Freebies
ICAO Flightplan in Microsoft Excel format
I created this ICAO flight plan form to facilitate my flight planning, and to avoid problems with my rather cryptic handwriting when I fax flight plans to AIM services. I used it in Switzerland, France, and UK, and never had any negative remark. If you use it somewhere else, I’d appreciate some feedback.
Click here to download my free Excel ICAO flight plan form.
Depending your excel version and printer, you might have to adjust the size of some cells, or use the “zoom to fit” function to make sure it prints on a single page.
JAA compliant logbook in Microsoft Excel format
As all pilots, I keep track of my flying activities in a paper logbook. SEP, MEP, single pilot, multi pilot, night, IFR, PIC, Dual, number of days and night landings, and so on. Filling my logbook, and doing the intermediate totals at the end of each page is not the funniest part of aviation.
To eased it a bit, I developped this Microsoft Excel Logbook. To add a new flight, simply fill-up the line on top, and click the left top button. The macro will automatically add a new line at the bottom. All time columns in which you put an “X” will contain the difference between departure and arrival time. Put something else in a column, and it will be copied as is. This is for flights partially at night, or partially IFR. If this sounds too complicated, you can simply add each flight manually, and use the totalizers.
Click here to download my free Excel JAA logbook.
Pilot briefing made easy and free
I always missed a website offering NOTAMs, METARs, TAFs, and weather charts for free, without login, or other complications. So I made one myself. You can visit it under www.easymetar.com. It also contains links to other flight planning resources, including online AIPs for the countries where they exist.
Free JAA ATPL questions database
If you’re an ATPL student in Europe, you know first hand how painful the theoretical exams are. A non-negligible part of the information you have to memorize is not exactly useful in flight. When getting through that process for my IFR rating, I lost a couple of point in the navigation exam, because I did not knew how many atomic-clock are on-board each GPS sattelite.
Nowadays, many services offer online question databases for practice, which are all more or less “inspired” from the exam questions. Most of them require registration and / or a fee. However, I recently stumbled upon an online list of questions, with their answers.
I browsed it, and on the base of my own experience, In can confirm that these questions are extremely similar to the ones you’ll find in the exams. The only missing thing is the list of possible answers, only the correct one is provided.
Click here to visit the free ATPL questions database.
Learn to fly e-book from Max Trescott
Max is a well known US instructor, aviation advocate and the 2008 National Certificated Flight Instructor of the Year. Quoting him: “As pilots know, learning to fly is non-trivial. Many express the desire to learn to fly, yet few actually accomplish the goal. One reason is that it’s not easy for a neophyte to figure out what to do to earn a pilot certificate. To help with the problem, I’ve created a free new Learn to Fly ebook.”
Click here to read the full post on Max’s blog.
Radio-navigation trainer
Click here to visit Tim’s Radio Navigation trainer. This Java applet is one of the best tools I know for VOR and ADF training. It can simulate all possible instruments (VOR, HSI, RMI, RBI). You can move the plane or the stations around, fly the plane and observe how the instruments react. Its random positioning feature is great to practice orientation from an unknown position.
Through eager eyes – A short story by Dan Pimentel
Dan Pimentel is the blogger behind www.av8rdan.com. He published a six-part short story about a young lady discovering the sensations and freedom of flying. The perspective is very refreshing but I don’t want to say too much here. As often, Dan’s words are very touching and this is a great reading that will captivate you down to the final line. Click here to download Through eager eyes.
Airfoil and jet engine simulators from NASA
NASA developed 11 different JAVA applets simulating airfoils, jet engine, kites, baseballs, wind tunnels, rockets, the atmosphere, and more, in an effort to foster hands-on, inquiry-based learning in science and math. With the airfoil one you can vary the parameters of your wing (angle of attack, chord, thickness, …) and see the effects on lift and drag. Click here to see the NASA page with all these simulation softwares.
Do you have more ?
If you know some other freebies for pilots that you want to share, please contact me, I’ll be happy to list them here.
