For CFIs
What you can hand a student today
Everything below is free, needs no account to open, and cites the FAA source it comes from. Send a link before a lesson, print a sheet for the brief, or point a student at the question bank for the written. Built by a Part 61 CFI and reviewed against current FAA publications; nothing on the site claims to be flight instruction.
Sims that fly the maneuver
Browser only, phone or laptop. Set the wind or the failure, then watch what the examiner watches.
- Charlotte Sectional Explorer — The real FAA Charlotte sectional. Click any point, set an altitude, and get every airspace designation over that spot with its published floor and ceiling — and an honest UNKNOWN where the answer isn't established.
- Sectional Chart Reading Quiz — Six real extracts of the Charlotte Sectional, and the questions an examiner actually points at: the airport data block, the bracketed Class D ceiling, Class B shelf labels, obstacle heights, the MEF, the part-time tower star. Every answer verified and cited.
- Ground Reference Maneuvers — Turns around a point, S-turns, and the rectangular course — all three in full 3D or the classic diagrams — with adjustable wind. Watch groundspeed drive bank angle in real time.
- Engine Run-Up — Start the engine and fly a full run-up on real-looking gauges: mag checks, carb heat, ignition grounding, oil, suction, and the ammeter — then diagnose ten fault scenarios from the evidence alone.
- Traffic Pattern — The standard left-traffic pattern with live wind — watch crab, groundspeed, and bank change on every leg, and the windsock tell you which runway to want.
- 3D Windsock — A real-time 3D windsock you can read like a pilot: set the wind, fire a gust, add turbulence — hanging, filling, flying, or fully extended at 15 knots and up.
- Density Altitude — Dial in elevation, temperature, and altimeter — watch the takeoff roll stretch past your sea-level book number as the air thins out.
- Pitot-Static Failures — Block the pitot tube, drain hole, or static port and watch the ASI, altimeter, and VSI respond — the frozen needle and the truth, side by side.
- Crosswind Components — Set the runway and wind and watch it split into headwind and crosswind components — checked against your personal limit, the gusts, and the reciprocal runway.
- Inoperative Equipment (91.213) — An instrument is dead — can you legally fly? Walk the 14 CFR 91.213(d) four-part gate for any item and any operation: placard and defer, or grounded until it's fixed.
- Weight & Balance — Load a sample trainer and watch the CG dot move in the envelope — then watch it travel as the fuel burns off. The takeoff number alone doesn't tell you where you land.
Tools for the brief
- E6B Flight Computer — The full flight-computer function set: unit conversions, time-speed-distance and fuel solvers, density altitude and TAS, the wind triangle with a live diagram, climb & descent gradients, and weight-shift math.
- METAR Decoder — Fetch the live report for any airport, or paste a raw METAR, and read it in plain English — wind, visibility, ceiling, temperature, and a VFR/MVFR/IFR/LIFR call.
- Fuel & Endurance — Usable fuel, burn, and cruise speed into endurance, still-air range, and a §91.151 reserve check — the numbers before the dipstick confirms them.
- Weight & Balance — Load the seats, baggage, and fuel and watch the CG land inside — or outside — the envelope, on a live weight-vs-CG chart. A PA-28 example you edit for your aircraft.
- Takeoff & Landing Performance — Density altitude, weight, and wind into ground roll and the over-50-ft distance, checked against your runway — the POH method, worked on a PA-28 example.
- Go / No-Go — Ceiling, visibility, wind, and density altitude banded green/amber/red against your personal minimums — a one-look decision aid before you commit.
- Compass & Instrument Errors — The magnetic compass acceleration (ANDS) and turning errors, on a live card — plus a reference for the gyro and pitot-static instrument errors.
Sheets for instruction
Print-ready; each quotes its regulation or handbook word for word and says which edition.
- Endorsements — the § 61 endorsements a private pilot candidate needs, with the AC 61-65 wording
- Endorsement tracker — one page to tick off per student
- Pre-solo knowledge test — § 61.87(b) framed as the regulation frames it, with room for your airport and airplane
- Mock-oral scorecard — score a practice oral by ACS Area of Operation
- ACS maneuver tolerances — every numeric standard, in the ACS's own notation
- Checkride Ready checklist — paperwork, logs, the night before, the morning of
- All printables — airspace, ATC, weather codes, aeromedical, NTSB 830, currency and more
The written
A free account gives a student 2,074 verified questions by PHAK and AFH chapter, each answer cited, a timed 60-question practice exam in the real test's length and passing score, a drill of the ones they miss, and a score report they can print and bring to you. The 24-question Readiness Test needs no account and scores by knowledge area — a quick read on where a student stands before the oral.
Terms, verbatim
The FAA Pilot/Controller Glossary, 14 CFR § 1.1 and the PHAK glossary, reproduced word for word, with CFI-ratified flashcard decks for the Private, Instrument, Commercial and CFI checkrides.
Something wrong, or a sheet you wish existed? Email hello@runuplab.com. Corrections come with the primary source retrieved, not a hunch.