Verified Purchase
Content good and useful - Editing could use some work
- By Jeffrey from Santa Cruz CA USA on Friday, May 28, 2010
- Pros: Good information - great video quality - energetic instructors and commentators - what you *should* know information - Test prep software included was very nice - None of the cons are reasons not to get it
- Cons: Little light on details sometimes, like difference between LDA, SDA, IOC - Navigation menu artifact on the Blu-Ray using PS3 which took user action to get rid of, however that was not on the DVD - Editing was not as good, in fact downright strange, scenes switched very oddly sometimes.
- Review: The series has got a lot of what you *should* know included. The content included enough to get the test taken care of (I got a 93%) and the Test Prep software was pretty solid. It allowed you to get explanations and lessons during the *study* simulated tests, and the *real* simulated tests allowed you to review questions afterwards. The editing of the actual video was pretty weird. Scene cuts seem to be at the wrong place sometimes, but that was more entertaining than really distracting. At one place the narrator got cut off mid sentence went to another scene talking about real world applications, then went back for the guy to finish his sentence. Again though nothing wrong with the content. The fact it included Blu-Ray was nice if you have that kind of player. I did notice that there were some menu artifacts where I had to re-display the menu then remove it again for it to go away for good. It showed up any time I started the video the first time or navigated to a new lesson. Probably more of a technical issue and I was using a Playstation 3 which may be somewhat non standard anyway.
- Was this review helpful to you? Yes No 6 Other people found this review helpful.
Verified Purchase
Save your money, just buy the "prepware", and study on your own!
- By Shayne from Santa Barbara CA USA on Thursday, January 17, 2013
- Pros: It comes in a nice case and the "Prepware" disc.
- Cons: Awkward commentary provided by instructors who are visibly uncomfortable in front of the camera, little to no educational value beyond the same information which can be found in the test prep book or software.
- Review: I purchased the virtual test prep as a Instrument refresher for an upcoming interview. Although I already have my commercial, instrument, and CFI, I thought the DVD ground school may help me, since I have not been flying professionally for about 5 years. The ground school DVDs are...painful at best to watch. I thought that because the DVDs were recently produced, they may not be as dry and dull as conventional study material... I was wrong. The DVDs are poorly edited, in one scene in particular they literally did a second take because the instructor missed his line. Someone in the editing department dropped the ball. The instructors appear awkward and are obviously reading the material verbatim from a teleprompter. At the end of each subject they review one or two questions from the FAA test prep, again reading directly from the test prep book. I'm not sure what the objective of these DVDs were, except to promote the working relationship between ASA and Stenbock Communications (the production company), which contributed several "guest instructors" for the program.
- Was this review helpful to you? Yes No 5 Other people found this review helpful.
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