Flight School In Los Angeles, At Van Nuys Airport
A 14 CFR part 61 school on the field since 2019, with six aircraft types on our own books, a Redbird MCX simulator in the building, and every program price published before you speak to anybody.
Seven Years At Van Nuys. Zero Accidents. Zero Incidents.
There are a great many flight schools in Los Angeles. Very few of them will tell you, in writing, what has happened on their watch. This is ours.
One Field, Seven Years
We have not moved, rebranded or changed operator since 2019. That matters more than it sounds: a school that has flown the same airspace for seven years knows where the traffic goes on a Saturday afternoon and where the practice area empties out.
Our Own Maintenance Shop
Every training aeroplane is inspected on the 100-hour cycle 14 CFR 91.409(b) requires of aircraft used for instruction for hire, and that work is done in our own shop on the field rather than sent out and waited on.
One Student, One Instructor
No shared lessons and no two-students-per-slot arithmetic. Your instructor signs as pilot in command on every flight, because the regulation requires it and because it is the only way a standard holds.
Part 61, Not Part 141
We train under 14 CFR part 61. A part 141 school runs an FAA-approved course outline in a fixed lesson order; part 61 builds to the same aeronautical experience requirements with the freedom to reorder them around your week.
“Accident” and “incident” are used here as 49 CFR 830.2 defines them. We publish no pass rate, no graduate count and no star rating.
Every Course We Teach In Los Angeles, With Its Price
Each figure is a package, not an hourly rate. The aircraft, the fuel, your instructor, the ground instruction and the simulator time are already inside the number.
Discovery Flight
An hour at the controls over Los Angeles with an instructor beside you, logged as dual received.
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Redbird MCX Simulator
A full-motion simulator session on the field. Never cancelled for weather, and loggable within the limits the regulation sets.
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Teens Program
A real training sequence for a young person, built around what a teenager may legally do at each age.
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Sport Pilot
The shortest legal route to flying yourself, flown in the Cessna 162 Skycatcher.
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Solo Certificate
Everything up to the day you fly the aeroplane on your own, priced as its own package.
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Private Pilot
The certificate every route begins with. Standard at $10,900, Comprehensive at $15,900, Premium in the Cirrus at $22,500.
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Instrument Rating
Flying on instruments, in weather, on a clearance. The rung a professional route bolts to.
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Multi-Engine Rating
The twin class rating added to a certificate you already hold, flown in our own Piper Seminole.
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Commercial Pilot
The certificate that makes flying a job rather than a hobby, and the hours that get you there.
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Flight Instructor
The rating that lets you be paid to fly while you build toward the airline minimums.
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Zero To Airline
Every certificate and rating in one sequence, at one figure fixed on the day you enroll.
View the course→Sale prices apply to enrolments completed by 11:59pm Pacific on 30 September 2026: $500 off every private pilot program and $5,000 off the airline program. Examiner fees, knowledge test fees, your medical examination and your own equipment are set by other people and are not inside any program price. Every figure is on the pricing page.
What Learning To Fly In Los Angeles Actually Involves
Los Angeles is one of the busiest pieces of airspace in the country. That is the argument for training here and it is also the honest cost of it.
Van Nuys Airport runs a control tower inside Class D, and the whole field sits beneath the Class B shelf that wraps Los Angeles International. You are talking to a controller from your first taxi call. A student who learns at an untowered field has to add radio work, sequencing and clearance-reading later, usually in a hurry and usually just before a checkride. Here it is ambient from lesson one.
The cost is that your first three hours are busier than they would be at a quiet strip, and some people find that overwhelming. We would rather say so than discover it with you at hour four.
The field elevation is 802 ft above mean sea level, which sounds like a footnote and is not. On a hot September afternoon the density altitude runs to roughly 4,100 ft and the aeroplane climbs like it. Learning to compute that and plan around it is a habit you keep, and it is exactly what 14 CFR 91.103 asks of a pilot in command.
The weather is the other half. Over the twelve months to 1 August 2026, NOAA ASOS observations at Van Nuys recorded 355 days on which four daylight hours cleared a 3,000 ft ceiling and five statute miles of visibility. That is the number that decides whether a schedule survives contact with a calendar.
What Separates One Los Angeles Flight School From Another
Six decisions about how the school runs, each with a cost attached, and the cost named.
Aircraft We Own
Six types on our own books rather than leased in by the afternoon. The capital is tied up in airframes; the benefit is that the maintenance calendar and the flying schedule belong to the same people.
