3-5 Day Ground School

T

Tory

Filing Flight Plan
Joined
Nov 11, 2019
Messages
1
Display Name
Display name:
Tory
Hello,

New to the forum and a new pilot in training. I have about 24 hours of flight time under my belt and will be soloing very soon. My experience at my school has been ok. Nothing bad but nothing amazing either. I am reaching out to this forum hoping for an answer. Prior to me writing this question, I attempted the search feature on this site with no luck.

Question: Is there a 3-5 day course that schools offer that only focuses on ground work? A class where you could take a written exam right after the course is finished. To give a little context behind this question. My school was attempting to offer this sort of classroom environment for approximately $150-$250. I immediately became interested in this because like other students that have full time jobs, it is extremely hard to make the time outside of work and other responsibilities. When the school offered this sort of learning/classroom option, I immediately thought this is exactly the kind of solution I am looking for. My overall studying has been going along fine, but it is intermittent at best. This is exactly why when I was in college I actually went to class. I was the type of student that did much better in that sort of learning environment where as other students could read a book, take a test, and pass the class. (Very jealous of those people).

To wrap up my rant. I am reaching out to see if anyone knows of this or has seen this more and more as aviation is becoming more lucrative to get into from a career standpoint. I googled quite a bit but I always get the same typical answers: Gleim, Stormy's Academy, Kings etc (all online stuff). I am looking for an actual teacher that I can engage with and students to learn with. PS I found a couple of options but the pricing was nearly 800-1000 dollars for the class.

Thanks in advance,
 
Tory said:
Hello,

New to the forum and a new pilot in training. I have about 24 hours of flight time under my belt and will be soloing very soon. My experience at my school has been ok. Nothing bad but nothing amazing either. I am reaching out to this forum hoping for an answer. Prior to me writing this question, I attempted the search feature on this site with no luck.

Question: Is there a 3-5 day course that schools offer that only focuses on ground work? A class where you could take a written exam right after the course is finished. To give a little context behind this question. My school was attempting to offer this sort of classroom environment for approximately $150-$250. I immediately became interested in this because like other students that have full time jobs, it is extremely hard to make the time outside of work and other responsibilities. When the school offered this sort of learning/classroom option, I immediately thought this is exactly the kind of solution I am looking for. My overall studying has been going along fine, but it is intermittent at best. This is exactly why when I was in college I actually went to class. I was the type of student that did much better in that sort of learning environment where as other students could read a book, take a test, and pass the class. (Very jealous of those people).

To wrap up my rant. I am reaching out to see if anyone knows of this or has seen this more and more as aviation is becoming more lucrative to get into from a career standpoint. I googled quite a bit but I always get the same typical answers: Gleim, Stormy's Academy, Kings etc (all online stuff). I am looking for an actual teacher that I can engage with and students to learn with. PS I found a couple of options but the pricing was nearly 800-1000 dollars for the class.

Thanks in advance,
Click to expand...

I have taught over 500 private ground school students over the last 6 years. > 36 class room hours are required to teach a top quality private ground school. Your best training is to clear the calendar and tough it out at a ground school.

Aviation Seminars is a 2 day review of test questions - not recommended.

I would not recommend the Gleim package.

There are video options that do a descent job, King and Sporty’s are 2 popular ones.

There are now some free courses online, but I have not evaluated them, but what you got to lose but time.
 
BrianNC said:
https://www.aviationseminars.com/private-pilot/
Click to expand...


I will have to agree. I went to Aviation Seminars for my private and Instrument.

They do send you a booklet of test questions which requires study. Unfortunately, many went in with zero knowledge with hopes to get a free ride to pass their exam. I went well prepared after doing the Sporty's video courses and quizzes just to brush up on a few things that I didn't quite understand at the time like landing/takeoff distance chart, crosswind component, VOR and E6B calculations. Its a great supplement coupled with another ground school but I wouldn't do it standalone.
 
Another point. Don't think of your ground school training as simply a way to get past the Knowledge Test. It should be a comprehensive program that covers everything, including your flight maneuvers. If your ground training strategy isn't helping you in the air, change your strategy.
 
Good point made there. There is Ground School to cover the material on the written test, and then there is Ground School to cover a host of other topics (how to complete a NavLog, where to put your way points, how to file a flight plan, calling for a weather brief, how to ask for flight following, etc.)
 
I took my written pretty late in my private training. I used Sporty's and just kept repeating the quizzes. If I had it to do over again, I would have taken it sooner and done a class. There's a balance as some stuff doesn't make much sense until you are doing it and other requires it to be fresh in your mind as its more rote memorization.

I did a three day class for the Instrument written, before I knew much about anything. Got a mid-seventies grande and didn't really learn much. Think the instructor was a bit out of date and some of the questions were not in his knowledge base.

To @write-stuff 's point, I'd think about three things - how to pass the written, how to pass the oral and what do I need to know to fly safely. A class might hit objective number one better than the latter two. Having said that, you need to make sure not to miss the latter two. Make sure your instructor is getting you up to speed on those either in the air or on the ground.
 
