Piston Aviation Launches Live On-Line Subscription Ground School to National Audience

By Carmelo Turdo

Piston Aviation, the St. Louis area's fastest-growing flight school, is launching a new live, on-line, subscription ground school that now covers the Private Pilot curriculum. Piston Live, as it is now known, offers a wide range of classes to prepare students for their written exam. Piston Live is also a cost-effective way to gain an understanding of critical aviation concepts for youth preparing for future flight training and for anyone who flies as a passenger in general aviation aircraft.

As the name implies, Piston Live is more than a collection of video courses recycled year after year. Each session is led by a Piston Aviation Certified Flight Instructor, in real time, providing a truly interactive experience for each attendee. The courses are available on a rotating basis, and they can be taken in order as shown in the Student Dashboard or according to the topic of interest. The Live Course Calendar lists current availability for each day, and pre-registration is not required. 

Piston Live also offers supplemental materials to reinforce the interactive classes. A virtual E6B flight computer and handy flight planning calculators are provided in the Calculators and Tools tab on the top menu. Additional course reading materials and FAA references are included in the resource tabs on the right column. Additional teaching aids will be added to the Piston Live website to continually improve the user experience.

Piston Live is designed to provide the Private Pilot student with a pathway to mastering the material necessary to pass the written knowledge exam and to succeed in flight training. After each Live Lesson, there are supplemental slides and videos that expand on the subject matter. Following the Live Lesson and supplemental materials for each series, as shown below for Basic Aerodynamics, there are Test Prep and Quiz modules. Once the quiz is passed with an 85% score, the topic is credited. When the Final Exam is passed, also with 85%, Piston Aviation will recommend the student for the FAA Written Exam administered at an authorized test center.

How much would you expect to pay for all of this material? On-line, video-based ground school courses generally start at around $300, and in-person ground school classes that have fixed schedules cost considerably more. Piston Live provides the best alternative: on-line, flexible scheduling, in-person instruction and supplemental materials for $19.95/month, $109.95/6 months or $199.95/year (two months free) along with a Free 7-Day Trial. Currently, the Private Pilot course is rolling out across the country, with Sport Pilot, Instrument Rating, Commercial Pilot, Multi-Engine Rating and CFI coming in 2025. The platform will scale up as needed to accommodate large numbers of students, with two studios for dedicated Piston Live instructors in development. 

Here we feature Joseph Ord, Co-Owner of Piston Aviation, briefly explaining the Piston Live program:

Visit Piston Live today to get started!

EAA Chapter 864 Breakfast Fly-In Attracts a Variety of Aircraft, Raises Funds for Aviation Scholarships

By Carmelo Turdo

EAA Chapter 864 held their Breakfast Fly-In Saturday at St. Louis Regional Airport. The event attracted a variety of aircraft from around the area, from a 1920s design Pietenpol Air Camper to Beechcraft V-Tail Bonanzas, Cessnas, Pipers and even an experimental Dyke Delta that looked like a stingray in Thunderbird colors. Visitors of all ages, from crusty pilots to toddlers, exhibited a fascination of flight that transcends the generations and continues to feed the growth of general aviation in the St. Louis region. The weather was perfect, and the food was great too!

The Aero Experience coverage begins with a gathering of EAA Chapter 864 members greeting guests and providing a great breakfast on the patio outside of the Piston Aviation facility. The very reasonable proceeds will go to funding the chapter's aviation scholarships. EAA also provides significant scholarship opportunities, and we met two recipients during our visit. Kyra Gallagher of O'Fallon, IL, recently received the Ray Aviation Scholarship, along with chapter matching scholarship funds, for her flight training at Murray Air in Greenville, IL. Adam Elik, of Godfrey, IL, also received EAA Chapter 864 scholarship funds for his flight training. Events like this have already made a significant difference in their lives, so we encourage our Midwest Aviation community to support EAA chapter fly-ins and other fund-raising events.

Aircraft arrived throughout the morning hours, spreading a colorful palette across the apron. As mentioned above, the most unique aircraft of the day was the Dyke Delta flown in from the Springfield, IL area. Designed by John Dyke in the early 1960s as a plans-built, experimental aircraft, the Dyke Delta has a unique 1+3 seating configuration in a stingray-shaped airfoil fuselage. The original design contained folding wings and landing gear suitable for being towed behind a car. The construction process takes thousands of hours and involves making the tools and jigs necessary for completing the aircraft. About 50 have been built over the decades since the debut of the design at the 1966 EAA Fly-In, and it definitely makes an impression whenever it arrives at your airport.

Here we include a survey of the aircraft as they arrive and depart throughout the morning:

The Aero Experience thanks EAA Chapter 864, Piston Aviation and everyone who flew in and attended Saturday's event. The chapter meets every second Thursday at the airport's administration building.