Twenty-two flight training businesses advertise from Van Nuys Airport: nineteen fixed-wing schools and three helicopter operators. This page lists all of them by name, with the address, fleet, programs and prices each one publishes on its own website, checked on 13 September 2026 — and it includes us, You Fly LA, as one entry among twenty-two rather than as the answer.
We are a flight school at Van Nuys, so this is a directory written by an interested party. The rule we set ourselves is therefore strict. Every fact below comes from the school's own website or from the airport's published tenant information. Nothing is scored, ranked or rated. Where a school does not publish something, the entry says not published rather than filling the gap with a guess. If you want our own case argued properly instead of flattened into a table row, it is on flight training at Van Nuys Airport, and the wider metropolitan picture is on flight school in Los Angeles.
How To Use This Directory
A directory is only useful if you know what it can and cannot tell you. This one can tell you who exists, where on the field they sit, what aircraft and programs they advertise, and — crucially — whether they are willing to put a number on their website. It cannot tell you whether a particular instructor is right for you, whether an airplane was on the maintenance jacks last Tuesday, or whether the school will still have a slot at 6 PM on a Wednesday in four months' time. Those are the things that actually decide whether you finish, and the only way to learn them is to walk in.
Three conventions run through every entry.
Part 61 or Part 141 is recorded only when the school states it. The FAA certificates pilot schools under 14 CFR Part 141, which requires an approved training course outline for each course (§141.53), an approved chief instructor (§141.35), approved aircraft (§141.39) and approved ground training facilities (§141.45). A school with no Part 141 certificate trains under Part 61, which is the great majority of general aviation instruction in the United States. Most Van Nuys schools do not state which they hold anywhere on their site, and we are not going to infer a certificate nobody claimed. Our own page on Part 61 versus Part 141 in Los Angeles explains why the distinction matters far less to a private pilot than the marketing suggests, and where it genuinely does matter.
Fleets are listed as published, not as observed. Some schools publish a full list with tail numbers. Some publish types without counts. Some publish photographs and nothing else. A school that does not list its fleet is not necessarily hiding a small one — plenty of busy operations simply never got round to building the page. But if a fleet matters to you, and it should, ask for the list and the tail numbers before you pay anything.
Prices are quoted exactly as published, with the date they were checked. Aviation prices move. Fuel moves, insurance moves, and an hourly rate published in January is not a promise in December. Treat every figure on this page as a starting point for a phone call, including ours.
What "Not Published" Means Here
It means we looked and could not find it on the school's own site. It is not a criticism and it is not evidence of anything. A school can be excellent and publish nothing; a school can publish a beautiful rate card and be hard to book. What it does tell you is how much homework you will have to do by telephone before you can compare two schools honestly, and that is worth knowing before you spend a Saturday driving around the field.
Van Nuys Airport: The Field All Of These Schools Share
Van Nuys Airport sits in the San Fernando Valley, about fifteen miles inland from the Pacific, and is one of the world's busiest general aviation airports by movement count. It has two parallel runways — 16R/34L at 8,001 feet and 16L/34R at 4,000 feet — a full-time control tower, Class D airspace, and the Los Angeles Class B shelf directly overhead. Sherman Way runs under the main runway in a tunnel, which is the detail everyone remembers from their first visit.
That shared infrastructure is the reason a directory like this is worth writing. Whichever of the twenty-two you choose, you get the same runways, the same tower frequency, the same Valley weather and the same route to the practice areas over the Santa Susana and Santa Monica mountains. You will learn to talk to a real controller from your first lesson instead of self-announcing into a quiet sky, and you will learn to fit into a pattern that has other aircraft in it. The airport is not the variable. The school is.
Everything about the field itself — airspace, runways, weather, the drive in — is set out on our Van Nuys Airport page. If you want to know how often the weather actually lets you fly here, we keep a page on flyable days at Van Nuys, and if you are weighing Van Nuys against the other training fields in the basin, there is a page on choosing the best airport for flight training in Los Angeles and another comparing Van Nuys with Camarillo.
Where The Schools Physically Sit
Three addresses account for most of the training on the field. 7900 Balboa Boulevard is the large multi-tenant complex on the west side, with hangars and suites let to a dozen aviation businesses; several schools listed below are neighbors in that building. 16425 Hart Street is a second cluster on the north side. 16781 Stagg Street and 7240 Hayvenhurst Place each host one operator from this list. Sharing an address does not mean sharing a company — the businesses at 7900 Balboa are separate operations with separate fleets, separate instructors and separate prices, and they compete with each other.
Every Fixed-Wing Flight School At Van Nuys Airport
Nineteen fixed-wing operators, listed alphabetically, with numerals last. Our own entry appears in its alphabetical place.
ActivePILOT
activepilot.com · Van Nuys Airport (KVNY); street address not published. Part 61 or 141 status: not published.
