Learning to Fly: Ground School

Are you interested in becoming a pilot? If so, one of the first steps you'll need to take is to prepare for your written exam. There are many options available, including ground school. That's the course I took.

Ground school is given in a classroom-style setting. Mine was with about 10 other people. You learn everything you need to know for your written exam, and then take the test immediately afterward.

If ground school isn't for you, there are other options. You can get the books and teach yourself, or have an instructor teach you as you fly.

When to Attend Ground School

You can take ground school while you're gaining flight time or just before. Personally, I've never heard of anyone taking the written test after completing the necessary flight hours, and you need to pass the test before your oral exam and checkride anyways. The checkride, by the way, is where you fly an aircraft with a pilot examiner.

If you take flying lessons before taking the written test, you'll probably end up with a lot of ground lessons anyway. After all, the skies aren't always clear, calm and sunny. Plus, when you book a lesson, you've booked an instructor - whether in a plane or not.

I took ground school before getting in a plane, and I don't feel that this was the best decision. Obtaining a private pilot's license requires a lot of time, and I feel that I could have sped up the process by flying and learning the books at the same time. But this might not be a practical course of action for busy people working full-time jobs.

Is Ground School Right for You?

If you have a limited attention span or just aren't that fond of book work, ground school might be a little dry for you. When I first started ground school, I completed all of the assignments, took lots of notes, and devoted my full attention during class time. Toward the tail end of ground school - after it had dragged on for a month past when it should have ended due to instructor problems - my attention just dwindled away. I was just ready for the class to end.

Ground school isn't the most fun thing about flying, but it is necessary - and worth it after you step into a plane. Most of what you learn in ground school is essential in flying. For me, what I learned has come in handy several times.

It may seem like you'll never need to know some of the worst-case scenarios that your instructor describes, but these situations really do happen. In fact, anything can happen in a plane and problems are a lot more common than you think. Whether you learn these lessons from an unexciting course, by reading the books yourself, or by experience flying (hopefully with your instructor), be sure to learn everything. In future blog entries, I'll share some personal stories to prove this point.

Taking the Written Test

The written test is not that hard if you study! But I've known people who haven't even opened a book, walked in thinking they knew it all, and then wondered why they failed. You need a 70% to pass, but strive for more than the minimum. Your flight examiner will review your written scores before administering the oral part of the exam.

If you score the minimum on the written test, the oral exam may be more intense than expected. Simply put, it's better to do well on the written exam than to pay for it later. Truly, as long as you study regularly over the course of your ground school (maybe 45 minutes a day), you'll do fine.

So how did I do on the written exam? Well, like the foolish high school student that I was, I was used to all night cramming. So, the night before my written test, I studied everything I could - and was totally burnt out before the exam from not having slept at all. I still passed with an 83%, but there's no reason to subject yourself to that. If you study routinely and normally, you'll do just fine.

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Learning to Fly: Choosing a Plane

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