El Monte · Rosemead · Arcadia · Temple City
Students from El Monte and across the San Gabriel Valley make the trip to Van Nuys Airport to train with Essence Flight School. Every one of our 20 airplanes belongs to the school, every course includes a full-motion simulator, and one program can take you from day one to a paid instructor job.
Let's be clear up front, because older pages on the internet sometimes get this wrong. Essence Flight School is not located at the airport in El Monte. We are based at one airport only: Van Nuys Airport (KVNY), at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite D3, in the San Fernando Valley.
El Monte does have its own airport. The county-run field off Santa Anita Avenue was called El Monte Airport for decades and was renamed San Gabriel Valley Airport (EMT) in 2014. It has a control tower and a single runway just under 4,000 feet long. If you want to train within a few minutes of home, it is worth knowing about. If you want our fleet, our simulator and our career path, Van Nuys is where you will find them.
Interactive Hangar
Swipe through the airplanes waiting at Van Nuys. The school holds title to all 20 of them and lays out every panel the same way, so your hours in a Skycatcher or DA20 carry over when you graduate to the Arrow, the turbocharged Cirrus or the Seminole twin.
Light Sport Trainer
Four-Seat Trainer
Two-Seat Trainer
New · Discovery Flight For One
A sports car with wings: bubble canopy, center stick and quick, nimble handling. Just you and your instructor.
$349All-In · 60 Min · For One
Complex Airplane
High-Performance Flagship
Twin-Engine Trainer
Tap an aircraft or use the arrow keys to switch. Rental rates are per hour, wet (fuel included), from our rate sheet.
It is a real drive from El Monte to the Valley, and we would rather be honest about it than pretend otherwise. The students who make it usually have a specific reason.
We own 20 airplanes, ranging from two-seat Skycatchers and four-seat Warriors through the retractable-gear Arrow and the turbocharged Cirrus to the Seminole twin. You never have to change schools to add a rating.
In about nine months the Airline Pilot Program carries a complete beginner all the way to flight instructor, and every graduate walks into a guaranteed paid teaching job with us, $48,000 a year, full time.
The FAA-approved motion simulator appears in every syllabus, so a long training day stays productive even when the weather refuses to cooperate.
Each course has one price that includes airplane, simulator, instruction, ground school and materials, with short-term financing and a lowest price guarantee.
One Loop From Van Nuys · KVNY
There is nothing to pick. Every discovery flight flies the same loop: the Valley, the Hollywood Sign, Dodger Stadium and downtown, the coast from Marina del Rey to Malibu, then home over the mountains. Your instructor takes off and lands; you fly 50–80% of it.
Stop 01 Of 10Instructor Flying
Your instructor handles the takeoff from one of the busiest general aviation airports in the country, then the controls are yours.
Stop 02 Of 10You’re Flying
First turns, first climb: the Valley spreads out below as you learn how little pressure it takes to bank the airplane.
Stop 03 Of 10You’re Flying
The sign on Mount Lee looks closer and bigger than you expect, with Griffith Observatory on the next ridge.
Stop 04 Of 10You’re Flying
The stadium bowl opens up below, with downtown rising just beyond it.
Stop 05 Of 10You’re Flying
The skyline comes up level with the windshield as you fly a smooth turn so everyone on board gets the view.
Stop 06 Of 10You’re Flying
The city gives way to the marina, the breakwaters and the open Pacific, staying clear of LAX airspace to the south.
Stop 07 Of 10You’re Flying
The pier, the beach and the whole curve of Santa Monica Bay: the photo everyone wants.
Stop 08 Of 10You’re Flying
Up the coast, the Santa Monica Mountains drop straight into the ocean.
Stop 09 Of 10You’re Flying
Back across the mountains toward the Valley, with canyons and ridgelines below and Van Nuys ahead.
Stop 10 Of 10Instructor Flying
Your instructor flies the approach and landing, then a short debrief on the ground and your flight time is logged.
