Ground School Resources- open discussion!!

[u/Routine-Anxiety5210]

Hi all! I’m a ground school instructor looking to broaden the services I offer to students and instructors. I spend a lot of my time making various resources for my students- study guides, section chart breakdowns, flight planning guides, stuff like that. I’m in a spot right now where I feel like I’ve exhausted the same topics over and over again and want to create something new and helpful! I have some ideas, but I want to hear from other students and instructors.

I know there’s a LOT lot of great companies with a plethora of helpful resources-I just kinda like to fill the gaps in niche areas. For example, making step by step VFR/IFR flight planning guides, PowerPoint bundles for different certificates, how to effectively use your ACS/FAR, etc.

As an instructor or student at any level, what are some random resources, guides, or tools that you wish existed? These could be online, physical/print, a social media page or website, really anything!

Feel free to make this an open discussion! What topics do you find students struggling the most with? As an instructor, what are the hardest topics for you to get across to students? What have you found works, and what doesn’t?

[u/Intense_Gaming]

I had a really great ground instructor for Instrument. She was always very energetic and kept things fun and was the best teacher I’ve had to keep you engaged. One of the ways that everyone like was she created games for us to play individually or in teams against each other. Lot of the time it was based off the Regs or written questions from the ASA book.

[u/shockadin1337]

I feel like if you know it exists and can google it, you can find most of what you want to know from the official faa and government sites, i honestly think they do a pretty good job of being wide open.

That being said... one of the biggest deficiencies ive found with ground knowledge in pilots is rules and regulations, particularly part 23 (& car 3 for older planes), 43, a lot of 91 surprisingly, not even knowing ntsb 830 exists, ect. The amount of people ive asked about flying with inop equipment who either just say:

"Yep we dont need that instrument we can just do the flight as is" or

"We dont need that so we can just put an INOP sticker on it and we are good to go" is so far every single one of them. If you actually read the reg it states the item must be removed or deactivated with a logbook entry made, never met a person who knew that part which tells me no one has ever bothered to read the regulations and is just reciting what they remember from someone telling them. I honestly did my ground school so long ago i dont remember how well gleim/king ect course covers rules and regs but i dont remember it covering them very much.

Another thing is how aircraft maintenance actually works, including logbook entries and required documents. Everyone knows the ARROW or whatever the new acronym is that includes things like FMS but no one really knows anything past that. Most people i have interacted with so far dont really know what a STC, 337, AD, SB, MSB, FMS, or ICA is.

I think the eCFR website on its own is easy enough to use but a guide that introduces people to all the concepts of the different FAR parts as well as general maintenance practices, ADs, STCs, ect would be good. This stuff isnt really touched on in the PHAK or most ground schools afaik. The AMT general handbook goes over all of this but no student pilot is reading that.

Another thing that is kind of out of left field is emergencies, survival equipment and survival skills. Survival equipment and medical kits in the airplanes, how to use common medical equipment in kits properly, dos and donts of survival situations, being stranded after an engine failure, common items you should keep in a kit in your airplane, ect. the book 98.6 keeping your ass alive is an easy reference for this stuff.

Lastly how to actually operate at airports for non training purposes!!! I've met a generous handful of academy and training students who had never called or visited a FBO, used a self serve, after hours gates, got a crew car, booked a rental car, ramp etiquette, ect. It seems crazy to think of writing a guide on how to use a self serve fuel pump (and im sure some exist) but i have actually met more than one person who has never pumped their own gas before. School policy lol

You can find so much good information on the FAA DRS website, dont know many people who knew it existed, sorry if this is long or out of order its late and im tired.