userunknown

I like this site. Lots of amazing information. Everyone seems helpful. I will be returning a lot during my new student experiences, I'm sure. Bear with me!

I've done a few searches and have been lurking awhile in the Flight Training section and I've seen a few suggestions within some unrelated posts that it would be beneficial to complete - what is essentially - ground school and pass the FAA written before or about the same time as starting the inflight portion of training.

It seems to me some things just won't be covered completely or will not make sense if you have no time in the air to relate it to. On the flip side, I'm saving to complete private license and thanks to some major life events, the in-air portion will be a little delayed. I have enough time to study and pass the written test, however.

Since the posts that mentioned this didn't go into great detail, I'd like to know if this is a wise course or thought process. Is it worth picking up the tools (such as a plotter, an E6B, and maybe a local sectional for practice) and getting a jump on it.

Thanks for your time, everyone.

outaluckagain

Not a bad idea for starters. I've been gone from flying for a while, but I seem to recall that there is an expiration on an exam. The written score is only good for a period of time. I think it may have been a fair amount of time though! Check this out, because it may take you longer than you thought to get through your flight training. Besides that, you'll need an instructor endorsement for a private pilot written. At least it was that way when i was active. Check it out.

Cubdriver

I tell students to get it done a little before we prep for their checkride. Studying for the private written should start from day one, really get into it and use the time to both maximize the value of your flight/ground lessons, and make to a higher (90+) score. Get some video course and work through that, buy the Jeppesen texbook and read that in full, plus use one of the online practice test systems, such as Sporty's Study Buddy.

rickair7777

If you have the time/money now, it won't hurt to do ground school and take the written before you start flying. You'll be doing some review along the way, and significant review before the checkride but the FAA written test does not EXACTLY correlate to real-world flying, so I prefer students get that done well before checkride time so they can focus on practical flying knowledge.

The written is good for two years, but I would recommend no more than a couple months gap between between ground/written and start of flight training. If you do have a gap, it won't really hurt you, you'll just have to do some review.

Yoda2

When I did my Private, I put off the written until nearly finished with flight training. I believe it was a poor decision as it was a monkey on my back the whole time and much of that study/information would have been helpful during the training. For all subsequent ratings I made sure the written, now knowledge test, was done prior to flight training. It made things much easier, and cheaper... BTW, at that time the test prep publishers hadn't yet been able to get the answers from the government, so we really did have to study and know the material...

userunknown

Thanks all! I appreciate it. It's good feedback.

I've been leaning towards doing this and will be making a drive to the flight school this week to work with them on getting started on just the written/ground school part of the training for now. It'll certainly help.

Rickair, I will certainly be in a better position to begin the in-flight portion of training in a few months and I assume it will take me a month or two of study in the evenings and practical examples to get to where I want to be on the test so I will be able to easily start the training just after the written is done. It's something I have no problems taking the time to go over it all multiple times before it really sticks.

I'm a dork for procedure and flying fits right in that. Things done an exact way every time. Makes it easy for me to spot abnormalities. I'm the type who'll be filing flight plans even for a VFR across the street for a burger, just because it is good habit for when I get to IFR training and if something does go wrong, people will know where I am. Having all this written material now will aid me soon.

Thanks, again, for the replies. I appreciate hearing from experienced fliers and am glad I'm not on the entirely wrong track.

shredder1

Starting to study as soon as you start flying is ok although it never hurts to be a little ahead just don't put it off to the end. I recogmend using the book and marking wrong answers with a different kind of mark example first time through #, second time $, third time you get it wrong *, and so on this way you can keep track of wrong answers and when you got them wrong. Doing this I never got less than a 90%

kbennett

I did the same as shredder1 when studying for all my knowledge exams. Studying for the knowledge test and taking it before you start flying will just put you that much more ahead when you do start. It will definitely not hurt, and only help you. As far as not having any flight time and struggling to understand the concepts, yes you have a somewhat valid point, but none of it is too difficult that you can't clarify it with an instructor pretty quickly. Also, a lot of flight schools will let you come in and take practice knowledge tests on their computers for free and as many times as you want. These practice quizzes really helped me know whether I was ready, or needed to hit the books a little more so ask your school about them.