The bag is great as are the computer, and other "gadgets", all good quality and usable.

Videos are great and put one "inside" the cockpit. Not just a talking head program. Videos often show good and bad, especially in landings. While most videos are for Cessna aircraft there is an attempt to show low wing aircraft differences.
The little reinforcement vignettes with Richard Collins are fun and informative for a student who respects real world experiences vs. theory.
Pre Test questions format is good.
Enjoy the online version and it runs well on my laptop making it accessible everywhere. Nice for traveling light!
Printed Lesson plans are good, I gave to my CFI and they were better than his version.

Some improvement could be made in how to use the entire system. A demo segment on "How to Use" would be good. Maybe it is there, but if so, hard to find. One has to scroll around to get the big picture of what is intended.
Although emphasized in the videos, the FAR related information could be enhanced even MORE in order to communicate the importance of the info for potential exam questions down the road.

The kit satisfies my need as a student.
The vido learning is exceptional compared to the dry FAA version booklets.

Videos are great

Ther are other books that need to be bought

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The videos are great, they don't just "teach to the test" like some online ground schools. I also like the practice test section, very useful in preparing for the written. The flight bag is nice, free initial embroidering is a plus. The electronic E6-B is pretty handy.

You cannot print or download the Practical Test Standards material. This is a BIG flaw for me! Instead you are forced to open the pages one by one and can only read them on the screen one at a time. If I had gone with the DVD version of the course I would've received the PTS Guide and supporting documents in print, in a book. I've emailed Sporty's customer service about this and they say they've forwarded the feedback to the department that manages the training courses, hopefully they will fix this. Oh, and if you're planning on using the fuel sample tool, don't...the plastic piece that goes into the fuel port on the airplane snapped off the very first time I used it.

Overall this product gets 3 stars. It's a good course, and you will learn a lot, just needs the option I talked about in the Cons section. The price is fairly low considering you get the flight bag and the E-6B ($140 if purchased separately).

Excellent Program Love The Ease Of Use. Bag Is Great and The Reading Material Is Excellent.

Sometimes the Online Program Stops Working and You Have to Start From The Beginning.

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Enthusiasm of instructors.

Current location has unreliable internet service, making the program hard to access. Not a fault of the course. Sporty's graciously changed me to the DVD course with no problem.

Love the program!

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I have given your web site and ordering information to two coworkers that are giving this course and bag to their husband's foir father's day!

You get an electronic E6B verses the mechanical nice upgrade, and you also recieve training that is the most up to date. (e.g. under 40 third class medical 36 months now 60 months and Air Defense Identification Zone ADIZ now in law as the Special Flight Rules Area(DC SFRA)

Nothing to note.

Extremely well orgainized training taking you from start to finish allowing you to fully understand and retain the information presented. Keep up the good work!

High quality videos and great organization of the courses and material. It was nice to get everyhting in one package, without having to order and buy them seperate. The flying bag is higher quality and durability than I expected.

Online course videos are subject to the quality of the internet connection.

The videos are excellent supplemantary material to just reading, and the flying segments really help to give you a practical,"real life" understanding of the manuevers and feel of actually being in an aircraft.

The online course is nice because you can do it anywhere. The video segments are pretty entertaining and do have some good examples and demonstrations to reinforce the concept. The flying footage is good and concepts demonstrate the concepts well. Plus you can't dislike Dick Collins. The bag is pretty sweet and is pretty heavy duty - so is the log book. I like the electronic E6B but wish there was a segment training you on it.

There are a lot of shortcomings on this.

1) They need to link the lessons to the appropriate test prep segments. After you watch a segment you go take a test and realize that there are concepts that you just didn't cover. There should be some kind of index of what you should have watched for a particular text segment.

2) They tend to brush over very important technical things quickly. I believe that charts and navigation was an 11 minute segment which leaves a lot to be desired.

3) The test mode is pretty much worthless. They refer to pop-up diagrams that are not very good resolution and not even to scale depending on your screen size/resolution. I found myself holding my plotter to the screen to try and get a heading to work the problems...without the proper scale - this does not make sense...and are you supposed to draw on your screen? They NEED to include a workbook to go along with the test segments. Even just switching back and forth between windows to read the question and variables makes you want to throw your computer across the room.

