King IFR - dates or ok / add on videos?

bflynn

bflynn

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Brian Flynn
Two specific questions about the King IFR course.

It have been described as dated. 1) Are people saying this meaning “the information is no longer relevant because IFR has changed” or are they saying “old people are lame and have lame dad jokes”?

There are multiple levels of courses. 2) For those who have purchased the expensive package with the add on videos like “IFR With Confidence”, do you think the extra videos are worth it?
 
First question, all their videos while corny are kept up to date with the faa exams. Some of the info is dated largely because the tests themselves are dated. Personally I’m a fan.

As to the second question, they’re ok, probably depends on the video. The ones I’ve seen were bundled as a special with another course.


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I just started the king IFR course. I got the 2nd tier one that includes IFR with confidence and checkride prep, etc.
Part of the reason I went with the second-tier is because my CFII is a authorized King reseller. He gets 20% off which he passed on to me....and that's the course he likes to teach by.
I don't mind the corniness. They do a good job of explaining things, and everything is supposed to be kept up to date.
Sorry to not fully answer your question, but I haven't been through enough of it to respond with much knowledge. So far though, I have enjoyed IFR with confidence.
I guess you could find some of that stuff elsewhere, but even my CFII said he liked the 2nd tier.
I also like the fact that I can download the entire course to my iPad, phone, computer etc., and don't need an internet connection.
Very useful when waiting on certain ladies that are fashionably late :)
 
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Sportys with Sheppard. The interactive acs is something I like (and value).
 
I used the King instrument course as well as the commercial. I will also be using their CFI course. Though some of the lessons were filmed many years ago, the material is still relevant today. When something changes, they create a new video or edit the current ones to reflect the changes.

Sporty's is also a good choice. I just couldn't get into their courses though, but that's just me. I would highly recommend Sheppard Air. I have used them in addition to the King courses for instrument, commercial, advanced ground instructor, instrument ground instructor, and fundamentals of instruction. Three of the five were 100s, and the lowest score I ever got was a 95.
 
I did kings for my private and sportys for my instrument. It's hard for me to justify the extra money on kings. I even bought a sportys private just before my checkride for the interactive acs.

Now that there isn't a significant amount of new material to learn, it's hard to imagine doing anything other than Sheppard and having them write the endorsement to take a test.
 
Appreciating this good information. I am a few days away from pulling the trigger on one of these programs for IFR and leaning towards the king middle package with the written and checkride prep.


Edit: After seeing Sporty's is half the price I might have to take a serious look at that one too.
 
Another money saving tip....Join NAFI. Membership is $55 and you get 33% off of foreflight (I have the $200 version so I have $66 right there), 20% off of sportys courses (I've bought 2 over the last year, so $80 saved) and king schools which you get 20% off of as well. I wanted to get the Bose headset discount, but you actually need to be a CFI....
 
Ours is on VHS and we don't even have a machine that will play that anymore.:(
 
I did King IFR written and check ride prep. The written info was upto date and actually changes as they get feedback from test takers I think. The vids are short and easier to digest. Their question bank and testing allows you to work on specific sections of questions or work on your weaknesses. You can let it test you on questions you go wrong. I felt very prepared and got a 97 on my written. I highly recommend.

The checkride prep I’m currently doing and I don’t think is near as valuable as the written prep. It is long. Long vids. Drags on quite a bit.
 
I collect flight training videos. Started that as a way to catch up on 34 years away from flying. Picked them up cheap on eBay. I think I have 600 unique VHS tapes and maybe 100 or more DVDs. Remember there is a difference between a video ground school and a test prep. Sporty's is ground school, King is test prep; the King ground schools is the "Cleared for... (Takeoff, Approach, Hire)" stuff they originally did for Cessna Flight Training. Regarding "dated", I used a dated set of their A&P tapes and scored over 90% on my writtens in 2015. I used somewhat dated (ex. little on GPS and no WAAS) online video courses from American Flyers for my IR and CPL ground school/test prep and scored around 90% on both tests in 2017. They were on sale and included the CFII sign-offs. Yes, the Kings are lame. My son and I have running jokes about them laughing at weird moments thoughout the tapes. But they are good test prep. If you know your material then you can pick up on anything that may have changed since the videos were shot but if you buy King new, that should not be an issue as they keep their material up-to-date.

