Books · Courses · Live oral prep · For pilots and instructors
Learn it in the right order.
Structured, source-cited training for student pilots, checkride applicants and new instructors. Every lesson comes in the order you will need it, with the regulation behind every answer.
Written by David Tushin: FAA Advanced and Instrument Ground Instructor, FAA Aircraft Dispatcher, former airline pilot and CFI.
Your path
Start where you are.
Most expensive mistakes in flight training are steps taken out of order. Pick your stage; each one leads to the next.
DEP · THINKING ABOUT IT
Start flying
What to do first, what it costs in time and money, and how to choose a school and an instructor.
Become a Pilot →ENR · STUDENT PILOT
Learn the ground
Recorded Private, Instrument and Commercial ground schools, available now. The new Private course opens March 2027.
Ground schools →APP · CHECKRIDE DATE SET
Pass the oral
Organize everything the examiner can ask into four areas, then rehearse it live.
The PAVE Checklist →ARR · INSTRUCTOR
Teach it
Lesson plans tagged to every element of the Flight Instructor ACS, in PDF, Word and print.
CFI Lesson Plans →Coming March 2027 · Founding membership
The new Private Pilot Ground School
Built from a blank page. Twelve lessons, one every three weeks so it fits around a full-time job. Each lesson is written from FAA sources and set in the order you will fly it.
Founding members pay $149, the lowest price the course will ever have. Founding membership opens in March 2027; people on the list hear first.
Founding price $149 until Monday, Nov 30, 11:59 PM CT. From Dec 1 it is $199.
$199 now. $249 once all twelve lessons are live in July 2027.
The Blackridge Press library
Books and courses in one series.
The PAVE Checklist
The FAA checkride oral, organized into four areas. Private, Instrument and Commercial.
Become a Pilot
The step-by-step guide for people with no pilots in the family and no one to ask.
Private Pilot Ground School: The Complete Textbook
The companion text to the course, included with every enrollment.
FI.I.F.K2aCFI Lesson PlansINSTRUCTOR SERIESCFI Lesson Plans
Every ACS element, tagged where it is taught. PDF, Word and print.
How we build
Sourced, checked, reviewed.
Cited to the source
Every regulatory number points to 14 CFR, the AIM, the ACS or an FAA handbook, so you can check it and explain it.
Fact-checked line by line
Each release goes through an independent fact-check against primary sources, and every correction is logged.
Kept current
When the FAA changes a standard, the source files change and every edition is rebuilt. Buyers get updates while the standard is in effect.
Straight dealing
Real deadlines, written refund terms, no pass guarantees and no invented numbers.
A people company
Built by people. Helped by tools.
A new company seems to launch every day promising that AI will write the course and replace the instructor. Much of what it produces reads smoothly and teaches badly: confident, unsourced and wrong in the places that matter.
We use technology wherever it helps you learn. A person who has taught the material designs every lesson, checks every fact against its FAA source and answers every question you send.
How we use technologyAviation Test Prep
Practice for the FAA knowledge test: Private, Instrument and Commercial, with explanations and an AI tutor. A Blackridge Press product.
About Aviation Test PrepAviation English
For international pilots and air traffic controllers working toward ICAO Operational Level 4: books, produced radio audio, online lessons and an AI radio partner for speaking practice.
Join the listBlackridge Learning
Learning strategy and course development, from concept to delivery, for flight schools and companies whose people must learn procedures they can't get wrong.
Work with Blackridge LearningFree
Chapter 1 of the textbook, free.
Aerodynamics, the way the course teaches it. You'll also hear first when founding membership for the new course opens in March 2027.