If taking an aviation knowledge test or check ride is on your to-do list, the folks at Aviation Supplies & Academics are here to help. The ASA 2024 Test Preps, Test Guides, and Test Prep Plus (book and Prepware) are available now.

For decades, ASA has been assisting pilots and maintenance technicians in preparation for FAA knowledge exams.The newly released prep material reflects the latest information and includes updates for two years.

Test Prep for Pilots and Mechanics

The Test Prep books are organized by subject matter and provide explanations for both correct and incorrect answers. ASA has texts covering remote pilot (drones), private, instrument, commercial, instructor, ATP, flight engineer, and aviation mechanic. The books contain the same charts, diagrams, and figures as the knowledge test. Each book has a FAA CT-8080, so the applicants will become familiar with the supplement materials they will see when they take the official knowledge test. Test prep books also include five online practice tests.

Prepware combines all the information found in the Test Prep book with computer-based training. The downloadable software installs to either Mac or PC and includes a two-year subscription to ASA’s Prepware Online, offering study and use-of-test features on digital platforms, including desktop, laptop, tablet, or smartphone. This product also allows student integration with ASA’s Prepware School, which is Prepware designed to be used in the classroom.

Prepware Online includes a two-year subscription to any single test database, allowing the user to study using any digital device.

Test Prep Plus includes a book and the most current Prepware software along with a two-year subscription to Prepware Online. According to ASA, this arrangement has the most flexibility, offering the user the flexibility to study from a book or digital device. It is available for both pilots and mechanics.

Prepware School is designed for flight schools and training centers for multiuser support and study for all FAA knowledge exams—anytime, anywhere—from any internet-connected device.

Pricing ranges from $49.95 to $99.95. For more information, visit asa2fly.com.

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There is an awful lot of math involved in being a pilot and sometimes you won’t have access to a calculator or pencil and paper. There are times, for expediency, that you have to work the problem in your head.

Mental Math for Pilots, Third Edition by Ronald D. McElroy–now available from Aviation Supplies & Academics (ASA)–can help you with that.

According to ASA, the book teaches readers how to solve math problems in the cockpit without calculators, using solutions that are simple and practical for airborne contingencies. The mental math tools can be used in flight planning and to help pilots stay ahead  in the cockpit by performing more efficiently.

• READ MORE: Math 101 for Pilots

“In this book, pilots can learn the tricks of the trade for the areas where they have traditionally needed to sharpen their mental math skills: fuel planning, temperature conversions, reciprocal headings, turn radius, crosswind components, time-speed-distance problems, calculating true airspeed, the 60-to-1 rule, and many others,” ASA said in a release.

Among the techniques is how to determine the reciprocal heading by adding or subtracting 200 from a heading, then adjusting by adding or subtracting 20 to get the resultant. For example, if the aircraft is on a heading of 340 degrees – 200 = 140 + 20 = reciprocal of 340 is 160 degrees.

These skills can help pilots at all levels, including airline applicants during interviews.

In softcover, Mental Math for Pilots contains 104 pages and can be obtained from FBOs that stock pilot supplies, online retailers, or at asa2fly.com for $24.95.It is also available as an e-book for $19.95.

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If a picture is worth a thousand words, a collection of photographs can tell the whole story, as is the case with Bomber Boys: WWII Flight Jacket Art, a visual record of A-2 jackets from World War II as seen through the lens of award-winning photographer John Slemp.

In addition to being a professional photographer, Slemp is an aviation enthusiast. His interest in photographing flight jackets began when he took photographs of a jacket that belonged to the uncle of a friend.

Slemp’s photographs are done like formal portraits, with artistic lighting. In an interview with FLYING last March, Slemp explained that the book was born when he sent an email with a few images of the first jacket to Dorothy Cochran, the curator at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. He met Cochran through one of his aviation clients, but it was the museum’s curator of the Aviation Clothing collection who replied to his email, asking if Slemp would be interested in photographing the museum’s jacket collection—and how soon could he be there?

• READ MORE: Flight Jackets—More Than a Fashion Statement, They’re a Rite of Passage

Slemp, who hails from Atlanta, Georgia, spent the next few months traveling around the country with a portable studio, photographing flight jackets that belonged to individuals or were in the custody of aviation museums. Among the collections he photographed were the 390th Memorial Museum in Arizona, along with several museums in California, including March Field Museum in Riverside; the 475th Fighter Group at Planes of Fame Museum in Chino; the San Diego Air & Space Museum; and the Allen Airways Museum in El Cajon. Other facilities visited include the Indiana Military Museum, the Kalamazoo Air Zoo, the Minnesota Historical Society, the Lowndes County Historical Society, the National Naval Aviation Museum, and the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

In addition to the more than 100 photographs, the book contains interviews relaying personal accounts of the service personnel who wore the jackets during their time in the U.S. Army Air Corps. The book also delves into the construction and manufacturing of these highly prized and highly collectible jackets, the process for designing the artwork on them, and the way these jackets have influenced fashion over the years. 

