Flying in GTA San Andreas means going to Pilot School at Verdant Meadows, and Pilot School does not exist until you have bought the airstrip. That purchase is the gate most players hit: the school is not a location you stumble across, it is something you unlock by spending money on a derelict airfield in the desert.
Buying the Airstrip First
Verdant Meadows is the abandoned airfield in Bone County. Buying it opens the Pilot School and gives you a base in the desert that several later missions use.
It is also where the jetpack ends up after Black Project, which our guide on how to get a jetpack covers.
The Lessons
Pilot School runs as a series of lessons, each graded bronze, silver or gold. A bronze pass moves you on. Better grades raise your flying skill further and unlock vehicle rewards.
The lessons work up from basics to landing and combat manoeuvres, and a couple of them are genuinely difficult. The two that stall people most are the precision landings and the flight through markers, both of which reward throttle control rather than speed.
Why Gold Medals Matter
This is the part worth the extra attempts. All gold medals unlocks aircraft spawns you do not otherwise get, including the Hunter attack helicopter.
That matters practically rather than cosmetically: having a Hunter available changes how several later missions can be approached. The airstrip purchase that unlocks all of this is not cheap either, and our guide on how to make money in San Andreas covers funding it.
Flying Once You Can
A few things that are not obvious from the lessons:
- Throttle is not the same as speed. Pulling back too hard stalls you, and stalling at low altitude is unrecoverable.
- Landings want a shallow approach. Most crashes come from descending too steeply and hitting the runway nose first.
- Hover mode, on the aircraft that have it, is separate from normal flight and has its own controls.
Flying Without the School
You can steal and fly an aircraft without any of this. What you cannot do is fly it well, because flying skill affects handling directly, and the school is the fastest route to raising it.
If you want to get somewhere rather than learn to fly, the jetpack is the better answer for most journeys.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Pilot School? At the Verdant Meadows airstrip, which you have to buy first.
Do you need gold medals? No, bronze passes each lesson. Gold unlocks extra aircraft, including the Hunter.
Can you fly before doing the school? Yes, but handling is poor until your flying skill rises.
What is the hardest lesson? The precision landings, which reward slow controlled approaches rather than speed.