Introduction to Aviation
Discovery flights and first lessons. The on-ramp.
Jack Northrop Field · Hawthorne, California · KHHR
Turning pilots into aviators.
A modern flight school in the heart of the South Bay — built to the standard of the field we fly from.
Who we are
We're not selling flying lessons.
We're building aviators.
Beach Cities Aviation is a general aviation school at Jack Northrop Field — the home of SpaceX and Archer Aviation. Learn to fly here and you don't just earn a certificate. You join a community that goes from first discovery flight to backcountry strips, warbirds, and beyond.
Primary training
Learn to fly.
Zero to private pilot in the Cessna 172 — the most trusted trainer ever built — with a structured curriculum, professional W-2 instructors, and a glass-cockpit path all the way to commercial. Two 172s are joining the line.
Start here
The classic
Fly a taildragger.
Our Cessna 170 is the honest classic that made aviators out of a generation. Tailwheel endorsements, stick-and-rudder mastery, and the kind of flying you can't get anywhere else in the basin.
Get the endorsement
First flight
Your first hour at the controls.
A discovery flight over the South Bay coastline — you fly, from takeoff to final. One hour that answers the only question that matters: is this for me?
Book a discovery flightPrograms
From first flight to full breadth.
Professional Pilot Pathway
Private through commercial, structured for people with real careers and real standards.
Endorsements
Tailwheel, high-performance, complex — taught by instructors who fly them for real.
Proficiency & Recurrency
Flight reviews, rust removal, and honest recurrent training for certificated pilots.
Introduction to Backcountry
Short-field, soft-field, and the foundations of off-pavement flying.
The Roadmap
Multi-engine. Helicopters. Aerobatics. Warbirds. Aviation expeditions. Coming as the school grows — this is where it's going.
The fleet
Honest airplanes,
obsessively maintained.
Cessna 170
Classic tailwheel · 4 seats · freshly overhauled engine
The differentiator. Tailwheel endorsements and stick-and-rudder flying in a mid-century classic kept to modern maintenance discipline.
Cessna 172 ×2
Primary trainer · joining the line · one glass cockpit
The workhorse of flight training worldwide. Two aircraft in acquisition now — including a technically advanced glass-cockpit tail for the commercial pathway.
Reach the Sky
Aviation for everyone.
Through our community wing with the Reach the Sky Foundation, we bring aviation to people who'd never otherwise touch it — scholarships, mentorship, youth exposure days, and an open ramp. The field belongs to everyone.
Get involvedThe field
The field that bears
Jack Northrop's name.
Hawthorne's airport has been building the future of flight for ninety years. Today it's home to some of the most ambitious aerospace companies on earth — and to us. Minutes from El Segundo, Manhattan Beach, and the 105. Fly out of the same pattern the pioneers did, under the busiest airspace in the world, and get better because of it.
Opening soon
Be first on the line.
We're opening with a waitlist already a hundred deep. First flights go to the list, in order.
No spam — updates about opening only. No deposit required to join.