Learn to fly

I'm Charath, a flight instructor in Southern California. Everything on this site is free: guides for new pilots, a full ground school, and the reference material I hand my own students.

What "free" means

You can read, download, print, adapt, remix and share anything on this site under the following conditions only:

1. You must credit me when you share or adapt the information with a link back to this site.
2. You cannot sell or monetize the material that you use from this site.
3. You must share the materials that you adapt or remix under the same license.

The fine print lives in the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

New to flying? Start here

What your first flight looks like, and what to sort out before training begins.

• Your First Flight — what to expect on your first, aka "demo", flight
• Things you Need — logbook, headset, charts, and the rest of the kit
• TSA — citizenship verification and the Flight Training Security Program
• FAA Medical — getting your medical certificate, special issuance, and BasicMed

Training for your certificate

• Training Roadmap — the three phases from first lesson to checkride
• Lesson Plan 01 — Basics of Flight
• Lesson Plan 02 — Steep Turns & Slow Flight

Quick reference

• Documents — checklists, the ATIS scratchpad, and the pre-solo knowledge test
• Aviation Mnemonics — ARROW, AAV1ATE, GOOSE A CAT, and friends

AACIT members

• San Gabriel Valley Airport — getting around KEMT: fuel, hangars, parking, and Annia's Kitchen