Your Discovery Flight Over Los Angeles Is Confirmed
Your discovery flight is booked and your seat is held. Below is what you need for the day: how to find us at Van Nuys Airport, what happens from check-in to landing, and what to bring.
Finding 7900 Balboa Blvd at Van Nuys Airport
We are on the west edge of Van Nuys Airport at 7900 Balboa Blvd, between Saticoy Street and Roscoe Blvd. From the 405, exit at Roscoe and head west two miles to Balboa, then turn south. From the 101, exit Balboa and drive north through Encino and Lake Balboa, past the Sepulveda Basin and across Victory Blvd and Sherman Way. Turn in, bear right, follow the road to the hangar side.
From the Westside or the South Bay, the 405 north over the Sepulveda Pass is the usual run. Give yourself an extra half hour on weekday mornings, because the pass backs up from Getty Center Drive down to Ventura Blvd. From Pasadena, Glendale and Burbank, take the 134 west onto the 101 north and exit at Balboa. From Santa Clarita, the 405 south to Roscoe Blvd and west is quickest.
The turning is easy to overshoot. Watch for the line of hangars behind the chain-link fence on the east side of Balboa; if you cross Roscoe Blvd you have gone a block too far north, and if you are back at Sherman Way you have gone too far south. Give a rideshare driver the street address rather than the airport name, since Van Nuys has several separate gated entrances along Balboa.
Parking is free. Entering the lot off Balboa Blvd, turn right and follow the road around to the hangar side; Suite 108A is on your right.
What happens from check-in to logbook
Plan on about two hours at the airport for a sixty-minute flight.
Check-in at Suite 108A
Come through the door on the hangar side and give your name at the desk. We confirm the booking, take a driver's licence or passport for the record, and sort out the short waiver. If you are on a gift voucher, bring it or the confirmation email. Then you meet the instructor flying with you today.
Preflight briefing
You sit down with your instructor and go through the flight before going near the aircraft. They cover the controls, how the aeroplane turns, climbs and descends, what the instruments mean, and where you are going. You see the route on a chart and can ask anything. Most people arrive nervous and leave this table curious.
The walkaround
Every flight starts with a physical inspection, and you do it alongside the instructor rather than watching from the fence. Fuel is drained and checked for water, the oil dipped, control surfaces moved by hand, tyres and brakes looked over. It takes fifteen minutes. It is the first thing you would repeat on every flight afterwards.
Engine start and taxi
You climb into the left seat, where a pilot sits. Headsets go on, the instructor walks you through the checklist, and the engine starts. You will hear Van Nuys Ground on the radio; your instructor does the talking. Taxiing is steered with your feet, which surprises everybody. Then you hold short and run the engine checks.
You fly the aeroplane
The instructor handles the takeoff roll with you following through on the controls. Once clear of the airport they hand the aircraft over and you fly it: straight and level, gentle turns above the Valley, a climb, a descent. They stay on the controls only if you want them. Most of the flight is yours.
Debrief and logbook
The instructor lands and you taxi back to the hangar. Afterwards you sit down for ten minutes and go through what you did, what a second lesson looks like, and anything the flight raised. The time counts, so we make a logbook entry: the first hour of your training record, and it goes home with you.
Course packages and what they cost
Standard Private Pilot
The full FAA Private Pilot Certificate. Where most students start.
Learn morePremium Private Pilot
The widest margin of hours for students who want no surprises.
Learn moreInstrument Rating
The rating that makes a licence useful in Southern California weather.
Learn moreTry it first — a discovery flight from Van Nuys
You fly the aircraft from the left seat with an instructor beside you.
Luxury Cirrus For Two
The SR22 Turbo, glass cockpit. 90 min $549, 120 min $699.
Learn moreRedbird Simulator Session
FAA-approved full-motion MCX, on the field at Van Nuys.
Learn moreWhat Los Angeles looks like from 2,500 feet
A short climb out of Van Nuys puts one of the most recognisable views in the world under the wing.
Departures from Van Nuys usually turn south or south-east, and the Valley opens up at once. The grid below is Balboa, Sherman Way and Victory Blvd, with the 405 running north to south and the 101 cutting east below the hills. The Sepulveda Basin is the big green rectangle off the nose, lakes, playing fields and golf courses. Past it the Santa Monica Mountains stand between you and the coast.
At 2,500 feet the city stops being a map and becomes one continuous thing. The Verdugo Mountains sit north-east above Burbank and Glendale, the downtown towers stack up on the horizon to the south-east, and on a clear winter afternoon you can pick out Catalina beyond the Santa Monica coastline. Air over the Valley is smoothest in the morning; afternoons bring a sea breeze through the passes and gentle movement.
What you will see
The Sepulveda Basin
The green flood-control basin just south of the airport: Lake Balboa, the wildlife reserve, two golf courses. Usually the first thing you see after takeoff.
