Higher education. For every stage of flight.
Understand aviation.
Prepare for your
next lesson.
Free aviation references, customizable lesson plans, and training syllabi for student pilots and flight instructors.
Choose your Next Step
Learn a flight-training topic
Prepare for your next lesson with clear explanations and source references.
Choose a topic →
Prepare for a checkride
Review the knowledge and tasks for your certificate or rating.
Choose my preparation hub →
Prepare to teach
Build your next ground or flight lesson with structured plans and references.
Find a lesson plan →Trivia of the Day
Trivia rolls over daily at midnight, Mountain Standard Time.
Private Pilot Question of the Day
What may be designated as the hold-short point in a LAHSO clearance?
An intersecting runway, an intersecting taxiway, or another designated point on the landing runway.
Commercial Pilot Question of the Day
During airworthiness requirements, what should a commercial helicopter pilot explain about purpose and procedure for obtaining a special flight permit?
A special flight permit authorizes a specific flight of an aircraft that may not currently meet applicable airworthiness requirements but is capable of safe flight. Apply through the FAA with aircraft, purpose, route, crew, and condition information, comply with all issued operating limitations, and obtain any required inspection or authorization before flight.
Instrument Rating Question of the Day
What errors and operating limitations must be considered when using the magnetic compass during helicopter IFR flight?
Account for variation and deviation and for turning, acceleration, oscillation, and northerly-turning errors. The compass is most useful in straight, unaccelerated flight and as an independent heading reference; compare it with the heading system under stable conditions and apply the appropriate lead, lag, and rollout technique when it must be used for timed or compass turns.
Sport Pilot Question of the Day
Two aircraft of the same category are converging at approximately the same altitude, but are not head-on. Which normally has the right-of-way?
The aircraft to the other's right.
Flight Instructor Question of the Day
A forecast and recent PIREPs conflict along the planned route. How should the pilot interpret this disparity?
Investigate timing, altitude, location, aircraft type, and product limitations; remain conservative until the discrepancy is resolved.
Flight Instructor Instrument Question of the Day
Why must an instructor caution learners against treating a low FRAT score as automatic approval to fly?
A FRAT may omit a hazard or dilute one extreme hazard within a total score, so every significant risk still requires individual judgment and mitigation.
Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Question of the Day
In a TAF, are forecast cloud-base heights reported in feet AGL or MSL?
Cloud bases in a TAF are reported in hundreds of feet AGL, not MSL.
Advice of the Day
Maintain a consistent flight training schedule. Long breaks in any kind of training, but especially aviation, will cause a dramatic loss of progress.
System of the Day
Cabin Heating and Cooling Systems: Cabin Heating and cooling systems provide conditioned air for comfortable operations during various weather conditions
Maneuver of the Day
Basic Attitude Instrument Flying: Learn the primary-and-supporting and control-performance methods of instrument flying, including instrument scans, straight-and-level flight, climbs, descents, and turns.
Emergency of the Day
Engine Failure: The total loss of power requires immediate actions which depend upon speed (life) and altitude (life insurance)
Mishap of the Day
ERA14LA450: The NTSB determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be: The pilot's inadequate preflight planning, which resulted in a takeoff with the airplane's center of gravity aft of its limit and led the airplane to exceed its critical angle of attack and experience an aerodynamic stall during the initial climb.