Every Flight Includes The Full Route
Pick who is flying and how long. The route stays the same.
Typical route. Weather and air traffic control set the final path on the day.
Courses Offered
Every program El Monte students can take at Van Nuys, with the price on our site. Filter by goal and tick up to three courses to compare them side by side.
$229 (For Two from $299)
About an hour; 60, 90 or 120 minutes
About an hour of hands-on flying from $229, and the best way to decide whether the cross-town trip is worth it. From over downtown you can look east toward the San Gabriel Valley.
$499 / $699 / $949
60, 90 or 120 minutes
Our top-tier first flight, in a Cirrus SR22 Turbo with a seat for a companion. For San Gabriel Valley families, the 90 or 120 minute version turns the drive into a full outing, with the coast usually included.
$499 (covers two people)
60 minutes in the Piper Seminole
Sixty minutes for two in our Seminole twin. Career-minded students from El Monte often book it to feel two engines and two throttles before they commit to the airline path and its multi-engine requirement.
From $189
1 hour in the Redbird MCX
A guided hour on the Redbird motion trainer. Load San Gabriel Valley Airport and fly an approach to your hometown runway, all while seeing exactly how simulation fits into each of our programs.
From $4,200
10 flight hours, 3 simulator hours, 13 hours of dual instruction, 7 hours of ground
A structured early start for younger students, with flight, simulator and ground time. Teens solo at 16, but earlier logged hours count, and longer visits make the drive from the Valley worthwhile.
From $8,400
Fixed price: 25 flight hours plus 3 simulator hours
Our lowest-cost certificate, flown in the light-sport Cessna 162. A good fit for El Monte residents who want daytime flying for fun with one passenger, with fewer hours to schedule.
$10,400 / $15,400 / $22,000
40, 60 or 80 total hours; most students finish in two to four months
The certificate most students start with and the base for every career rating. Choose 40, 60 or 80 hours; students driving from the San Gabriel Valley often prefer longer blocks of training.
From $11,700
About 6 to 8 weeks
Instrument flying, in cloud and haze, usually takes six to eight weeks to learn. As many as 20 of those hours can come from the approved simulator, a natural fit for long training days.
From $15,400
Career track; pace planned with your instructor
Commercial privileges let you earn money as a pilot. Training includes complex time in our Arrow, and for El Monte students headed toward the airlines it is the certificate that turns a hobby into a profession.
From $5,100
Accelerated 7-day course, 10 logged hours
Seven intensive days in the Seminole twin, simulator sessions included, with the checkride booked ahead. One concentrated week can be easier to plan from the San Gabriel Valley than many separate trips.
From $15,400
30 logged hours covering all three instructor ratings
CFI, CFII and MEI in one fixed-price program. Teaching is how most new commercial pilots get paid while building the hours airlines require, and our graduates instruct in airplanes they already know well.
From $1,799
5 hours of instruction, 3 of them flying the SR22 Turbo
Pilots need this one-time FAA sign-off before flying anything over 200 horsepower. Earned in our SR22 Turbo, it opens faster personal travel to places like Las Vegas, Palm Springs and the Central Coast.
Cirrus upgrade +$300/hr
Built around your experience and goals
Training shaped entirely around the SR22 Turbo, for brand-new students and experienced pilots alike. The SR22 Turbo adds $300 an hour over the standard course rate, charged only for the hours you fly it, and we build the plan with you at a free consultation.
From $84,000
9 months, zero experience to flight instructor, 260 logged hours
The complete career track in roughly nine months, with every certificate from private through instructor, followed by a guaranteed job teaching here at $48,000 a year while your hours grow toward airline minimums.
| Course | Price | Duration |
|---|
Short-term financing is available, with plans from $2,500 down. Training in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo instead of a standard trainer is a +$300/hr upgrade.
There are two common ways across. One runs west on the 10 toward downtown, then north on the 101 through the Cahuenga Pass and over to the 405 north. The other follows the foothills: the 210 west to the 134, then the 101 and 405, or the 170 to Sherman Way. Either way you finish on Balboa Boulevard on the west side of Van Nuys Airport.
