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.
You have both done the rooftop bar. You have done Griffith Observatory and the hike to the Sign and dinner in Silver Lake. Here is one you have not done: take off from Van Nuys an hour before sunset, fly out over Malibu with the light coming off the water, and one of you is flying the airplane.
Courses & Pricing
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.
Start Here
The First Hour At The Controls. Credited Toward Your Training If You Enroll Within 24 Hours Of Landing.
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
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...
Most date ideas in Los Angeles are variations on sitting somewhere nice. This one is different in a specific way: neither of you knows how it is going to feel, because neither of you has flown an airplane. There is a moment about eight minutes after takeoff when the instructor says 'your airplane' and hands the controls over, and whichever of you is in the left seat has to actually do something. It is genuinely thrilling and slightly terrifying and completely unlike anything else on a date-ideas list.
Then it settles, and you spend the next forty minutes over the Santa Monica Mountains and the Malibu coast with the sun going down and your headsets on so you can hear each other perfectly over the engine. It is loud enough outside that the conversation feels private, which is a strange and lovely thing at 2,000 feet.
Both of you fly, if you want. Plenty of couples split the hour — one flies out to the coast, they swap, the other flies home over the lit-up Valley. Or one flies and the other shoots several hundred photographs. Either works.
Tell us the occasion when you book. It changes what we recommend — the aircraft, the route and the time of day.

Our single most common booking. Sunset slot, Cirrus, coast route. Give us a week's notice for a weekend evening.

For the person who has everything and wants nothing. The logbook entry with their name in it lasts longer than the flight does.

Tell us in advance and we will plan the route, pick the moment, and make sure your instructor knows exactly when to stop talking.

High risk, high reward. You will find out a great deal about somebody in the ninety seconds after they take the controls.

February sunset is around 5:30pm, so you can fly and still make a dinner reservation. Book three weeks out; this one sells out.
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
Two Seats
The Nice One
Twin Engine
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
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
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 It Or Gift It
Same Price Either Way
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.
Free parking on site, twenty minutes from most of the Westside and the Valley. Your instructor meets you, and you walk out to the aircraft together and inspect it — which is more interesting than it sounds and a good icebreaker.
Instructor takes off. Then it is yours: over the mountains, out to the coast, down the shoreline as the sun drops, and back over the Valley with the lights coming on. Headsets mean you hear each other clearly the whole time.
Instructor lands, signs your logbook, and you are back in the car inside fifteen minutes. Plenty of good places to eat in Sherman Oaks and Studio City ten minutes away — ask your instructor, they all have opinions.
If one of you is the enthusiastic one and the other is quietly nervous, this is the section for the nervous one.
An FAA-certified flight instructor is pilot in command throughout, does the takeoff and landing, and has a complete second set of controls they can use instantly.
FAR 91.409(b) requires aircraft used for flight instruction for hire to be inspected every 100 flight hours, on top of the annual inspection private aircraft get.
The Cirrus SR22T carries CAPS — a rocket-deployed parachute that lowers the entire airplane, not just the people in it.
Worried about turbulence? Book the first slot of the day instead of sunset. The air over LA before 11am is the smoothest it gets.
Tell your instructor beforehand. Eat lightly, take a morning or evening slot, sit in front, and look at the horizon. It is rarely an issue.
Marginal conditions mean a free reschedule, no argument and no charge. The instructor makes the call.
Yes, and lots of couples do exactly that. Swap seats partway through — one flies out to the coast, the other flies home. Tell your instructor at the briefing and they will build the flight around it.
Small aircraft are a surprisingly good cure, because you can see out properly and understand what is happening. That said: book a morning slot for the smoothest air, choose 60 minutes rather than 90, and tell the instructor beforehand. If they would rather not go up at all, the $189 Redbird full-motion simulator sits on the ground and is genuinely fun.
$299 for a full hour in a trainer, or $599 in the luxury Cirrus SR22T. That is the total price for the flight, not per person — unlike helicopter tours, which are usually priced per seat.
Yes, and we have helped with a good number of them. Tell us when you book. We will pick the aircraft, plan the route so the moment lands where you want it, brief the instructor to go quiet, and if you want the whole thing photographed from the back seat we can arrange that too.
A week for a weekday, two for a weekend, and three or four for Valentine's Day or a sunset slot in summer. Sunset is the first thing that sells out.
Yes — every flight has a matching open-dated gift certificate, from $189 for the simulator to $899 for two hours in the twin. They pick the date themselves, which removes the scheduling problem entirely.
Comfortable clothes, closed shoes, sunglasses. Nothing loose that could catch on a control. It is not a formal environment and you will not be cold — the Cirrus has air conditioning and the trainers have heat.
Book online in two minutes, or call (818) 290-8249 and tell us the occasion — we will suggest the aircraft, the route and the time of day to book.
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
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