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VWGhiaBob

VWGhiaBob

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VWGhiaBob
Once...very rarely...we find something in life that's almost too good to be true. Here's one for pilots. :goofy:

As an ex-teacher and seminar presenter, I have high standards for instructional material. Recently, I have been frustrated by the lack of really good training materials, even from the major companies (which I won't name out of courtesy). I even returned one package for a refund.

Then I found PilotEdge videos on YouTube. Incredible. Just finished 4 hours of detailed training on reading IFR charts, and I'm moving on to all their other videos.

More than anything I've found so far, these videos are organized, easy to follow. What else can I say? Whether you are a new student or just want to brush up on your skills, these are free and fantastic. If you haven't found them already, here's a link to a free 2 hour tutorial on reading approach plates. The lesson continues on a second video, also free, that lasts another 2 hours: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEKGwHV4fCw

Thanks, PilotEdge!
 
thanks for the info, I'll check it out.
 
Thanks Steve! Yes, I'm almost 5 hours into these videos...amazing.
 
It doesn't look like there is enough material for the complete IFR education, but certainly a fresh look than King, etc.
 
Yes...not a full IFR course, but what's there is very well done. I'm new to VFR and left my first 4 hours able to read enter plates with ease. They also post simulator flights of the plates they explain (e.g, KLAX to KSNA in a citation).
 
I've been hesitant to post these here as I wasn't sure how useful they'd be, but I'm happy you've found them and that you enjoy them.

They're not designed to be a replacement for a ground school. They focus on the practical things you need to know (in my opinion) for each phase of flight, and they go pretty deep on those concepts (relative to other video material).

They were presented live with embarrassingly little prep-time, so they don't always flow as nicely as I'd like, but they have a live, organic feel which is different than canned, scripted videos and people seem to like that.

I don't have an educational background, and I'm not a ground instructor or flight instructor, so use caution. There is, in fact, one glaring mistake in one of them, when I hit a topic that I hadn't mentally visited in a long time, and my recollection was 100% wrong (STARs, 'expect to cross' notation shouldn't be used in lost comms case). Otherwise, I think the material is ok.

The VFR stuff has been well-received, too, by student pilots who have seen it.

That material is all free, as is training material on this site: http://training.pilotedge.net. Those are 3 VFR flights and 11 IFR flights with full ATC transcripts, intro videos, etc. They're designed to be flown online with ATC, but you could fly some of them offline, too, if needed.
 
Glad you weighed in. Obviously, I find them incredibly useful and can deal with some errors here and there.

Thanks for taking the time to do them!
 
The Pilot Edge videos are great. The VFR series was incredibly useful during my PP training. They went over things that my instructor did not and gave me a good basis for learning the things that he did teach rather than hearing them for the first time during training.

I am now starting the IFR videos in preparation for IFR training and although they are long...it is great that they take the time to talk through the things in a real world scenarios rather than just blurting out facts and information.

Keep up the great work!
 
Thanks Shawn. The 'facts and information' are important, but when they're taught out of context then it can become a rote memory exercise, which is tricky and not very interesting. Most of the rules and regs make sense in context. The flight planning scenarios try to bring a lot of concepts together and put them in context.

The IFR and VFR workshops are done, but I intend to move onto a series of cockpit broadcasts to do some of these flights and hammer home some practical aspects of VFR and IFR flight planning and execution. Should be a lot of fun.
 
Thanks for posting this. I've gotten embarrassingly terrible at my IFR skills after not using them (beyond basic currency) for a couple of years. Several hours into the vids and loving it.

Does anyone actually use the pilotedge network at home, particularly with FSX? Since the built-in FSX multi-player capability has ended, I've been thinking about joining pilotedge. For $20, seems like a good deal, but I just want to ensure it's useability is pretty easy and it works as advertised with FSX. (And yes, I will be trying the free trial; Just still want input from others'.)
 
I use PilotEdge with FS9. Highly recommended! Couple that with the free workshops, and you will be completely current. They even have PTS "levels" where an examiner watches yu execute a trip, including interactions with ATC. If you meet PTS, you move to the next level.

I'm taking two "check rides" tomorrow!

