Flying is not exactly a cheap activity – so here are some free resources, from me an others, which I personally use.

ICAO Flightplan in Microsoft Excel format

I created this ICAO flight plan form to facilitate my flight planning, and to avoid problems with my rather cryptic handwriting when I fax flight plans to AIM services. I used it in Switzerland, France, and UK, and never had any negative remark. If you use it somewhere else, I’d appreciate some feedback.

Click here to download my free Excel ICAO flight plan form.

Depending your excel version and printer, you might have to adjust the size of some cells, or use the “zoom to fit” function to make sure it prints on a single page.

JAA compliant logbook in Microsoft Excel format

As all pilots, I keep track of my flying activities in a paper logbook. SEP, MEP, single pilot, multi pilot, night, IFR, PIC, Dual, number of days and night landings, and so on. Filling my logbook, and doing the intermediate totals at the end of each page is not the funniest part of aviation.

To eased it a bit, I developped this Microsoft Excel Logbook. To add a new flight, simply fill-up the line on top, and click the left top button. The macro will automatically add a new line at the bottom. All time columns in which you put an “X” will contain the difference between departure and arrival time. Put something else in a column, and it will be copied as is. This is for flights partially at night, or partially IFR. If this sounds too complicated, you can simply add each flight manually, and use the totalizers.

Click here to download my free Excel JAA logbook.

Pilot briefing made easy and free

I always missed a website offering NOTAMs, METARs, TAFs, and weather charts for free, without login, or other complications. So I made one myself. You can visit it under www.easymetar.com. It also contains links to other flight planning resources, including online AIPs for the countries where they exist.

Free JAA ATPL questions database

If you’re an ATPL student in Europe, you know first hand how painful the theoretical exams are. A non-negligible part of the information you have to memorize is not exactly useful in flight. When getting through that process for my IFR rating, I lost a couple of point in the navigation exam, because I did not knew how many atomic-clock are on-board each GPS sattelite.

Nowadays, many services offer online question databases for practice, which are all more or less “inspired” from the exam questions. Most of them require registration and / or a fee. However, I recently stumbled upon an online list of questions, with their answers.

I browsed it, and on the base of my own experience, In can confirm that these questions are extremely similar to the ones you’ll find in the exams. The only missing thing is the list of possible answers, only the correct one is provided.

Click here to visit the free ATPL questions database.

Learn to fly e-book from Max Trescott

Max is a well known US instructor, aviation advocate and the 2008 National Certificated Flight Instructor of the Year. Quoting him: “As pilots know, learning to fly is non-trivial. Many express the desire to learn to fly, yet few actually accomplish the goal. One reason is that it’s not easy for a neophyte to figure out what to do to earn a pilot certificate. To help with the problem, I’ve created a free new Learn to Fly ebook.”

Click here to read the full post on Max’s blog.

Radio-navigation trainer

Click here to visit Tim’s Radio Navigation trainer. This Java applet is one of the best tools I know for VOR and ADF training. It can simulate all possible instruments (VOR, HSI, RMI, RBI). You can move the plane or the stations around, fly the plane and observe how the instruments react. Its random positioning feature is great to practice orientation from an unknown position.

Do you have more ?

If you know some other freebies for pilots that you want to share, please contact me, I’ll be happy to list them here.

By the way…

The Archives of this blog are full of contents that you can read for free.

If you’re lookin for reference documents, you landed at the correct place. You’ll find here information about aircraft accidents, but also training and safety related documents. You can also download user manuals for various avionics equipment.

Feel free to contact me if you have other documents that should be added here.

Accidents - BA038

	download: First AAIB info (356.75KB) clicks: 170 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 170

	download: Second AAIB Info (308.92KB) clicks: 156 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 156

	download: Third AAIB Info (254.61KB) clicks: 143 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 143

	download: Fourth AAIB info (988.63KB) clicks: 159 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 159

	download: BA038 - NTSB recommendations to FAA (413.56KB) clicks: 69 added: 11/03/2009 clicks: 69
Recommendations from the NTSB to the FAA following the crash-landing and loss of power of the BA038 777 in Heathrow.