Our Own Shop On The Field
The 100-hour inspection 14 CFR 91.409(b) requires is done here, by people we employ, on aircraft they know. Nothing goes out to a contractor and comes back a fortnight later.
The Whole Price, Published
Every course figure is on this page. The trade is that a fixed price is set against a realistic hour count rather than the regulatory floor, so a quick student subsidises a slower one a little.
A Field That Flies
355 training-capable days a year, counted from NOAA ASOS observations rather than asserted. The honest cost is that actual instrument conditions are scarce here, which is a real weakness for an instrument student.
A Simulator That Never Cancels
A Redbird MCX full-motion device on the field. Weather never scrubs it, procedures are cheap to repeat in it, and within the regulation’s limits the hours are loggable.
Open Seven Days, 9 To 9
Twelve hours a day, every day. If the only time you can fly is a Tuesday evening or a Sunday morning, the schedule exists and the aeroplanes are ours to allocate.
None of the six is unique to us. Together they are the difference between a school that owns its operation and a school that brokers one.
Where Our Students Drive In From
Van Nuys sits in the middle of the San Fernando Valley, which is the practical reason most of our students are Valley residents: a lesson is a round trip you make two or three times a week, not a pilgrimage. Below is what each part of the catchment looks like once you are airborne — because that is what you will actually be navigating by.
Sherman Oaks And Studio City
The Sepulveda Basin is the first ground reference nearly every student here learns, and it sits between the two. From the downwind you can see your own street.
- RouteSepulveda or Van Nuys Blvd, north
- From The AirSepulveda Basin, the 101/405 interchange
Encino And Tarzana
Balboa Boulevard runs from Encino straight to our door at 7900 Balboa. The Encino Reservoir is a hold and orbit reference from the first navigation lesson onward.
- RouteBalboa Blvd, north
- From The AirEncino Reservoir, the Ventura corridor
Woodland Hills And Calabasas
The western end of the Valley, where the practice area effectively begins. The Santa Monica Mountains give you terrain to plan around on a hot day, which is the point.
- RouteVentura Blvd or the 101, east
- From The AirSanta Monica Mountains, the western practice area
Burbank And Toluca Lake
Over the hill and along the 134. Hollywood Burbank’s Class C sits immediately east of our Class D, so students from this side of the Valley meet a real airspace boundary early — which is an advantage disguised as an inconvenience.
- RouteThe 134 west, then Victory
- From The AirThe Burbank hills, the Hollywood sign
Northridge, Reseda And Canoga Park
Due west and north-west of the field, under the departure path on a good many afternoons. If you live here you have been watching our aeroplanes for years without knowing it.
- RouteRoscoe or Sherman Way, east
- From The AirThe Valley grid, Porter Ranch to the north
The Westside And Santa Monica
A longer drive, and worth being honest about: if you are coming from the coast, count the traffic before you count the lesson. Many students from this side train on weekend mornings for exactly that reason.
- RouteThe 405, north over the pass
- From The AirThe coastline, the Santa Monica shelf
What We Will Show You Before You Pay Anything
Six Aircraft Types, Owned
Cessna 162 Skycatcher, Piper Warrior, Diamond DA20-C1, Piper Arrow II, Piper Seminole and Cirrus SR22 Turbo — all on our own books.
One Student, One Instructor
Twelve people on the roster. Every lesson flown one student, one instructor, one aeroplane, with your instructor signing as pilot in command.
A Redbird MCX On The Field
An FAA-approved Advanced Aviation Training Device with three-axis motion, 210° visuals and a real Garmin G430. $189 a session.
355 Measured Flyable Days
Counted from NOAA ASOS observations at KVNY over the twelve months to 1 August 2026, not estimated from a brochure.
Published Pricing
Every course figure is on this page and on the price list. Nothing is quoted on request and nothing changes after you enroll.
Questions People Ask Before Choosing A Flight School In Los Angeles
At Van Nuys Airport (KVNY), 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108, Van Nuys, CA 91406 — the western side of the field, 802 ft above mean sea level. Parking is free and on site, and Suite 108 is a numbered door beside the hangars with the desk immediately inside. We are open 9am to 9pm, seven days.
Here, every figure is published. An hour in the aeroplane to see whether you enjoy it is $229. A Redbird MCX simulator session is $189. The private pilot certificate is $10,900 on the Standard program, $15,900 on Comprehensive and $22,500 on Premium in the Cirrus. The instrument rating is $11,700, the multi-engine class rating $5,100, sport pilot $8,400, the solo certificate $5,500, the teens program $4,200, and the whole zero-to-airline sequence $89,000. Until 30 September 2026 every private pilot program is $500 less and the airline program is $5,000 less.
