Tabbed FAR/AIM

Daniel Isbell

Daniel Isbell

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Daniel Isbell
I’m new to PoA. Been a private pilot for 20+ years. Working toward commercial. Just passed my COMM written test. Looking toward check ride.

I’ve just purchased the 2023 FAR/AIM. Found on the inter webs folks are tabbing their FAR/AIM. I think this is brilliant! I found the companies Lively Aviation and NorthStarVFR.

Any of you guys have thought and opinions on these companies products? Is one better than the other? Are they worth the money?

‘Thanks!
 
I'm not opposed to it, but I feel like the process of creating my own tabs provided more value than the actual tabs did. I don't think I ever actually used a tab in an oral.
 
wait, so a company does the tabbing for you? is this a pay service?
 
eman1200 said:
wait, so a company does the tabbing for you? is this a pay service?
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There are companies that will do it for you. Others sell the pre-printed tabs and a template for you to apply the tab yourself.
 
eman1200 said:
so when they ask for payment can you say "just put it on my tab" ?
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You’ll need to. They aren’t for mooney drivers.
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TCABM said:
You’ll need to. They aren’t for mooney drivers.
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yeah I don't know any mooney driver that would pay $107 for a tabbed far/aim. holy cr#p.
 
I’ve been emailing with June at NorthStar. She’s delightful. No one at Lively will answer the phone, reply to the website “chat”, or reply to emails.
I’m going with northstar.

thanks all!
 
As noted above I echo the sentiment on tabbing it yourself.

While you are not expected to memorize every FAR you should have a good understanding of where items are held. If you you go through and tab them yourself it forces you to learn it. You don't want to be a deer in headlights at your oral frantically hunting through the tabs

Plus, what if you want to make your own tab or section that maybe they didn't think to include for you?
 
The table of contents is tabbing?? I have never understood this… a few pages tells you where everything is in the book?
 
Salty said:
I'm not opposed to it, but I feel like the process of creating my own tabs provided more value than the actual tabs did. I don't think I ever actually used a tab in an oral.
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:yeahthat:

DIY tabs plus marking important passages with a highlighter. By the time I had done that and made a few annotations and cross references, I knew the material well enough that I didn’t need to crack the book during the oral.

OP, your objective should be learning, unless of course your objective was to make a commercial for Northstar. If the latter, you accomplished it, though I doubt anyone here is sold on the value of the product.
 
Tabbing it yourself is a good way to learn it better. You’ll get more familiar with the organization, wind up reading and learning a bunch of sections that you otherwise wouldn’t have looked at and become better at using it.
 
I think that having a tabbed far aim accomplishes many things.

1. I think it says to a DPE that you’re serious about the regs. Or at least that you have tried to read them.
2. I’m a 40 year old pilot looking to make a career change to aviation. 20 years ago when I got my PPL and IFR all we did I was highlight our FAR/AIMs. Tabs seem like and awesome way to get straight to the point.
3. I need the help. As mentioned above, it’s been 20+ years since I’ve taken a written or a check ride. I have tons to refresh up on and still tons to learn.

Anyway, I’m serious about this stuff. Thanks to some of you who contributed your thoughts to facilitate healthy conversation.
 
Daniel Isbell said:
I think that having a tabbed far aim accomplishes many things.

1. I think it says to a DPE that you’re serious about the regs. Or at least that you have tried to read them.
2. I’m a 40 year old pilot looking to make a career change to aviation. 20 years ago when I got my PPL and IFR all we did I was highlight our FAR/AIMs. Tabs seem like and awesome way to get straight to the point.
3. I need the help. As mentioned above, it’s been 20+ years since I’ve taken a written or a check ride. I have tons to refresh up on and still tons to learn.

Anyway, I’m serious about this stuff. Thanks to some of you who contributed your thoughts to facilitate healthy conversation.
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Literally everything in this post is why you should make your own tabs and not buy a pre-tabbed one. Yes, a DPE appreciates a tabbed FAR/AIM. But showing up with one you paid someone else to tab doesn't impress anyone. And your #2+3 are exactly what tabbing your own will accomplish.
 
Me thinks if the DPE sees a tabbed FAR/AIM that looks like it was bought from a supplier that the oral test will get a lot tougher! :dunno:
 
No issues with showing up with a commercially tabbed book, but what will impress the DPE and just generally be more helpful to you is to know how that document is organized.

The term FAR is a misnomer; federal aviation regulations is an outdated term. What you're looking at are the applicable code of federal regulations, specifically Title 14 (Aeronautics and Space) and title 49 (Transportation). 99% of what you need to know is in Title 14, mostly part 61 (certification of pilots & instructors) and part 91 (operating and flight rules).

The AIM is not regulations, it is guidance.

If you intend to break a regulation, you better have a waiver or an exemption (or an emergency!). If you operate contrary to the guidance, you haven't necessarily broken a regulation but you better have a good explanation of why you chose to do so.

But knowing what you've got in the book means that if the examiner asks about aeronautical experience requirements for the commercial pilot certificate, you're not looking in the AIM and you're not looking in part 91 (hopefully you've found and studied up on 61.129).

Vice versa, if you get stuck on a question about air traffic control procedures, you're not trying to dig around in part 61 looking for the answer.

Good luck. No one knows all the answers. The DPE doesn't, FAA inspectors don't either. But they know (or at least should know) where to find them.
 
Brad Z said:
The DPE doesn't, FAA inspectors don't either. But they know (or at least should know) where to find them.
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This is what I tell all of my students, that you're not expected to know every single answer. There are a lot that you should know, a lot that are good to know, and the rest, just know where to find the answer.
 
The other student, I mean learner, I did my comm with had a fancy pre-tabbed FAR/AIM. I was (am?) cheap and bought the iPad version. We did a few mock orals together and it both took us about the same time to find the answers in the FAR/AIM

Really what helped me at least was create a series of cheat sheets and flows in my little stack of notes..

Oh he's asking about what's needed for night flying, looks like 91.205!
Oh he's asking about a broken thing on the plane, looks like 91.405 if I can fix it myself or 91.213 for inop'ing it
Oh he's asking about airport ops.. look like 91.3, 91.213, and AIM 4-3/4-4

Once we both got those types of things down we hardly used our tabbed books or iPad

What I like about the iPad is you can search for terms "night" for instance. You can't really CTRL F a physical document.. plus the iPad stays up to date. However I do appreciate the value of a physical thing to study with
 
Sierra_Hotel said:
that you're not expected to know every single answer.
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..this got me in a trap of not preparing enough though.. so proceed with caution advising that. I passed my comm first try, but it was seriously touch and go! I got a lot more prepared for my CFI with the notes prescribed above. In hindsight I can't believe I passed that comm oral :oops: "I know you know how to look this stuff up, but you should be more familiar with regs Mr Commercial!"
 
Daleandee said:
Me thinks if the DPE sees a tabbed FAR/AIM that looks like it was bought from a supplier that the oral test will get a lot tougher! :dunno:
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Probably not tougher for the applicant, but tougher for the DPE because it’s probably going to take significantly longer for the applicant to find the same stuff.
 
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