Long Beach Flying Club - Long Beach, California

Vincent N.

After reading some of the reviews here, I figured I should put my honest review (I rarely do reviews). Not sure about the people of the past, but I had a great experience at LBFC. I was able to get my private pilot certification in less than 6 months, and that was me flying part-time 3-4 times a week. The dispatches (front desk) are awesome to talk to, the CFI is funny and fun, the management (Susan) is awesome, the rental rates are very affordable, and the community is great. I made a lot of new friends and plan on starting my instrument rating soon (after I recover from my expenses because flying is expensive)!

David B.

My advice is to stay away from this place and their decrepit old planes. You can tell by the sound that something isn’t right…I pray no one gets hurt.

I don’t know how they are so busy, seems like they only want to take you up super early in the morning or late at night in the dark and stay close to LGB airport. Would be much better to fly over the ocean or some local mountains, there is just not much to see in this area (aside from golf courses.) This experience is a hard pass for me.

jeannette D.

I checked out this school along with others and was shocked that they are even in business! First let me say this the planes are all questionable old and worn out in fact scary! 2nd the staff I spoke to made several statements that led me to literally run out of there! And third they fly during dangerous winds when no one else is out flying! Save yourself some time do your research check online aviation blogs that’ll give you a good idea of how bad this school is! The owner has been around for a while but caters mostly to foreigners and safety isn’t their priority.

spunkyhelenn

Archaic and unprofessional. Make sure you get a paper receipt and do your own accounting of whatever money you leave in your account, because it will mysteriously decrease when you pull your money out. Management is rude and will call you names if you use their bathroom. Anything in regards to their bathroom will leave you with a nasty customer service experience.
Chairs and tables are worn and ripped. It's cheap flying but being called names by the management is why I will definitely go next door to David Mann's planes.

Gabriel M.

I would not recommend this place for someone who wants to rent planes recreationally. I paid their membership to be able to rent one of their planes. Then when I tried to schedule a checkout with an instructor I got the cold shoulder. I would call and email them and would get no answer. At one point they referred me to the assistant chief flight instructor but also got ignored by him. At the end I gave up trying and took the cost of membership as a loss. To add insult to injury they would still send me letters saying I was delinquent for not paying my monthly dues. They only seem to ignore me when money isn’t involved.

A B.

DANGEROUS!!!! Constant flights over our neighborhood every single day from 6:30 a.m. past 11:20 p.m. They ignore the City noise ordinance, dump fuel over our homes, significantly disrupt our peace, and sanity. Our councilwoman Megan Kerr continues to radiate mediocrity at it's finest by doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to help district 5. Still waiting for a response from her office for email I sent over two months ago

Jacob M.

Great staff - super friendly and the instructors are great. Would highly recommend if you are wanting to learn to fly. My only thing is the planes interiors could use a little repairs and maybe add GPS avionics into some of the more popular planes but overall a fantastic place to learn and fly out of.

Joseph B.

It was fun, but my instructor made me feel uncomfortable. It was really cloudy and he had always said we weren’t allowed to fly above the clouds. I had a weird feeling and then he decides to do some instrument training. So I am already in awe and nervous about being above the clouds and now I have these blinders on. Maybe it was just me, but we had to go back down because he made me uncomfortable. Just a word of advise you have to listen to the student. If they are not comfortable they are not learning. It was still a fun experience and I’m sure there are plenty of great instructors here. Mine was just a little more worried about the money and getting as far away from instructing as possible.