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jedi93

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So I’ve got a few hours under, although just a few, under my belt now. I’d like to knock out the written sooner than later. I’ve got the Sportys ground school and the ASA book, along with the FAR/AIM tabbed and a also a cx3 computer on order. I’ve also got the PHAK downloaded and am studying that, what else is there that I need to be studying to help with the written and also early prepping for the oral.
 
It sounds like you have the major items already covered. Once you are further along you can start doing practice exam questions to see how they feel. For the oral, you will want to do a thorough study of the POH for the plane and you may want to watch some sample orals online and read the oral exam book with sample Q&A.
 
RingLaserGyroSandwich said:
It sounds like you have the major items already covered. Once you are further along you can start doing practice exam questions to see how they feel. For the oral, you will want to do a thorough study of the POH for the plane and you may want to watch some sample orals online and read the oral exam book with sample Q&A.
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Oral exam book? Is that something here on the site?
 
Also, I hear a lot of talk of people letting Foreflight do the W&B calculations. What’s y’all’s take on that and if my CFI only shows that should I ask to be taught by pen and paper way?
 
jedi93 said:
Also, I hear a lot of talk of people letting Foreflight do the W&B calculations. What’s y’all’s take on that and if my CFI only shows that should I ask to be taught by pen and paper way?
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You should be able to perform pen and paper weight and balance calculations for a simple airplane. You won't need to write it out by hand every time you go flying as a private pilot, though. Your textbook should walk you through how to do it, with your instructor as backup to help you out if you have trouble. Once you know how to do the calculations and how to answer the relevant questions on the written exam (where you won't have Foreflight) it's time to learn how to do the calculations using Foreflight if you wish.

Personally, I do recommend learning to do the calculations on Foreflight after you've proven you can do the calculations by hand and understand them. If you program Foreflight correctly, it makes weight and balance calculations a breeze. Generally, do what your instructor suggests, but you shouldn't count on Foreflight making your oral exam easier since you'll just need to explain how everything was calculated by Foreflight anyway...
 
RingLaserGyroSandwich said:
You should be able to perform pen and paper weight and balance calculations for a simple airplane. You won't need to write it out by hand every time you go flying as a private pilot, though. Your textbook should walk you through how to do it, with your instructor as backup to help you out if you have trouble. Once you know how to do the calculations and how to answer the relevant questions on the written exam (where you won't have Foreflight) it's time to learn how to do the calculations using Foreflight if you wish.

Personally, I do recommend learning to do the calculations on Foreflight after you've proven you can do the calculations by hand and understand them. If you program Foreflight correctly, it makes weight and balance calculations a breeze. Generally, do what your instructor suggests, but you shouldn't count on Foreflight making your oral exam easier since you'll just need to explain how everything was calculated by Foreflight anyway...
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Thanks for the insight. Another flight lesson tomorrow, can’t wait.
 
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You will score a bit better if you have started flight training. The test now includes some operational questions.
 
I personally use ASA’s books for exam prep, I prefer to have a physical book, and I do the practice exams online and ASA prepware will give you a sign off to take the written.

However, I do not think that ASA prepware gives you all of the questions, rather they provide you with most of them. You can only take 5 free practice exams with each ASA book purchased. I passed the exams but there were a number of questions that I have never seen before, my scores were in the 80-90 range, I’m ok with that but for those who want higher, you may want to consider Sheppard Air. Other pilots told me they would get in the high 90s or even 100 on their written and they said they saw every question before while studying.

You also need a plotter and E6B, pencil / eraser. You really don’t need anything else, you want to learn how to fly and it’s already a lot of work. Great to have the PHAK and FAR/AIM but I doubt you would use it at the early stages. I finally bought a FAR/AIM book almost a year after getting my instrument rating, now that the beginner stuff is becoming more second nature, I can focus on commercial and other items.
 
I used the FAA books (the PHAK and the AFH) and a site that had practice tests for free. After I'd read the books two or three times, I started taking practice tests. I used the scores to evaluate my progress, and then studied more about the subjects I scored poorly on. This will help immensely with laying a good foundational knowledge, and it will make studying for the oral a lot easier.

For the test, I took it with 10 hours flown, and I brought a plotter and a manual E6B. I got a 95 on the test, so not perfect, but still relatively high.
 
mandm said:
I personally use ASA’s books for exam prep, I prefer to have a physical book, and I do the practice exams online and ASA prepware will give you a sign off to take the written.

However, I do not think that ASA prepware gives you all of the questions, rather they provide you with most of them. You can only take 5 free practice exams with each ASA book purchased. I passed the exams but there were a number of questions that I have never seen before, my scores were in the 80-90 range, I’m ok with that but for those who want higher, you may want to consider Sheppard Air. Other pilots told me they would get in the high 90s or even 100 on their written and they said they saw every question before while studying.

You also need a plotter and E6B, pencil / eraser. You really don’t need anything else, you want to learn how to fly and it’s already a lot of work. Great to have the PHAK and FAR/AIM but I doubt you would use it at the early stages. I finally bought a FAR/AIM book almost a year after getting my instrument rating, now that the beginner stuff is becoming more second nature, I can focus on commercial and other items.
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I was under the impression the FAR/AIM had information needed for the oral part?
 
jedi93 said:
I was under the impression the FAR/AIM had information needed for the oral part?
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Knowing that you can find information in the FAR/AIM is what you need. Hehe. But yeah I was more mentioning things for the written. For the oral, my flight school has a copy of the POH, FAR/AIM, chart supplements, etc.
 
jedi93 said:
Also, I hear a lot of talk of people letting Foreflight do the W&B calculations. What’s y’all’s take on that and if my CFI only shows that should I ask to be taught by pen and paper way?
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You need to be able to do yourself or with "legacy" tools (including pencil and paper) just about everything Foreflight can do for you. The answer to, "why is this weight and balance wrong?" is never, "Well, Foreflight said so! Not my fault."
 
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