Discovery Flight In Los Angeles (120 Minutes)

Two hours in a real airplane over Los Angeles, with your hands on the controls and an FAA-certificated instructor beside you. This is the fullest version of our discovery flight: the city, the mountains and the coast all the way to Point Dume, and enough time that it stops being sightseeing and becomes a flying lesson with a very good view.

No experience is needed and no medical certificate. You meet your instructor, brief, walk out to the airplane and go through it together, then taxi out and fly. Two hours is long enough to fly the airplane badly, be shown why, and then fly it well.

The Route Of Flight

You lift off from Van Nuys over the Sepulveda Basin and climb toward the Mulholland ridge. Cross it and the city arrives: the Hollywood Sign below your left wing, Griffith Observatory a minute later, then the LA River east past Dodger Stadium to the downtown towers at 2,500 to 3,500 feet.

From downtown you turn west over the Santa Monica Mountains and come out over Santa Monica Bay with the pier beneath you. Then northwest along the shoreline past Malibu, the surf line unrolling under the wing, out around the Point Dume headland and back down the beach past Zuma. The run home crosses the canyons to Van Nuys.

Two hours also buys flexibility. If the marine layer is on the coast there is time to fly the city and the mountains instead; if the light is good there is time to stay out west longer. Your instructor briefs a plan and can change it in the air, which a shorter slot does not really allow.

What The Number Buys

$399 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.
• 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 — The point of the length. Longer legs mean you hold 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 License — Every minute counts toward a private pilot license.

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. See our weather and cancellation policy.

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. Bring sunglasses and a phone, and arrive fifteen minutes early.

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

Shorter Or Longer

• Discovery Flight In Los Angeles (90 Minutes) — city and near coast, no Point Dume run, $299.
• Discovery Flight In Los Angeles (60 Minutes) — the city route alone, $229.
• Discovery Flight For Two (120 Minutes) — the same two hours with a second seat, $499.