The 12 x 12, 398-page coffee table book is available for $129.95 from wwiibomberboys.com.

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Advisory circulars from the FAA used to be sent to pilots via the U.S. mail. They were printed on blue paper and sometimes arrived with such frequency you felt like you were on Hogan’s Heroes—every message that the characters on that classic TV show got from London came on blue paper.

A great many of those ACs focused on weather—how to get a good weather briefing, mountain flying, thunderstorms, etc. Now all that information is available in FAA-H-8083-28, the newly updated version of the Aviation Weather Handbook.

The 532-page handbook is subdivided into three parts:

• Part 1: Overview of the United States Aviation Weather Service Program and Information.
• Part 2: Weather Theory and Aviation Hazards.
• Part 3: Technical Details Relating to Weather Products and Aviation Weather Tools.

The handbook features color illustrations and bullet point presentations that make the sometimes complex nature of weather easier to understand.

A Few Highlights

Chapter 2 provides an overview of aviation weather information. A few things that will jump out to instructors and savvy pilots include a detailed account of what to expect in a standard briefing, the order in which the information is delivered, the color coding used for METARs (spoiler alert: purple and red mean no VFR flight today).

Chapter 16 on Mountain Weather should be a must read by all pilots, as lack of knowledge in these areas in particular can lead to accidents. You have probably heard about a pilot who chose to fly close to those ‘really cool looking clouds’ to get a photograph and ended up in a bad situation.

Chapter 18, Obstructions to Visibility does an excellent job of explaining fog, mist, and haze.

Note the message: “mist may be considered an intermediate between fog and haze,” which is an excellent way to explain the phenomenon to aviators who are visual learners.

Chapter 22, Thunderstorms, goes into greater detail than in previous FAA publications, in particular on what to do if you inadvertently enter a thunderstorm—read it and then file it under “Things You Hope You Never Have to Know.”

The Aviation Weather Handbook is available in both e-format and hardcopy.

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If you haven’t personally trained with John and Martha King, you know someone who has—they’ve taught roughly 50 percent of pilots through one of their live, video, and online courses through more than 45 years of propelling their company, King Schools, into legendary status.

The Kings established a successful business delivering ground training to prospective pilots as well as serving their ongoing training needs. They just released their first book, part entrepreneurship manual and part autobiography, Lift: How to Start, Run, and Grow Your Own Successful Business.

Though I’ve renewed my flight instructor certificate several times using their course, they have also been mentors, colleagues, friends—and competitors—to me and the companies I’ve worked with over the years. Most recently, they’ve contributed the column “Sky Kings” to FLYING.

But they started off as a piece of paper tacked to a column near my cube at Jeppesen in 1997, when I joined Aviation Courseware as a technical writer. Our team was in the midst of finishing the first installment of the Guided Flight Discovery program, for private pilots. Their smiling faces and thumbs-up demeanor served as a cruel reminder that Jepp had lost the contract to develop training materials for Cessna Pilot Centers to the Kings—and we were determined to best them in the marketplace with GFD.

At the time, I wouldn’t touch a King Schools video with a 10-foot pole.

Times Change

Fast forward through my “career path with many waypoints,” and in 2008 I took on the role of Cessna Pilot Center manager for Cessna. All of a sudden, as the training focal on the Skycatcher light sport aircraft program and head of CPC, I reached out to the Kings to launch our development of the new courseware that would accompany the 162’s debut with flight schools. 

As we built our working relationship, I had a first-hand view of not only their business but also the ethical way they moved through the world—and aimed to treat their employees with respect. 

We’ve been through our fair share of spirited debates, and have not always agreed on the best approach to specific elements of training. 

One example: John was not an early proponent of scenario-based training as outlined with the FAA/Industry Training Standards (FITS), while to me its advantages were clear. It turned out that the answer for us both was in its proper execution—natural for some instructors to deliver, but considered a complete waste of time by others. We found a resolution for the Cessna Sport/Private Pilot Training Program.

So, What About the Book?

I mention all this because I sat down to read “Lift” curious to see what I would learn. Would this be a review of the hundreds of stories they’ve shared over the years, both with me directly and to various audiences? Sure, it turns out a lot of those anecdotes reside in its pages—but you’d expect that they’d share some of their most important lessons again.

The Kings are clearly on a mission to promote entrepreneurism, and the benefits of healthy business development. However, after opening chapters compelling the reader to form a solid business plan based on a passion—and their personal “Scrabble tiles”—John and Martha quickly get into the specific reasons why they feel their business has succeeded, as well as outlining areas where they have failed. 

They provide actionable tools to use to help you organize your own business. While these might seem basic to those with a strong business background, there are also good reminders within about the elements that have worked.

