Groundwork

FAA Private Pilot · Airplane

Ground school, a few minutes a day.

Everything on the FAA private pilot knowledge test.

Short lessons, drawings you can touch, and reviews that come back right before you’d forget.

Get Groundwork $9.99 How it works

iPhone · One-time purchase · No account, no ads, no tracking

A lesson bite titled Warm fronts: slow, layered clouds, poor visibility, with a cross-section drawing of a warm front.
The Today screen: knowledge test in 40 days, a readiness ring at 38% with the 70% pass line, and today's plan of a review and a lesson.
A lesson bite on VOR radials with a working VOR indicator and sliders for the radial and the course.

01 · Learn in bites

One idea at a time.

Each lesson is a few short bites with a drawing or something to play with. Touch it to get it.

  • The four forces
  • The traffic pattern
  • Airspace
  • A working VOR
  • A wind triangle
  • Density altitude
  • Weight and balance
A lesson bite on warm fronts: warm air slides up over the cold air, with layered clouds from cirrus down to nimbostratus.
An interactive VOR: drag the sliders to change the radial and the course, and the needle and TO flag respond.

02 · Remember it on test day

Back right before you’d forget.

Every fact comes back on a spaced schedule, asked a different way each time. Misses come back tomorrow. Memory hooks like IMSAFE and ATOMATOFLAMES are drilled letter by letter.

  1. 1
  2. 3
  3. 7
  4. 16
  5. 35
  6. 80
  7. 180

Days after you learn it

A fill-the-gap review question: The upper limit of the green arc is VNO, the maximum structural cruising speed. The answer is marked right, with an explanation and its ACS code and handbook source.

03 · Know when you’re ready

Readiness that means something.

Readiness only counts a fact once you’ve remembered it weeks after learning it, weighted the way the FAA weights the test. The pass line is 70%, the same as the real test.

Set your test date and Groundwork plans each day.

The Today screen: 40 days to the knowledge test, readiness at 38% with the weakest subject named, and a plan for today.

04 · Practice tests like the real one

Sixty questions. Two hours. Seventy to pass.

Three choices each, weighted by subject like the FAA test. Your misses are listed by ACS code, just like the real report, and you can share it with your instructor.

PA.I.D.K2PA.IX.C.K3PA.I.H.K4

A practice test report: 83, pass, 50 of 60 with a pass line of 70, and the missed questions listed by ACS code and subject.

05 · Private

No account. No ads. No tracking.

Your progress stays on your iPhone.

  • Works offline

    Every lesson, question and drawing is on your iPhone, so you can study without a connection.

  • Sources under every answer

    Written for the app from public FAA handbooks, the AIM and 14 CFR, with the source cited under every answer.

  • Made for everyone

    VoiceOver labels down to every slider, the largest text sizes, and light and dark mode.

Groundwork: Private Pilot

$9.99 once

Paid up front. Everything included: no subscription, no in-app purchases.

Download on the App Store

For iPhone · iOS 26 or later

Groundwork is a study aid. It isn’t affiliated with or endorsed by the FAA, and its questions are written for the app, not taken from the FAA test. You still need an instructor’s endorsement to take the knowledge test, and current FAA publications always take priority over the app.