Terms and refunds
Part of this page is settled and part of it is not, and the two are marked apart. The pricing principles below are firm. Every specific figure, window and notice period is still to be set by the operator and appears as a marked placeholder rather than as text that could be mistaken for an agreed term.
Why is this page incomplete?
Because the specific refund percentages, cancellation windows and notice periods for this business have not been set yet, and writing plausible ones would produce a document that looks like terms and is not. Everything below that is firm is stated in full. Everything that is not is marked, and a marked item is not a term.
The governing document is the training agreement you are given before you pay, not this page. This page exists so that the shape of it is public in advance, and so that anybody comparing schools can see which parts of it are decided.
What is settled today is the pricing behaviour, and it is the part that matters most in practice: every program price is published as a single figure, it is fixed at the point you enrol, and nothing is repriced when you move from one phase to the next. That covers the majority of disputes that arise between students and flight schools.
What is not settled is the exit. Refund percentages against unflown training, notice periods for cancelling a booked lesson, the treatment of a no-show, whether unused program credit expires, and how weather cancellations are handled are all listed below as open items. Ask about each of them before you pay, and get the answer in the agreement rather than in conversation.
What is already firm?
Four commitments that are in force now and are visible across the whole site rather than only on this page. Each one is checkable by opening any other page.
Published prices, as single figures
Every program price is on the site. No figure is a range, no figure is withheld pending an enquiry, and there is no separate quote available to somebody who asks.
- RangesNone published
- Withheld pricesNone
- Negotiated ratesNone
Fixed at enrolment
The figure attached to a program on the day you enrol is the figure for the content that program states. It is not an estimate and it is not revised as you go.
- Repricing at a phase boundaryNone
- BasisThe stated content
- Where statedThe training agreement
Third-party charges are named, not priced
Examiner fees, knowledge test fees, your FAA medical examination and your own equipment are set by other people. They are named across this site and priced nowhere on it.
- Examiner feePaid by you, directly
- Knowledge testPaid by you, directly
- MedicalPaid by you, directly
Training delivered is delivered
Instruction that has been given and flying that has been flown are not recoverable, at this school or any other. That is the one part of the exit position that is not open, and it is why the medical belongs before the deposit.
- Flown hoursNot refundable
- Unflown balanceSee the open items
- LogbookYours, always
What has not been set yet?
Seven items. Every one of them is marked as not yet published because it genuinely is not, and none of the wording below should be read as a term. Ask about each before you pay and expect a specific answer in the agreement.
Refunds against unflown training
The basis on which an unflown balance is returned, any administrative deduction applied to it, and the timescale for payment. Status: NOT YET PUBLISHED.
What can be said now is the principle rather than the number: training already delivered is not refundable, and what happens to the remainder is exactly the question this item covers.
Deposit treatment
Whether the deposit that opens an arrangement, from $2,500, is refundable, partially refundable, or applied as credit, and within what window. Status: NOT YET PUBLISHED.
Lesson cancellation notice, and no-shows
The notice period for cancelling a booked lesson without charge, and how a no-show is treated. Status: NOT YET PUBLISHED.
This is the term that comes up most often in practice at any flight school, because it is the one a student meets every week rather than once. It is worth asking about specifically.
Weather and unserviceability cancellations
How a lesson cancelled for weather or for an unserviceable aircraft is handled, and whether a simulator session may be substituted. Status: NOT YET PUBLISHED.
Context that is settled: NOAA ASOS observations put 355 training-capable days into the twelve months ending 1 August 2026 at this field, so weather cancellations are a small part of the calendar. The policy still needs writing.
Whether program credit expires
Whether an enrolled program has a completion window, and what happens to unused credit if training pauses for an extended period. Status: NOT YET PUBLISHED.
Additional instruction beyond a program
What instruction costs where a student needs more hours than the program contains. Status: NOT YET PUBLISHED, and this gap is named on the fixed price page as well rather than only here.
The published $179 hourly figure is the airframe and its fuel for enrolled students and is not an instructor rate. No instructor rate is published anywhere on this site.
