Fly Bay Area, San Carlos

With more than 20 years of flying experience, Fly Bay Area creates tours and courses that are designed to bring recreational flying to the general public. As a Cessna Pilot Center, they offer flight instruction and aircraft rental for budding and experienced pilots. Students can sign up for comprehensive and structured flight courses that count towards a Private Pilot, Instrument Rating, or Commercial Pilot Certificate. Alternatively, participants on Fly Bay Area's tours can choose to see the Peninsula, Pacific Coast/Half Moon Bay, San Francisco & Golden Gate, or the Ultimate SkyTour all around the Bay Area—but instead of exploring each up-close, they view them from around 1,500 feet in the air. Experienced pilots steer four-seat, single-engine planes over the San Francisco Peninsula and Bay, across sweeping redwood forests and the Pacific coast, during sky tours at any time of day. The FAA-approved air-tour company also lets passengers helm the plane's controls on U-Fly tours. During these flights, wannabe pilots can perform basic flight maneuvers and make airplane noises with their mouths, eschewing the extra technical and theoretical lessons required by pilot-training programs. On any flight, staff members can snap high-resolution digital photographs or high-definition videos that document moments of the customer's in-flight experience.