ActivePILOT is one of the small number of Van Nuys schools that publish whole-course prices rather than hourly rates, which makes it unusually easy to compare against anybody else that does the same. Its site lists a Private Pilot course at $15,061 to $16,219 over three to six months, an Instrument Rating at $16,078 to $17,350 over two to three months, and a Commercial Pilot course at $9,017 to $9,975 over one to two months. The school markets a "Zero-1500" pathway aimed at pilots building toward airline minimums and an EASA-to-FAA conversion route for license holders arriving from Europe. Aircraft mentioned on the site include a Piper Warrior and a Twin Comanche; the site does not publish a full fleet list or counts. It does not publish a discovery flight price. The school states that its instructor group includes current airline captains flying the Boeing 737 and Embraer E-175, which is a genuinely distinctive thing to advertise and worth asking about on a visit, because instructor availability at a school staffed by working line pilots depends on their rosters.
American Aviation Sales & Services
americanaviationvny.com · Hangar 2, 16425 Hart Street, Van Nuys, CA 91406. Part 61 or 141 status: not published.
American Aviation is the entry on this list that is least like a conventional flight school, and it is included because people searching for flight training at Van Nuys find it. The business is a full-service hangar operation: aircraft rental, on-site maintenance, interior and upholstery work, import and export services, a flight simulator, and a "Learn to Fly" section built around an instructor network rather than a school curriculum. In practice that is a different model — you rent the airplane from the business and engage an independent instructor through it, instead of buying a packaged course from a single organization. It suits people who already hold a certificate and want an aircraft plus an instructor for a checkout, a flight review or an endorsement. The site does not publish a fleet list, program structure, discovery flight price or hourly rates. If you are starting from zero, ask directly how the instructor relationship works and who is responsible for your syllabus before you commit.
Ascent Aviation Academy
ascentaviationacademy.com · 16425 Hart Street, Suite 101, Van Nuys, CA 91406. Part 61 or 141 status: not published.
Ascent publishes one of the larger and more uniform fleets on the field: twelve aircraft, described as principally Piper Warriors and Archers with 180-horsepower engines. Fleet uniformity is an underrated thing to look for, because it means an aircraft going unserviceable does not force you into a different type mid-syllabus, and it means your checkout transfers across the whole line. The school offers Private, Instrument and Commercial training, the full instructor ladder of CFI, CFII and MEI, a multi-engine course, discovery flights, online ground school and simulator work. Its headline published figure is a Pilot Career Package at $50,000 to $70,000 covering zero to career over seven to twelve months, with pay-as-you-go blocks available for the Private Pilot stage and interest-free financing advertised. It does not publish a discovery flight price. Ascent also runs an unusually deep set of local landing pages aimed at Burbank, Torrance and central Los Angeles, so it is a school you are likely to meet in search results well outside the Valley.
Aviators Flight Academy
aviatorsinc.com · 7900 Balboa Boulevard, Unit D6, Van Nuys, CA 91406, and 575 Aviation Drive, Camarillo, CA 93010. States it is Part 61 approved.
Aviators runs from two airports: its Camarillo base at KCMA and a Van Nuys unit at 7900 Balboa. Two-airport schools are worth understanding before you enroll, because the aircraft, the instructors and the office staff may not all be at the field you drive to. The published program list runs the full ladder — Sport Pilot, Private, Instrument, Commercial, CFI, CFII and Multi-Engine — which makes it one of the few Van Nuys operations advertising a Sport Pilot course, the certificate that can be exercised on a driver's license under 14 CFR 61.23(c). The site does not publish a fleet list, a discovery flight price or hourly rates. The school's marketing emphasizes reaching airline-ready qualifications in as little as two years from zero experience. If you are choosing between the two bases, ask which aircraft are hangared at Van Nuys specifically, and whether your instructor is Van Nuys-based or commutes.
California Flight School
californiaflightschool.com · 16425 Hart Street, Van Nuys, CA 91406. Part 61 or 141 status: not published.
California Flight School is the most visible Van Nuys school in organic search statewide, and a large share of that visibility comes from a single well-built page about what flight school costs. Its published program list is Discovery Flight, Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, Commercial Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor. The discovery flight is priced at $199. The site states the business has been operating for more than twenty-eight years and lists airlines its graduates have gone on to fly for. It advertises career pilot financing described as $500 per month or less through third-party lenders, but it does not publish hourly rates, package prices or a fleet list. Note that vannuysflightschool.com, a domain often associated with the school in older directory listings, no longer resolves to a live site, so use the californiaflightschool.com address above.
Clipper Aviation
clipperaviation.com · 7900 Balboa Boulevard, Van Nuys, CA 91406. Part 61 or 141 status: not published.
Clipper is primarily a charter operator — its published fleet is the King Air 350, and its marketing is built around point-to-point time savings for business travelers rather than around ab initio training. Flight training and a discovery flight both appear as options in the contact form on the site, but no program structure, syllabus, training fleet, discovery price or hourly rate is published. It is listed here because it is a Van Nuys aviation business that mentions training and therefore appears in searches for it. If you are looking for a primary training school, the entries above and below will give you more to work with; if you are a turbine pilot or an owner looking at King Air operations, Clipper is the Van Nuys name in that space.
