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 Private Pilot Groundschool

The remotely-taught Private Pilot Groundschool provides students with the necessary background to pass the PPAER. 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.

Prerequisites

There are no formal prerequisites for this course but students are likely to gain most from the course if they have passed the PSTAR airlaw examination and have about 10 hours of flight training experience.

Required Equipment

Students must have the following available for the first lesson:

  • A recent copy of the Toronto VNC chart
  • A recent Canada Flight Supplement (CFS)
  • A copy of the 6th edition (or later) of the Canadian Private Pilot Answer Book
  • A copy of From the Ground Up
  • A CX-2 or equivalent aviation calculator (students may use an E6B if they are very familiar with its use. No training is provided during this course on the E6B and students are strongly recommended not to use the E6B in the examination room)
  • A copy of a Pilot Operating Handbook for a Cessna 172N (note that a copy of the POH of the aircraft that the student actually flies is also important but, to ensure students are able to work all exercises in a common manner, we insist that they also have the Cessna POH)

All of these can be obtained from any Canadian pilot supply shop.

In addition, students are supplied with a list of recommended reading material before the course begins.

Course Contents

The course follows a module-based approach and, in total, it consists of thirty 90 minutes lessons structured as listed in the table below.

We have arranged these modules in what we believe to be a sensible order. However, we accept that, from time to time it is necessary for a student to miss a class. In that case the student is welcome to attend the class during another session as long as the prerequisite modules have been taken.

To get the maximum benefit from the course, students are expected to work assigned exercises in their own time. The exercises from the previous module are reviewed at the beginning of each module and a web-based discussion page is made available for students to discuss exercises with each other and with the instructors. 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 Prerequisite
Introduction to Aviation Concepts
Introduction 1.5 Basic vocabulary and concepts based around a simulated flight. None
Introduction to Navigation
Map Interpretation 3.0 Types of maps, time zones and zulu time, latitude, longitude, map projections, practical exercises to locate photographs taken in flight, choice of checkpoints. Concepts of groundspeed and airspeed, track and heading. Introduction
Radio Navigation 3.0 Safe use of handheld GPS, flight directly to and from VORs and NDBs Map Interpretation
General Knowledge
Air Law 1.5 Airspace classification. It is assumed that most of the airlaw required by the student will be picked up when writing the PSTAR examination. Introduction
Human Factors: Physiology 1.5 Hypoxia, hyperventilation, illusions None
Human Factors: Psychology 1.5 Dangerous attitudes, pilot decision making, crew (and passenger) resource management None
Airmanship 3.0 General airmanship, hydroplaning, use of performance tables, crosswind calculations, pressure and density altitudes None
Engines 3.0 Operation of the engine and interpretation of the engine instruments None
Systems 3.0 Pitot-Static, vacuum and electrical systems: modes of operation and detecting and handling failures None
Flight Instruments 3.0 Pitot-Static and gyro (solid-state and mechanical) instruments: methods of operation, inaccuracies and errors None
Theory of Flight 4.5 None
Weather
Meterology 4.5 Air masses, atmospheric stability, cloud formation, frontal systems, areas of high and low pressure, wind Introduction
Weather Reports 3.0 Obtaining, reading and interpreting GFAs, FDs, TAFs, METARS and weather RADAR Introduction
Flight Preparation
Flight Planning 1.5 Use of computerised flight planning tools Radio Navigation, Airmanship, Weather Reports
Manual Flight Planning 3.0 Preparing a flight plan manually (including CX-2 calculations) and interacting with Flight Services Flight Planning
Review
Sample Flight 1.5 Putting it all together: during this lesson the "flight" taken during the second lesson is flown again to reïnforce what has been learned All earlier lesson
Exam Preparation 3.0 Examination techniques, advice, review of poorly understood areas None

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