Traffic decides which is faster on a given day, so check a live map before you leave. Weekend mornings tend to be easiest. Our twelve-hour days, every day, also make it possible to start after the evening rush and fly into the night.
Your First Flight
Think of the discovery flight as lesson one. For $229 you spend roughly sixty minutes aloft with your hands on the yoke, while the instructor manages radios, takeoff and landing. Ninety and 120 minute versions cost more and usually reach the ocean. Coming with a friend? The For Two flight is $299, and the Luxury option swaps in the Cirrus SR22 Turbo. No account is needed to book online, and anyone who enrolls within a day of flying gets the whole amount credited to their course. Expect a path like the one below, adjusted for weather and tower instructions.
Every flight includes the full route. Enroll within 24 hours of your flight and its full cost is credited toward your training.
Students who live near the airport can fly an hour at a time. From the San Gabriel Valley, it makes more sense to come less often and stay longer. A typical training day might include a ground briefing, a session in the Redbird MCX to rehearse new maneuvers, a flight to perform them, and a debrief, all in one visit.
Since simulator time and ground instruction are already inside each course's fixed price, organizing them into longer blocks costs nothing extra. Between visits, the free Essence app keeps your study going at home, with study guides and courses that remember where you left off.
Redbird MCX Full-Motion Simulator
Each syllabus we teach schedules sessions on the Redbird MCX, a motion-platform trainer that leans into turns and climbs the way an airplane does. Students rehearse new maneuvers there first and come back to it to clean up anything that went sideways in the air. For someone who drove in from Rosemead or Arcadia, that matters: if marine layer or gusts cancel the flight, the visit still produces real training. A Redbird TD2 on a desk handles checklist and procedure drills, and consultation visitors get to see the MCX up close.
Hours on the MCX are real, loggable training time because the FAA has approved the device. Under its FAA Letter of Authorization, you can log up to 20 hours toward the instrument rating, up to 50 hours toward the commercial certificate, up to 25 hours toward the airline transport pilot certificate and up to 2.5 hours toward the private pilot certificate.
Hours That Count Toward
Up To 20 Hours 14 CFR 61.65
Under its FAA Letter of Authorization, up to 20 of the 40 instrument hours can be flown in the Redbird MCX.
You see the MCX up close at your free consultation. Book A Free Consultation
Our San Gabriel Valley students come from El Monte, South El Monte, Rosemead, Temple City, Arcadia, Monterey Park, Baldwin Park and West Covina. Many are college students or recent graduates who have decided they want a career on the flight deck. Others are working adults who have wanted to fly for years, and families looking for a structured program for a teenager.
Because the drive is longer, career-minded students are especially common. When you are committing to an airline path, the strength of the full program matters more than the length of the commute.
Free 2026 Course Brochure
Courses and exact pricing, the fleet, the full-motion simulator, financing options and how training works at Van Nuys, in a brochure you can read in five minutes and share with your family.
The Airline Pilot Program is our complete career path. Over about nine months you earn the private pilot license, instrument rating, commercial certificate, multi-engine rating, and all three instructor ratings: CFI, CFII and MEI. The fixed price is $84,000, with financing available.
After graduation, you are guaranteed a paid flight instructor position here at $48,000 a year for a full-time role. You teach in the same airplanes you trained in and build toward the 1,500 hours airlines require for an airline transport pilot certificate. For a student in El Monte, it is one plan, one school and one airport from day one.
Questions about the drive from El Monte, scheduling, prices or financing? A real person at Van Nuys answers, 9 AM to 9 PM, seven days a week.
Van Nuys is a towered Class D airport with two parallel runways, with Burbank's Class C next door and the LAX Class B a short distance south. Every flight begins and ends with the control tower, so radio skills and traffic awareness become habits early.