HIGHLY recommended!
 
VWGhiaBob said:
I use PilotEdge with FS9. Highly recommended! Couple that with the free workshops, and you will be completely current. They even have PTS "levels" where an examiner watches yu execute a trip, including interactions with ATC. If you meet PTS, you move to the next level.

I'm taking two "check rides" tomorrow!

HIGHLY recommended!
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Thanks for the input. I'm planning on doing the free trial after work tomorrow, and it sounds like I'll be joining full-time afterwards.
 
I have got to say it is a great service, and I plan on rejoining when I ever get some free time in the next few weeks. I recommend investing in the reality xp gns 530 and or 430 and using them in aircraft you can equip with them. I would like to see the Northern California become active although patience is a virtue I suppose
 
Another vote for Pilotedge. It's great for keeping those "stay ahead of the airplane" skills fresh.
 
HighFlyingA380 said:
Thanks for posting this. I've gotten embarrassingly terrible at my IFR skills after not using them (beyond basic currency) for a couple of years. Several hours into the vids and loving it.
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Jim, I can't tell you how many people I run into who are in this boat. They work hard to get their instrument ticket (either through an accelerated course, or slaving away over a long period of time). They get the rating, say, "phew!!" and then little by little, turn into giant rust buckets. They do their 6 approaches on glorious "clear and a million" days with a safety pilot at the same fields they always visit, but they actually shy away from filing in the system or going in a cloud. After a couple of years, they realize they're not really using it and let their currency lapse, figuring they'll just get an IPC if they "need" to switch it on again. A few more years pass, and even an IPC won't save them.

The skills and knowledge associated with IFR are highly perishable. I can put my hand on my heart and say that if you fly 'in the system' with a sim, it really is just as good as doing it in the real world. I can say that because I will go for many months without flying IFR or in IMC in a real plane, but I'm doing it a couple of times a week in the sim at home on the network (and yes, VATSIM can do also do a good job if all the planets align when you go to use it). When I go to do it in the airplane, it just feels so familiar...like I never had that break. That goes for picking up clearances, negotiating new routes, shooting approaches, enroute navigation....all of it.

For those that say "it's different" fly IMC in the airplane vs the sim, I say that the differences aren't enough to relegate the sim to a place where it's no longer a proxy for real world flying. IFR is as much about a thought process and staying ahead of the plane as it is about stick & rudder. While the specific stick forces are different on the home sim, and the panel layout is different (in my case, at least), everything else remains that same. It's good stuff.
 
One of my friend recently used Pro Aviation Trainers live online training and passed

Hi
Thanks for the info! I want to share my own experience with you just in case.

One of my friend recently attended Pro Aviation Trainers live online ground school and highly recommend them. He was really struggling with his ifr written and lacked confidence but after weekend session was pumped up. He did score 93 btw.

Base on his feedback, I have registered for my ifr written prep late this month.

I will share my results when done.

There website is proaviationtrainers.com
 
Naqvi,
Interesting! Just tried part of the sample lesson. First impression is it looks good, but no better than the free PilotEdge workshops. But it's really apples and oranges. Per the website, Pro Aviation is about test preparation. PilotEdge seems a bit more practical...exactly how to fly VFR and IFR in detail, which could lead to passing the test, but isn't focused on it. PilotEdge makes their money off of their live ATC simulations, where you fly your flight simulator at home, but talk to a "real"
controller for VFR and IFR.

Both products seem great.
 
coma24 said:
Thanks Shawn. The 'facts and information' are important, but when they're taught out of context then it can become a rote memory exercise, which is tricky and not very interesting. Most of the rules and regs make sense in context. The flight planning scenarios try to bring a lot of concepts together and put them in context.

The IFR and VFR workshops are done, but I intend to move onto a series of cockpit broadcasts to do some of these flights and hammer home some practical aspects of VFR and IFR flight planning and execution. Should be a lot of fun.
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Just wanted to chime in here and say thanks for the workshops. I'm really enjoying them. I think I'm starting to get the concept of visualizing holds and other fun stuff:).