BTW, here a pic of maybe 1/3 of my collection :)

IMG_20180823_195418778.jpg
 
I used the King and didn't pass my first test by 2 questions. I called King and they refunded my money. I then went with Sporty's videos in addition to studying with the Gleim instrument test prep. It was far superior to King in my opinion. I hit it hard with Sheppard Air a week before my test and scored an 85. I'm a terrible test taker too.

Key is to use Sheppard Air.
 
I ended up going with the Sportys IFR course. I will come back after a little while and let you all know what I think of it.
 
Ronbonjovi said:
I ended up going with the Sportys IFR course. I will come back after a little while and let you all know what I think of it.
Click to expand...

I like Sporty's for ground school. Will they sign you off for the test?
 
I used King and took my written and checkeide earlier this year. I thought it was great.
 
bflynn said:
Two specific questions about the King IFR course.

It have been described as dated. 1) Are people saying this meaning “the information is no longer relevant because IFR has changed” or are they saying “old people are lame and have lame dad jokes”?

There are multiple levels of courses. 2) For those who have purchased the expensive package with the add on videos like “IFR With Confidence”, do you think the extra videos are worth it?
Click to expand...

IFR has not changed, the courses are still the gold standard IMO, some of my students have the videos on a thumb drive, they use that to study and buy a cheap dauntless subscription for the practice test. Never had one fail a oral or written which is what those prepair you for.

As for the add on, personally I wouldn’t bother.
 
letsgofly925 said:
I used the King and didn't pass my first test by 2 questions. I called King and they refunded my money. I then went with Sporty's videos in addition to studying with the Gleim instrument test prep. It was far superior to King in my opinion. I hit it hard with Sheppard Air a week before my test and scored an 85. I'm a terrible test taker too.

Key is to use Sheppard Air.
Click to expand...
It seems that you are discounting the information you got from the King videos, in addition to whatever you added later.
 
I did the first instrument written with the Kings (I don't have a "I Sleft With Martha King" button though). Passed it in the high 90's. The one thing I can say about it is it is a whole lot better than the horrendous Jepp Inst/Comm course I did several years earlier.

Just about every other written I've done, I've done with good ol' Irwin Gleim's computer drill and kill. Best software presentation for that I've seen BAR NONE.
 
flyingron said:
I did the first instrument written with the Kings (I don't have a "I Sleft With Martha King" button though). Passed it in the high 90's. The one thing I can say about it is it is a whole lot better than the horrendous Jepp Inst/Comm course I did several years earlier.

Just about every other written I've done, I've done with good ol' Irwin Gleim's computer drill and kill. Best software presentation for that I've seen BAR NONE.
Click to expand...

The king ones are better at actually teaching the materiel however, and at some point you are going to need to learn that stuff.
 
alfadog said:
I like Sporty's for ground school. Will they sign you off for the test?
Click to expand...

Yeah once you pass two of their practice tests with at least 80% or higher you receive the endorsement to take the written.
 
I'd say probably 70-80% of the videos have been updated in the last 6 months, and the ones that have not haven't been simply because they're still accurate. King is King as far as I'm concerned. I got a 98 on my PPL written and breezed through the oral and flight test. I'm taking my inatrument written Sunday. What I lime about King is that they have so many formats to watch the videos, and 950 test questions. You can go back and review all the ones you've ever gotten wrong, and the videos are linked to the questions. So if you don't understand something, just click and watch again. Super easy. It's expensive but you don't just pass the test, you understand the material.
 
The Kings sure are cheesy and low-tech, and the Sporty's videos look a lot nicer on first glance, but Sporty's doesn't actually teach you at least not in a way that information will be retained. The Sporty's narrator (notice I said "narrator" and not "instructor" since as far as I can tell, he isn't one) drones on in a boring monotone reading off a script in what amounts to a book-on-tape, all while showing you frequently pointless stock footage. The Kings taught in-person accelerated groundschools for many years and were very successful at it.