Corsair Aviation
corsairaviation.com · 7900 Balboa Boulevard, Suite E209A, Van Nuys, CA 91406. States it holds both Part 61 and Part 141, as an FAA-approved pilot school.
Corsair is one of only two operators in this directory that states a Part 141 certificate, which makes it the obvious first call if a structured, FAA-approved course outline matters to you — for a veteran checking benefit eligibility, for an employer-funded student, or simply for someone who prefers a syllabus signed off by the FAA. It publishes its fleet in detail: three Cessna 162 Skycatchers, two Cessna 172S Skyhawks, a Cessna T206H Stationair, an Aero Commander 500S Shrike, and a Redbird TD basic aviation training device. It describes itself as the sole Cessna Pilot Center at Van Nuys, which is a manufacturer-endorsed program with its own syllabus materials. Training runs from private through commercial with advanced and specialty work, and discovery flights are offered in both the 162 and the 172. Prices are not published — neither the discovery flight nor hourly rates. The business also runs a charter arm on a separate subdomain.
First Take Aviation
firsttakeaviation.com · 7900 Balboa Boulevard, Suite E204B, Van Nuys, CA 91406. Part 61 or 141 status: not published.
First Take publishes the lowest headline discovery flight price of the schools in this directory that publish one at all: $195. Its program list is Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, Commercial Pilot and Certified Flight Instructor, and it positions itself as a community for pilots as much as a training provider. The site does not publish a fleet list or counts, and it does not publish hourly rates or course prices. A low discovery price is a legitimate way to get people through the door and tells you nothing either way about the cost of the training that follows, so if the number is what brings you in, ask on the day what an hour of dual actually costs and what the airplane rents for.
Flying Academy Los Angeles
la.flyingacademy.com · Van Nuys (KVNY) and Corona (KAJO); street addresses not published. States it is FAR 141 and SEVIS approved.
Flying Academy is the international-student specialist on this field and the second of the two Part 141 operators here. SEVIS approval is the thing to focus on: it means the school is authorized to issue the paperwork a foreign national needs to train in the United States on a student visa, which no Part 61 school can do. If you are arriving from overseas on an M-1, this is one of very few Van Nuys doors open to you. The published fleet types are the Piper Arrow, the Piper Warrior II, the Cessna 152 and the Cessna 172, without counts. Programs are Private, Instrument and Commercial, with online courses and discovery flights. Neither a discovery price nor hourly rates are published. The school also advertises student accommodation with private rooms, which matters more than it sounds for someone relocating to Los Angeles for a course. The organization operates several related domains, including a parent site and a Corona site, so check which entity and which airport any quotation refers to.
Hot Shot Aviation
hotshotaviation.com · street address not published. Part 61 or 141 status: not published.
Hot Shot publishes the least detail of any operator in this directory, but what it does publish is unusual enough to be worth recording: the site states that the school is operated by Part 121 airline captains and that its owner is a Designated Pilot Examiner. A DPE is the FAA-designated individual who administers practical tests, and that is a genuinely relevant fact for a student, though not necessarily in the way it first appears — an examiner cannot test a candidate they have trained beyond the limits the FAA sets on that, so ask directly how checkrides are handled for the school's own students. Private, commercial and ATP-level training are referenced. No address, fleet, program structure, discovery price or rates are published. This is an entry where a phone call will tell you more in five minutes than the website will in an hour.
LA Flight Academy
laflightacademy.com · 7900 Balboa Boulevard, Unit G6, Van Nuys, CA 91406. States its programs follow a Part 61 structure with defined phases.
LA Flight Academy publishes more operational detail than almost anyone else on the field, and that alone makes it easy to evaluate. The fleet is listed by tail number: three Piper Archers (N4409X, N4313F and N5BM), a Cirrus SR20 (N219EL), a Baron BE55 twin (N120B), plus Cessna 172 and Cherokee airframes and a Gleim basic aviation training device — nine aircraft in the published list. Hourly rates are published and span roughly $70 to $390 depending on the aircraft, with block rates offered; the SR20, for example, is listed at $205 per hour or $195 per hour on block. The program list is broad: Private, Instrument, Commercial, Multi-Engine, CFI, advanced training, Cirrus-specific instruction, spin training, flight reviews, instrument proficiency checks and ATP. A discovery flight price is not published. The distinctive element is a stated "fly here, get hired here" relationship with SOFAR, a Part 135 charter operator, offering a route into commercial flying that does not depend on instructing to build hours.
Mach 1 Aviation
flymach1.com · 7240 Hayvenhurst Place, #247, Van Nuys, CA 91406. Part 61 or 141 status: not published.
