Night Discovery Flight Over Los Angeles
Night Discovery Flight Over Los Angeles
Your Time In The Airplane
minutes in the airplane.
Exactly that, every time.
Your visit, start to finish · about 2 hours
- Check-in, then a briefing of about 5 min
- Walk-around with your instructor
- In the airplane, 60 min
- Logbook and wrap-up
Sixty minutes over Los Angeles after dark, and you fly it. You sit in the left seat of a Piper Warrior with a certificated flight instructor beside you, and from the moment the aircraft is established in the climb the controls are yours.
At night the city stops being a landscape and becomes a grid of light. The San Fernando Valley runs out to the mountains in orange sodium lines, the 101 and the 405 draw themselves across it in white and red, and the Hollywood Hills sit as a black gap between the Valley and the basin beyond. Runway lights at Van Nuys and Hollywood Burbank are visible from miles out, and downtown stands up out of the grid.
A night departure and a lit-runway return take more aircraft and instructor time than a daytime flight, which is why this booking runs about $100 above the equivalent day flight.
For more on how a night flight works, what you will see and how it differs from a daytime discovery flight, read our full guide to the night flight experience over Los Angeles.
What Is Included
- 60 minutes of aircraft time in a Piper Warrior PA-28-161
- A pre-flight briefing at the table, roughly five minutes
- The preflight walkaround, done with you and a checklist
- A certificated flight instructor, fuel and headsets
- A logbook entry for dual instruction received
Good To Know
- One person flies. The weight limit is 180 lb for the person at the controls.
- Bring a government photo ID. No medical certificate or prior paperwork is needed.
- Night flights run in fall and winter, when it is dark well before 7:00 PM, and the aircraft must be back on the ground by 7:00 PM.
- The Hollywood Sign is not lit, so this booking is for the city rather than the landmark.
- Enroll in a flight training course within 24 hours and the full cost of this flight is credited toward it.
Questions about timing, weight or nerves: call (818) 330-1318, any day from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Main Terminal Unit 108, Van Nuys, CA 91406, on Van Nuys Airport.
The Route
An Hour Over Los Angeles, Landmark By Landmark
Sixty minutes out of Van Nuys Airport: past Universal Studios, the Hollywood Sign and Griffith Observatory, one full circle around Downtown LA, then west along the north side of SoFi Stadium and LAX to the coast, up the shoreline from Venice Beach to Malibu and home over the hills. Your instructor takes off and lands. You fly 50–80% of it.
- About 1 Hour From Van Nuys
- You Fly 50–80%
- From $229 All-In
- No Experience Needed
The San Fernando Valley Over The Wing 01Instructor Takeoff
Van Nuys Airport
Takeoff From Van Nuys
Your instructor handles the takeoff from Van Nuys, one of the busiest general aviation airports anywhere, and explains what is happening the whole way up. Clear of the pattern, you take the controls.
Universal Studios Hollywood From The Air 02You’re Flying
Universal Studios
The Studio Lots From Above
Your first landmark, only a few minutes out. From the air the studio lots are a small city of soundstages and backlots, with the theme park perched on the hill above the freeway.
The Hollywood Sign On Mount Lee 03You’re Flying
Hollywood Sign
Level With The Letters
You fly past the Hollywood Sign close to the height of the letters, a view that belongs to pilots, with the radio tower on the summit and the San Gabriel Mountains beyond.
Griffith Observatory From The Air 04You’re Flying
Griffith Observatory
The White Domes Over The Basin
Griffith Observatory sits on its ridge in Griffith Park with the entire Los Angeles basin spread out behind it, all the way to the ocean on a clear day.
Circling The Downtown Towers 05You’re Flying
Downtown LA
One Full Circle Around The Towers
You come in from the south and fly one complete counterclockwise circle around the Downtown skyline, so the towers pass off your wing from every side with the mountains behind them.
SoFi Stadium From Just North 06You’re Flying
SoFi Stadium
The Stadium Off Your Left Wing
The route passes just north of SoFi Stadium and never crosses over it. The translucent roof of the Rams and Chargers home slides past your left wing.
LAX From The North Side 07You’re Flying
LAX
Airliners On Approach Beside You
Off your left wing, airliners line up on final for LAX, one of the busiest airports on Earth. You stay north of the airport the whole time and never fly over it.
Venice Beach Over The Wing 08You’re Flying
Venice Beach
Turn Right At The Ocean
The boardwalk, the skate park and the wide beach, then a right turn to follow the shoreline north with Santa Monica Bay opening up ahead of you.
Santa Monica Pier From The Air 09You’re Flying
Santa Monica Pier
The Ferris Wheel Below
The pier and its Ferris wheel go by beneath you with surf breaking along the beach, a scene from a hundred films, now seen from your own airplane.
The Malibu Coast At Sunset 10You’re Flying
Malibu
Where The Mountains Meet The Sea
You follow the coast past Pacific Palisades to Malibu, where the Santa Monica Mountains fall straight into the Pacific and Pacific Coast Highway traces the shore.
Back Across The San Fernando Valley 11You’re Flying
Warner Center
Back Over The Hills
A turn north over the Santa Monica Mountains brings you to Warner Center in Woodland Hills, then east across the San Fernando Valley with Van Nuys lined up ahead.
12Instructor Landing
Back At Van Nuys
Your Instructor Lands, Then You Debrief
Bring a pilot logbook and your instructor signs your first entry. Enroll in a course within 24 hours and the full cost of your flight is credited toward your training.
Book This Flight
Typical route, flown without landing anywhere but Van Nuys. Weather and air traffic control set the final path on the day.