Ground School vs self taught

[T/SF34/A]

As a lot of the posts mention above, it depends on what kind of a learner you are. For the writtens, I recommend going alone with the Gliem. Besides saving you $$, you can study at your own pace. All the questions and answers are in those red books. Couple the books with the written exam CD's and you've got it made. With the CD's you can create your own tests. This helped me a lot.

To obtain my CFI/II tickets I went to American Flyers. Thru them I did the weekend written courses (CFI-A, II and FOI) and they were horrible. They were extremely uninformative and unorganized. This was proven when people in my class were failing the writtens. After witnessing this I went out and bought the red books, and after I felt I was ready I took the writtens.

As for aircraft systems, weather and flight planning, your CFI is probably the best route to go for learning.

 

[flywest]

Ground School . .

I have gone both routes with studying as well: home and classroom. I agree with Bobbysamd on this one that, if available, the classroom is a much better place to learn and RETAIN the necessary info. The interaction between you, the instructor, and your fellow aviators makes the learning experience just that . . an experience. I've seen the Sporty's DVDs and they (in my humble opinion) present the necessary material fairly well, but it still doesn't compare to hashing out problems (and various solutions) with a group.

As far as a groud school is concerned, I believe that the DLZ airport north of Columbus has a ground school every spring and fall. You might give them a try up there.

Regards,
FlyWest