The Hollywood Sign
It sits on the south slope of Mount Lee, above Griffith Park. From the air you look down on it, which catches people out.
Griffith Observatory
White domes on the ridge above Los Feliz, the whole basin behind them. On a clear run it and the downtown skyline sit in one window.
The Santa Monica coastline
Past the Santa Monica Mountains the land drops away and the Pacific fills the windscreen. The Getty sits on its ridge above the 405 on the way.
The aircraft you will be flying
Most discovery flights go out in a Cessna 162 Skycatcher, Diamond DA20 or Piper Warrior. All three are single-engine trainers with dual controls, which is the point: there is a yoke or stick in front of you as well as the instructor's. If you booked the Luxury Cirrus flight you will be in the SR22 Turbo, a glass-cockpit aircraft with a whole-airframe parachute. The Piper Arrow II has retractable gear, and the twin-engine Piper Seminole flies the multi-engine discovery flight.
Flying one for the first time is less dramatic than people expect. Light aircraft are stable; let go and they mostly carry on flying straight. The inputs are gentle, a few pounds of pressure rather than a wrestle, and the aeroplane answers within a second, so you learn quickly what you just did. Engine noise makes ordinary conversation impossible, so you wear a headset. If you would rather start on the ground, the Redbird MCX full-motion simulator is $189 for a sixty-minute session.
How to prepare for the day
None of this is complicated, but a few things help.
What to wear
Comfortable clothes and closed-toe shoes with flat soles, since you will be using the rudder pedals. Sunglasses help, because the light at altitude is strong and the cockpit has glass on three sides. Skip a hood or loose brim that fights your headset.
What to bring
Photo identification, your confirmation email or gift voucher, and a phone or camera if you want pictures. Headsets are supplied, and we will start a logbook for you. Leave loose items at home, because anything unsecured moves around in a light aircraft.
Food and motion sickness
Eat something light beforehand; an empty stomach is worse than a full one. Motion sickness is uncommon on a smooth morning. Tell your instructor if you are prone to it and they will fly gently and keep the horizon in view.
Weather and rescheduling
We fly in most conditions, but not all. Low cloud, strong crosswinds or poor visibility mean we call you, usually that morning, and move you to another slot at no cost. Nobody here will push a marginal day on you, because the view matters.
Who can come along
Friends and family are welcome and can wait in the office or watch from outside the hangar. Seats are limited, so a passenger must be booked onto your flight rather than added on the day. Children are fine on the ground with an adult.
If you want to keep flying after this
The hour you fly is not a demonstration ride. Your instructor logs it as dual instruction received, and every minute counts toward the forty-hour minimum for an FAA Private Pilot Certificate. If you carry on, you carry on from hour one rather than zero. On top of that, if you enrol within twenty-four hours of your discovery flight, one hundred percent of what you paid for it is credited toward your training. That credit applies whichever training package you go on to choose.
The Standard Private Pilot programme is $10,900 and is where most people start, with larger and smaller packages either side of it, plus a Solo Certificate at $5,500 if you want a nearer goal first. Financing runs through Stratus Financial or an in-house payment plan. Before committing, book the free in-person consultation: you sit down with an instructor at Suite 108A, look at the syllabus and a realistic calendar, and get a number that reflects how often you can actually fly.
Common questions
Yes, that is the point of it. Your instructor handles the takeoff and landing; everything between is yours, including turns over the Valley and the run home. They sit beside you with dual controls throughout.
Neither. A discovery flight is an introductory instructional flight with a certificated instructor, so no medical certificate and no licence are needed. Most people who book have never flown a small aircraft; bring photo identification and nothing else.
Yes, because light aircraft have real weight and balance limits. The trainers suit most adults up to around 250 pounds, and tall passengers fit because the seats adjust. Call (818) 290-8249 beforehand if you think you may be close.
Budget about two hours for a sixty-minute flight. Thirty minutes covers check-in, the briefing and the walkaround, then your booked time in the air, then ten minutes for the debrief and logbook entry. Longer flights add that time on top.
You can. Discovery Flight For One is $229 for sixty minutes, $299 for ninety, $399 for two hours. Discovery Flight For Two is $299, $399 and $499, and Luxury Cirrus For Two starts at $399.
We call you and move the flight. There is no rescheduling fee; the cancellation simply becomes another date that suits you. The spring marine layer and strong Santa Ana winds are what usually push a slot.
It is. Your instructor signs an entry recording aircraft type, route and time as dual instruction received, and it counts toward the FAA Private Pilot Certificate. If you carry on, it is page one of your record.
Call (818) 290-8249 as early as you can and we will find another slot. We are open 9 AM to 9 PM, seven days a week. Give reasonable notice, because an instructor and an aircraft are held for you.
Questions before your flight
Call (818) 290-8249 any day between 9 AM and 9 PM and you will reach an instructor, not a call centre. We hold a 5.0 rating on Google across 53 reviews and have flown more than 2,000 discovery flights.