Firecracker Aviation

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United States
Petaluma, CA
Firecracker Aviation

A pilot, a flight instructor, and a blogger all in one! You'll either love it or hate it.

05/05/2026

Y’all summer is coming and I’m not ready to fly in these conditions ☀️🥵

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04/24/2026

✈️ Ready to stop feeling overwhelmed by IFR?

Join our Live 6-Week Instrument Ground School designed to help pilots build real understanding, confidence, and practical IFR knowledge, not just memorize answers.

Whether you’re working toward your Instrument Rating, preparing for a checkride, or brushing up your IFR skills, this course is built to help it all finally click.

What’s Included:

✅ Weekly Live Zoom Classes
✅ Interactive Q&A + Instructor Support
✅ Private Skool Community Access
✅ Class Recordings + Bonus Study Resources
✅ Supportive Pilot Community

Inside the Skool Community:

📚 Weekly lesson modules
🎥 Replay recordings
🏆 Leaderboard accountability
📅 Course calendar + reminders
💬 Ask questions between classes
✈️ Connect with other pilots

We’ll Cover:

• IFR Regulations
• Weather
• Charts & Navigation
• Flight Planning
• Holds & Approaches
• Procedures + Real-World Decision Making

💰 $599
🎟️ Limited spots available

Build confidence.Fly IFR smarter.
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WomenInAviation

04/21/2026

Why does night flying feel so different? 🌙✈️
Because your eyes switch from cones to rods.

👁️ Cones help you see color and sharp detail in daylight.
👁️ Rods take over at night—they’re better in low light, but don’t see detail or color as well.

That’s why at night:
• Depth perception is reduced
• Colors are harder to distinguish
• Objects can seem farther away
• You may miss something if you stare directly at it

Pilots use off-center scanning at night, which means looking slightly to the side of an object instead of directly at it.

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flying at night, night flights, flight instructor videos, student pilot videos

04/20/2026

The second part of this W&B lesson in our Private Pilot ground school 🏫

Think of an airplane like a seesaw. ✈️⚖️

The center of gravity is the balance point. Put too much weight in the back, and the nose wants to rise. Load too much in the front, and the airplane feels heavy and sluggish.

Too far aft = less stability, harder stall recovery. Better performance.
Too far forward = longer takeoff roll, reduced performance. More stable.

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weight and balance aviation, private pilot studying, student pilot ground school, studying as a pilot, flight instructor lesson

04/12/2026

Discussing the Weight & Balance on our Cessna 150 with ✈️
A forward vs aft CG (center of gravity) will deliver different performance characteristics and tradeoffs. In this discussion, we cover that a forward CG (nose heavy) would give you:
❌ Harder takeoff (and a harder flare on landing)
❌ Reduced aircraft performance (more fuel burn because you need more power to keep the nose up)
✅ More stability (heavier nose=better stall recovery)

*Also, an interesting note: our particular Cessna 150 was certificated in 1969, which means we fall under CAR (Civil Air Regulations) Part 3, vs 14 CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) Part 23. Once an aircraft is certified and has an Airworthiness Certificate, a new set of airworthiness standards typically will not supplant it. The empty weight does not include full oil in the W&B of CAR Part 3 aircraft. So that’s why you see me including it on the whiteboard.

Happy flying! ✨

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student pilot ground training, student pilot flight training, private pilot study tips

04/10/2026

Don’t default to 7600 when handling lost communications. Odds are, there’s a simple fix!

❓Check your frequency
❓Check your volume
❓Switch to COM 2 (or COM1, whatever one you aren’t using)
❓Check your headset plugin

If all else fails, you can try changing plugs if you can safely and comfortably do so while still maintaining positive control of the aircraft. Otherwise, then you use 7600.

More study tips and tools are available on my website! And I just restocked my notebook specifically for student pilots! ➡️ link in bio
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student pilot tips, student pilot training

03/20/2026

Gotta double check my mic isn’t hot before I hit those notes 👀

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Pilot memes, aviation humor, student pilot training, student pilot memes

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Petaluma, CA

Website

http://firecrackeraviation.com/

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