Because of their own position in the industry, the Kings have met a ton of interesting people along the way. They include additional stories that introduce you to some of these folks—a veritable who’s who of aviation legends. And they give credit where it is due to the team members who have propelled them forward.

Overall, it’s a fast-moving read, with nuggets enough to keep even those of us who have had the pleasure to work with John and Martha entertained—and still learning from them.

At NBAA 2022

The Kings will host a book signing at the Coffee Social at the National Business Aviation Association’s Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) in Orlando at the Orange County Convention Center on Tuesday, October 18, at 2 p.m. The first 100 attendees will receive a complimentary copy.

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Your instrument check ride—and the training leading up to it—covered a lot of territory. But there’s no way you learned all there is to know about flight under IFR, in the system and in the clouds. Don’t you wish you had a savvy mentor pilot to take along with you and give you the pieces you may have missed on the way to your instrument ticket?

To this end, Pilot Workshops has released the latest in its series of guides for already-rated instrument pilots, IFR Procedures: A Pilot-Friendly Manual. The practical guide fills in the gaps between lessons and practice under the hood and in the sim—and keeps IFR proficiency going beyond the check ride. 

Using the same step-by-step format as past guides in the series, IFR Procedures talks you through common procedures, breaking them down into relatable, actionable chunks so that you can apply the lesson learned in the cockpit. The chapters cover all phases of instrument flight, including: preflight planning; ATC and clearances; departure, en route, and arrival procedures; and what to do if you have an abnormal or unusual situation.

The printed version is spiral-bound so you can take it with you—it will lie flat on your lap or that of your flying companion—or you can get a digital version to carry and reference on an iPad or tablet. It’s 144 pages with graphics and color photos—plus clear explanations of real-world scenarios.

“The majority of instrument-rated GA pilots struggle to maintain IFR proficiency,” says the company. “It’s a real problem, and something we’ve seen repeatedly over the past 17 years providing IFR training. Our goal was to create a tool pilots can use to improve their IFR knowledge as needed.”

The digital version is $49, and the printed version is $69. They can be ordered at pilotworkshop.com.

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When I saw the trailer for The Right Stuff in a movie theater, I knew what my plans were for opening night—and, oh did that movie deliver! A World War II ace tasked to pilot the Bell X-1—that orange, bullet-shaped, rocket-powered beast—dropped from the belly of a B-29. He risked it all to break the sound barrier in a silent, top-secret black hole. Chuck Yeager then went on to break the world altitude record in a NACA (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics) gussied-up, rocket-boosted NF-104, only to drop 100,000 feet in a flat spin, ejecting moments before impact. You couldn’t manufacture a better hero if you tried. 

Yet beyond the man, myth, and legend, lies one of the most clever distillers of human behavior as demonstrated in the collection of quotes in his new book, 101 Chuck Yeager-isms. The book converts his razor’s edge experiences as a combat and test pilot into analogies that can be applied to both pilots and civilians alike. Apparently, while Chuck Yeager was not only ahead of his time based on his aviation feats, he was a meme-generating machine for more than half a century, just waiting for this moment to be cool. His quotes are custom-tailored to today’s world: Nugget sized sound bites that don’t tax your attention, yet go a long way, packing enough pop to be the sonic boom on top of this literary ice cream sundae. 

When Did a General Make You Smile?

What stands out so prominently in this book are the laugh-out-loud moments that caught me off-guard. Yeager’s dry sense of humor echoes in almost every quote: “If everything is going well, check six,” or when asked how to recover an F-104 from a flat spin, “If you find out, let me know.” Sometimes the simple can mean so much, as when Yeager reminds you: “Don’t miss the tanker,” the message is clear—don’t be late, or you may fall out of the sky. The life and death repercussions of a pilot’s day to day can be applied to the most mundane moments of our lives. Even if your life is not on the line, your reputation and livelihood likely are. The analogies apply.

One of the few themes in this book that can feel a touch dated are Yeager’s references to “duty,” which refers to being selfless and doing what you’re told. It’s the kind of word that seems to be out of sync in today’s individualistic, cynical, and divided world. But coming from his lips, it reminds me that we don’t make heroes like we used to and maybe that’s because there are fewer people who truly believe in the concept of duty anymore. If anything else, this book is a reminder of the great things that can be achieved when we do our part and work together as one. 

• READ MORE: Yeager Leaves a Legacy of Speed

A POH for Life

I walked away from this book feeling like not only the better pilot, but the better person. Just when I thought there were no heroes left, Chuck Yeager has reminded me how much he has accomplished to earn his spot on the top of the mantle. 

Chuck Yeager, a decorated war hero, Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient, pilot with more than 12,000 hours in 361 makes and models of aircraft probably summed it up best when he said, “‘What a ride!’ This will be the last line of my obituary. Really.” And what a ride it’s been.

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