Philip Greenspun nails it:
Sporty's Pilot Shop produces and publishes its own lectures on DVD. These won an award from Flying magazine, whose editor, Richard Collins, makes some cameo appearances on the DVDs. In granting the award, Collins must have limited his viewing to his own segments, which are reasonably interesting and inspiring in a "voice of experience" sort of way. Collins's vignettes won't help you pass the FAA knowledge test but they serve as interesting background. Sadly the bulk of the Sporty's DVDs is a parody of pedagogy. The pace is slow. If the instructor is saying "straight and level, climbing, descending, in turns" each of these phrases will be illustrated with a bit of stock footage: an airplane executing these maneuvers on a sunny day. Ten minutes later you're invited to press "Enter" on your DVD remote control. FAA knowledge test questions come up. Nothing in the preceding lecture segment has prepared you in any way for the questions. You start guessing, taking wild stabs with the menu keys on the DVD remote. Eventually the sluggish lecture starts up again. Instead of blackboards and diagrams, most of the video time is taken up with footage taken from a camera mounted in the right seat of a real airplane. If you've never been in an airplane, this might be interesting, but presumably most people studying for the IFR knowledge test already have at least 100 hours or so of time. Then another knowledge test fragment for which the viewer is completely unprepared. If you enjoy feeling bored 90 percent of the time and bewildered and stupid 10 percent, Sporty's DVDs are for you.

The most popular IFR video course is produced by www.kingschools.com. Their DVDs feature John and Martha King, the founders of the school. The King videos have the advantage that they actually teach something. The Kings put a lot of effort into producing explanatory graphics, and they spend most of their time pointing out various details of these graphics. I scored nearly 100 percent on the FAA test questions included on the DVD. The King DVDs can be used on a computer, in which case you get a more thorough grilling and the program tracks which questions you got wrong for later review.
 
Meh, it's not right or wrong, black and white. It's about what works for you. I for one can't stand the kings. I also hate acronyms and all the cheesy sayings. The sportys works for me. And Sheppard air really worked for me. Surprisingly, I learned a lot from Sheppard air....maybe some people just "get through the test." Maybe some people actually learn from it.
 
I used the King for my private and instrument along with Gleim back in the day. Never liked Sporty's as they don't really teach like @dmspilot said above. I went to Sheppard for the commercial mainly because the King stuff has gotten so expensive.
 
Good to hear about King. I am a 64 year old getting my sport pilot thing through King. I am surprised at how much there is to learn. I passed the CPA and this stuff is just as difficult, mostly because it is all new. Also, I just learned 75 percent or so of people attempting to get their flying certificate bomb out. I sure hope it's not me. Took five flying lessons and then stopped to concentrate on the knowledge test. Both together was just too much. Learning to fly is hard. I have been appropriately humbled. Flying an Evektor us freaking difficult!
 
I remember being intimidated by how much there was to learn when I started, so I told myself that I just needed to learn one thing at a time. It worked!
 
I have done king for all my written test...PPL , IFR, COMM, FOI, and I am going to be taking the AGI and AFI in the next few weeks. What I do is review all the king videos, then when it comes time to go through all the material at the end, I get sheppard. Only one I didn't do sheppard for was PPL (98%), but that was over 14 years ago, and they had just stopped publishing the answer banks. The rest of the written test I have taken have been in the past few months. I do exactly like they say to do, and the lowest score I have made so far is a 96. Took the FOI last week and made a 100 on it. That one is pure memorization, and I just kept pounding those questions over and over again till I didn't even have to read them all the way through to know the answers. The kings teach you the material and sheppard helps you memorize the answers to the CURRENT test bed. Literally every time you fire up the software it will check for updates. If you study the material for a week or two, it usually has atleast one, maybe two updates...That is how up to date it is. But it doesn't teach you the material. Even if you have a question and click on the "explanation" tab, it just shows you an excerpt from the FAR/AIM. I would regularly go back to the king and find that section if it was a questions i didn't understand how they got the answer.

I got the check ride prep for the PPL, IFR and CFI. I skipped the Commercial for that. The IFR helped listening to her go through her flight planning, and why she chose what she did. Fuel, weight, MEA, weather, alternates, etc. I could have done it without it, but for $120, i think it was worth it. I haven't taken the COMM or CFI practicals yet, but that practical test prep for the CFI has allot of info in it.

I have done almost all of my own ground school and if I had to pick only one source it would be king. You have the thing for life with free updates, so you can go back and refresh yourself in the future, which may be nice if you aren't an active commercial pilot. There is a reason they have sold over 2 million courses.
 
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