Four things, all of them set by other people: the examiner’s fee for your practical test, the FAA knowledge test fee, your aviation medical examination, and your own equipment such as a headset. We name them rather than leave them to be discovered.
No. Training here is under 14 CFR part 61. A part 141 school runs an FAA-approved course outline with a fixed lesson order and can certificate a private pilot at a slightly lower hour minimum; a part 61 school builds to the same aeronautical experience requirements with the freedom to reorder them. In practice that means a phase can be compressed when you are ready and stretched when you are not, which suits somebody fitting training around a working week.
For a private pilot certificate, three to six months is typical for somebody flying two or three times a week, and about thirty days is achievable on an accelerated schedule if you can fly almost daily. The variable is not the aeroplane, it is your calendar. Los Angeles helps here: 355 training-capable days a year at Van Nuys means weather cancels far fewer lessons than it would in most of the country.
Not to book a discovery flight, and not for your first lessons. You need one before you fly solo, and it is worth doing early rather than late — discovering a medical issue after you have paid for a program is the single most avoidable disappointment in flight training. Sport pilot is the exception: a valid US driver’s licence can serve in place of an FAA medical.
Six types, all owned and maintained in-house: the Cessna 162 Skycatcher, the Piper Warrior, the Diamond DA20-C1, the Piper Arrow II, the Piper Seminole twin and the Cirrus SR22 Turbo, plus a Redbird MCX full-motion simulator. Which one depends on the phase — first solos usually in the Skycatcher, instrument work mostly in the Warrior, the complex endorsement in the Arrow, and the multi-engine rating in the Seminole.
No — the two phrases describe the same thing, and you will see both used across Los Angeles along with “flying school” and “aviation school”. What actually varies between them is the regulation they train under (part 61 or part 141), whether they own their aircraft, and whether they will tell you the price before you visit.
Yes, and we would rather you did. Walk the ramp, look at the airframes, ask what the times on them are, ask who signs the maintenance, and ask how many students each instructor is carrying. We are open 9am to 9pm, seven days, and nothing about that visit costs anything.
Come And Walk The Flight Line
A ramp is far easier to judge in person than in a photograph. You are welcome to come and look at the aircraft before you book anything at all — bring the awkward questions.
- Address7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite 108, Van Nuys, CA 91406
- AirportVan Nuys Airport (KVNY), western boundary
- Field Elevation802 ft above mean sea level
- Open9am to 9pm, seven days
- ParkingFree and on site
Ask what the airframe times are, ask who signs the maintenance, ask how many students each instructor is carrying, and ask what happens when a lesson is cancelled for weather. A school that cannot answer those four in front of you is telling you something.
Fly It Once Before You Choose A School
Nothing on this page settles whether you will enjoy the work, take instruction well, or hold up in an aeroplane that is moving. An hour settles all three. Book it, fly it, read the written debrief, and then compare us with anybody else in Los Angeles on something concrete.
Where To Go Next
The Field And The Airspace
Flight Training At Van Nuys Airport355 Measured Flying Days At Van NuysOur Fleet, Six Types Owned In-HouseAircraft Rental At Van NuysStart Flying
Discovery Flights Over Los AngelesThe Assessment Flight, ExplainedPrivate Pilot License In Los AngelesRedbird MCX Simulator TrainingWhat This School Is, And What It Is Not
Airline Pilot Flight School is a 14 CFR part 61 flight training provider at Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles, operating since 2019. The word “airline” in the name describes the destination our students are training toward. It does not describe a relationship.
We are not an airline and we are not owned by one. There is no cadet program here, no pathway agreement and no hiring relationship with any carrier. Nothing sold on this site guarantees an interview, a job or a salary.
The record stated on this page — zero accidents and zero incidents since 2019 — uses those two words as 49 CFR 830.2 defines them and describes this operation only. No pass rate, no graduate count and no star rating is published, because a figure drawn from a small sample is noise dressed as evidence.
Prices on this page are the list prices; sale prices apply to enrolments completed by 11:59pm Pacific on 30 September 2026. The 355-day figure is counted from NOAA ASOS observations at KVNY over the twelve months to 1 August 2026 and is explained in full on the flying-days page.
Fly The Aeroplane Once, Then Decide
The assessment flight is the first hour of the syllabus and a two-way evaluation. You fly it from the left seat with an instructor beside you, they write down what they saw, and you get an honest read on whether the plan is realistic. It is loggable, and it is credited in full against enrolment if you enroll within 24 hours.
What happens on an assessment flight →