Malibu Coast Discovery Flight For Two (120 Minutes)

Two hours, two seats, and as much coastline as one flight can reasonably show you. You climb out of Van Nuys, cross the Santa Monica Mountains, come out over Santa Monica Bay and turn northwest with the water. One of you flies it with an FAA-certificated instructor in the right seat. The other rides along with a headset and hears every word.

The ninety-minute version reaches Point Dume and turns around. Two hours goes past it, works the beaches beyond Zuma, and still has time in hand on the way home. It is also the version where the person flying does most of the flying: long legs over open water are the easiest place to learn what holding a heading and an altitude feels like.

The Route Of Flight

Off Van Nuys and out over the Valley, then a climb across the Santa Monica Mountains, canyons underneath and the ocean ahead. You cross into Santa Monica Bay with the pier to the south, turn northwest and follow the shoreline past Malibu. Here Point Dume is a headland you round rather than the point you turn at; beyond it lie Zuma and the beaches north of it. Then back down the coast, inland, and home past the Hollywood Sign.

Two hours also buys flexibility. If the marine layer is on the shoreline there is time to work the mountains until it burns off, or to fly the city route instead. Your instructor briefs a plan and can change it in the air, which a shorter slot does not allow.

What The Number Buys

$499 covers both of you, the airplane, the fuel and the instructor. Nothing is added at the desk.

• Two Seats — One at the controls, one riding along on the intercom. No second ticket, no per-person surcharge.
• The Pre-Flight Briefing — About twenty-five minutes on the ground, for both of you.
• The Walk-Around — The pre-flight inspection every pilot does before every flight, done with the instructor.
• One Hundred And Twenty Minutes Of Flight Time — Flight time, not time at the airport. Allow about three hours end to end.
• An FAA-Certificated Instructor — In the right seat throughout, teaching and working the radios so you can fly.
• The Most Hands-On Time We Offer — Long coastal legs mean holding a heading and an altitude long enough to get good at it, with room to repeat climbs, descents, level-offs and turns at real bank angles.
• A Signed Logbook Entry — Dated, with the airplane and the time: a 2.0-hour first entry.
• Time Toward A Private Pilot License — Every minute counts toward the flight time the FAA requires.

This flight is normally flown in a Piper Warrior PA-28-161, the trainer most American pilots learn in. We cannot guarantee a specific airframe on a specific day, but the Warrior is what to expect. Specifications are on our Piper Warrior PA-28-161 page.

One Quick Check Before You Book

Free rescheduling up to 24 hours before, and if the weather says no, you do not pay. Our weather and cancellation policy spells out how that works.

Cleared For Departure

Book online or call us. We fly seven days a week, 9 AM to 9 PM, from Van Nuys Airport. Your confirmation has the address, the parking and who to ask for. Bring sunglasses — over water they matter more than you would think — and a phone.

Worth reading first: what to expect, our discovery flight FAQ, flying out of Van Nuys Airport, and discovery flights in Los Angeles.

Shorter On The Coast

• Malibu Coast Discovery Flight For Two (90 Minutes) — out to Point Dume and back, $399.
• Malibu Coast Discovery Flight For Two (60 Minutes) — the bay and a stretch of Malibu, home past the Hollywood Sign, $299.
• Discovery Flight For Two (120 Minutes) — the same two hours weighted toward the city, $499.