Rivate Pilots Training

[colkemp]

I'm about to start my training for my PPL and I was looking at the differents curriculm like Kings etc. Can anybody recommend a good traing package?

[vento]

Talk to your CFI first.

They (the materials) are all similar yet they are somehow different. I've used the one from Jeppesen (VFR) and I liked it. The one from Cessna (IFR) is also pretty good. I took the King's course online for the checkride just to have a feel of what the checkride looked like, it wasn't bad neither, but Martha always manages to put me to sleep. 

[colkemp]

I did he told me to go with Kings. I just want to know what other people have used or thinked about certain books.

[Flying Pig]

I have:
CFI Airplane, Commercial Helicopter and PPL Glider and I have never used a King product. Just read, study and understand the material presented in your lessons, and STUDY your books.  I did use the written test guides, I think I used ASA.

Youll pay $600 to watch Martha talk.  Thats a nice headset.  You already have an instructor whom you are paying already.  In addition to that, just about any and every flight lesson can be found on YouTube.   Personally, I think the King stuff is a waste of money.  I will admit, I watched  friends copy of the CFI checkride oral prep.  Not bad, other than the fact that my CFI ride was NOTHING like what the King video presented.  I would have been pretty torqued if I had actually bought it!

I wouldnt waste my money on a King set for your Private.  I know to many students who managed to slip by their rating simply regurgitating John and Martha.  John and Martha arent going to be flying with you.  Everything you need to know is already in your CFIs brain or in your books.
I would rather have a student who scored a 70% on their written by studying and understanding how to actually find the answer any day over a student who scored a 100% because they were able to memorize key words in the questions but couldn't tell you the answer if you were to word the same questions differently. 

If you have $600 to spend on that, $600 is probably 20 or more hours of ground with your CFI one-on-one.  Youll get a lot more out of that. 

[DC]

I used the Gleim books to prepare for the written. It is very straight forward and a little dry at times, but you WILL pass the exam if you study the material.

I've also used the King software, and it isn't bad. I can't stand sitting in front of a computer for hours on end though, so I didn't take to it so much.

[md]

There are always the free FAA books (http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals/aircraft/). They're a bit dry, and some of the stuff hasn't been updated in years, but I kind of like them. Where else are you going to find out how the altimeter actually works? Maybe that's better for reference than for reading the first time, though.

And I did use the Gleim test prep books right before my tests, which really helped.

[lzu2]

Take a look at the Gold Seal Online Ground School www.FAA-Ground-School.com. There's no charge to register and you get a third of the course for free. It was the first online ground school on the internet and you get a very extensive free trial. All multimedia with professional narration.

[Cliff_Chambliss]

There are as many opinions as to the better/best Video-CD-Dvd-Interactive pilot training programs as there are programs sold.  However, as an instructor I always point out to the student the source material referenced in the Practical Test Standards (PTS).  Listed there you will find many FAA Publications but you will not find King, ASA, Sporty's, Jeppesen, etc.  That said, I will say that all these courses are founded on the published FAA Publications and guidelines and each has extracted what the author feels is best applicable to any given certificate/rating, and then presents the material in his/her style.

However lets look to the PTS for a moment.  Private, Instrument, Commercial  All three PTS's will reference many if not all of the same references.  So, does a budding pilot spend a couple hundred dollars for a set of book references that they can use for several certificates/ratings, review for flight reviews, serve as a basic knowledge library for those 10pm questions, and so on.  Or does our new airperson spend several hundred dollars for a Private Pilot Interactive Training Course, and in about a year spends another several hundred dollars for the Instrument Rating, and later, yet another several hundred dollars for the Commercial, and maybe even another few hundred for the CFI.  Yet, each of these courses presents information extracted from the same set of FAA References.

With the proliferation of e-readers, tablets, and such, the most of FAA Publications can be downloaded at no cost. 

And nothing beats a student sitting across the table with their book asking questions.

OK, lots of talk - recommendation:  Get the books and talk with your Instructor.

Cliff Chambliss
CFII
AL-034

[a2capt]

For me it was the Gleim book, and the CFI.. and a community college semester ground school that was accelerated schedule. So it lasted about half a semester, with a full semester's worth of class/lab time.

Sitting at the airport one day, in the restaurant with my instructor, and we had just finished jabbing about how if you want to go to sleep, put in a King tape in the VCR.

Not paying much attention to the exact surroundings except that a bunch of people came in, several tables swapped out and the next thing we hear .. he hears it first.. "that sounds like Martha, who brought one of those tapes in here.. " (There was a TV and VCR hanging on in a corner)

The King's were sitting across the 'T' aisle, the next booth over. (same row, but with an opening to get to the other spots outside on the patio deck)

"See that, you can't get away from them... "

[Thrashed]

Everyone learns different. Use what works for you. If you use the King tapes, remember them flying around in their personal jet that you bought for them. 

[Stearmann4]

Everyone learns different. Use what works for you.

There are dozens, if not more "study packages" and I've had students spent several hundred dollars on various systems, but here's what I tell my students: You can buy whatever shiny, hard cover, or multi-media package you want, but in the end, you're going to have to learn FAA regulations, flying an FAA certified aircraft under the watchful eye of an FAA designated examiner so you can never go wrong getting your information straight from the source's mouth and the use the FAA manuals"
- Airplane Flying Handbook
- Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge
- FAR/AIM
- PTS
- PVT oral test guide
- Maybe a "visualized manuevers" handbook to help explain the manuevers better
- Gleim writen study guide (complete and well written wrote test prep)

All the commercial study stuff out there pretty much has the same information, but remember that any checkride you take, your answers or performance will be based soley on one of the above, FAA authorized manuals. "But John King said to do it this way" is not an acceptable answer, and the examiner will then open the PTS and proceed to reference the correct answer.

The FAA's handbooks used to be very dry, but since they've been re-written and published several years ago I really like them. Not overly technical, and great color illustrations. I use all the new stuff, even their glider and ski/floats handbook.

Bottom line, you can buy whatever works for you but in reality you can pare it down to the above texts, charts, a good headset, E-6B, protractor, a kneeboard and be a bag to stuff it all in, and be well equipped for your training