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Ground School for Flying the Airplane

Asked by: 2982 views Student Pilot

I started flight lessons almost three years ago but was not consistent in taking lessons.  I was overwhelmed and kept letting my discouragement affect me.  I quit several times.  Last fall, I finally focused on studying for the written it and got it out of the way.  So, I just started taking lessons again with the commitment to fly often and continue on with no excuses. My question is about studying on the ground with a group to minimize the cost and maximize the progress in the air.  Seems to me that there should two separate ground schools. One to prepare for the written and another to help get all that knowledge applied in the head for flying.  Does this make sense?  I have read several times that the airplane is the worst classroom. I would rather go up in the air after I have integrated the knowledge and actions conceptually learning how it feels in the air. I could put together a group and have our instructor teach us to chair fly. Your comments would be appreciated. Thank you.

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  1. Mark Kolber on Jul 25, 2015

    I think the answer to your question has a number of pieces.

    First, what I think you are describing certainly can be done, at least in theory. Sportys, King/Cessna and others have, in addition to their knowledge test courses, flight training ground schools that coordinate dvd/online/etc lessons with a flight training syllabus. Student can take a ground session on say, ground reference maneuvers before the flight session and review it afterwards. I have used this successfully, especially with students who had bad schedules. I think it really helped them.

    The difficulty with the concept in a group setting is the same as teaching any other motor skill in a group setting – the different rates at which different people learn and their different schedules. It works in formal schooling. High school cooking and shop classes come to mind. And I suppose (although I don’t know for sure) that such a system is being used in ab initio academies and formal college and college style training programs such as UND and Embry-Riddle.

    Making something like that work on the more informal Part 61 level in smaller groups would “simply” take a group of students committed to learning at the same page and on the same schefule. I would also include coordinating the flight lessons themselves, with students in the group riding along when another student us taking a dual lesson.

    The concept is easy but he necessary coordination more problematic.

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