4) No E6B training...though they do sell it seperately for $20...it seems like it should be included. It would also be nice to have a mechanical E6B so you can learn the old fashioned way too.

5) They should include a sheet with an outline for your instructor. They have an online outline but you would have to print each of the 50 or so lessons which are 3 pages each. There is no master outline. Just a large sheet with bullets would be OK...

All in all a decent product. I may look around a little more before going with this again. I enjoy the online videos and the personalities and the videos are very well produced. It just needs a few things to tie all of these assets together so it seems more comprehensive. It seems like you get a product that was meant to have printed material accompanying it.

Great course with excellent print manuals/books to go along with. Plenty of info to pass your tests.

My bag didn't get my initials but I really don't care. Many of the maps that the practice test uses for reference are too small to see and you cannot measure distance. I miss many questions on the practice test because of this. You would have to have the actual sectional to measure from.

I think this is THE way to get started. I learn very well from watching and having the same info in print to back it up is awesome.

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Great to have the all in one kit for the student pilot. Online courses are awesome and the books that come with the kit are very informative. All in all a great value.

Two weather books may be overkill.

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Well made bag, reasonable price, good videos, good test prep

Online videos can be flaky, difficult to figure out where to start and how to progress, no inclusion of various other necessities of a student (like a flashlight, kneeboard, etc.)

I chose the online course because it included a few features that the DVD course didn't (like cross-linking and written test sign-off). But even though I've got a T1 line here, I can't watch the hi def videos because they start and stop. Even the low res videos do occasionally, but they're at least mostly usable. But video navigation could be better - it is difficult or impossible to skip through to the MIDDLE of a video where you missed a point and want to see it again without having to watch the ENTIRE video again.

The bag is really well made. I felt like a dweeb initially coming to my training session with a big bag and little more in it than my keys and a few pieces of paper. However, as a pilot friend told me, it fills up quickly - I've now bought headsets, a kneeboard, flashlight, some local area charts, and also keep the FAR/AIM book inside. I can see it filling up pretty quickly (and being very useful since it has a ton of pockets and places to organize things).

There is a lesson plan but unless your CFI really wants to follow the exact Sporty's plan, it doesn't really tell you what to do or what to look at first if you're using the Sporty's materials as ground school. My opinion is that I don't need to pay a CFI to learn book knowledge - and that's precisely what I bought this course for. Although it is certainly all there, it is sometimes a bit confusing to figure out where to go first... do you watch the videos first and up to what point? Do you do the interactive testing? Do you curl up with the FAR/AIM book and THEN do the interactive testing?

As a beginning student pilot, there's also a bunch of stuff that you'll need and nowhere does it really say WHAT that stuff is. I later on realized that I'd need some other materials, like charts (and subscriptions), a kneeboard, and a flashlight for night operations (which I've not yet gotten to). I bought those separately, but it would have been nice to have those sorts of thing either included in the kit or as a separate "add-on" kit... sort of an "all you'll need to get started" sort of thing.

I was slightly disappointed that some information wasn't available on the web site - like whether the "original nylon bag" that's included was the "original original" bag or the "new original" bag (it is the new one) - but customer service was very helpful in answering those types of questions by phone. And I was VERY surprised when the entire package came very quickly; because I opted for the free embroidery, I expected it would take at least 4 days to get to me but it was here sooner than that.

While I've been complaining about certain things here (partially because I hope Sporty's can make this kit even BETTER for the future), I can also say that this is ABSOLUTELY worthwhile and probably the best out there. I'd absolutely recommend it to anyone trying to get a PPL - even if (or perhaps ESPECIALLY if) your flight school wants to try to sell you a bunch of books from someplace like Cessna.

The online courses are easy to use and intuitive. If you have a slow or intermittant internet connection you are going to be better off wih the DVD set.

The nylon bag is very sturdy with pockets in all the right places. The bag comes with eveything that you need to get started, except a headset (there is a pocket for one through).

I would recommend this product and would buy it again if I had the need.

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Nice bag, books normal

Books are available online also ( ? cost to a beginning student), would like to have better instruction for use of calculator

I think it was overkill. Minimal and save money would be better.

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