Darren Smith, Flight Instructor
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About Me

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Welcome to the largest freely available Flight Instructor website devoted to all levels of pilot certification.  If you're a beginner, learning to fly is one of the most challenging but rewarding experiences you can ever have.  Less than 1% of the US population has ever earned a private certificate.  The list of active pilots (current medical) brings that to less than a tenth of one percent of the US population.  Even fewer are helicopter pilots.  Your choice puts you in the most exclusive club in the world.  Want a career?  Read why It's a good time to become a pilot.
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Your future flying career...Flight training is a very intense and personal experience. With good instruction, you can easily achieve your dream.  Your flight training begins with a Certificated Flight Instructor (CFI).  This person is vital resource to you as you achieve your goal.  Start your information search in the Reading section and Private Pilot and Learn to Fly resource page.

The goal of this web site is three-fold: 1)  to help people get information about becoming pilots,  2) help current pilots get information on additional certificates and ratings, and 3) provide helpful aviation links and resources (reading library)


Thank you for visiting my websiteIt literally costs thousands of dollars a year to keep this free resource online.  My site receives an enormous amount of traffic, and I'm handling about 160 requests for information weekly (all as a public service). Consider supporting this website by purchasing materials from the Pilot StoreI constantly add content depending on requests & questions I receive, search terms used to find this website, and student experiences.  Content is updated & added weekly, so check this website often.  I'd love to hear your thoughts to make it better.
 
Poll:  What's the most common thing you've heard from a CFI?         (Come on, I need more space to write than this!)

 

Training Services

I work exclusively with aircraft owners for training:

    1.  Airplane:
    2.  Helicopter:  Private - Commercial - Accelerated Instrument
    3.  Insurance Checkouts: (see Bio for aircraft quals)
    4.  Recurrent Training:  ...more info
    5.  Ground Schools:  ...more info

Need advanced flight instruction? Email meI am available on
an extremely limited schedule due to professional flying responsibilities.

Request for Comments

I am looking for your thoughts and ideas on these articles.  Please take time to read and post a comment: The Instructor Knows All | Learning Modality | Losing the Edge | Barriers to Pilot Monitoring | Becoming a CaptainWhat are you doing over there?
    

Best Bets - Most Popular

Instrument Pilots: 
    Are you really ready for the checkride?
    Are you really ready for an IFR Rating?
    IFR Risk
   
Visi-Hold - Know Instantly - IFR holding
Helicopter Pilots:
   
Fatal Helicopter Accidents Factors
   
Precautionary Landing
Safety Articles:
   
Personal Minimums Checklist (download)
    Flying Discipline
    Making Safe Choices
   
Intro to Flight Profiles | Profiles Improve Safety
New Website Features
   
Guestbook | OnlineBFR/IPC | Online Store
    Online Payment for Services & Deposits
    FAA Publications - Download Area

See the reading library for more ideas.

What's New...

06/14/2009  Drug Test False Positives
06/07/2009  Trouble Medications
06/01/2009  Pilot's Drug Test 
05/19/2009  Sterile Cockpit
05/10/2009  Flight Operations Threat Analysis (FOTA)
05/01/2009  Weather Radar:  Clear Mode vs Precipitation Mode
04/15/2009  Flight Computers on the Checkride
04/01/2009  GPS on the Checkride
03/18/2009  Runway Incursions Solutions
03/01/2009  Updated: What You Need to Know About Night
02/09/2009  Criticism of Memory Item Checklists
01/31/2009  Human Factors Inhibiting Learning
01/21/2009  Memory (Recall) Item Checklists
01/10/2009  Teaching Adults
01/01/2009  In St Louis, Interested in Helicopters?
 

What's New... 2008

12/15/2008  Runway Incursions Tipsheet - revised
11/30/2008  Barriers to Pilot Monitoring
11/15/2008  TEM Countermeasures
11/01/2008  Introduction to Threat & Error Management
10/15/2008  Owner Aircraft - funny stories about working with owners
10/01/2008  The Fifth Element
09/16/2008  Updated: NOTAM Contractions
09/01/2008  The Instructor Knows All - or does he?
08/15/2008  Guest Column:  The Human Factor
08/01/2008  Guest Column:  Stalls, Spins, Upset Recovery
07/24/2008  FAA Medical Duration Rules Change
07/01/2008  Mysteries of the METAR
06/11/2008  How to Perform a Non Precision Approach (CANPA)
05/27/2008  Non-Precision CFIT (CANPA)
05/04/2008  Red Rules
04/11/2008  Learning Modality - how do you learn?
03/15/2008  Buying an Airplane?
02/22/2008  Losing the Edge
02/04/2008  More Proof Its a Small World
01/21/2008  Money Management for First Officers

See Website History for older updates going back to 2003




"Courage is the price that life extracts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not knows no release from little things ~ Knows not the livid loneliness of fear, or mountain heights, Where bitter joy can hear the sound of wings."
- Amelia Earhart (1897-1937)
        

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All content is Copyright 2002-2009 by Darren Smith. All rights reserved. Subject to change without notice. This website is not a substitute for competent flight instruction. There are no representations or warranties of any kind made pertaining to this service/information and any warranty, express or implied, is excluded and disclaimed including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. Under no circumstances or theories of liability, including without limitation the negligence of any party, contract, warranty or strict liability in tort, shall the website creator/author or any of its affiliated or related organizations be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages as a result of the use of, or the inability to use, any information provided through this service even if advised of the possibility of such damages. For more information about this website, including the privacy policy, see about this website.
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