Your Side Of The River

Flight Training For Citrus Heights

There is no DIVA campus in Citrus Heights. We are a flight school at Sacramento McClellan Airport (KMCC), and every lesson happens there. This page is for people who live in Citrus Heights or Carmichael and want to know what training at McClellan involves before they pick up the phone.

Book A Discovery Flight — $200 Call (916) 907-5812

Same Side Of The American River

Where You Are Going

Citrus Heights sits on the same side of the American River as the airport, in the north-east of the Sacramento metro. Whichever way you approach McClellan Park, you do not have to cross the river or drive through downtown to reach us — a genuine practical difference from students coming up from Elk Grove or across from Davis, and the main reason this page exists separately from the areas we serve hub.

3028 Peacekeeper Way, McClellan Park, CA 95652. McClellan Park is a former U.S. Air Force base; you enter from Watt Avenue, follow Peacekeeper Way, and park in the guest spaces in front of the main FBO entrance. Come into the lobby and give our name at the desk — do not go through the gate or onto the ramp on your own. Bring a government-issued photo ID.

Full directions, parking and arrival instructions

The Same Instructor, The Same Aircraft

What Training Here Looks Like

Training here is built around continuity, and that shapes the experience more than geography does.

The same instructor every lesson

Not whoever happens to be free that day. You are assigned one instructor and fly with them through the certificate, so nobody has to re-evaluate you at the start of a lesson.

Meet the instructors

An aeroplane for every stage

Four of them, from a two-seat trainer to a twin — so you never have to change schools to reach the next rating.

The aircraft

Pay lesson by lesson

$110 an hour, all in. No enrollment fee, no membership, no deposit held with us, and no block you have to buy up front.

What training costs

Instruction in English and Russian

Denis teaches in both, which is unusual around here and is why some students drive past other fields to get to us.

Flight training for international students

The Flying Day Is Wider Than The Office Day

Fitting Lessons Around A Working Week

We fly every day from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. The office answers Monday to Friday, 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, but the flying schedule is wider than the office hours — you can be in the air at 7:00 AM on a Sunday.

A lesson takes about two hours at the field once you add the preflight briefing and the debrief afterwards. Weekday-evening slots exist; weekend slots are real and fill up first, so regular students book them ahead. Cancellations need 24 hours' notice, and weather cancellations are rescheduled free without counting against the two reschedules a booking allows.

How a lesson is structured, start to finish

All Of It In The Same Aircraft

What You Can Train For

Everything below is flown from McClellan at $110 an hour, all in, paid lesson by lesson.

Discovery flight

$200 for one passenger, $300 for two or three; about 45 minutes in the air, about 90 minutes at the field. Minimum age 12.

Book a discovery flight

Private pilot certificate

Part 61. We plan on about 55 flight hours rather than the 40-hour FAA legal minimum, and publish a typical total budget of $12,000–$17,000 all in — including the fees paid to the examiner, the medical and the testing centre.

Private pilot training

Instrument rating, commercial, CFI and CFII

Flown in the school’s Cessnas, with the multi-engine rating in the Seminole.

Commercial pilot training

Multi-engine training and the MEI are flown here too, in the school’s Piper PA-44 Seminole.

F.A.Q.

Questions We Get From Citrus Heights And Carmichael

Still have questions? Call (916) 907-5812

Is McClellan the closest airport to Citrus Heights?

Several general aviation fields serve the Sacramento region, so which is nearest to your street is a question for a map. What is true for Citrus Heights and Carmichael is that McClellan sits on your side of the American River, so the trip crosses neither the river nor downtown — and that is where all our training happens.

My teenager wants to fly. How young can they start?

A discovery flight from age 12, with a parent or guardian present to sign. A full training programme from 14. You can fly solo at 16 and hold a private pilot certificate at 17 — those two are FAA age minimums, not our rules.

Do you teach in Russian?

Yes. Denis Vyatkin teaches in English and Russian, including the ground work and the briefings.

Can I try it once without committing?

That is exactly what a discovery flight is. Nothing is signed on the day, and you decide afterwards whether to carry on. If you do carry on, the flight counts as dual instruction toward your certificate.

What happens if the weather is bad?

We reschedule, free, and it does not count against your two reschedules. Small aircraft do not fly through weather that a lesson has no reason to be in.

Drive Over Once

The First Step

Book a discovery flight, drive over once, and see whether you want the rest of it.

About 45 minutes in the air and about 90 minutes at the field in total. You are at the controls with an instructor beside you, and nothing is signed on the day.

Other areas we serve

Come And See It