Welcome to my Flight Training Page
Although I don’t currently work as a flight instructor, I used to so it for many years; better part of my career in fact.
In this page I give you access to lots of FREE flight training materials and also talk about different types of pilot training I have done. See my “Flight Training” blog posts to learn about my experiences.
Flight training courses that I have completed:
- Private Pilot License
- Instrument Rating
- Commercial Pilot License
- Airline Transport Pilot License
- Certified Flight Instructor Single-engine Airplane
- Certified Flight Instructor Instrument Airplane
- Certified Flight Instructor Multi-engine Airplane
- Challenger 605 initial type rating
- Challenger 605 recurrent training about 10 times
I will share my experiences with all the different training courses in future postings. Please standby for more content.
Flight Training Materials
FAA Practical Test Standards
For every prospective pilot it is necessary to know what is expected from them. The FAA publishes practical test standards so you can prepare yourself for the checkride. The book lists all the areas of operations, tasks, maneuvers, and knowledge that the pilot applicant need to be proficient in. You can’t pass the exam unless you know what to expect, which makes the Practical Test Standards (PTS) books so valuable.
For just about all the aviation books you have the option to have them in electronic format or as a paperback book. I did all my training with the paper books, and I still prefer them in study situations. For reading novel I prefer my Kindle though.
All the Practical Test Standard books you can get for free from the FAA website in a pdf format. Alternatively you can get them in paper or Kindle format from Amazon. You can find all the PTS books in Amazon from here: FAA Practical Test Standards
Or you can get the free pdf versions from here: FAA Practical Test Standards pdf.
Oral Exam Guides
As a part of your practical exam to get your pilot license you will have to do an oral exam. This involves you sitting down with a certified pilot examiner who will ask you many questions relating to the license you are applying for.
You should prepare for the oral exam by studying all the areas of operations listed in the PTS. Unfortunately the PTS only lists the subjects but doesn’t give you the answers. It does however point you to different FAA handbooks and other references where you can find the answers.
While you should read through all the reference material, going through the references to find answers to specific questions can be very time taking. Luckily there is another option.
ASA (Aviation Supplies & Academics) publishes some excellent Oral Exam Guides for many of the different pilot licenses or ratings.
In general they follow the same areas of operations that are listed in the PTS. The oral exam guides can offer you an efficient way for preparing for the oral exam specifically.
Easier Readings!
Now I learned to fly using all the FAA handbooks, ASA, and Jeppesen books. Many of the books are rather difficult, boring, technical reading.
I recently learned about some aviation books that are more readable and funny. There is this pilot guy, Rod Machado , who has written an extensive library of aviation books and even made video courses.
Based on all the Amazon reviews people really seem to find the books very well organized and well written. You can see all his books in Amazon from this link: Rod Machado books.
You can also check out his website for full catalog of his products at: rodmachado.com
Instrument Flight Training
Even private pilots need to learn who to do basic attitude instrument flying. They need to learn it in case they get into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) inadvertently. Pilots who only have a private pilot license are not allowed to fly into clouds, but if it happens accidentally, he or she would have to know how to turn around by looking at the aircraft instruments only.
While private pilots are required to only practice instrument flight to grasp the basics, the students applying for an instrument rating spend hours upon hours simulating instrument flying. Instrument training is normally done in visual conditions, but the student is expected to fly solely with the reference to the airplane instruments.
You will simulate instrument flying by wearing some type of a view limiting device designed for this purpose. I learned to fly using an Instrument Hood 
When I was working as an instructor in the United States many students were wearing Aviation Flight Training Glasses or "Foggles"
During my last instructor job in China, we got some training materials from the United States. The materials included BLOCKALLS IFR View Limiting Device 
Jeppesen Instrument/Commercial Textbook
The Jeppesen Instrument/Commercial textbook is one of my most recommended aviation textbooks if you prefer printed books. It contains tons of information that you need to know for your instrument rating and commercial pilot certificates. It’s presented in an organized fashion with excellent graphics. The book is pricey, but it’s well worth the investment if you prefer a nice hardcover book instead of reading the electronic FAA handbooks.
Flight Computers
When you do flight training, you will need to invest in a flight computer. Flight computers are not like desktop or laptop computers that you have at home. They are small and affordable devices designed for aviation calculations. The most basic flight computers are not even digital devices; instead, they are simple rectangular devices with a spinning wheel attached to them. They are usually made from cardboard paper, plastic, or metal. Those devices are usually referred to as E6Bs or “Whiz Wheels.” They seem complicated at first, but they come with instructions for different calculations, and they are actually easy to use once you get used to them.
If you don’t mind spending a bit more money, a digital flight computer is a way to go these days. Although the E6Bs are not that complicated to use, digital flight computers can perform the required calculations much faster and more accurately. With digital flight computers, you can also perform more calculations than what is possible with the mechanical ones.
Regardless of the type of flight computer, you must learn to use it for certain time, distance and speed calculations, fuel computations, true airspeed and density altitude calculations, temperature conversions, determining magnetic headings and ground speeds, etc.
Both types of flight computers are acceptable to bring with you to the FAA knowledge examination.
The ASA CX-3 Flight Computer
The cheapest flight computer out there is probably the ASA E6B Paper Flight Computer
There are several other options as well. One good option is the ASAs Color E6B Flight Computer
Here are my Blog Posts and Videos from my different Flight Training Experiences:
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Flight Experience 9 – Flying Over Gobi Desert – Flight of the Phoenix Style!
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Flight Experience 7 – Look at ’em Puppies! – Ready for a Seaplane Flight?!?
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