This review opportunity was a first during my time with the Homeschool Review Crew, because although my husband has enjoyed some review products with me or with the kids in the past, this was the first time that HE was the primary user of something we reviewed! He's been interested in airplanes and flying for many years, and has often said he wished he'd been able to take pilot training when he was young, so getting the chance to delve into aviation video training from Doctor Aviation really appealed to him.
Doctor Aviation is an online educational resource for anyone who wants to learn more about aviation. With 24 years of experience in the Air Force, Daryl Smith (aka Doctor Aviation) was a Command Pilot with over 2000 flying hours in a variety of aircraft. Many of those hours were accumulated as an instructor pilot and as a research pilot; and he also was an aviation instructor at the United States Air Force Academy. As a current college professor, he decided to do something to make the world of aviation available to learners of all ages through the internet. The Doctor Aviation course is a self-paced video study with downloadable study guides teaching about the science of flight, aircraft maintenance, air traffic control, airport management, and aviation history. It's a great study resource for anyone interested in some aspect of aviation as a career, for high school students looking for an unusual elective credit, or for anyone who is fascinated by flight and wants to learn more.
The course includes a total of 15 lessons, each with a 45-60 minute instructional video and an accompanying pdf file of guided notes and further reading or study suggestions. The extra suggestions include books or articles to read, videos, hands-on activities, research and writing assignments, and websites to explore. For students intending to get high school credit for the course, it's recommended that they complete all of the additional suggested reading and activities. There are exams at the ends of Sessions 5, 11, and 15 that are recommended for students earning credit. Practice quizzes appear at the ends of the other sessions, and the answers are included for study purposes. In order to take the exams, you need to use the provided "Contact" link to Doctor Aviation to obtain the exam.
Briefly, the course covers the following:
- Session 1 - Course Overview: The Aviation System
- Session 2 - Major Components of an Airplane
- Session 3 - Axes and Forces
- Session 4 - Why an Aircraft Flies: The Secret of Airfoils and Lift
- Session 5 - Why an Aircraft Turns, Pitches and Slides: The Flight Controls
- Session 6 - The Secrets of Radar
- Session 7 - How Air Traffic Control Works
- Session 8 - Aircraft Maintenance - Propeller Engines
- Session 9 - Jet Engines
- Session 10 - Running a Large Airport
- Session 11 - The Small Airport and Running an FBO
- Session 12 - Flying the the Clear and Not So Clear Air: VMC and IMC
- Session 13 - Important Pilot Instruments - Attitude Indicator
- Session 14 - Important Pilot Instruments - Airspeed Indicator
- Session 15 - Other Aviation Ships: Gliders, Helicopters, Airships
How did we use it? Honestly, I was disappointed - although perhaps not surprised - that my son wasn't interested in the course. After all, Landon is the one that's been in Civil Air Patrol for so many years! Still, although he enjoyed his both his powered and non-powered orientation flights, he has never aspired to pursue his own pilot training. He has enjoyed working on the ground with aircraft though, so maybe those later sessions on air traffic control and running airports will draw him in. But that comes later. Right now, it's his dad (I'll call him DH for the rest of this post) that has been working through the Doctor Aviation course.
Since DH is doing this in little bits of spare time when he isn't working, and isn't planning on it for high school credit or preparing for a career change, he is probably going at a slower pace than what I'd expect or recommend for students with those objectives, and he isn't spending time on all the suggested extra reading. He's also not doing extra assignments or the Exams for credit. However, DH is watching the videos, using the guided notes provided, and exploring most the websites referenced.
Each video lesson includes four components, and DH particularly liked the way the lessons were divided into Technical Trivia, Notable Innovators, Legendary Aircraft, and Aviation Events. In each lesson there was technical and scientific information as well as aviation history that covered important events and people; but all were related to the main topic of the session.
The student dashboard makes it easy to see which lessons he's marked complete and where he left off his last session. Even though a lesson has been marked complete, he can still go back and view it again; and he can skip ahead without having completed lessons as well. Although this probably wouldn't be a good idea for students working through the course for credit, it can be very handy. Let's say you'd just started the course but had an opportunity to go on a field trip to a small airport, which is the subject of Session 7, or to go on a glider flight, which is discussed in Session 15. Then it's a great idea to skip ahead and watch the video and look at the notes in order to get the most out of your opportunity; then pick up where you left off.
The study guides clearly state the Session Objectives at the beginning, so you know what you'll be learning and what you should be able to do or explain after completing the lesson. DH said the notes were easy to follow along with, but did find a few spots where they didn't seem to match up perfectly with what was being said in the video. That said, he was able to fill in every blank!
He found that in some Lessons he could "rewind" the video just a short way in order to replay something a minute or two ago that he missed, but in some the cursor or progress bar at the bottom of the video screen did not appear, so he could only pause, play, or restart all the way from the beginning. We think this is a quirk of the Vimeo platform used for the video lessons, because we've had the same issue on other sites. DH said sometimes he was so busy writing or looking for the blank to fill in on the notes that he wasn't watching the screen and worried that he was missing something on the video. The simple fix was to pause and restart the video often, but it would have been handy to be able to go back and replay from just a minute ago to see or hear something again.
According to DH, the instructor is knowledgeable and easy to understand. He thought it would be helpful to include more graphics during the video that make it clear when the instructor talks about something that is in the notes and should be written down. Difficult words and technical terms should be shown on the screen to help students with correct spelling. DH is a well-educated adult and a good speller (also I'd correct him if he was wrong! Ha!!) but admits he second-guessed spellings of some terms, so he was trying to imagine the trouble a young person might have figuring out how to spell "aileron" or "gyroscope".
What we liked best:
- knowledgeable, clear instruction with a balance of technical and historical segments in each lesson
- easy to use dashboard, with the ability to replay completed lesson videos and to skip ahead to later lesson videos
- lots of suggestions for further study, including books, websites, movies, and places to visit. So far DH has only been able to explore the websites, but the wealth of resources listed for learning more is impressive.
What we need to mention:
- we couldn't always replay just short segments of the video, and had to make ample use of the pause button in order to get all the notes completed.
- more diagrams or graphics inserted into the video, or just the technical terms shown on the screen would make spelling and note-taking easier.
Our bottom line: DH has been enjoying Doctor Aviation and being able to indulge his personal interest in aviation and aviation history. Based on what he's told me and what I've seen myself with this resource, I think it's such a creative approach to earning high school credit for homeschooled students and is just the kind of course that a lot of dads, in particular, would love to study along with their teen. If Landon had been able to do this course while he was still in high school, he would have had a very impressive set of elective credits in aeronautics and aviation, since it would have been an excellent accompaniment to his involvement in Civil Air Patrol. In summary, our family warmly recommends Doctor Aviation to homeschooled high schoolers looking for a unique elective; to members of Civil Air Patrol looking for additional resources; and to young people interested in any career related to the aviation industry.
Would you like to learn more about aviation from Doctor Aviation himself? Here's what you need to know:
Visit the website: www.DoctorAviation.com
Pricing: $99 for the half-year course subscription
Age Recommendation: Suitable for all ages, although younger students would need parental assistance.
Visit the Homeschool Review Crew blog for more information and to read other reviews.
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