We always thought the Sporty’s Pilot Training App is among the best supplements for real-world flight training, and adding the PilotWorkshops IFR and VFR Mastery Series to the program makes it more resourceful. Recall that Sporty’s merged with the regarded PilotWorkshops last year, and including the Mastery Series in the Sporty’s app is intended to bring the unique PilotWorkshops material to more pilots.
Many pilots are already familiar with PilotWorkshops VFR Mastery scenario-based material that challenges decision-making skills with over 90 scenarios in the archives. The IFR Mastery archives is stocked with over 180 scenarios, and both the VFR and IFR scenarios are refreshed each month with new material. There’s something for all pilots.
The VFR Mastery focuses on visual flying scenarios involving risk management, navigating tricky airspace, weather decision, and airport operations, and the IFR Mastery challenges instrument pilots with realistic IFR procedures. This includes weather interpretation, cockpit workload management, and in-flight decision making—plenty of scenarios to learn from.
What Would YOU Do?
Each scenario-based Mastery Series starts with a short briefing video that puts you in the pilot’s seat and details specific real-world scenarios to contemplate. Then the user reviews pertinent details about the flight scenario that might include weather forecasts, aircraft performance, and relevant charting and procedures. The Community Survey portion of the scenario is where you select how you might proceed based on the information presented, and each possible answer shows how your choice compared (by percentage) to other users. After making your selection, you watch the instructor’s video and learn which option they chose, plus a detailed explanation for their decision. There’s also a spirited roundtable discussion where multiple instructors discuss the scenario and noodle the decision-making. There’s also a members-only forum (over 15,000 pilots have joined PilotWorkshops’ Mastery programs) for even further discussion and more tips.
The Sporty’s program is for Apple iOS and online users and you can download scenarios for offline viewing, listen to instructor roundtable discussions using background audio and Apple CarPlay, save favorite scenarios for later review, and browse the Mastery archive from within the Sporty’s app. Existing PilotWorkshops subscribers can access the content using their current login credentials, and new users can sample scenarios for free before starting a subscription—which is $19 per month for VFR Mastery and $24 per month for IFR Mastery. Users can earn three FAA WINGS credits for each monthly IFR Mastery scenario completed: one basic, one advanced, and one master.
We think the PilotWorkshops Mastery Series—whether for IFR or VFR—is engaging, the presentation is done to high quality, and it takes the already good Sporty’s Pilot Training App to a higher level.
For over 12 years, our free youth aviation program used Sporty’s material to give young people their first real look at aviation.
It gave students, instructors, mentors, and parents a common starting point.
PilotWorkshops adds real scenarios covering weather, workload, airspace, IFR procedures, and judgment.
Sporty’s deserves recognition for helping turn screen learning into real aviation understanding.