Sporty’s Downloads Affordable Videos
By Scott Spangler on April 6th, 2009Roaming around the online aisles of Sporty’s Pilot Shop looking for something to keep my head in the sky while the economy has me tied to the ground, I ran across the “Download Center.” Curious, I gave it a click, expecting I’m not sure what. What I found was Sporty’s Flight Training Downloads, a bonanza of affordable flight training information.
Tabs led to the four libraries, including the new What You Should Know Series. In each are files for a PC or a Mac that also work on your iPod or iPhone. All the titles are available on DVD, but the downloads, in most cases, cost less. For example, on DVD each of the 34 Air Facts titles cost $25. The download is $9.95. Most of of the Air Facts focus on piloting challenges — from all types of weather to most things IFR — and how to cope with them safely. There’s a 25 percent discount if you download four or more, and you can download the complete set for $99.
You can preview most of the titles in either Windows Media or Real Time formats before you order. With 640 by 480 resolution, the quality of all the downloads is close to the DVD, and a password- protected download page lets you collect your purchases over time, a nice option, especially when another member of the family wants their turn on the computer.
I’ve been a fan of Sporty’s multimedia training products since they introduced their videotape courses in the 1990s because they focus on aeronautical knowledge and its practical application. Acquiring the answers needed to pass FAA tests was secondary. Perhaps “subtle” is a better word; if you took what the courses taught beyond the rote level, selecting the correct answers from the FAA’s four choices was easy.
The new What You Should Know series covers 30 topics, from checkouts on the latest handheld and panel avionics systems to flying (and learning to fly) airplanes, autopilots, seaplanes, twins, helicopters, and related topics, from flight planning to weather. In some cases the DVD and download cost the same, like the new $29.95 Garmin 696/695 Checkout. Downloads of other What You Should Know titles are split. On the $29.95 DVD, WAAS Approaches flies various forms of the starring topic on both the Garmin G1000 and Garmin 430W/530W. On the download page, for $9.95 each you get your Garmin gear of choice. For the rest of the titles, you save $5 to $10 on the downloads.
Most intriguing is the third library, Five Dollar Education Program. Sporty’s has teamed with several manufacturers (and, in one case, NASA, for a 1209 MB, 2 hour, 20 minute presentation on its Icing Programs) to learn more about avionics and instruments from Allied-Signal, Garmin, Honeywell/King, Insight, JP Instruments, and others.
Finally there is the Software Download library, seven PC-only simulators that teach the operation of such things as the electronic and mechanical E6B flight computer, ADF and VOR systems, and navigation charts. Except for the nav chart sim, all cost less than $20.
As DVDs go, Sporty’s prices are reasonable, but I’m still attracted to the downloads, and not just for the savings. Building a library of them on my computer gives me immediate recall when the whim strikes, and I don’t have to waste time trying to remember where I left a DVD. — Scott Spangler
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[…] Flight Training Downloads. Meanwhile, Scott Spangler of Jetwhine has stumbled upon Sporty’s Flight Training Downloads in the “Download Center” of Sporty’s […]