Flight School
Counts 12 times toward the 42 hobbies and pastimes
Player notes
After Friends Reunited, Flight School opens on Exceptionalists Way at Los Santos International Airport. Michael De Santa or Franklin Clinton arrives at the school and takes instruction from Jackson to build flying skill. Trevor Philips is already an experienced pilot, though he can also attend. The course begins in a Cuban 800, first teaching a takeoff through the marked gates and then a runway landing. It moves to the Mallard for inverted flight, knife flight and a low-level route over the Port of Los Santos and LSIA.
The Mallard lessons continue at Lago Zancudo, where the pilot brings the aircraft down on a bridge, then performs an inside loop. Flight School changes to a Frogger for a helicopter course over Los Santos and a faster route from the Palomino Highlands back toward the city. Jackson then sends the pilot skydiving onto a fixed target, followed by a descent toward a moving target. Dom Beasley appears in the introductions to both skydiving exercises.
The final lesson returns to the Mallard for Earn Your Wings. Michael, Franklin or Trevor flies a course through Los Santos, using knife flight at the green gates and inverted flight at the blue ones, combining the manoeuvres taught throughout the school. The twelve lessons end after the aircraft completes this city course. Once every lesson has been completed, Dusters begin appearing at the western end of Marina Drive in the Grand Senora Desert and beside the Alamo Sea.
Trivia
- โThe Flight School's logo, being an image of two hands clasped as if for prayer, backed by a pair of wings, is a visual pun on the phrase "on a wing and a prayer", used to describe the trust passengers of aircraft have towards the plane or helicopter's crew to safely respond to a developing incident.
- โDom Beasley appears in the video introduction of the Skydiving and Drop Zone lessons.
- โAlthough Trevor is a trained pilot due to his military experience, he can still go to the Flight School and complete the lessons to reach 100% flying skill faster.
- โDespite Trevor's experience, Jackson will still call him a beginner during the lessons, because the dialogue is always the same for every lesson.
- โIn Outside Loop, two stems from the score "Greyhound" (a similar instrumental can be heard in the Pause Menu) are played. This is the only mission in the game that partially features this score.
- โIn Shooting Range, the instructor claims that the Buzzard is equipped with air-to-ground missiles, which contradicts its actual performance, as the Buzzard can attack all targets.
- โIn the demonstration video of Engine Failure, the instructor claims that this course had lost a lot of pilots, which is an obvious reference to the large presence of Fire Trucks and Ambulances just in case of an accident.
- โIn Moving Landing, the image depicts a Swift helicopter landing on the bed of a Flatbed. In the actual mission, the player has to land a Buzzard on the back of an Army Trailer.
- โOn the PC version, the chopper provided is always a Flying Bravo Swift.
- โSometimes, after completing a lesson with a gold medal, they can offer even more than $20,000 as a reward (PC version, occurred with Formation Flight).
Instalments
The ones marked in copper move the 42-item counter. The rest are optional.
- Training Take OffCounts
- Runway LandingCounts
- Inverted FlightCounts
- Knife FlightCounts
- Flat HattingCounts
- Touch DownCounts
- Loop the LoopCounts
- Helicopter CourseCounts
- Helicopter Speed RunCounts
- SkydivingCounts
- Drop ZoneCounts
- Earn Your WingsCounts
Medal thresholds
| Challenge | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Training Take Off | 0:32 | 0:50 | 1:00 |
| Runway Landing | 0:35 | 0:55 | 1:10 |
| Inverted Flight | 1:40 | 2:00 | 2:20 |
| Knife Flight | 0:54 | 1:15 | 1:40 |
| Flat Hatting | 2:15 | 2:35 | 3:00 |
| Touch Down | 10 ft | 45 ft | Finish |
| Loop the Loop | 1:35 | 1:40 | 2:05 |
| Helicopter Course | 2:40 | 3:15 | 3:45 |
| Helicopter Speed Run | 2:10 | 3:00 | 3:30 |
| Skydiving | 3 ft | 10 ft | 20 ft |
| Drop Zone | 0 ft | 7 ft | 20 ft |
| Earn Your Wings | 2:50 | 3:15 | 3:40 |
Hobby data from GTA Wiki, CC BY-SA; instalment rosters hand-compiled and reconciled against it. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games.
Last verified September 14, 2026