Give Someone Their First Flight

We sell these year-round, and the reasons people give are consistent.

• Birthdays — for the person who has enough things and not enough stories.
• Anniversaries — the $300 option puts both of you in the same aeroplane.
• Graduations and milestones — for a teenager who talks about flying and has not had the chance to try it.
• Someone who has said it for years — “I always wanted to learn to fly” is a request, not small talk.
• Buying for a child or teenager? The minimum age is 12. Anyone under 18 needs a consent form signed by a parent or legal guardian, and an adult has to be present for check-in and the briefing — for under-16s the adult stays at the airfield throughout.

The awkward part of this present is that the person flying gets no say in it. You do not know what they weigh, whether a Saturday in March is free for them, or whether they are quietly wary of small aeroplanes — and asking would give the whole thing away.

Very little of that has to be settled before you pay. Two things are worth checking; the rest can wait until they call us themselves.

• Age is the one hard rule. Twelve and up. Anyone under 18 needs a consent form signed by a parent or legal guardian and an adult present for check-in and the briefing; for under-16s that adult stays at the airfield throughout.
• Weight is arithmetic rather than a policy. The Cessna 172S has four seats and the instructor takes one. We work to a guideline of about 250 lb per guest and 450 lb for the group, and the pilot in command makes the final call after a weight-and-balance calculation. Give us approximate figures when you order — they do not have to be exact, and we would rather tell you what fits before you pay than after.
• Nothing medical, and no experience. No FAA medical certificate is needed to fly a discovery flight with an instructor beside them, and they do not have to be a U.S. citizen. They bring a government-issued photo ID, because this is an airport with a controlled entrance.
• No diary to match. Nothing is booked at purchase. They pick the day themselves, and we fly every day from 7 AM to 7 PM.
• You do not have to know whether they want to learn to fly. A discovery flight is a complete thing on its own, and nothing is required of them afterwards.

They arrive at Sacramento McClellan Airport and meet their instructor — no terminal, no security line, no queue. They walk around the aeroplane while it is inspected, get in the left seat, and the instructor flies the take-off. Once the aeroplane is level the controls are theirs: gentle turns, holding a heading, watching the rivers and farmland of the Sacramento Valley go by underneath. The instructor lands, then talks through what they did.

Nothing aerobatic happens. Nervous first-timers are the norm rather than the exception, and the whole flight runs at their pace — the instructor can head back early if they have had enough, and that costs nothing extra.

They are in the air about 45 minutes, and should plan on roughly 90 minutes at the airfield in total.

A gift certificate buys a discovery flight, and that one flight covers every occasion people book it for — a birthday, an anniversary, a proposal at 3,000 feet. The recipient is welcome to bring a phone or a compact camera once their instructor has briefed them on it, and what they can photograph on the day comes down to the weather and the route the pilot in command flies.

If the certificate needs to be in someone’s hands by a particular day, tell us that day when you order and we will confirm whether it is realistic before you pay rather than after.

For an emailed certificate, order at least two business days ahead — more if you want it sent to the recipient on a particular day. If the flight itself needs to be on a weekend or near sunset, expect to book that two to three weeks out.

One thing worth saying plainly: the flight itself does not have to happen on the occasion. Weather moves flights, and a first flight is better on a calm morning than on a windy afternoon that happens to be someone’s birthday. The certificate covers the flight; they pick the day.

This is the fear that stops a gift certificate being bought: it goes in a drawer, the year turns, and the money is gone. It deserves a plain answer rather than a line of small print.

Our gift certificates never expire. Not twelve months, not twenty-four — there is no end date on them at all. No slot is reserved at purchase, so there is no appointment to miss, no value is taken off over time, and there is no inactivity or dormancy fee. What you paid is what it is worth on the day they finally call, whether that is next month or in three years.

• Wrong person. An unused certificate transfers to someone else once, free of charge, after we have verified the purchase with you. Whoever it moves to still has to meet the same age, ID and weight-and-balance requirements.
• Second thoughts. The purchaser can request a refund of an unused certificate within seven calendar days of purchase.
• Booked, then something came up. Moving a booked slot is free up to 24 hours before it, twice.
• Weather. If we cancel for weather that is our decision, not their problem: the reschedule is free and it does not count against those two.

Search for a flight as a present and most of what comes back is either an airline gift card or an experience-day site reselling somebody else’s aeroplane, with a booking fee on top and a call centre standing between you and the airfield. This is neither. You are buying from the school that owns the aircraft and employs the instructor who will fly it.

There are two instructors here, and that is the whole school: Denis Vyatkin, who owns it and flies as senior instructor, and Sergio, who takes most first-timers. The person waiting at the aeroplane when your present is finally used is one of those two.

Introductory flights advertised around Sacramento run from roughly $250 to over $400 for one person. Ours is $200, and the $300 option divided between three people is $100 each. There is no booking fee, no card surcharge, and nothing to pay on the day.