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.
VFR sectional charts contain a wealth of information and are considered essential equipment for pilots of all skill levels. This week’s tip dives into the symbols and markings used on these charts to help you get more out of the aviation data on your next flight.
High-performance airplanes and jets incorporate a pressurization system to provide a comfortable cabin environment for the flight crew and passengers. In this video, we’ll show how this system works in piston-engine airplanes, like a Piper Malibu, and how the pilot control it from the flight deck.
LPV instrument approaches provide ILS-like precision to over 4,000 runways in the U.S. In this week’s video tip, we’ll explain the differences between a traditional LNAV and LPV instrument approach, and show how to fly one using a Garmin GTN 650 navigator.
Talking on the radio can be intimidating for new pilots, but with a few tips in mind it doesn’t have to be hard. In our latest video tip, we give you a few basics to remember so you can sound like a pro when you talk to tower or on the CTAF. If you know what to expect, you’ll be a lot more confident.
The takeoff is one of the exhilarating parts of flying, but requires some basic knowledge of aircraft control and the airport environment. Here we’ll look at a series of tips to help ensure each of your takeoffs are executed both smoothly and safely.
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.
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.
A standard traffic pattern is normally flown when setting up to approach and land at an airport. In this video, we’ll take a look at the standard ways to both enter and depart a traffic pattern, as well as look at how runways are identified based on their location and orientation.
In this episode, Spencer simulates several inflight emergency scenarios and how to handle them, including loss of engine power, flight instrument failure and loss of radio communications.
Starting the airplane engine is one of the first hands-on procedures you’ll learn when starting your flight training. In our latest video tip, we’ll show you step-by-step the procedure for starting the Cessna 172S fuel-injected engine.
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