Accidents - Concorde

	download: Preliminary information (3.71MB) clicks: 207 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 207

	download: First intermediary information (748.76KB) clicks: 106 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 106

	download: Final report (15.99MB) clicks: 165 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 165

	download: Second intermediary information (6.41MB) clicks: 115 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 115

Accidents - Various

	download: AirFrance Airbus A340 Crash Landing in Toronto (4.56MB) clicks: 183 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 183

	download: Airbus 300 lands after being hit by a missile in Baghdad (3.68MB) clicks: 137 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 137

	download: Boeing 747 landing short in fog in Frankfurt (3.23MB) clicks: 163 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 163

	download: Swissair 111 MD-11 crash in Peggy's Cove (31.62MB) clicks: 169 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 169

	download: Uberlingen Mid-Air collision (3.99MB) clicks: 162 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 162

	download: Cockpit Voice Recorder transcript of Colgan 3407 (220.83KB) clicks: 371 added: 12/05/2009 clicks: 371
Transcription of pilots discussions recorded by the CVR on Colgan (Continental) 3407 which crashed near Buffalo

Legal

	download: JAR Flight Crew Licensing (JAR-FCL1) (3.35MB) clicks: 224 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 224

G1000

	download: G1000 Instructor's reference (Non-airframe specific) (1.64MB) clicks: 269 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 269

	download: G1000 Trainer User's guide (Non-airframe specific) (788.38KB) clicks: 229 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 229

DA-40

	download: DA-40 AFM Supplement for G1000 - IFR (561.88KB) clicks: 150 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 150

	download: DA-40 AFM Supplement for G1000 - VFR (524.78KB) clicks: 120 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 120

	download: DA-40 AFM Supplement for KAP 140 Autopilot (728.75KB) clicks: 360 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 360

	download: DA-40 AFM (Aircraft Flight Manual) (3.37MB) clicks: 178 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 178

	download: DA-40 TDI G1000 Checklists (241.95KB) clicks: 140 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 140

	download: G1000 DA40D Cockpit Reference (2.78MB) clicks: 157 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 157

	download: G1000 DA40 Cockpit Reference (4.33MB) clicks: 143 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 143

	download: G1000 DA40 pilot's guide (15.25MB) clicks: 185 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 185

Avionics

	download: KAP 140 Autpilot - Pilot's user manual (6.79MB) clicks: 190 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 190

	download: KFC 150 Autpilot - Pilot's user manual (21.72MB) clicks: 185 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 185

	download: Garmin GPS 96C Owner's manual (8.66MB) clicks: 149 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 149

Safety

	download: Go-Arounds (Flight Safety Australia) (569.99KB) clicks: 182 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 182

	download: Recommendation on rocket activated parachutes (NTSB) (449.24KB) clicks: 164 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 164

	download: Spin Stall Parachute Recovery Systems (1.69MB) clicks: 157 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 157

Procedures

	download: Continuous descent approaches for non-aviation audience (CAA) (523.84KB) clicks: 188 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 188

	download: Continuous descent approaches (Eurocontrol) (1.30MB) clicks: 835 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 835

FAA Aircraft Flying Handbook

	download: Chapters 1-3 (2.73MB) clicks: 209 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 209

	download: Chapters 4-6 (2.85MB) clicks: 175 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 175

	download: Chapters 7-9 (2.82MB) clicks: 146 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 146

	download: Chapters 10-12 (2.47MB) clicks: 188 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 188

	download: Chapters 13-15 (2.67MB) clicks: 172 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 172

	download: Chapter 16 (1.23MB) clicks: 180 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 180

	download: Cover page (449.37KB) clicks: 191 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 191

JAA IFR Learning Objectives

	download: 010 - Air Law (116.87KB) clicks: 221 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 221

	download: 021 - Aircrafts Systems - Powerplants (44.19KB) clicks: 219 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 219

	download: 022 - Instruments (46.78KB) clicks: 257 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 257

	download: 033 - Flight Planning & Monitoring (52.38KB) clicks: 201 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 201

	download: 040 - Human performances & limitations (46.10KB) clicks: 198 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 198

	download: 050 - Meteorology (101.07KB) clicks: 180 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 180

	download: 061 - General navigation (8.92KB) clicks: 177 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 177

	download: 062 - Radio-navigation (90.98KB) clicks: 201 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 201

	download: 070 - Operational procedures (13.10KB) clicks: 221 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 221

	download: 090 - Communications (21.60KB) clicks: 208 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 208

Technics

	download: Maintenance guide for Engineers (CASA) (4.55MB) clicks: 176 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 176

	download: Digital Flight Data Recorders (French BEA) (960.86KB) clicks: 475 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 475

	download: MEMS gyros (310.55KB) clicks: 155 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 155

Training

	download: FAA Student Pilots Guide (244.11KB) clicks: 214 added: 14/11/2008 clicks: 214

Garmin Simulators

	download: Garmin GNS 430 - 530 Simulator (181.72MB) clicks: 336 added: 16/11/2008 clicks: 336

Misc

	download: Learn to fly e-book (1.94MB) clicks: 208 added: 30/12/2008 clicks: 208
A free e-book from instructor Max Trescott. It adresses many question that pilots to be have, from "is it possible" to "where is the best place", and much more.

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