Mach 1 is the Cirrus specialist at Van Nuys. Its published fleet is the Cirrus SR20 and the SR22T, counts not stated, and it describes itself as Los Angeles's only Platinum Cirrus Training Center — the top tier of the manufacturer's own instructor and school accreditation scheme. Training covers private, instrument and commercial ratings plus Cirrus transition work for owners moving onto type. Neither a discovery flight price nor hourly rates are published. Cirrus training is a genuinely different proposition from training in a Warrior or a Skycatcher: the airplanes are faster, glass-panel throughout, fitted with the airframe parachute system, and considerably more expensive per hour, which is a reasonable trade for someone who intends to own one and a poor one for someone who simply wants a private certificate at the lowest defensible cost. We fly a Cirrus SR22 Turbo ourselves and set out the case for and against on Cirrus training in Los Angeles.
One Source Aviation
flyvannuys.com · 16781 Stagg Street, Hangar X1, Van Nuys, CA 91406. Part 61 or 141 status: not published.
One Source is a small operation that publishes almost everything, which is the opposite of the usual trade-off and makes it very easy to compare. Three aircraft are listed with tail numbers and rates: N283MK, a 160-horsepower single at $175 per hour; N5630F, a 150-horsepower single at $170 per hour; and N15U, a twin with two 180-horsepower engines at $350 per hour. The discovery flight is $199 with $100 credited back on enrollment. Programs cover Private, Instrument, Commercial, CFI and CFII, the high-performance and complex endorsements under 14 CFR 61.31, and multi-engine. Published completion times run from three to four months for a Private Pilot certificate down to one to two months for a CFI, and the site describes a zero-to-commercial path in nine months. A three-aircraft fleet means scheduling is the question to ask: find out how many active students share those three airframes before you plan a timetable around them.
The Flight Academy
theflightacademycali.com · 7900 Balboa Boulevard, Hangar J5, Van Nuys, CA 91406. States it is Part 61.
The Flight Academy is a family-owned school whose published program list is the broadest on the field for endorsements rather than certificates. Alongside Private, Instrument, Commercial, Multi-Engine Commercial, CFI, CFII and MEI, it advertises tailwheel training, complex and high-performance endorsements, and spin awareness and upset recovery training. Tailwheel and upset recovery are both genuinely hard to find in the Los Angeles basin, and if either is on your list this is one of the first places to ring. The site does not publish a structured fleet list — Cessna types and a Piper Seneca appear in customer reviews — and it publishes neither a discovery flight price nor hourly rates. It cites a student completing private through commercial in under three months at a cost of roughly $30,000, which is offered as a case study rather than a price list. The school also runs a cost-guide blog that ranks well for training-cost searches.
The Flight School At Van Nuys
flighttrainingvannuys.com · street address not published. Part 61 or 141 status: not published.
This school publishes the lowest discovery flight price in the directory, from $99, and a small published fleet: a Cessna 172 with a Garmin 430 and a KX-155, and a Piper Chieftain. Programs listed are Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, Commercial Pilot, multi-engine training and instrument proficiency checks, supported by an FAA-approved simulator for instrument work. One caveat belongs with this entry and we would rather state it plainly than leave you to find out: the operation does not appear in the airport's current published tenant directory, and the site publishes no street address. Ring before you drive, and confirm the business is currently trading and where on the field to meet them.
Vertical Aviation
verticalaviation.org · 7900 Balboa Boulevard, Van Nuys, CA 91406; also operates at Aurora, Oregon. Part 61 or 141 status: not published.
Vertical Aviation is the only school at Van Nuys whose published trainer is the Sling 2, a modern light sport aircraft from The Airplane Factory, described on the site as a technically advanced aircraft with a glass panel, autopilot and GPS. Programs are Sport Pilot, Private Pilot and Commercial Pilot. The school makes a point of the Sport Pilot medical route — a valid US driver's license in place of an FAA medical certificate, subject to the conditions in 14 CFR 61.23(c) — which is the single strongest argument for that certificate and the reason people choose it. Neither a discovery flight price nor hourly rates are published, and fleet counts are not stated. If a light sport aircraft is what you want to train in, this and the Skycatchers at Corsair and at our own operation are the Van Nuys options; our page on the sport pilot license sets out what the certificate does and does not let you do.
Wings Over L.A. Aviation
wingsoverla.net · 7900 Balboa Boulevard, Suite J1, Van Nuys, CA 91406. Part 61 or 141 status: not published.
Wings Over L.A. publishes a varied fleet by type: a Cessna 182D, two Cessna 172N, a Cessna 172S, a Cessna 152, a Piper Archer PA-28-180, and two Travel Air BE95 twins. Two light twins in a school fleet is unusual at Van Nuys and matters if multi-engine time building is on your plan, because availability rather than price is normally the constraint on twin hours in Los Angeles. Training is described as covering private through ATP. The business also runs sightseeing air tours of Los Angeles and Southern California alongside its training. Neither a discovery flight price nor hourly rates are published, and the site does not detail its certificate courses beyond the private-through-ATP range. The King Schools affiliation advertised on the site indicates the ground-school materials used rather than a regulatory status.
