Good for you but the arrangement the instructor is suggesting is fairly unusual these days. Most people taking private lessons don’t take a dedicated ground school before they start flying. They just start flying, study on their own and have ground lessons as needed with their instructor on days that aren’t suitable for flying. There usually isn’t a specified start date either, especially one months out in the future. There are so few students these days that most instructors are thrilled to take a new one as soon as they show up (sometimes starting lessons that day if the student is up for it). I don’t know how you feel about a more rigid and inflexible schedule that you are being offered but it is far from normal and other nearby airports or instructors will probably have more flexibility.
must be a regional thing. Everybody I know took a dedicated ground school. You take the exam at the end of the course and you’re done with it.
I think it is more of an age thing but I could be wrong. Dedicated ground schools certainly exist in places but they are much less common than they were decades ago. There is no requirement that a prospective student pilot complete any sort of ground school before they hop in a plane and take the controls (that is why the instructor is there with the dual controls and a commanding voice that tells you when to keep your hands and feet to yourself). Many students even takeoff and land mostly unassisted during their first lesson (I did) and that is the real point.
It is mostly a preference and style thing but one that is leaning towards the ‘learning by doing’ model of flying first and getting a deeper academic understanding immediately afterwards rather than treating it like an academic engineering degree. I suppose there may be some people that don’t know the difference between an air speed indicator and a speedometer but I don’t think that applies to most people that take flying lessons these days. Most have had a passion for aviation long before they build up the will and the money to take the lessons. I already knew all of the major instruments in an academic way before I ever sat in a cockpit.
Here is a very short article that summarizes the current viewpoints on the different approaches.
http://blog.aopa.org/flighttraining/?p=2206
Hey Shagnasty and Magiver, I will respond to your posts over on the General Aviation Thread so I don’t derail this thread any further…my initial inquiry is at post #450.