Learn

Everything here is free and written to be read on its own — start wherever your question is. 75 pages covering the weather, the maneuvers, the airplane, the airspace and the rules, against the FAA standards and, where it matters, on live data.

The maneuvers, systems, preflight and teaching pages are written by Jacqualynn Watson, CFII · Aviation advisor, from her own flight instructor curriculum. The weather pages and the how-to guides are by Chip Tang, with Jacqualynn advising.

What the reports and charts actually say, and what the atmosphere is doing behind them.

• How to read a METAR Field by field through wind, visibility, cloud and remarks, plus the usual traps
• How to read a TAF What FM, TEMPO, PROB30 and BECMG legally mean, and finding your arrival forecast
• VFR, MVFR, IFR and LIFR Why a scattered layer is no ceiling, and why the color is not legal VFR
• PIREPs, AIRMETs, SIGMETs and TFRs Where an AIRMET stops and a SIGMET starts, how to read a PIREP, checking TFRs
• Weather Information for the Preflight Decision What a standard briefing covers, what each product cannot see, and the go or no-go
• Atmosphere and Stability Lapse rate as the switch between air that resists vertical motion and air that feeds it
• Moisture and Precipitation How the temperature profile below a cloud turns one shower into rain, snow or ice
• Clouds Cloud shape read backward as a report on the stability of the air ahead
• Air Masses and Fronts Why the slope of a front decides the cloud and precipitation you fly through
• Wind Pressure gradient starts it, Coriolis turns it, friction backs it near the ground
• Turbulence Five kinds of rough air, and why a ridge makes the atmosphere behave like water
• Thunderstorms Why almost every storm is multicell, and the seven hazards it throws at you
• Icing Droplet size decides clear or rime, and freezing rain reports the air above you
• Fog and Visibility Seven ways air reaches its dewpoint, and what each one does to a METAR
• The Weather Briefing The limits built into each source, including what MOS is not allowed to forecast

Every maneuver in the private, commercial and instructor standards.

• Straight-and-Level Flight The outside picture, honest trim, and the cross-controlled habit that starts here
• Level Turns Where the back pressure and the rudder go, and how each bank behaves left alone
• Straight Climbs and Climbing Turns Excess power, not elevator, and why right rudder pressure keeps changing on the way up
• Straight Descents and Descending Turns Trading altitude for time, and what bank changes about pitch, power and coordination
• Normal and Crosswind Takeoff and Climb Vx versus Vy, rudder through the ground roll, and the crosswind number that ends a flight
• Normal and Crosswind Approach and Landing From the stabilized approach to the roundout, plus crab versus wing-low in a crosswind
• Short-Field Takeoff and Maximum Performance Climb Use every foot of runway, then Vx until the obstacle is behind you
• Short-Field Approach and Landing Picking the touchdown point before you turn final, then using all of the rollout to stop
• Soft-Field Takeoff and Climb Back pressure and ground effect off wet grass, and the two errors that settle it back
• Soft-Field Approach and Landing Power carried through the round out, nosewheel up until the elevator gives it up
• Forward Slip to a Landing How crossed controls buy descent without airspeed, and why the airspeed reads wrong
• Go-Around and Rejected Landing Power, attitude, configuration in that order, and why the decision comes too late
• Power-Off 180 Accuracy Approach and Landing Gliding from the abeam point to a spot, and the stretching and skidding that ruin it
• Steep Turns Load factor at 45 degrees, what maneuvering speed does not protect, and holding it around
• Steep Spirals Bank changes with the wind while the radius stays fixed, for three turns or more
• Chandelles Rising pitch for the first 90 degrees, then a frozen attitude and a patient rollout
• Lazy Eights No steady state anywhere: how the 45, 90 and 135-degree points fit, and what flattens it
• Rectangular Course Drift correction as a reflex, and why no two corners are banked alike
• S-Turns Across a Road Steepest bank downwind, shallowest upwind, and a ground track that stays symmetrical
• Turns Around a Point Groundspeed sets the bank, and the downwind-side skid that becomes a spin
• Eights on Pylons Pivotal altitude, line of sight, and reading the pylon to know whether you are low
• Maneuvering During Slow Flight Behind the power curve: what the controls feel like there, and holding ACS tolerances
• Power-Off Stalls The stall that shows up on final, and the recovery steps in the order they matter
• Power-On Stalls The takeoff stall: full power, right rudder, and a recovery that starts with pitch
• Accelerated Stalls Stall speed rises with load factor, and the wing quits while the needle still reads fast
• Cross-Controlled Stall Demonstration The base-to-final skid flown on purpose at altitude, and why the inside wing goes first
• Elevator Trim Stall Demonstration A go-around with full flaps and nose-up trim tries to pitch itself into the stall
• Secondary Stall Demonstration The stall you cause yourself on recovery, and why the first indication is the cue
• Spin Awareness and Spins The skidding base to final turn, the four phases, spiral versus spin, and PARE
• Instrument Straight-and-Level Flight No horizon, three instrument systems, one scan, and the PA.VIII.A tolerances
• Constant Airspeed Climbs and Descents The 180-degree turn that comes first, the hub-and-spoke scan, and the ten percent lead
• Turns to Headings Why an accidental cloud entry becomes a spiral, and rollout led by half the bank
• Recovery From Unusual Flight Attitudes The airspeed trend that sorts nose-high from nose-low, and why roll comes first
• Emergency Descent Losing altitude fast with bank instead of speed, to POH numbers and ACS tolerances
• Emergency Approach and Landing ABCDE after it goes quiet, glide planning, and the errors that stall you on base
• Systems and Equipment Malfunctions Failures that announce themselves, failures that lie, and flying through both

