'VFR Mastery' series challenges pilots to make the right call

VFR mishaps often come across as abrupt—engine failure, stall on a base-to-turn final, or VFR into IMC. More frequently, a chain of events leads up to the incident. VFR pilots can break the chain at any point, but first they must recognize that those links are forming.

PilotWorkshops.com excels at illustrating how this happens by creating scenarios that put the user in the left seat. Each scenario—a video segment that runs approximately five minutes—lays careful groundwork for a flight that might go very wrong if the pilot makes the wrong choice.

VFR Mastery follows the formula laid out in the IFR Mastery series: Watch the video, weigh your options on what you would do using weather forecasts, aircraft data, charts, and more. Choose your option (and see how other pilots voted) on the live poll.

Now the real learning starts. Each scenario is moderated by a flight instructor who reveals what he or she would have done, with detailed explanations. That’s followed up by a roundtable, in which a panel of flight instructors discusses and debates each scenario. They are not shy, and that sparks some excellent discussion. There are notable names on the panel, including AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli; Judy Phelps, the 2011 National Flight Instructor of the Year; and Master CFI and Bonanza aficionado Tom Turner. (Full disclosure: The panel of instructors also includes AOPA Editor at Large Dave Hirschman, as well as AOPA Air Safety Institute Executive Director Richard McSpadden. PilotWorkshops.com is an AOPA partner.)

Want more? You can talk about the scenario in an online members-only forum, and take a quiz that reinforces your understanding of the topics. Successful completion of each VFR Mastery scenario gets you three FAA Wings credits.

VFR Mastery is $19 per month and can be added to an existing PilotWorkshops subscription for $5 per month. That price gets you one scenario per month plus access to the complete scenario library. Ground-bound pilots, new pilots, and many others will enjoy matching their opinions against PilotWorkshops' panel of experts.