You Fly LA
7900 Balboa Boulevard, Van Nuys, CA 91406 · Part 61 · (818) 330-1318.
This is us, and here is our position stated plainly. We are a Part 61 school. We do not hold Part 141, we cannot issue I-20 forms, and we are not an approved provider for GI Bill funding of a private pilot certificate — if any of those three things is what you need, Corsair Aviation and Flying Academy are the Part 141 operators on this field and Flying Academy holds the SEVIS approval. What we do is publish every number and hold it fixed for the length of a course.
The fleet is twelve aircraft plus two training devices: five Cessna 162 Skycatchers, two Piper Warrior PA-28-161s, two Diamond DA20-C1s, a Piper Arrow PA-28R, a Piper Seminole PA-44-180 twin, a Cirrus SR22 Turbo, a Redbird MCX full-motion FAA-approved advanced aviation training device and a Redbird TD2 desktop trainer. Every aircraft has its own page with rates and equipment, listed on the airplanes you'll fly.
Rates are published in two forms because they genuinely differ: a package rate inside a course and a retail rate for pay-as-you-go and rental. Aircraft run from $179 per hour package and $269 retail for the Skycatcher and Warrior, through $229 package and $329 retail for the DA20, to $449 package and $649 retail for the Seminole and the Cirrus SR22T. Instruction is $110 per hour, in the aircraft or the simulator, and ground instruction is $110 per hour. The full table is on flight school rates at Van Nuys.
Courses are fixed-price: Sport Pilot $8,400, Private Pilot from $10,400 for the Standard package to $23,400 for the Turbo Cirrus route, Instrument $11,700, Commercial $15,400, Multi-Engine $5,100 as a seven-day accelerated course, the full instructor ladder of CFI, CFII and MEI at $15,400, the Airline Pilot Career Program at $84,000 over roughly nine months of training to 260 logged hours, and a Teens Pilot Course at $4,200 for ages ten to fifteen. The complex endorsement in the Arrow is $999 and the high-performance endorsement in the SR22T is $1,799. Our discovery flight is $229 for sixty minutes, you fly it from the left seat, and it is credited in full toward training if you enroll within twenty-four hours.
Where we are weaker than others on this list: we are Part 61, so there is no FAA-approved course outline; we have one twin, so multi-engine scheduling is finite; and our discovery flight is not the cheapest on the field. Where we think we are stronger: the prices above are on the website, not behind a form, and they do not move once you have enrolled. What that looks like day to day is on a day in the life of flight training at Van Nuys.
14DAYPILOT Flight Academy
14daypilot.com · 16425 Hart Street, Suite 108, Van Nuys, CA 91406, with branch offices listed in Jakarta and Johor Bahru. Part 61 or 141 status: not published.
14DAYPILOT builds its entire model around calendar compression, and its published program list is the most aggressive at Van Nuys: a 14-day accelerated Private Pilot program, a 10-day Instrument Rating, a 5-day Commercial Pilot program, a 5-day Multi-Engine program, a 10-day CFI, a 3-day high-performance and complex course, a 16-day ICAO and EASA to FAA conversion, and a 120-day airline pilot academy. The site states a fleet of more than ten aircraft without listing types, and states an AOPA 2026 Distinguished Flight School award. Neither a discovery flight price nor course prices are published. Accelerated training is a real technique rather than a marketing trick — density reduces forgetting between lessons — but a 14-day private certificate requires you to arrive able to give the course fourteen consecutive days and to pass the knowledge test, and weather or a maintenance day eats directly into the schedule. We compare the accelerated models, including this one, on accelerated flight schools compared.
30 Day CFI Flight Training Academy
30daycfi.com · 7900 Balboa Boulevard, Suite E102, Van Nuys, CA 91406. Part 61 or 141 status: not published.
30 Day CFI is the instructor-rating specialist on the field and states that this has been its speciality for more than twenty-seven years, with more than 1,200 pilots trained since 1997. The headline programs are a 30-day CFI course and a 15-day accelerated CFII, with MEI also offered, alongside conventional Private, Instrument and Commercial training and a nine-month career program from private license to airline minimums. The published fleet is Piper Archers; the newest listed is N23DD, a 2023 Archer LX with a Garmin G1000 NXi panel. The discovery flight is $249 for sixty minutes, credited toward enrollment. Hourly rates and course prices are not published. If a CFI certificate is the goal, note that the spin training endorsement required by 14 CFR 61.183(i) has to come from somewhere, and it is worth confirming which aircraft any school intends to use for it — we use the Diamond DA20-C1 in the utility category for ours.
Helicopter Schools And Operators At Van Nuys
Three rotary-wing businesses are associated with the field. We do not offer helicopter training and have no stake in this section; it is here because "flight school at Van Nuys" is a search that returns helicopter operators and you should be able to tell them apart. If you are weighing rotary against fixed wing, our blog post on helicopter versus airplane discovery flights sets out the practical differences.
