Avinca provides solutions for flight schools wishing to provide high-quality ground instruction and for individual students unable to attend a regular classroom groundschool or needing special attention. Avinca's lessons are provided remotely using the latest remote teaching technology and are all interactive—not prerecorded.
The remotely-taught Commercial Pilot Groundschool provides students with the necessary background to pass the CPAER. It focuses on modern technology and techniques (e.g., Computer-Assisted Flight Preparation) where these are expressly permitted or encouraged by the Transport Canada regulations. Students on the course are provided with free access to the Avinca online flight preparation program both to prepare flights during the course and to use indefinitely after the course.
Students are assumed to have a Private Pilot Licence and at least 100 hours of pilot-in-command time.
Students must have the following available for the first lesson:
All of these can be obtained from any Canadian pilot supply shop.
In addition, students are supplied with a 70 page commercial pilot workbook and list of recommended reading material before the course begins. The course fees include the workbook.
The course follows a module-based approach and, in total, it consists of thirty 2 hour lessons structured as listed in the table below and a minimum of 20 hours of supervised self-study based on the open-ended workbook questions. These require the students to dig deeply into particular areas of the CPL syllabus and the results are reviewed and assessed by the course tutors.
A web-based discussion page is made available for students to discuss exercises with each other and with the instructors and to submit self-study work in a formal manner. This form of "self-help" has been found in studies to be beneficial to both the student asking for and the student providing advice.
| Topic | Duration (hours) | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| Private Licence Review | ||
| Meteorology | 2 | Review of atmospheric stability, lapse rates and other topics with which students often require additional help. |
| Navigation | 2 | Review of basic radio navigation (GPS, VORs, NDBs). |
| Theory of Flight | 2 | Review of basic concepts regarding coefficients of lift and drag and aerofoil design, angle of attack |
| Open Topics | 2 | Review of other PPL topics requested by the students or found necessary by the instructors |
| Human Factors | ||
| Psychology | 4 | The threat and error model, analysing human error, managing threats, interacting with equipment, pilot decision making, operating procedures, crew resource management |
| Physiology | 2 | Hypoxia, hyperventilation, jet lag, stress, disorientation and illusions |
| Theory of Flight | ||
| Forces | 1 | Units, Newton's laws of motion, forces acting in a turn, load factors, effect of load factor on stalling |
| Aerofoils and Lift | 2 | Common fallacies, aerofoil geometry (wash-in/out, aspect ratio, slots, slats, vortex generators, etc.), pressure distributions |
| Propellers | 1 | Types and efficiency of propellers, efficiency of propeller .v. jet engine (the power curve and its practical impact on flight) |
| Airframes | ||
| Airframes | 1 | Types of construction, materials |
| Engines | ||
| Reciprocating Engines | 2.5 | Effect of density altitude, fuel injection, super- and turbo-charging, FADEC, fuel types, detonation and pre-ignition |
| Turbine Engines | 2.5 | Principle of operation, FADEC, instrumentation, fuel types |
| Systems | ||
| The Electrical and Ignition Systems | 2 | Principle of operation, components of the system, grounding and bonding, magnetos, fuel injection in turbine aircraft |
| The Lubrication System | 1 | Principle of operation, types of oil, methods of lubrication, venting, pressure relief |
| The Fuel System | 1 | Fuel types, fuel management, fuel system components, fuel instrumentation |
| Other Systems | 2 | Oxygen, hydraulic, vacuum, pressurisation, de-icing/anti-icing, environmental, avionics cooling |
| Flight Instruments | ||
| "Steam" Displays | 1 | The pitot-static instruments, compass, solid-state and mechanical gyros. Altimeter setting. |
| "Glass" Displays | 1 | Glass cockpits, including the human factors involved in flying with glass cockpits |
| Miscellaneous Instruments | 2 | Weather information including sferics devices, radar altimeter, collision avoidance, AHRS |
| Instrument Flying | 2 | Illusions, scan techniques, unusual attitudes, partial panel, introduction to IFR flying |
| Meteorology and Weather Reports/Forecasts | ||
| The Atmosphere | 4 | Temperature, moisture, stability, cloud types and formation, air masses and the polar front, jet stream, formation of pressure systems, wind shear, aircraft icing |
| Practical Weather Flying | 2 | Flying in frontal systems, thunderstorms, icing, weather uplinks to the cockpit, review of sferics equipment |
| Reports and Forecasts | 4 | Flight Service Stations, Flight Information Centres, PATWAS, ATIS, VOLMET. AWOS, LWIS, surface analysis charts, upper air charts, significant weather prognosis charts, ground- and air-based radar, SIGMETs, AIRMETs |
| Navigation | ||
| Maps, Charts and Pilot Navigation | 3 | Chart projections, map reading, deduced reckoning, computerised aids to flight planning, procedures when lost, calculation of critical flight points, route selection, ded Reckoning, sunset/rise tables, true altitude |
| Radio Navigation | 3 | Introduction to the LO charts, methods of operation and weaknesses of GPS, VOR and NDB navigation, HSI and RMI, DME |
| Flight Operations | ||
| Aircraft Operations | ½ | Passenger briefings, radio communications, minimum equipment lists, wildlife, hydroplaning, wind shear, search and rescue, survival techniques |
| Performance Charts | 1½ | Takeoff and landing charts in various formats, balanced field length, effect of runway surfaces, effect of up- and down-sloping runways |
| Aerodrome Operations | 1 | Lighting, approach path systems, windsocks, marshalling, RVR readings |
| Winter Operations | 1 | The clean aircraft concept, effects of inflight icing, interpreting the CRFI, cold soaking |
| Air Law | ||
| Aeronautics Act and the CARs | 1 | Contents of the aeronautics act, structure of the CARs, CARs part 1 |
| CARs Parts 2 to 4 | 1 | Pointers to particular areas of the CARs that need to be understood |
| CARs Parts 6 and 7 | 2 | Pointers to particular areas of the CARs that need to be understood, including international flight |