Transfer, pause and reinstatement
Whether an enrolment may be paused, transferred to another person, or reinstated after a break, and on what basis. Status: NOT YET PUBLISHED.
What should you do with an incomplete terms page?
Treat every marked item as a question to ask before you pay, and get each answer inside the training agreement rather than in an email. That is good practice against any school, and it is the reason this page is published in this state rather than withheld until it is finished.
A withheld terms page and a complete-looking invented one are both worse than this. The first tells a prospective student nothing; the second tells them something untrue at precisely the point where accuracy matters. Publishing the shape of the document with the gaps marked lets you ask better questions and lets you compare schools on the same axis.
The list above is also a usable checklist elsewhere. Take the seven items to any flight school you are considering and ask for each one in writing. A school that answers all seven before taking a deposit is behaving properly. A school that answers none is telling you something.
One firm statement to close on, because it is the one that does not depend on any of the open items. Money spent on training you have already received is gone, everywhere, at every school. That is why this site argues for sitting the medical examination before enrolling and for testing your tempo before borrowing, and it is the single most useful sentence on this page.
The status of this document
This page is a summary of terms in preparation and it is not itself a contract. Items marked as not yet published are genuinely unset and must not be relied upon in any form. The governing document is the training agreement provided before payment. Where this page and that agreement differ, the agreement is what applies. This page will be replaced with settled terms once the operator has set them.
Airline Pilot Flight School trains under part 61 of 14 CFR, at Van Nuys Airport. It is not an airline, it is not owned by one, and no carrier holds a cadet program, pathway agreement or hiring arrangement with us. We do not guarantee an interview, a job or a salary.
No pass rate, no graduate count and no rating of any kind is published on this site. The operation is new, any such figure would come from a sample too small to mean anything, and inventing one is the easiest lie available in this industry. What is published instead is the syllabus, the price, the hours and the regulation behind each requirement.
Questions about terms and refunds
The specific basis for refunding an unflown balance is not yet set and appears on this page as a marked placeholder rather than as invented text. What is firm is that training already delivered is not refundable, at this school or any other. Ask for the refund terms in writing before you pay, and expect them in the training agreement.
Not yet determined, and marked as such above. Arrangements here begin from $2,500 down, and whether that deposit is refundable, partly refundable or held as credit is one of the seven open items on this page. Ask before you pay rather than afterwards.
The notice period and any charge attached to a late cancellation are not yet set. This is the term you will meet most often in practice, so it is worth asking about specifically and getting into the agreement rather than accepting a verbal answer.
No, and that part is settled. The figure attached to a program on the day you enrol is the figure for the content that program states, and nothing is recalculated when you move between phases. That commitment is visible on every program page rather than only here.
Charges set by other people: the examiner’s fee for a practical test, knowledge test fees, your FAA medical examination and your own equipment. Those are named across this site and priced nowhere on it, because this school neither sets nor bills any of them.
That figure is not published, and rather than invent one this site names the gap in two places. Ask us before you enrol and get the answer in writing, and put the same question to every other school you are considering. It is a fair question with a specific answer.
Whether an enrolled program carries a completion window, and what happens to unused credit across a long pause, is one of the open items above. It is not yet set. Ask for it in the agreement.
The policy is not yet written. For context, NOAA ASOS observations recorded 355 training-capable days at this field across the twelve months ending 1 August 2026, so cancellations are a small part of the calendar. A simulator session is sometimes a good substitute and sometimes a poor one depending on the lesson.
Because the alternative is either publishing nothing, which tells you nothing, or publishing invented terms that look settled and are not. Marking the gaps lets you ask specific questions before paying and lets you compare schools on the same seven points.
The training agreement given to you before payment. This page describes the shape of it and marks what is still open; it is not itself a contract, and where the two differ the agreement is what applies.
Where to go next
Take the open items to every school you are considering
Seven questions, asked before a deposit, in writing. They work on this school and they work on every other one, and the answers tell you more than any amount of marketing.
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 →