The flight training experts at King Schools have introduced one of the most comprehensive pilot training kits on the market. Whether you're working toward a private pilot, instrument rating, commercial pilot, or certificated flight instructor, John and Martha King have a comprehensive training kit to help you earn that credential.
The instrument rating course has a similar lineup, starting with the knowledge test course for which King Schools is famous. Also included are 11 DVDs on such topics as IFR With Confidence, GPS A to Z, and Complete Jeppesen Chart Review. As does the private pilot course, it includes the risk management and airport signs CD-ROMs, but also adds a course on single-pilot IFR risk management. The instrument rating kit is rounded out with three FAA training books, view-limited glasses, instrument covers, a flight bag, a holding computer, a cockpit organizing tool, and three cockpit quick-reference guides.
These kits, as well as kits for aspiring commercial pilots and certificated flight instructors, are sold for half the price of buying the items individually. Though the kits may seem expensive, careful study of the material inside can significantly decrease the cost of ground school and one-on-one instruction.
Price: $579
Contact: www.kingschools.com/GetItAll; 800/854-1001
Fly Anywhere Inc. Virtual Nav Chart
For one reason or another, learning to use and properly interpret aeronautical charts is difficult for most student pilots at some point in their training. Fly Anywhere, Inc.'s new Virtual Nav Chart CD-ROM training program seeks to make the transition from road map to sectional chart easier for students.
The 90-minute training course, which is compatible only with Windows-based personal computers, runs you through everything you need to know about properly using a chart. It begins at the most basic level--the differences between the world aeronautical, sectional, and terminal area charts--and progresses through an in-depth look at the chart legend, a discussion of airspace classifications, and the considerations of minimum altitude versus maximum elevation figures. Military operations areas, air defense identification zones, and temporary flight restrictions are also covered. There's even a detailed review of latitude and longitude that segues into a lesson on how to use the plotter.
You'll find navigating the course the easiest part of the experience. After loading the program, a "video" screen on the right plays the lesson, while a navigation bar serves as a table of contents.
Anyone having difficulty with airspace will find the course's cost to be less than an equivalent 90 minutes of ground school with an instructor. And because the course is always available, you can refer to it at any time throughout training for answers to chart questions.
Price: $24.95
Contact: www.sportys.com; 800/SPORTYS
Sporty's So You Want to Fly Twins DVD
Multiengine flying can be a real joy. One reason many pilots choose not to obtain the rating is its cost. There's no question it can be expensive, especially if the applicant chooses to have instrument privileges attached to his or her certificate. Sporty's new DVD, So You Want to Fly Twins, is a great way to save money in training.
The 103-minute instructional DVD goes through all the common and important multiengine concepts, including normal and single-engine operations, maneuvers and instrument approaches, and twin-engine systems and aerodynamics. There's even a chapter on training considerations.
Like all DVDs in Sporty's What You Should Know series, the production quality is high, and the majority of screen time is either spent inside the airplane or with a graphic. In other words, it's not just a narrator sitting there giving a lecture. Not having flown a twin in more than a year, I found the DVD to be informative and useful. I'm sure that multiengine students and pilots looking to get or stay current will, too.
Price: $69.95
Contact: www.sportys.com; 800/SPORTYS
BRIEFLY NOTED
Learning airspace can be a daunting and demanding task in the quest to become a pilot. Teaching the concept of 3-D airspace with a 2-D chart only compounds the problem. Where In The Air is a new Web-based company that seeks to make the airspace learning process easier with large 3-D airspace models. Though only available for certain California airspace, the models could potentially be useful for teaching the concepts anywhere in the country.
Price: various from $92.99 to $735.25
Contact: www.whereintheair.com
Initially published in 2003, Sander Vandeth's A Pilot's Guide to Safe Flying is now available to flight schools at a 25-percent discount when 10 or more are purchased. According to the publisher, the offer is contingent upon the book being used as a gift to students "when they get their pilot license or other significant achievement." Among the book's many topics are risk management, avoiding fuel mismanagement, and common illusions.
Price: $34.95 ($25.64 with discount direct from the publisher)
Contact: www.mcove.com
For the serious aerodynamics geek, the book Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators may not satisfy that need to understand the deepest, most intense concepts. If this sounds like you, Michael V. Cook's Flight Dynamics Principles just might be your answer. The book effectively serves as a text for an introduction to aerodynamics for engineering students, but those with a background in calculus (warning, heavy equations present) may find it a great source to really ratchet up that hangar flying argument about dynamic stability.
Price: $79.95
Contact: various online booksellers
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