From: geoff@peck.com (Geoff Peck)
Subject: Re: King videos
Organization: Geoffrey G. Peck, Consultant, San Jose CA
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 1993 09:01:20 GMT

In article <1992Dec31.073354.14930@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>,
c60c-3gi@web-3a.berkeley.edu (Masayuki Karahashi) asks about ground schools
and videotapes.

> Now here is my question:
> 
> (1) if price was not a factor at all, which is the best (ie, give me the
>     most ground school "education"):
> 
> 	(a) a ground school that progresses the same time as your actual
> 	    flight time, ie teaches you ground school stuff as you go along
> 	    in your actualy training.  This is what's offered at Flight
> 	    Simulation at SQL.
> 
> 	(b) totally separate flight school somewhere else.
> 
> 	(c) the king videos

Well, it all depends.  (Naturally :-).)  The academic content of the
private pilot curriculum is roughly equivalent to a not-too-demanding
freshman college science course at a place like Berkeley (i.e., "Physics
for Poets").  So, for someone who's motivated and can do this kind of
thing on their own, ground school can be "handled" by simply buying the
books and supplementary materials, and doing the work.

However, there are inevitably interesting stories and tricks of the trade
which one can pick up from a good instructor.  That instructor might be
your ground school instructor, or might be your flight instructor, or
might be both of them.

Let's look at several alternatives:

(1) The King videos -- these are designed to get you past the FAA written
    examinations, with relatively little additional material.  Yes, there
    are some anecdotes, and occasional attempts at humor, but face it --
    these are simply designed to do a single job, and that job is to get
    you to pass the writtens.  They're good if (a) you don't have a _good_
    groundschool available, and (b) you aren't capable of learning the
    material on your own.  If either (a) or (b) is true, I'd suggest that
    you should not bother with these videos.

(2) The Sporty's videos -- these are also designed to get you past the
    FAA written exams, but their format is much more of a classroom-style
    presentation with substantial amounts of extra material.  They don't
    strictly cover the written test materials, as do the King videos.
    So, although they are more expensive, they would do better as a
    "general education" in flying.  [Note: I've only viewed _excerpts_
    from the Sporty's videos, which were generally excellent -- I haven't
    seen the whole set.  I have watched one set of King videos all the way
    through (I think ... except for occasionally dozing off ...).]

(3) A "live" groundschool -- the key here is the quality of the ground
    school, not whether it's given by the FBO where you're learning to
    fly, nor whether or not it's coordinated with your flying lessons.
    Many FBO "coordinated" ground schools are actually not live, but
    are simply the Jeppesen-Sanderson videotapes.  These are probably 
    a cut above even the Sporty's tapes, and can be bought only by FBOs.
     
    What makes a ground school good?  Well, a lively, informative instructor
    who knows how to teach, knows what's important and what's less so, and
    can draw on substantial personal experience.  Consider, too, that a class
    on a given subject can be taught at many different levels, depending on
    the sophistication of the students.  It's possible to structure a
    private pilot ground school class so that junior high school students
    would understand everything, and would have an absolute blast.  That
    same class might be incredibly boring for a room full of engineers who
    are all well past college.  Why is this?  Well, the way in which things
    are taught, and the amount of "enrichment" which is done in the program.

    There is some advantage to having the ground school relatively close
    in time to the flight training -- the material will be fresh in one's
    mind.  But they really don't need to be _at_ the same time, nor do
    they need to be coordinated.  A good CFI will tell you what you need
    to know for each lesson, and will prompt you as to what you should 
    know for the next lesson.  If you're taking a ground school which
    isn't quite in sync, you can do a little studying on your own.  Usually,
    though, unless you're an unusually quick flight student, the ground
    school will remain well ahead of the flight lessons.
 
> (2) if price IS a factor, which is the best deal?  Considering the money
>     I'll be spending and the education I will be getting.

The economy route is "buy the books and read 'em."  Honest.

						Geoff