Aviation safety talk that plays like ground school.
Aeronautical Proficiency Training gathers the audio of recorded aviation safety broadcasts, including FAA Safety Briefing Live, where Paul Preidecker and Susan Parson talk through issues of FAA Safety Briefing magazine. Alongside them are ASA Author Talk sessions, where Brian Snyder introduces pilots who have written books on flying and flight instruction.
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Aeronautical Proficiency Training is a feed of aviation safety broadcasts that were made to be watched and are offered here as audio. It plays like ground school held as a conversation. It has two formats. The first is FAA Safety Briefing Live, where Paul Preidecker and Susan Parson take an issue of FAA Safety Briefing magazine and talk it through. Paul says he has been in aviation for about 30 years, is on his third career, and flies as an instructor for a regional airline. Looking back over their programs, one host calls them a lot of ground school. Susan describes her roles as the magazine's editor-in-chief and as the FAA lead on the Airman Certification Standards Project. The talk stays practical. An airplane just out of maintenance deserves extra care, the preflight should run the same way every time, and owning the aircraft is no excuse for complacency. A flying friend's rule gets passed along: if the word 'probably' shows up in connection with a flight, as in probably enough fuel, rethink the plan. Weather gets the same treatment, down to calling a tower from 50 miles out for the current report and thinking about an alternate. Personal minimums are framed as the limits of both skill and equipment. The banter is light, from Wisconsin humidity versus Phoenix heat to a quip about density altitude. The hosts also flag other items from an issue, such as a short medical video on obstructive sleep apnea, a piece on eliminating lead emissions and the Eagle project, and a midair collision report. Broadcasts from both 2018 and 2022 issues appear, and the hosts introduce one of them as the last FAA Safety Briefing Live. The second format is ASA's Author Talk, hosted by Brian Snyder, who introduces himself as ASA's marketing director. Barry Schiff presents An Illustrated Guide to Flying with his son Brian Schiff, and he is introduced with more than 28,000 hours in 363 aircraft types and a 34-year TWA career that ran from the Connie to the Boeing 747. Among his stories: he was an 18-year-old instructor whose boss told him never to tell his students his age. Arlynn McMahon, a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University who worked as chief instructor at Bluegrass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky, presents Lesson Plans to Train Like You Fly. She renames common errors 'keys for success' out of concern that talking about mistakes plants them in a student's head, and at one point she walks viewers through a lesson she has drawn out. For a first listen, someone curious about learning to fly might start with the Schiffs, an instructor with Arlynn McMahon, and an active pilot with the Safety Briefing broadcasts, whose hosts encourage applying for WINGS or AMT credit.
Made for: Suits a pilot or flight instructor who wants practical safety habits in conversational audio and cares about WINGS or AMT credit, and a would-be pilot curious about the people behind flight training books.
What sets it apart: It pairs FAA Safety Briefing Live conversations about the FAA's safety magazine with ASA author presentations. Rules of thumb like distrusting the word 'probably' sit next to fuller teaching approaches like lesson plans that train like you fly.
Our episodes provide the audio from a wide variety of archived LIVEVideo Aviation Safety Broadcasts. FAA WINGS continuing education credits are available for all programs. Some programs qualify for AMT credits. See podcast details or notes for links to more information.
One 'probably enough fuel' and your preflight plan is already getting a second look.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A father-and-son conversation turns a flying guide into a warm story of teaching, memory, and aviation passed forward.
An Illustrated Guide to Flying frames aviation as a family conversation about learning to fly, teaching with care, and carrying that enthusiasm into another generation.
A grounded look at making flight lessons serve real flying, not just the check ride.
Flight training can easily narrow into checking boxes, but Arlyn McMahon makes the case for a steadier aim: lesson plans that prepare students to fly well, not just pass.
A practical safety briefing links recurrent training, fleet design, and FAA-DOD cooperation.
FAA Safety Briefing Live treats the September-October issue like a compact round of ground school, keeping continuing training, WINGS credit, and AMT credit in the frame before moving into the machinery behind FAA flight operations.
A practical case for making weather briefings a repeatable risk-management habit.
Weather briefing comes across as a disciplined preflight habit, not a last-minute glance before departure. Paul Predecker and Susan Parson frame it as a process built from more than one data point, including current field weather from the tower and an alternate when conditions…
Real flying stories, told pilot to pilot.
Working pilots retrace the road from discovery flight onward.
An aviation safety broadcast featuring experienced pilots discussing flying techniques and earning FAA WINGS credits.
Arlyn McMahon, author of "Lesson Plans to Train Like You Fly," argues on ASA Presents that FAA certification standards are only "the minimum to pass the test." Brian Snyder introduces her credentials from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Bluegrass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky, and more than 9,000 hours of dual instruction given.
Paul Prydecker and Susan Barson frame the September-October 2022 issue of FAA Safety Briefing Live around Flight Program Operations, WINGS or AMT credit, and a magazine issue built like "ground school." They explain how the FAA consolidated flight inspection, research support, safety training, and critical event response in 2016, then reduced the fleet from 13 models to six makes and models.
FAA Safety Briefing Live for the May/June 2022 issue centers on technology and weather, with Leidos, WITIC, ADS-B, and weather cameras as recurring examples.
Paul Preidecker and Susan Parson open FAA Safety Briefing Live for the November/December 2022 issue, which centers on "risk management" and "all phases of flight." The magazine's structure follows pre-flight, taxi, takeoff and departure, en route loss of control, approach and landing, and post-flight, with references to Wings and AMT credit.
An FAA Safety Briefing Live episode introducing the magazine and explaining how to earn WINGS credit through the program.
FAA Safety Briefing Live episode introducing the May/June issue of FAA Safety Briefing, discussing aviation safety topics and WINGS credit opportunities.
A veteran flight instructor presents how to adapt airline threat and error management principles to general aviation flying and instructing.
A presentation on NORAD intercept procedures and TFRs for general aviation pilots, using a hypothetical encounter with an F-16 as a teaching example.
FAA Safety Briefing Live hosts discuss the January-February edition, offering WINGS credit and covering aviation safety topics.
An FAA Safety Briefing Live episode discussing aviation safety topics and how to earn WINGS or AMT credit.
A live webcast introducing the 2018 General Aviation Award winners, focusing on aviation safety and professional development.