SkyLock MediaPrivate Pilot PrepStart with how the knowledge test works, then work through the Airman Certification Standards area by area, from regulations and airworthiness to weather, airspace, navigation and emergencies. Free-preview members can open Weather services: METARs, TAFs, forecasts and briefings and Airport operations: markings, lighting, patterns and wake turbulence.
What the FAA Private Pilot Airplane (PAR) knowledge test is, who may take it and when, what happens at the testing center, how the result is used at the checkride, and how to work through this course so that test day holds no surprises.
What a private pilot certificate allows and forbids, the documents a pilot must carry and present, how medical certificates and BasicMed work, what recent flight experience and a flight review require, and when additional training and endorsements are needed before flying a different kind of airplane.
How a pilot decides an airplane is legal and safe to fly: the certificates it must carry, the inspections and records behind them, airworthiness directives and special flight permits, the maintenance a pilot may do, the equipment required by day and by night and what to do when something is inoperative, and the preflight assessment that ties it together.
Why an airplane flies, why it stays stable or does not, what happens to the wing and the structure in a turn, and how stalls and spins develop and are recovered from: the aerodynamics behind nearly every takeoff, landing and loss-of-control accident.
How the systems of a typical training airplane work, how they fail, and what the pilot sees and does when they do: the flight controls, the engine and its ignition, induction and carburetor ice, fuel and oil, propellers, the electrical system and avionics, cabin heat, ice protection and oxygen, and the engine start and before-takeoff checks that catch problems on the ground.
How the airspeed indicator, altimeter and vertical speed indicator use pitot and static pressure, what each shows when a line is blocked, how the gyroscopic instruments and electronic displays work and fail, the errors of the magnetic compass, and how to recover from an unusual attitude or an accidental entry into clouds.
The meteorology a VFR pilot needs to read weather rather than just look it up: the standard atmosphere and lapse rates, pressure and wind, moisture, stability and clouds, air masses and fronts, thunderstorms, microbursts and turbulence, and the icing, fog, frost and obstructions to visibility that ground or endanger light airplanes.
Where a pilot gets weather, and how to read it: the three kinds of weather briefing, METAR and TAF decoding, the surface analysis and ceiling and visibility charts, the Graphical Forecasts for Aviation, winds and temperatures aloft, the convective outlook, AIRMETs, SIGMETs, Convective SIGMETs and pilot reports, and the strengths and limits of weather in the cockpit when the go, no-go or divert decision has to be made.
How air density, weight, wind, runway surface and technique change what the airplane can do, how to find pressure altitude and use performance charts, what the best angle and best rate of climb speeds mean, and how to compute the weight and center of gravity of a loaded airplane and correct it when it is out of limits.
The National Airspace System as a VFR pilot meets it: the classes of airspace and what each requires, the VFR weather minimums of 14 CFR 91.155 and special VFR, the speed limits, the transponder and ADS-B rules, and the special use airspace, temporary flight restrictions and other areas that must be identified and respected before and during every flight.
How to read the VFR sectional chart the way the knowledge test and a real cross-country demand: the grid of latitude and longitude, terrain, obstructions and the maximum elevation figure, the airport data block, the airspace depictions, navigation aids and communication boxes, isogonic lines and checkpoints, and the Chart Supplement entry that fills in everything the chart leaves out. The test hands you excerpts from the FAA's testing supplement, so every skill here is practised on those same pages.
How a VFR pilot gets from one airport to another and knows where the airplane is the whole way: pilotage and dead reckoning, the chain from true course to compass heading, time, speed, distance and fuel, comparing the plan with what actually happens, navigating by VOR and GPS and knowing their limits, diverting, and what to do when lost.
Everything on and around the airport that the test and a safe first solo depend on: planning and flying a taxi without a runway incursion, runway and taxiway markings and signs, airport lighting and visual glide slope indicators, wind indicators and traffic patterns at towered and nontowered fields, the right-of-way rules, and avoiding wake turbulence.
Talking to air traffic control and using what it offers: finding the right frequency, radio technique and phraseology, the ATC facilities and the radar services available to VFR pilots, transponder and ADS-B operation, light gun signals, what to do when the radio fails, declaring an emergency, and the NTSB's accident and incident reporting rules.
The most tested and most accident-prone part of every flight: normal and crosswind takeoffs and climbs, rejected takeoffs and engine failure after liftoff, short-field and soft-field takeoffs, the stabilized approach and normal and crosswind landings, short-field and soft-field landings, the forward slip, and the go-around, including land and hold short operations. Worked with the testing supplement's crosswind and landing distance charts.
The training maneuvers of the private pilot syllabus and the knowledge behind them: steep turns and the load factor, overbanking and turn performance that go with them; ground reference maneuvers and what wind does to a ground track; slow flight and the limits of stall warning; and controlling the airplane by instruments alone, from the instrument cross-check to straight-and-level flight, climbs, descents and turns, as a VFR pilot's lifeline in cloud.
The pilot as the most important system in the airplane: hypoxia, hyperventilation and carbon monoxide; ears, sinuses, spatial disorientation, motion sickness and diving; optical illusions and night vision; stress, fatigue, dehydration, alcohol and medication; the hazardous attitudes and the decision-making models that counter them; and running a well-organized flight deck with briefed passengers, checklists and secured equipment.
Putting the course together into a real cross-country plan: the preflight information 14 CFR 91.103 requires, the pilot, aircraft and external-pressure risks, electronic flight bags, climb, cruise and descent calculations from performance charts, fuel with the 91.151 reserves, times and ETAs in UTC, the VFR flight plan on the ICAO form and how it is filed, activated and closed, and what ATC can and cannot do en route, including what to do if intercepted.
What to do when things go wrong and how to finish every flight well: emergency approaches and landings after engine failure, best glide and minimum sink, emergency descents, system and equipment malfunctions from electrical failure to fire and an open door, ELTs, extinguishers, survival gear, ballistic parachutes and emergency autoland; then the equipment, vision, lighting and judgment that night flight demands; and the shutdown, securing, discrepancy reporting and ramp safety that end every flight.
A last pass before the PAR test: the numbers and rules most worth having cold, a method for every figure question, a one-page calculation toolkit, how to spend the two hours on test day, and how to use the knowledge test report on the way to the checkride. Nothing new is taught here; every item points back to the lesson that teaches it.
Every lesson's key terms and formulas, condensed into one page for a final review pass.
Every exam trap already written into the lessons, gathered in one place for a fast final-review pass.