Here’s a quick quiz. What event offers more than 65 hours of educational seminars, a pilot’s shopping paradise, the biggest names in aviation, and almost 100 aircraft on display? It’s AOPA Aviation Summit, held this year in Long Beach, California, November 11 through 13.
AOPA Aviation Summit is the association’s yearly tradeshow that caters solely to pilots. Students and flight instructors will find a huge amount of helpful and fun resources. There are seminars on passing checkrides, flying IFR, tips from controllers, and even one on aviation careers.
But the seminars are just the beginning. Again this year we’ll be holding a flight instructor roundtable with Flight Training Deputy Editor Ian J. Twombly on Saturday, November 13, at the Hyatt Hotel at 10 a.m.. New this year will also be a student roundtable with Twombly, where students working on any certificate or rating can come to talk about anything they like. It’s a great opportunity to network with other students and get a support group. It will be held at the Hyatt Hotel at 1 p.m.
The center of the show is the Long Beach Convention Center, which will house hundreds of exhibitors selling everything from headsets to airplanes. Come and spend a day at Long Beach airport, too, and see the many airplanes that will gather for the event.
There’s also great nightly entertainment, including a block party; dine arounds, where you can eat with an aviation celebrity; and more. Go online (www.aopa.org/summit) for more information and to buy tickets.
FAA to revamp knowledge tests
In a recent industry meeting to review changes that have been and will be made to knowledge tests and practical test standards this year, the FAA said that it plans to expand its test-question bank from the current 15,000 to 20,000 questions, to more than 100,000 questions. Another goal is to make the knowledge tests Internet-based. The tests would continue to be taken in approved testing centers, but they would be served online instead of the hard drives of the testing center computers.
Both moves are expected to take at least a couple of years, the FAA said. Industry groups, including AOPA, met to review what changes to the written and practical test standards the FAA has already made and what is upcoming. This allows representatives the opportunity to point out any problems that some of the changes may cause. Regarding the knowledge tests, the FAA’s announcement of changes were general, and none of the actual test questions or answers were released to the group.
A change that will be incorporated into all knowledge tests is a general question about glass cockpits. The FAA will develop a bank of questions, so that one will appear on every knowledge test given. The questions are not specific to any particular type of glass cockpit. The FAA decided to add the question based on NTSB recommendations that it do more to enhance pilot training and knowledge requirements for glass-cockpit aircraft.
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