Group 3 Aviation
group3aviation.com · street address not published on the site. Group 3's published business is tours, charter, aerial photography and video, aerial survey, equipment testing and Part 133 external load work. Tour prices are published and run from $350 for thirty-five minutes to $1,595 for two hours. The fleet is not published and flight training program detail is not published. The site states more than thirty years of operation in greater Los Angeles.
Lite Flight Helicopters
liteflighthelicopters.com · the address published on the site is Atlantic Aviation, 10750 Sherman Way, Burbank, CA 91505, which is Hollywood Burbank Airport rather than Van Nuys — worth knowing before you drive. The published fleet is the Robinson R44 and the Robinson R22. Training is described as commercial pilot training with certified flight instructors, and demonstration flights are logged toward a pilot logbook. Tours start at $138 to $159 per person and demonstration flights start at $250. Part 61 or 141 status is not published.
Pacific RotorWays
prwfs.com · Pacific RotorWays is the third rotary-wing name associated with Van Nuys in the airport's tenant information. Its website could not be read at the time this page was written, so its address, fleet, programs and prices are all recorded here as not published. Contact them directly for current details rather than relying on third-party directory entries.
The Van Nuys Flight School Comparison Table
Everything above, compressed. "NP" means not published on the school's own site as of 13 September 2026.
| School | Address At Or Near KVNY | Part 61 / 141 | Published Fleet | Programs Advertised | Discovery Flight | Rates Or Course Prices Published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ActivePILOT | NP | NP | Warrior, Twin Comanche mentioned; counts NP | PPL, IR, CPL, ME, CFI, Zero-1500, EASA to FAA | NP | Yes — PPL $15,061–$16,219; IR $16,078–$17,350; CPL $9,017–$9,975 |
| American Aviation | Hangar 2, 16425 Hart St | NP | NP | Rental, maintenance, instructor network, simulator | NP | No |
| Ascent Aviation Academy | 16425 Hart St, Ste 101 | NP | 12 aircraft, mainly Warriors and Archers 180 hp | PPL, IFR, CPL, CFI/CFII/MEI, ME, ground school | Offered, price NP | Yes — career package $50,000–$70,000 |
| Aviators Flight Academy | 7900 Balboa Blvd, Unit D6 | Part 61 stated | NP | Sport, PPL, IR, CPL, CFI, CFII, ME | NP | No |
| California Flight School | 16425 Hart St | NP | NP | PPL, IR, CPL, CFI | $199 | No — financing only |
| Clipper Aviation | 7900 Balboa Blvd | NP | King Air 350 | Charter primarily; training referenced | Referenced, price NP | No |
| Corsair Aviation | 7900 Balboa Blvd, Ste E209A | Part 61 and 141 | 3 × C162, 2 × C172S, C206, Aero Commander 500S, Redbird TD | PPL, CPL, advanced, Part 141 courses | Offered, price NP | No |
| First Take Aviation | 7900 Balboa Blvd, Ste E204B | NP | NP | PPL, IR, CPL, CFI | $195 | No |
| Flying Academy LA | KVNY and KAJO; street NP | Part 141, SEVIS | Arrow, Warrior II, C152, C172; counts NP | PPL, IR, CPL, online courses, housing | Offered, price NP | No |
| Hot Shot Aviation | NP | NP | NP | Private, commercial, ATP referenced | NP | No |
| LA Flight Academy | 7900 Balboa Blvd, Unit G6 | Part 61 structure stated | 9 listed: 3 × Archer, SR20, Baron BE55, C172, Cherokee, Gleim BATD | PPL, IR, CPL, ME, CFI, Cirrus, spin, BFR, IPC, ATP | NP | Yes — roughly $70–$390/hr, block rates |
| Mach 1 Aviation | 7240 Hayvenhurst Pl, #247 | NP | Cirrus SR20 and SR22T; counts NP | PPL, IR, CPL, Cirrus transition | NP | No |
| One Source Aviation | 16781 Stagg St, Hangar X1 | NP | 3: N283MK, N5630F, N15U twin | PPL, IR, CPL, CFI, CFII, HP/complex, ME | $199, $100 credited on enrollment | Yes — $175, $170, $350 per hour |
| The Flight Academy | 7900 Balboa Blvd, Hangar J5 | Part 61 stated | NP | PPL, IR, CPL, ME, CFI, CFII, MEI, tailwheel, complex/HP, spin and upset | NP | No |
| The Flight School At Van Nuys | NP | NP | C172 (GNS 430, KX-155), Piper Chieftain | PPL, IR, CPL, ME, IPC | From $99 | No |
| Vertical Aviation | 7900 Balboa Blvd | NP | Sling 2 LSA; counts NP | Sport, PPL, CPL | NP | No |
| Wings Over L.A. | 7900 Balboa Blvd, Ste J1 | NP | C182D, 2 × C172N, C172S, C152, Archer, 2 × Travel Air BE95 | Private through ATP; air tours | NP | No |
| You Fly LA | 7900 Balboa Blvd | Part 61 | 12 aircraft: 5 × C162, 2 × Warrior, 2 × DA20-C1, Arrow, Seminole, SR22T, plus Redbird MCX and TD2 | Sport, PPL, IR, CPL, ME, CFI/CFII/MEI, airline program, teens | $229, credited in full on enrollment within 24 hours | Yes — full hourly and course price list |
| 14DAYPILOT | 16425 Hart St, Ste 108 | NP | 10+ aircraft stated; types NP | 14-day PPL, 10-day IR, 5-day CPL, 5-day ME, 10-day CFI, 120-day airline academy, ICAO conversion | NP | No |
| 30 Day CFI Academy | 7900 Balboa Blvd, Ste E102 | NP | Piper Archers; newest N23DD Archer LX G1000 NXi | PPL, IR, CPL, 30-day CFI, 15-day CFII, MEI, 9-month career | $249, credited toward enrollment | No |
What The Directory Actually Shows
Read down those columns and four patterns fall out, none of which you would guess from any individual school's homepage.
