Student Pilot Fundamentals

Welcome! This mini-course is designed to help you start your flight training journey the right way, with an understanding of the flight training process, your responsibilities as a student, and some basic concepts applicable to your first few lessons.

In a moment, we’ll discuss fundamental concepts including:

Aerodynamic Fundamentals
Energy Management
Basic Procedures
Cockpit Controls
Briefing & Debriefing
Checklist & Flow Concepts

An understanding of these concepts as early as possible in the training process helps students progress faster, save money, have more fun, and—most importantly—become better pilots.

And you should want to be the best pilot you can. Obviously not everyone will be the next Bob Hoover, but caring about flying well—and being willing to put in the work to get there!—is essential.

Before we begin, here’s a few tips to take with you in your training:

Learning is an active process that results in a change in behavior. We are learning so that we can use that knowledge!
Good learning isn’t usually efficient. Sufficient understanding and the ability to apply knowledge in real-world situations comes from active, often slow, engagement with the subject matter, including asking questions, rehearsing procedures from memory, referencing source material, and asking “why”.
Not all flight schools or instructors are created equal. Do your research, try a few, and be willing to switch instructors if it isn’t the right fit.
We publish a lot of valuable free content outside of the course itself! This includes our Resource Library, Blog, and iOS App.

And now, let’s get started!