My name is Paul Harrison and I would like to share my experience with the Pelican Online Ground School training for the Private Pilot Course that I attended at Pelican Flight Training Center in the early part of 2005.

 I chose to do my ground school training online because it gave me the flexibility to study in my own time when I wanted - a very important factor to consider if you are employed and have a family to support. Also, it gave me the opportunity to study at home in an environment that I was most comfortable with thus reducing anxiety and stress.

The advantages of completing the ground school training before attending the practical training are:

    1. The cost, especially if you are paying for training yourself. The Online Ground School training is far less expensive than attending training with an instructor

    2. You are able to concentrate on practical training without distraction of ground school training

    3. It will reduce time away from family/employment (resulting in greater savings)

The course itself is divided into 11 chapters, which are in turn sub-divided into various lessons, each of manageable chunks that are easy to digest. At the end of each lesson there is a test to make sure that you understood the content. Review exams are also found at the end of each chapter. All tests/exams are in the format of questions with multiple-choice answers like the real FAA Private Pilot Knowledge Exam. Should you feel the need to go over the lesson content again, the course lets you to do just that. On completion of the whole ground school training there is a Final Exam with a certificate that can be printed off. I should mention that the lesson content can be printed on completion of each lesson, which can then be used as a revision tool for the review/final exams.

Despite my lack of previous experience in the flying world, the Online Ground School training helped me prepare to a very high standard in readiness for the final FAA exam in which I achieved 93%. I found the course very informative yet pitched at a level that made it easy to understand (my previous experience in aviation was limited to the odd bit of "plane spotting at weekends" and the occasional flight abroad on holiday!).

I would highly recommend doing the Online Ground training to anyone.

Yours,

Paul Harrison

P.S. I have not been promised or received any financial reward for writing this testimonial, though should I get any re-numeration I would not turn it down!!