Only Five Schools Publish Any Price At All
Of nineteen fixed-wing operators, five publish something you can put in a spreadsheet: ActivePILOT publishes whole-course ranges, Ascent publishes a career package range, LA Flight Academy and One Source publish hourly rates, and we publish both hourly rates and fixed course prices. Everybody else asks you to make contact first. That is a legitimate commercial choice — quoting a course price without knowing the student is genuinely difficult, and a published hourly rate invites comparison on the one number that is least predictive of what you will finally pay. But it means that a fair comparison of Van Nuys schools cannot be done from a laptop. It takes four or five phone calls, and the question to ask is not "what is your hourly rate" but "what does a private pilot certificate typically cost at your school, start to finish, for a student flying twice a week".
Two Schools Out Of Nineteen State A Part 141 Certificate
Corsair Aviation and Flying Academy. Everyone else either states Part 61 or says nothing. For most private pilot students this changes very little: Part 141 permits a slightly lower minimum hour requirement for certain courses under the structure in §141.55, but the national average for a private certificate is well above either minimum, so the theoretical saving rarely materializes. Where Part 141 genuinely decides things is visa sponsorship, certain veterans' benefits, and employer or foreign-authority funding that specifically requires an approved course. If one of those applies to you, your Van Nuys shortlist is two names long and the rest of this directory is context.
The Discovery Flight Spread Is $99 To $249
Six schools publish a discovery flight price: $99, $195, $199, $199, $229 and $249. That is a two and a half times spread for what is nominally the same product, and the difference is mostly aircraft type, duration and whether the hour is logged as instruction. A discovery flight is a lesson — you hold the controls, an instructor sits beside you, and the time is loggable as dual instruction toward a certificate. Ask three things before you book any of them: how long you are actually airborne, whether the time is logged, and whether the fee is credited against training if you enroll. Ours is sixty minutes, logged, and credited in full within twenty-four hours; the full detail is on discovery flights at Van Nuys.
Fleet Size Is The Number Nobody Advertises
Three schools publish counts you can rely on: Ascent at twelve, LA Flight Academy at nine listed airframes, One Source at three, and ourselves at twelve aircraft plus two training devices. The rest publish types, photographs or nothing. This is the single most useful thing to establish on a visit, and the question that gets you there is not "how many airplanes do you have" but "how many active students are on the schedule per aircraft". A school with four airplanes and twenty students is easier to book than a school with twelve and a hundred and forty. Nobody publishes that ratio. Everybody will tell you if you ask in the office.
Visiting The Field: A Practical Half Day
Because so many of these businesses are within a few hundred yards of each other, Van Nuys is one of the few airports in the country where you can genuinely compare schools in person in an afternoon. The 7900 Balboa complex alone holds Aviators, Clipper, Corsair, First Take, LA Flight Academy, The Flight Academy, Vertical, Wings Over L.A., 30 Day CFI and ourselves. Hart Street holds American Aviation, Ascent, California Flight School and 14DAYPILOT. Stagg Street and Hayvenhurst each hold one.
Park once, walk, and ask every school the same six questions so that the answers are comparable: how many aircraft and how many active students; how long from inquiry to a booked first lesson; what an hour of dual costs all-in including instructor; what happens to your money if you stop halfway; what the written cancellation policy says about weather; and how many instructors have been there more than a year. Write the answers down on the spot, because by the fourth school they blur. We put the long version of that on questions to ask a flight school, and a scoring method on how to score the best flight school in Los Angeles.
Two practical notes. Most of these offices keep shorter hours than the flight line, so a late-afternoon walk-around may find doors locked while airplanes are still flying. And bring photographic identification: this is a secured airfield and ramp access is escorted.