I'll probably be joining PilotEdge soon. I have a pretty good X-Plane setup, so I might as well put it to good use. As much as I'd like to get started on my instrument training, with family life (wife and I both work rotating shifts, and a young kid), I just can't make time.



Love the cockpit videos of your IFR flights in the Lancair 360. :thumbsup:
 
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Been following these for quite a while. They are FABULOUS. I've been recommending them to everyone.
 
I may have missed it, but discussing the ILS into John Wayne, the narrator was going over the different feeders. There was a hold/course reversal and he was explaining when it was required. He showed how on some feeders you just couldn't make the turn onto the procedure sharp enough so you did the hold to get reversed. Then he showed the inbound from Pomona (fix). No turn was needed since you could make the turn without wildly overshooting the localizer. This is the part that I hope I just missed. I didn't catch him saying that the NoPT symbol is how you know not to do the hold. That's kind of an important distinction.
 
Thanks for links, Bob. I need to get my IR written out of the way very soon and will give them a look. I want to finish up my IR by the end of Jan.
 
write-stuff said:
I may have missed it, but discussing the ILS into John Wayne, the narrator was going over the different feeders. There was a hold/course reversal and he was explaining when it was required. He showed how on some feeders you just couldn't make the turn onto the procedure sharp enough so you did the hold to get reversed. Then he showed the inbound from Pomona (fix). No turn was needed since you could make the turn without wildly overshooting the localizer. This is the part that I hope I just missed. I didn't catch him saying that the NoPT symbol is how you know not to do the hold. That's kind of an important distinction.
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If I recall, he did mention that. I'm pretty sure I remember him pointing that out. I'll have to double check.
 
write-stuff said:
I may have missed it, but discussing the ILS into John Wayne, the narrator was going over the different feeders. There was a hold/course reversal and he was explaining when it was required. He showed how on some feeders you just couldn't make the turn onto the procedure sharp enough so you did the hold to get reversed. Then he showed the inbound from Pomona (fix). No turn was needed since you could make the turn without wildly overshooting the localizer. This is the part that I hope I just missed. I didn't catch him saying that the NoPT symbol is how you know not to do the hold. That's kind of an important distinction.
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He does. He just continues to go into detail as to WHY NoPT is marked on those particular feeders. Great detail in fact.

Edit I see RT already said that :)
 
From the OP...currently working my way through King IFR training...fantastic also. PilotEdge is a perfect companion to a "teach the test" course You can get used to real IFR flying before actually doing it in a real plane, thus shortening (considerably) your training time.
 
Thanks for sharing this. Just watched the first VFR video on airspaces and it did a fabulous job clearing up my confusion on the special ones. A bit long but I really liked the practical approach (what do I actually need to know for real world flying), instead of just teach to the test.

Look forward to watching more.
 
Zulu, that first video on VFR airspace is by far the longest. All the remaining videos move along a bit faster. I learned my lesson after the first workshop.
 
These are going to start up again soon with a series of live cockpit broadcasts going through a wide range of VFR and IFR scenarios. Should be a good time. I'll post a note here when the schedule is finalized.
 
Great news, Keith (I assume COMA is Keith???). I have passed PTS #3 and looking forward to the IFR series. Bought the Saitek radio stack for my sim, because changing radio frequencies was so ridiculously tedious in Flight Simulator. Look for me on-line in Saratoga N8034Z (and in the air over So. Cal. today...KVNY KAVX KCMA KVNY...using Mini Route and Coastal Route as practiced at www.pilotedge.net!).

Bob
 
Based on feedback asking for more of the workshops, we worked with Pilotworkshops and have produced a video series called Real World IFR. It was just launched today on our site and theirs. They do their sales mostly via email so if you're a subscriber, you would've already seen it yesterday.

Our version is available here: http://pilotedge.net/rwifr and was launched just a few hours ago. The series contains a considerably higher level of quality for the ground school when compared to the workshops. It also contains 7 flights which includes 3 in a sim (with PilotEdge ATC) and 4 in the airplane.

Edit: the purchase process has been vastly simplified. If you're a PE user with a card on file, the buy-now link buys from us, otherwise it goes via an affiliate. This removes the need for people to sign up for the service who are really only looking for access to the video.
 
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