Impressed that you passed your instrument written with only a 3 day class - well done. I spent a few months on self study material and videos to do the written for the PPL. My approach on self study is to go over and over things to get as deep an understanding as possible. Agree with your point on putting emphasis on understanding the material to know what to do when flying. Yep - the material covered in the written test really is used. Go figure....... (OK, not 100% of it. But almost all).
 
Apparently you can get the endorsement on a 5-day cruise as well... groundschoolcruise.com
 
That would be a great perk to have a ground school course available on a cruise. Of course most people are not going to be pilots and even if so. they may want to just lay back and not concentrate on anything on ship, but it would be nice to have the option.

By the way I have had good experience on a cruise, smaller ship,upper end.
 
Last edited:
I went to a weekend session named aptly Weekend Ground School and passed my CFI written test after that, think I did pretty well on the test, maybe B+ can't remember for sure. I may have done some study outside of that session, but not what I had done in the past for other ratings. The presenter retired from doing them recently.
 
Good info here. I am somewhat in the same boat. I have around 15 hours, was about to solo but things got in the way (work, got married, honeymoon, etc) and all of a sudden it’s been two months since I have flown, the weather has been terrible, can’t schedule my instructor and I’m wondering what to do. I have already completed 8-10 hours of ground but honestly, I don’t have time to go on rainy days for ground, even if it is more beneficial than online training. SO, my thought is to knock put an online ground course and study/complete the written exam this winter while the flying is slow. Has anyone done this before? Passed the written before even soloing?
 
Yes, I did my written prep via on line / study books, passed my written, and then started flight training - let alone before solo. I'm sure folks will pop up with their own reasonable POV on if was good or bad. My reasoning was the same - might as well use the short day light, bad weather winter months for something productive. Your passed written test is good for 2 years, so you should have time to complete flight training.
 
Tory said:
Hello,

New to the forum and a new pilot in training. I have about 24 hours of flight time under my belt and will be soloing very soon. My experience at my school has been ok. Nothing bad but nothing amazing either. I am reaching out to this forum hoping for an answer. Prior to me writing this question, I attempted the search feature on this site with no luck.

Question: Is there a 3-5 day course that schools offer that only focuses on ground work? A class where you could take a written exam right after the course is finished. To give a little context behind this question. My school was attempting to offer this sort of classroom environment for approximately $150-$250. I immediately became interested in this because like other students that have full time jobs, it is extremely hard to make the time outside of work and other responsibilities. When the school offered this sort of learning/classroom option, I immediately thought this is exactly the kind of solution I am looking for. My overall studying has been going along fine, but it is intermittent at best. This is exactly why when I was in college I actually went to class. I was the type of student that did much better in that sort of learning environment where as other students could read a book, take a test, and pass the class. (Very jealous of those people).

To wrap up my rant. I am reaching out to see if anyone knows of this or has seen this more and more as aviation is becoming more lucrative to get into from a career standpoint. I googled quite a bit but I always get the same typical answers: Gleim, Stormy's Academy, Kings etc (all online stuff). I am looking for an actual teacher that I can engage with and students to learn with. PS I found a couple of options but the pricing was nearly 800-1000 dollars for the class.

Thanks in advance,
Click to expand...

You say your school was attempting to offer this for less than $250. Is there a reason you did not want to go with that option? I'm at 42 hours now, completed ground school with my flight school and am currently preparing for my checkride. My flight school offered ground school at what I considered a reasonable price and we met 2 days a week for something like 1 1/2-2 months if I remember correctly. I enjoyed the 2 days a week as it gave me time to review the material and study prior to class. Had I done a 3-5 day course with everything smashed into that small of a timeframe I'm not sure I would have been able to grasp some of the concepts as easily as I did. I had an advantage before starting ground school in that I've got 20+ years of naval aviation as a maintainer and a degree in Aeronautics from Embry Riddle but still had to study when it came to airspace and even weather to some degree as those were never really primary concerns for me as a maintainer on the flight line. My biggest concern there was what jets needed fixed for the next flight and the pilots had to worry about airspace, weather, planning, etc... I agree with the above comment to use ground school to actually learn the topics and the why. Rote memorization can be good on some tests but I personally think of the written test as a foundation of knowledge that I should have as a pilot. I'd rather know the why so I can figure out a suitable outcome when I'm task saturated and need to determine if I should continue on a plan or make a decision to change plans. I imagine it will also put my passengers, at ease when I can answer a question as to why something is done instead of just saying, well that was the correct answer on the test. We did have students that showed up to class without reading the material and expected to learn everything in class. As far as I know, none of them have completed their written tests and those students struggled the most in class for obvious reasons.
 
As you figured out, all ground training requires some home study. I have yet to talk to a 100% home study student that adequately knew airspace, weather, and aerodynamics. Yes, they could pass the knowledge test.
 
Last edited:
Clip4 said:
If I ever have the opportunity to work with one of your folks I will send you feed back.
Click to expand...

Are you an instructor? If so, you can sign up for free. You get full access, with student monitoring built in. All at no charge to CFIs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top