Details for the “Learn to Fly: Private Pilot Ground School” DeCal course Spring 2022 semester can be found here.
Each semester students at UC Berkeley offer a Private Pilot Ground School DeCal. DeCals are student-run courses that can be taken for units with pass or no pass grading options. Auditors from outside the UC Berkeley community are also welcome to join!
The purpose of this course is to provide students with all necessary book knowledge to pass the FAA private pilot written exam and become a private pilot. “Ground school” is the first step in the process of becoming an FAA-licensed private pilot; therefore, this DeCal is not designed to teach students how to control a physical aircraft (though we use a PC-based flight simulator to demonstrate some concepts), but rather to prepare a student for practical flight training and delve into the world of aviation. Similar to driving school (and like other pilot ground schools), the course will be held in a classroom; the class will take at least one field trip to a local area airport and flight school as well.
All instructors for the course are students at UC Berkeley who have earned their private pilot’s licenses. Some instructors are graduates of this very DeCal!