What This Directory Deliberately Does Not Do
It does not rank. We are one of the twenty-two and any ranking we published would be worth exactly nothing to you. It does not report review counts or star ratings, because those are trivially gamed and because our own are not comparable with a sister business's. It does not repeat claims about pass rates, graduate placements or safety records as though they were verified facts — where a school makes such a claim we have said that the school states it, which is a different thing. And it does not include businesses we could not verify as currently trading at or near the field.
It also does not cover the five schools outside Van Nuys that compete hard for Los Angeles searches — Sling at Torrance, ATP at Long Beach and La Verne, Santa Monica Flyers, Universal Air Academy at El Monte and the rest. Those belong on flight schools in Los Angeles compared, which covers roughly thirty schools across eight airports on the same terms as this page.
Related Reading
- Flight training at Van Nuys Airport — our own programs, prices and schedule at KVNY.
- Van Nuys Airport — runways, Class D airspace, the Class B shelf and the drive in.
- Flight schools in Los Angeles compared — thirty schools across eight airports in one table.
- Aircraft rental at Van Nuys — hourly rates and checkout requirements for certificated pilots.
- Flight simulators at Van Nuys — the Redbird MCX and what simulator time counts toward.
- How to choose a flight school in Los Angeles — the twelve-point checklist to take on your visits.
- Flight school rates at Van Nuys — every one of our prices on a single page.
Van Nuys Flight Schools FAQ
How Many Flight Schools Are There At Van Nuys Airport?
Twenty-two flight training businesses advertise from Van Nuys Airport as of 13 September 2026: nineteen fixed-wing schools and three helicopter operators. All twenty-two are named individually on this page. The number moves — schools open, merge and close — so treat it as a snapshot rather than a permanent figure.
Which Van Nuys Flight Schools Are Part 141?
Two state a Part 141 certificate on their own websites: Corsair Aviation, which describes itself as holding both Part 61 and Part 141, and Flying Academy Los Angeles, which states it is FAR 141 and SEVIS approved. Every other school either states Part 61 or does not publish its status. We are Part 61 and do not hold Part 141.
What Does A Discovery Flight Cost At Van Nuys Airport?
Published prices range from $99 to $249. The Flight School at Van Nuys publishes from $99, First Take Aviation $195, California Flight School and One Source Aviation $199 each, You Fly LA $229 for sixty minutes, and 30 Day CFI $249. Several schools offer discovery flights without publishing a price. Compare duration and whether the fee is credited against training, not just the headline number.
Which Van Nuys Flight Schools Publish Their Prices?
Five of the nineteen fixed-wing schools publish figures you can compare directly: ActivePILOT publishes course ranges, Ascent Aviation Academy publishes a career package range, LA Flight Academy and One Source Aviation publish hourly rates by aircraft, and You Fly LA publishes both hourly rates and fixed course prices. The other fourteen ask you to make contact for a quotation.
Are There Helicopter Flight Schools At Van Nuys Airport?
Three rotary-wing businesses are associated with the field: Group 3 Aviation, Lite Flight Helicopters and Pacific RotorWays. Lite Flight publishes an address at Atlantic Aviation in Burbank rather than at Van Nuys, so confirm the location before traveling. We do not offer helicopter training.
Which Van Nuys School Should I Choose For An Airline Career?
Several publish career pathways: ActivePILOT's Zero-1500 program, Ascent's career package at $50,000 to $70,000, LA Flight Academy's Part 135 route with SOFAR, 14DAYPILOT's 120-day airline academy, 30 Day CFI's nine-month career program, and our own Airline Pilot Career Program at $84,000. The right answer depends on how you intend to build hours from 250 to the 1,500 required by 14 CFR 61.159, which is set out on the 1,500-hour rule and R-ATP.
Can I Visit Several Van Nuys Flight Schools In One Day?
Yes, and it is the single most useful thing you can do. Ten of the nineteen fixed-wing schools are in or around the 7900 Balboa Boulevard complex and four more are on Hart Street, so a half day on foot covers most of the field. Bring photographic identification, ask every school the same questions, and write the answers down before you move on.
Is Van Nuys A Good Airport To Learn To Fly At?
It is a towered Class D field under the Los Angeles Class B shelf with two parallel runways and reliable Valley weather, which means you learn radio work and pattern discipline from the first lesson rather than adding them later. The trade is congestion: run-up queues and pattern holds are normal here. The comparison against Santa Monica, Torrance, Long Beach, Whiteman, El Monte and Camarillo is on best airport for flight training in Los Angeles.
Come And See The Field For Yourself
The honest end to a directory written by one of its entries is this: use the list, walk the field, and choose on what you find rather than on what anyone writes about themselves. If you want to start with us, a discovery flight is $229 for sixty minutes, you fly it from the left seat with an instructor beside you, the hour is logged as dual instruction, and the fee is credited in full toward a course if you enroll within twenty-four hours. If you would rather talk first, book a free consultation and bring your questions about any school on this page, including the ones that are not us. Call (818) 330-1318 any day between 9 AM and 9 PM. We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91406, on Van Nuys Airport.