Discovery Flight In Los Angeles (60 Minutes)

One hour in a real airplane over Los Angeles, with your hands on the controls and an FAA-certificated instructor in the seat beside you. This is not a sightseeing ride and it is not a simulator ride-along. It is a genuine first flying lesson that happens to have one of the best views in the country outside the window.

You need no experience and no medical certificate. You meet your instructor at Van Nuys, sit down for a briefing, walk out to the airplane and go through it together. Then you taxi out, line up and fly. Most people are surprised by how quickly the airplane stops feeling like something happening to them and starts feeling like something they are doing.

The Route Of Flight

You lift off from Van Nuys and turn out over the Sepulveda Basin, climbing toward the Mulholland ridge. From there the whole basin opens up: the Hollywood Sign below your left wing, Griffith Observatory a minute later, then the LA River east past Dodger Stadium and on toward the downtown towers. Cruise is normally 2,500 to 3,500 feet — low enough to pick out streets, high enough to see the ocean behind you.

Air traffic control and weather shape the exact track on the day. Your instructor briefs the plan before you get in. Late afternoon slots get the best light; ask when you call.

What The Number Buys

$229 covers the airplane, the fuel and the instructor. Nothing is added at the desk.

• The Briefing — About five minutes on the ground: what the controls do, what the instruments say, what the plan is. Questions are the point of it.
• The Walk-Around — The pre-flight inspection every pilot does before every flight: fuel, oil, control surfaces, tires. You do it with the instructor.
• Sixty Minutes Of Flight Time — The stated hour is flight time, not the time you spend at the airport. Budget around two hours from arrival to leaving.
• The Instructor — An FAA-certificated flight instructor in the right seat for the whole flight. A teacher, not a tour guide. They handle the radios so you can concentrate on flying.
• The Controls — Yours once you are established in the climb: heading, altitude, turns, power changes. The instructor is on the controls with you throughout.
• A Signed Logbook Entry — Your first one, signed by the instructor, with the date, the airplane and the time in it.
• Time Toward A License — This flight counts toward the flight time required for a private pilot license. If you carry on, it was hour one.

This flight is normally flown in a Piper Warrior PA-28-161, the four-seat trainer most American pilots learn in. We cannot guarantee a specific airframe on a specific day, but the Warrior is what you should expect. You can read the full specifications on our Piper Warrior PA-28-161 reference page.

How Much Is A Discovery Flight? What $229 Includes

A discovery flight in Los Angeles costs $229 with You Fly LA for 60 minutes of flight time, and that is the whole price. It is worth spelling out what sits inside the number, because discovery flights are priced very differently from school to school and the cheapest headline figure is not always the cheapest flight.

The $229 is built from the same three things every flight lesson is built from. The first is the airplane: a Piper Warrior rented by the hour, with fuel included, which on its own is the largest share of the price. The second is the instructor: an FAA-certificated flight instructor who is with you for the briefing, the walk-around, the flight and the debrief — close to two hours of their time for one hour of flying, and there is no separate instructor fee on top. The third is the ground time itself: the five-minute briefing, the preflight inspection you do together, and the signed logbook entry afterward. Some operators quote a low price for the airplane alone and add the instructor, the fuel or a "booking fee" at checkout; we do not.

What the price does not include is anything you would not expect. There is no landing fee at Van Nuys for this flight, no headset rental — we lend you one — and no charge if the weather cancels the flight. Free rescheduling applies up to 24 hours before your slot. If you go on to train, the hour is already logged as dual instruction received and counts toward the 40-hour minimum for a private pilot certificate under 14 CFR 61.109, so it is also the least expensive hour of any pilot's training.

For context, the same flight with a second seat is $299, the 90-minute version is $299 and the 120-minute version is $399. A 60-minute session in our full-motion simulator is $189. Every one of those numbers is all-in, the same way $229 is.

One Quick Check Before You Book

Free rescheduling up to 24 hours before, and if the weather says no, you do not pay. The full detail is on our weather and cancellation policy page.

Cleared For Departure

Book online or call us. We fly seven days a week, 10 AM to 7 PM, from Van Nuys Airport. Your confirmation carries the address, the parking and who to ask for. Wear something comfortable, bring sunglasses and a phone, and arrive fifteen minutes early.

Worth reading first: what to expect on your discovery flight, our discovery flight FAQ, and flying out of Van Nuys Airport.

Choose 60, 90 Or 120 Minutes

This page is the 60-minute flight, and for most first-timers sixty minutes is exactly right: the Hollywood Sign, Griffith Observatory and downtown, with about half an hour of hands-on flying, for $229. If you want more air time, the same flight in the same airplane with the same instructor comes in two longer versions.

• Discovery Flight In Los Angeles (90 Minutes) — $299. The extra half hour is what it takes to cross the Santa Monica Mountains and reach the coast, so you get the city loop and the shoreline in one flight.
• Discovery Flight In Los Angeles (120 Minutes) — $399. Downtown, the coast past Malibu and Point Dume, and enough time left over for real airwork. Two loggable hours.

The briefing, preflight and debrief take the same time whichever you choose, so the longer flights buy almost pure extra time in the air. Not sure? Book the hour; if the schedule allows, you can extend on the day by asking your instructor at the briefing.

The Other Flights

• Discovery Flight For Two Over Downtown Los Angeles — the same hour with a second seat, $299.
• Malibu Coast Discovery Flight For Two — ninety minutes out to Point Dume and back, $399.
• Luxury Cirrus SR22 Discovery Flight — glass panel, leather, faster, $499 ($599 with a passenger).
• Full-Motion Flight Simulator Experience — the same lesson indoors, never weather-canceled, $189.