That background serves career pilots well. Instrument training, commercial flying and eventually airline operations all depend on the same skills you start building from day one here.
Your certificate does not end the relationship with the fleet. Pilots who learned here can rent the very same airplanes after one checkout with an instructor, paying from $179 per hour with fuel already in the rate. Many San Gabriel Valley pilots plan a monthly flight to stay sharp.
| Aircraft | Seats | Package | Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cessna 162 Skycatcher | 2 | $179 | $269 |
| Piper Warrior | 4 | $179 | $269 |
| Diamond DA20 | 2 | $229 | $329 |
| Piper Arrow | 4 | $229 | $349 |
| Cirrus SR22 Turbo | 4 | $449 | $649 |
| Piper Seminole | 4 | $449 | $649 |
Also In Your Pocket: Between trips across town, the free Essence app on iPhone or iPad keeps you studying, with courses that save your place. It also lists every price, books discovery flights without an account and records each lesson's hours and signed ticket. Download On The App Store
Every one of our 20 airplanes is owned by the school, not leased back from private owners. When you have driven more than 30 miles for a lesson, the last thing you want is to find your airplane taken off the schedule by its owner. With us, that does not happen.
The cockpits are standardized across the fleet too. Whether you fly a Skycatcher on Saturday or a Warrior the following week, the layout feels familiar, which keeps training efficient when every visit counts.
Free Consultation
Before you commit to the drive, come see the school. Plan on half an hour, free of charge. You will sit down with an instructor, look over the airplanes and the motion simulator, and get straight answers on cost, schedule and the path to your goal. The weekly planner on this page shows open times; tapping one reserves it.
Prefer the phone? Call (818) 960-1285 any day from 9 AM to 9 PM.
Prefer to talk first? Call (818) 960-1285, 9 AM to 9 PM, seven days a week.
Our numbers speak plainly. Training since 2007. Over 2,000 discovery flights. A 4.9 average from 600-plus Google and Yelp reviewers. Ninety-eight percent of students pass their checkride on attempt one. And not a single accident in the school's history.
Start Pilot Training
Ready to work toward a pilot certificate? Lesson One is a two-hour training lesson at Van Nuys: ground school, your own preflight, about 70 minutes of flying and a debrief, logged as dual instruction.
See Private Pilot LessonsTwo hours each, paid at booking.
FAQ
No. Essence Flight School is based only at Van Nuys Airport, 7900 Balboa Blvd, Suite D3. The airport in El Monte, renamed San Gabriel Valley Airport in 2014, is a separate county-run field.
Most students take the 10 west and the 101 north to the 405, or the 210 and 134 along the foothills toward the 101 and 405. Check live traffic before you leave, and consider weekend or evening lessons.
For many students, yes, especially those on a career path. They choose us for the school-owned fleet, simulator training in every course, fixed prices and the Airline Pilot Program with a guaranteed instructor job.
A first flight costs from $229. Course prices are fixed: $8,400 for Sport Pilot, $10,400 up to $22,000 for Private Pilot, $11,700 for the instrument rating, and $84,000 for the full airline track.
Yes. We fly seven days a week from 9 AM to 9 PM. Weekend-only students usually book longer blocks that combine flight, simulator and ground training.
Yes. Short-term financing is available for our courses, and the Airline Pilot Program has its own financing options. We also offer a lowest price guarantee.
Yes. Once you are licensed and have flown a checkout, our airplanes rent from $179 per hour, and that rate includes fuel.
Fly first with a $229 discovery flight, or visit first with a free consultation. The 2026 brochure is a download away, and (818) 960-1285 reaches our front desk any day between 9 AM and 9 PM.
The moment every Discovery Flight is built around — you fly the airplane, with an FAA-certified instructor beside you and Los Angeles below.
Keep Exploring
Check your inbox in the next few minutes. Questions in the meantime? Call (818) 960-1285
Questions about programs, pricing, or financing? Send a note and an Essence Flight advisor will reach out — usually the same day.
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