Aerodynamics, the systems behind the controls, and what the airplane can and cannot do today.

• Principles of Flight Four forces, the critical angle, load factor, and the four left-turning tendencies
• Airplane Flight Controls and Systems Adverse yaw, the propeller governor, blocked pitot-static, and one response to any failure
• Performance and Limitations What a forward or aft CG costs, and why a charted takeoff distance is a floor
• Supplemental Oxygen Where 14 CFR 91.211 draws the altitude lines, and how few minutes you get above them
• Cabin Pressurization Outflow valves, cabin altitude, and how long you stay useful after a decompression

Where you may fly, how to read the paper, and what the ground is telling you.

• The National Airspace System Class A through G by who may enter, what the airplane carries, and the VFR minimums
• Navigation Systems and Radar Services How a VOR builds a radial, what RAIM and WAAS check, and what radar service will not do
• How to read an instrument approach plate The five sections of a chart, the fixes on it, and the order to brief them in
• Visual Scanning and Collision Avoidance The traffic that sits still in your windshield, and the eye's limits at night
• Runway Incursion Avoidance Taxi as a phase of flight: clearances, readbacks, and what the signs and lights mean
• Night Operations Three legal definitions of night, off-center viewing, and the illusions on final

What the regulations require of the pilot, the airplane and the logbook.

• Pilot Qualifications Medicals that step down instead of expiring, and why currency is not proficiency
• Pre-Solo and Cross-Country Training The 90-day clocks, the 61.87 maneuver list, and what a student may not do alone
• Airworthiness Requirements Inspection cycles, required documents, and the 14 CFR 91.213 call when something quits
• 14 CFR and Publications Where Parts 1, 61 and 91 stop and the AIM, POH and Chart Supplement begin
• Endorsements and Logbook Entries What 14 CFR 61.51 and 61.189 require in writing, and when each endorsement expires

Getting from an idea to a flight, and the human being making the decisions.

• Flight planning, step by step Route to heading to groundspeed to fuel, including reserves and an alternate
• Human Factors The four hypoxias, the illusions that bite at night, and what I'M SAFE actually asks
• Teaching Risk Management and Accident Prevention Hazards, PAVE, IMSAFE and hazardous attitudes, plus the risks instruction itself adds

For the instructor candidate: how people learn, and how to build a lesson that lands.

• Human Behavior and Effective Communication Why a student who briefed it perfectly still cannot fly it: defenses and barriers
• The Learning Process The four levels, the six laws, and why a slip is not the same as a mistake
• Course Development, Lesson Plans and Classroom Techniques Four-step teaching process, measurable objectives, and plans you can actually teach from
• Student Evaluation, Assessment and Testing Collaborative critique, maneuver and risk-management grades, and questions that teach
• Elements of Effective Teaching in a Professional Environment What a CFI owes the student, and the records 61.189 and 61.197 keep on the instructor