long gap. Tell us before you pause and we will plan the restart rather than repeat the syllabus.

Talk To Us

Book A First Flight From Moorpark

Call (818) 290-8249 and take an early slot, while the pass is still moving and the air over the Simi Hills is smooth. We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108A, open nine to nine every day, parking free.

Call (818) 290-8249 Free Consultation
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

One email. Opt out any time.

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.

5.0Google100+ Reviews 355Flyable DaysA Year At Van Nuys 9–9Open Daily9 AM To 9 PM, 7 Days
The Downtown Los Angeles skyline under an overcast sky, seen from a small airplane on a flight with LA Flight School, from the Google review by Marc Bolanos SAFETY FIRST
Marc BolanosJAN 2026 Google
★★★★★
Very safety and detail oriented. Pre-flight briefing explained everything there was. To my knowledge, this flight school is exceptional in their ability.
The view from the pilot seat of a small training airplane, with the instrument panel beside the window and Los Angeles below, from the Google review by Diego Gutierrez DISCOVERY FLIGHT
Diego GutierrezOCT 2024 Google
★★★★★
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...
The sun setting over the hills past the wing of a small airplane on a sunset flight from Van Nuys, from the Google review by Ethan Pilon SUNSET CIRRUS
Ethan PilonOCT 2024 Google
★★★★★
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...
A yellow and white Piper training airplane, registration N6312C, parked on the ramp at Van Nuys Airport under a clear blue sky, from the Google review by Mia Bompat FLYING LESSON
Mia BompatJUN 2026 Google
★★★★★
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...
Sunset over the Santa Monica Mountains and the Malibu coastline, seen from a small airplane above Santa Monica Bay, from the Google review by Sanaz Diba KIDS LUXURY FLIGHT
Sanaz DibaAUG 2024 Google
★★★★★
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...
Pink and orange sunset clouds over the ridgelines of the Santa Monica Mountains, photographed from a small airplane, from the Google review by Rakkad Alhouqani HONEYMOON SURPRISE
Rakkad AlhouqaniJUL 2024 Google
★★★★★
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...
A row of yellow and white LA Flight School training airplanes parked on the ramp at Van Nuys Airport at dusk, from the Google review by Niyousha Aslejafari FULL-MOTION SIM
Niyousha AslejafariNOV 2025 Google
★★★★★
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...
A student and an instructor in headsets in the front seats of a small airplane, flying toward the sunset over the Pacific, from the Google review by Bruce Guido DISCOVERY FOR TWO
Bruce GuidoNOV 2024 Google
★★★★★
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...
A smiling LA Flight School student standing in front of a white training airplane outside the hangar at Van Nuys Airport, from the Google review by George Attallah SIMULATORS
George AttallahAPR 2024 Google
★★★★★
Very professional and great airplanes. I love the flight simulators. The pricing is very fair compared to any other flight school
A student pilot in a headset sitting in a Cirrus with the door raised, parked outside a hangar at Van Nuys Airport, from the Google review by Tania Anders TEEN FIRST LESSON
Tania AndersJUN 2025 Google
★★★★★
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...
A white Cirrus being moved out of its hangar at Van Nuys Airport before a flight, from the Google review by Meghan Klien FIRST-TIME FLYER
Meghan KlienOCT 2024 Google
★★★★★
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...
The Downtown Los Angeles skyline under an overcast sky, seen from a small airplane on a flight with LA Flight School, from the Google review by Marc Bolanos SAFETY FIRST
Marc BolanosJAN 2026 Google
★★★★★
Very safety and detail oriented. Pre-flight briefing explained everything there was. To my knowledge, this flight school is exceptional in their ability.
The view from the pilot seat of a small training airplane, with the instrument panel beside the window and Los Angeles below, from the Google review by Diego Gutierrez DISCOVERY FLIGHT
Diego GutierrezOCT 2024 Google
★★★★★
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...
The sun setting over the hills past the wing of a small airplane on a sunset flight from Van Nuys, from the Google review by Ethan Pilon SUNSET CIRRUS
Ethan PilonOCT 2024 Google
★★★★★
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...
A yellow and white Piper training airplane, registration N6312C, parked on the ramp at Van Nuys Airport under a clear blue sky, from the Google review by Mia Bompat FLYING LESSON
Mia BompatJUN 2026 Google
★★★★★
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...
Sunset over the Santa Monica Mountains and the Malibu coastline, seen from a small airplane above Santa Monica Bay, from the Google review by Sanaz Diba KIDS LUXURY FLIGHT
Sanaz DibaAUG 2024 Google
★★★★★
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...
Pink and orange sunset clouds over the ridgelines of the Santa Monica Mountains, photographed from a small airplane, from the Google review by Rakkad Alhouqani HONEYMOON SURPRISE
Rakkad AlhouqaniJUL 2024 Google
★★★★★
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...
A row of yellow and white LA Flight School training airplanes parked on the ramp at Van Nuys Airport at dusk, from the Google review by Niyousha Aslejafari FULL-MOTION SIM
Niyousha AslejafariNOV 2025 Google
★★★★★
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...
A student and an instructor in headsets in the front seats of a small airplane, flying toward the sunset over the Pacific, from the Google review by Bruce Guido DISCOVERY FOR TWO
Bruce GuidoNOV 2024 Google
★★★★★
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...
A smiling LA Flight School student standing in front of a white training airplane outside the hangar at Van Nuys Airport, from the Google review by George Attallah SIMULATORS
George AttallahAPR 2024 Google
★★★★★
Very professional and great airplanes. I love the flight simulators. The pricing is very fair compared to any other flight school
A student pilot in a headset sitting in a Cirrus with the door raised, parked outside a hangar at Van Nuys Airport, from the Google review by Tania Anders TEEN FIRST LESSON
Tania AndersJUN 2025 Google
★★★★★
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...
A white Cirrus being moved out of its hangar at Van Nuys Airport before a flight, from the Google review by Meghan Klien FIRST-TIME FLYER
Meghan KlienOCT 2024 Google
★★★★★
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.

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