Today's students have it even better. They can use interactive CD-ROM or DVD programs, floppy-disk software, and videotapes to learn new information and review lessons. The programs take advantage of all the latest electronic and graphic tools to make some inherently dry information interesting and digestible. And unlike those filmstrips that belonged to the flight school and could only be watched there, today's electronic instructional aids are sold - by Jeppesen, among other providers - to individuals to use anywhere, anytime.
The last time I studied for a new FAA pilot certificate, I used a videotape series to prepare for the checkride. I watched the tapes each morning while I exercised, which relieved some of the drudgery of both tasks - exercising and studying. I rate my method as an unqualified success because I aced the checkride and got my new certificate without gaining an ounce of weight.
Preparing for the FAA knowledge test for that certificate also was easier than for past FAA writtens, which is what they used to be called. I bought a big, thick paperback book containing all of the official questions from which the test is taken, along with the correct answers. I read the study material in each chapter, answered all of the questions, and then checked my answers before moving on to the next chapter.
Using a test-prep manual is no substitute for learning the necessary regulations, weather concepts, and all of the other information needed to operate as a safe and competent pilot, but it sure is a great way to cap that traditional preparation and virtually guarantee that you will pass the test.
Taking an FAA written test is easier, too - not because today's questions are any less difficult to answer, but because the tests no longer are "written" in the strictest sense of the word. They're administered on a personal computer. The last FAA knowledge test I took was computer-based, and I found it easy to review answers and refer to charts, tables, and other tools and test aids. Best of all, I got my grade a few minutes after I finished taking the test.
As with the old written versions, you must go to an approved location to take an FAA test, but I expect that in a few years we'll be able to take the tests at home by logging onto a special FAA testing center Web site. That will be even easier than today's process.
Today's students also have it easier preparing for the practical test. No student can claim ignorance going into a checkride, because everything the examiner can examine is detailed in the Practical Test Standards. Studying the PTS, however, is just the start. Before taking the checkride for my new certificate, I bought a couple of excellent guides that provided detailed background and study material covering every subject and task in the oral and flight-test portions of the practical test. After reviewing the study guides, I would have had to try very hard to fail the practical test.
Training is just the beginning of easier flying. We also have tons more gear today to help us fly safely and well - everything from noise-attenuating headsets and purpose-designed flashlights and flight bags to sophisticated sunglasses that find contrast in a milky, murky sky.
But the biggest reason flying is easier today than in the past is avionics. Is there any doubt that the positional accuracy of GPS, combined with the visual and informational power of electronic displays and databases, makes navigating from one point to the next a far simpler task today than when our only choices were VORs, NDBs, and time/speed/distance calculations? If the defense department hadn't developed GPS, it would be easy to believe that it was the work of Samuel J. Popeil, the man responsible for the Veg-O-Matic. GPS-based flight management systems and displays slice, dice, chop, and grate position information like nothing else we've ever seen in aviation.
There's more. Lightning detection devices, ground-based Nexrad weather radar images, collision avoidance systems, and ground proximity warnings already are in or coming to general aviation cockpits. Each device makes it that much easier for a pilot to avoid flying into severe weather, another airplane, or the ground.
With so many new tools to make training and flying easier, what makes it more difficult than in the past? The answer is some of very things that make it easier. The panel-mounted GPS system in our airplane is a marvelously capable and useful device, but that capability comes at a price beyond dollars. Using a GPS, especially for nonprecision IFR approaches, requires serious initial study and frequent review - not just of the procedures, but also the operation of the GPS unit itself.
GPS approaches are more work-intensive than other types of instrument approaches because the pilot has to manipulate the GPS unit as well as follow the procedures published on the instrument approach procedures chart. Here's the sequence I must follow before beginning to fly the approach: Using a combination of buttons and knobs on the panel-mounted GPS unit, I must access the GPS approach procedures database; scroll through the available procedures at the destination airport and select the desired one; decide where in the published procedures I want to join the approach and make that selection; enable the approach procedures; and, finally, enter the local barometric pressure setting. Only then can I begin the approach.
Flying a course reversal, missed approach, or holding pattern requires other unique inputs to the GPS unit. Screw up on any single input and I've screwed up the approach. It's no wonder that I'm required to have the GPS instruction manual handy when using the GPS in the IFR environment.
The digital revolution in avionics is transforming the cockpits of the general aviation fleet. Thanks to the small size but massive capabilities of computer processor-based radios and displays, it won't be long before our light aircraft have virtually the same avionics punch as the most sophisticated corporate jets and airliners. But just as personal computers have vastly complicated my life even as they have transformed it, so too will contemporary avionics extract a price in complexity from their users. As it gets even easier, flying will become more difficult.
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