Show Notes
The written exam keeps sitting on your to-do list Here's how to finally deal with it. The FAA's 2024 data shows a 92% first-time pass rate. Most people pass. But that stat hides the weeks of stress, avoidance, and cramming that got them there. The real problem is figuring out how to study for it while you're also flying, working, paying for training, and trying to have a life. In this episode, we break down why cramming fails (and the 1880s research that proves it), how to build a 15-minute daily study habit that actually sticks, and the practice test benchmark that tells you when a topic is truly locked in. In this episode: Why the written exam becomes the thing you keep putting off. The forgetting curve and why cramming doesn't build long-term memory. Spaced repetition and the 8-12 minute sweet spot for retention. Why ground school and flying feel like completely separate skills. The 15-minute daily method and the 98% three-times-in-a-row benchmark. Stacking study time onto your existing routine. How FAA test questions are designed to trip you up. Key Takeaways: Study 15 minutes a day, every day. Over two months that's 15 hours of focused time without rearranging your schedule. Run each practice test section until you score 98% three times in a row, then rotate it out. Layer studying onto time you already spend; commute, lunch break, before or after a flight lesson. Try multiple formats early (books, video, audio, flash cards) so you find what works before crunch time. On test day, answer what you know first. Skip calculations and come back to them. Resources: Free Private Pilot Study Sheet: https://hub.pilotinstitute.com/private-pilot-study-sheet-landing Your Flight Controls is produced in association with Pilot Institute. Got a question or topic idea? Details in the show description.
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A controller called traffic at my two o'clock, three miles. I was already scanning, and I still found it late. That was on a long trip from Fayetteville, North Carolina up to Flint, Michigan, with flight following on for most of it. This is part two on radio work, what flight following really gives you, how to ask for it, and the order of operations at a towered field once the initial call stops being the hard part. Also: radio work is a depreciating skill. It builds fast with use and fades just as fast without it, and that changes how you should think about practice. In This Episode: • What flight following is in FAA terms — Radar Traffic Information Service, AIM 4-1-15 • The four basic radar services VFR aircraft get, and why separation is off that list • How to make the request, word for word, and what ATC sends back • Setting it up with ground control before you taxi instead of building it in the climb • The three habits that keep the service running once you are in the system • The kneeboard method that cuts down say-agains • The four readbacks the FAA requires at a towered field • Why every runway crossing needs its own clearance, one at a time • What rusty radio work sounds like, and how quickly it comes back Key Takeaways: • Ask for radar traffic information on your initial call to ground or clearance delivery, along with your direction of flight • Write every frequency down in order before engine start, so ATC is confirming your page rather than filling it • Read back the runway assignment, any clearance onto a runway, any hold short, and any line up and wait — every time • Hold at the line until a controller clears you across; crossings are issued one runway at a time • Tell the controller before you leave the frequency, then squawk twelve hundred • If it has been more than a month since you talked to a controller, plan one flight with radio work in it on purpose Resources: Free VFR Radio Call Sheet (Student Pilot Kneeboard) https://pilotinstitute.com/radio-comm-for-beginners/ Your Flight Controls is produced in association with Pilot Institute. New episodes drop weekly. Got a question or a topic you want us to cover? Reach out in the comments.