Private pilot ground school prep

The curriculum

Seven units built against the FAA's own standards: the aeronautical knowledge areas of 14 CFR 61.105 and the ground-knowledge tasks of the Private Pilot for Airplane Category Airman Certification Standards. The aircraft, the rules, the weather, operations, navigation and planning, emergencies, and judgement. Work through it in order; each lesson also stands alone.

The airplane itself

1. 01 How a wing works The four forces, angle of attack, why a wing stalls at an angle rather than a speed, and what that means in the pattern. 8 min Account
2. 02 Engines, fuel and instruments The carbureted piston engines that power most training airplanes, carburetor ice, fuel discipline, and the gauges that matter. 7 min Account
3. 03 Weight and balance The computation every pilot signs up to: weight times arm, moments summed, and a centre of gravity that must land inside the envelope. 7 min Account
4. 04 Aerodynamics for the checkride Left-turning tendencies, load factor, the accelerated stall and the groundspeed illusion: the theory the examiner picks three of. 8 min Account
5. 05 Takeoffs, landings and the go-around How an airplane leaves and returns to the ground, and the one decision that undoes a bad approach before it becomes a bad landing. 8 min Account
6. 06 Steep turns: load, not just bank Why a steep turn tests wing loading and altitude control at the same time, and the one bank angle every private pilot has to hit on the checkride. 6 min Account
7. 07 Ground reference maneuvers Rectangular courses, S-turns and turns around a point all solve the same problem: the wind is pushing you sideways, and a constant bank angle will not hold a constant path over the ground. 7 min Account
8. 08 Slow flight and stalls Flying on the back side of the power curve, recognising the stall cues in the order they arrive, and why the checkride drills both until they are boring. 7 min Account

Rules and airspace

1. 09 US airspace, class by class What the letters mean, roughly where each class sits, and what each one asks of you before you enter. 8 min Account
2. 10 Private pilot privileges and limits What a private pilot certificate lets you do, the cost-sharing rule, the hours it takes, and what keeps it current. 8 min Account
3. 11 Certificates, documents and airworthiness The papers the examiner asks for first: what must be aboard the aircraft, what must be current on you, and how to tell an aircraft is legally fit to fly. 7 min Account
4. 12 Special use airspace, TFRs and NOTAMs The airspace that is not on the wedding cake: restricted and prohibited areas, MOAs, temporary flight restrictions, and the notices that warn you. 6 min Account

Weather

1. 13 Weather and the decision not to fly The handful of weather numbers that decide a light airplane flight, and how to set a personal limit before you are standing at the hangar. 8 min Account
2. 14 Reading a METAR The coded weather report every pilot checks before flying, decoded field by field until it reads like a sentence. 7 min Account
3. 15 Weather that kills flights: fronts, storms and shear The weather theory behind the go/no-go call: stability, fronts, the life of a thunderstorm, and wind shear. 8 min Account

Airport operations

1. 16 Crosswind components How the wind splits into a part that helps you and a part you fly against, and how to size up each in your head. 6 min Account
2. 17 Airports and runway numbers Why runways are numbered the way they are, how the traffic pattern works, and the difference between a towered and a non-towered field. 7 min Account
3. 18 Radio calls at a non-towered field The self-announce pattern that keeps everyone in the circuit aware of everyone else, and the one sentence shape every call uses. 6 min Account
4. 19 Seeing and avoiding traffic The scan that actually finds traffic, the right-of-way rules, and staying out of the invisible wake of heavier aircraft. 7 min Account
5. 20 Ground procedures: preflight to runup The walkaround, briefing your passengers, starting safely, taxiing in wind, and the before-takeoff check. 7 min Account
6. 21 Runway markings, signs and lights The painted lines, coloured signs and lights that organise an airport, and the hold-short discipline that prevents runway incursions. 6 min Account

Navigation and planning

1. 22 Reading a sectional chart The VFR map: airport symbols, the colour code for airspace, and navigating by pilotage and dead reckoning. 8 min Account
2. 23 Planning a flight, start to finish Runway numbers, performance, fuel with a real reserve, the briefing, and the alternate you pick before you need it. Plus what the NTSB requires if things go wrong. 8 min Account

Emergencies

1. 24 Emergencies: engine failure, IMC escape and malfunctions The engine-failure glide, the 180 that gets you out of cloud, and the malfunctions worth rehearsing. 8 min Account
2. 25 Emergency equipment and survival gear What you carry changes with where you fly. Mountains, water, desert and extreme temperatures each demand something different from the aircraft and from you. 5 min Account

Judgement

1. 26 Fit to fly: aeromedical basics The IMSAFE self-check, why dehydration and altitude sneak up on light airplane pilots, and the honest self-grounding call. 6 min Account
2. 27 Aeronautical decision making PAVE, DECIDE, and the five hazardous attitudes: the structured judgement that separates old pilots from bold ones. 7 min Account

Reference modules

Longer reading, open to everyone, no account needed. Modules marked as an outline have a scope and a source list but no body text yet: they get written when the cited source has actually been read, not before.

1. 01 How an airplane flies Lift from the wing, the four forces, angle of attack and the stall, and why airspeed discipline is the first habit an instructor builds. 15 min read
2. 02 Reading a listing and a logbook What airframe hours, time since overhaul, airworthiness directives and liens actually mean when you are looking at an aircraft to buy. 12 min read

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