As Sporty’s lead aviation course and video producer, Bret is usually flying an interesting airplane, and often with a camera rolling. He oversees the development, production and distribution of over 30 aviation courses from Sporty's, including the Private Pilot Learn to Fly Course. He is a flight instructor and check airman at the Sporty's Academy flight school and a senior captain on a Cessna Citation.
Getting out of the traffic pattern and going on a real trip is a lot of fun. It may even be the reason you’re learning to fly in the first place. But the same reasons these trips are so much fun – new places to see, a goal at the end of the flight – can lead to challenges if you aren’t prepared. Here are six rules to keep in mind when you’re flying VFR cross countries.
Landing an airplane is one of the most challenging, yet satisfying tasks you’ll learn to master on your path towards becoming a private pilot. This week’s tip shows how to fly a stabilized final approach and help you visualize the steps necessary to transition from the roundout and flare to the touchdown.
All airports rely on a traffic pattern to allow for the efficient sequencing of both departing and arriving airplanes. Test your knowledge of these arrival and departure flows in our latest interactive scenario, by reading the traffic pattern direction and runway assignment and dragging the airplane to the correct colored path.
In the fourth and final video in the series, we offer some tips for choosing the right flight school.
Pilots should get in the habit of filing and opening VFR Flight Plans when flying away from the local airport environment. Then, in the unlikely event that you have an emergency or off-airport landing, the authorities know to come look for you along your planned route of flight.
This week’s tip covers a topic that all pilots need to know: power-off stalls. Learn how to practice them the right way, and how the location of the center of gravity (CG) affects stall speed.
You made a series of reasonable decisions in the name of comfort and safety, only to create a situation where you’re tight on both fuel and options. Will you wager your last hour of fuel on making just one landing at the airport beneath you or take the chance on making it to an alternate?
The Instrument Landing System (ILS) is a precision approach that provides instrument pilots with both lateral and vertical guidance to a runway. In this video, Spencer Suderman demonstrates what it’s like to fly an ILS in a Cessna 172 with a Garmin G1000 avionics system, and how to use the runway approach lighting system to descend below the decision altitude and find the runway when the ceiling is less than 200′ AGL.
2023 was the biggest year yet for Sporty’s Pilot Training Courses, which included numerous video, test prep, interactive scenario and technology updates. Here’s a recap of all the new features.
The winter flying season is officially here, which means we have a new set of challenges to deal with while flying in sub-freezing temperatures. Flight training doesn’t need to stop in the winter though; in fact the colder months provide some great opportunities to expand your knowledge on weather and aircraft operations in less than ideal conditions.
