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.
Checking the weather is one of the few constants in aviation. All pilots do it, whether it’s a trip around the pattern in a Cub or a trip across the Atlantic in a Gulfstream. But merely getting a weather briefing isn’t enough; it has to be a good weather briefing to make the flight safer. So what exactly does a “good briefing” involve?
Learning to fly an airplane should be a fun and enjoyable process, but you need to have a game plan to ensure that your flight training proceeds smoothly and efficiently. Here are 10 tips to help you get the most out of each lesson.
The pathway to a Private Pilot certificate involves many training requirements, including ground school, in-airplane flight training, and a few FAA tests. Here we’ll focus on recent updates to the FAA Knowledge test and how to best prepare for it.
Sporty’s Learn to Fly Course provides a modern, comprehensive training solution for your flight school that is sure to increase enrollment and improve retention and performance. In this detailed guide, you’ll learn how to integrate Sporty’s courses into your curriculum, monitor student progress and take advantage of the Flight Schedule Pro integration.
Sometimes terrain, icing, lack of instrument rating or proper equipment can make flying on an Instrument Flight Plan (IFR) not an option. But that doesn’t mean you need to cancel a flight just because there’s weather along the route or it’s not perfect VFR.
A new online training resource called InstaCFI connects pilots with CFIs across the country to meet virtually for ground instruction, assistance with complex flight planning, avionics instruction and much more.
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.
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.
In this episode, Spencer demonstrates how to fly several of the common ground reference maneuvers, including turns around a point and the rectangular course.
What should you expect on your first flight lesson? Sporty’s has once again partnered with airshow pilot and flight instructor Spencer Suderman, this time for a new video series to answer questions like that
