I’ve been working on my private pilot license lately and have spent a lot of time hitting the books and other sources as much as possible in order to ace the private pilot checkride.
In addition to the ASA Private Pilot book (which is pure gold, a must have, invaluable, awesome, great, thumbs up, indispensable, 5 stars, etc!), the FAR/AIM, PHAK, and the ACS standards, I’ve been learning a lot from Reddit and YouTube.
The videos below are recommendations for you to watch on your way to becoming a private pilot. They will not only help you with the FAA written test (also, check out the ACS Interactive Quiz I created), but will help you relax about the checkride as it’ll give you a preview from the examiner’s perspective and a bird’s eye view of the actual checkride oral exam.
The Best Private Pilot Training Videos on YouTube
#1
This video will prepare you for both the FAA written test and the oral exam. It’s a roughly 2 hour session of a ground school lesson given by a flight instructor. It’s hugely informative. Given that he’s reading regulations for 2 hours, it’s actually a pretty great video. Audio quality is very good. I listened to this video probably 3 or more times while on the treadmill, walking around, at work, and so on.
#2
Before watching this video I had no real idea of how the checkride was going to work. I didn’t really know what to expect and was feeling very nervous about the whole process. After watching this several times, I felt much more confident about the process and felt like I was much more prepared that I felt before. Watch it often and write down any questions you may not know the answers to. Thanks to this video I made my own “airworthiness” cheat sheet that I’ll take with me to the checkride that will outline the aircraft maintenance dates and will also have the weight and balance right on it.
#3
This video (Sorry, embedding was disabled)is interesting because it tells you, from the examiner’s perspective, what they’ll be looking for. The DPE in the video is very clear about expectations and I really learned quite a bit from his presentation.
I hope you find these useful in your private pilot journeys!