IA course at Baker school of Aeronautics opinions

[Hradec]

I'm thinking about getting my Inspection Authorization by attending the Baker School of Aeronautics  near Nashville.

Any opinions or experience from this place?

I have worked for American Airlines for 24 years and never needed it, but I own my own plane now that I am trying to resurrect.

Thanks

Glenn

64 M20E  

 

[N177MC]

I used a school to prep for the A&P test and found it to be a waste of time. That said, if one did not have any real practical experience with GA then it might be helpful for prepping for the A&P practical test.

The IA Test is pure FARs so there really is not much "value added" for a school offering since you really need to know the FARs.

I used BOTH the ASA book + online course PLUS the Dauntless Aviation ( https://www.dauntless-soft.com/ ) on-line course to prep. That was probably overkill but I did not want to fail and have to  re-test.

I would also add that the IA test is somewhat difficult inasmuch that you have to pay very close attention to the details. 

Edited August 29, 2020 by N177MC

[Andy95W]

I used Bakers back in 2003 to finish my IA.  Since you can fly there for free, I very much recommend it.

A friend of mine did the self study route in 2002.  He failed the first time trying and had to wait to retest.  Convinced me to just pay the money and do it.

[FoxMike]

Baker will teach you the test.  Almost everyone passes the first time.  

[N177MC]

14 hours ago, FoxMike said:

Baker will teach you the test.  Almost everyone passes the first time.  

Be aware that the IA test  is  a “closed test”—the exact database of questions is not available to the public and  the question pool was expanded from  something like 500 or so to 5,000 , making it virtually impossible to memorize the Q=A responses . 

It actually is quite insidious since the same basic question may have dozens of variations with a very small but important differences. 

All I can say is that you MUST evaluate each and every question in detail and then verify each - I used the full 3 hours allotted and passed 1st time.

Edited August 30, 2020 by N177MC

[carusoam]

Great insight 7MC!

Thanks for sharing the details...

Best regards,

-a-

[Sean S]

I did the Baker School. It will get you your IA guaranteed. They say it is Mon-Fri. I tested out Thursday morning and went home. I liked it.

 

Edit: It is likely the big airlines will pay for the course. The little package company in Memphis that employs me paid for mine. All I had to cover was transportation and food/lodging.

[N201MKTurbo]

I just bought an Online study guide, I think it was Gliem.

They had thousands of questions. 

I studied for about a month off and on.

I passed. 

[Sabremech]

I used Baker for my IA a long time ago when they traveled to areas of the country for classes. I highly recommend it especially if you work a full time job or have a family at home. It allows you the time to focus without the normal distractions everyday working and family life has. 
David

[CAV Ice]

I went to Baker's to get mine.  Studied Mon-Thurs in class and 3-4 hours after class for the entire week.  Tested out Thursday with 100%.  Baker's teaches you the test.  Well worth the money in my opinion. 

[EricJ]

ASA Prepware has an app/module for IA.   I used the Prepware app for all parts of my A&P and it was very good.   

[jwilcoxon78]

They will also teach you the wrong answers since that is the "correct" answer on the exam.  I recall that there were several questions that they advised you must answer incorrectly and that they've highlighted this long ago but no corrections have been made.  Mind you this was some 12 years ago for me.  

[EricJ]

39 minutes ago, jwilcoxon78 said:

They will also teach you the wrong answers since that is the "correct" answer on the exam.  I recall that there were several questions that they advised you must answer incorrectly and that they've highlighted this long ago but no corrections have been made.  Mind you this was some 12 years ago for me.  

It's still like that for A&P stuff.   Let me tell you it was a very frustrating journey for an Electrical Engineer to go through A&P school.   The FAA, in official literature, often confuses weight and mass, especially in density definitions, defines electrical current backwards (which I think is dangerous, and the Navy does this, too), and just gets a fair amount of basic physics stuff wrong.   This is one great advantage of having the ASA Prepware or a similar study guide, is that you learn the questions where you have to answer "wrong" without it penalizing your score.

Definitely annoying as hell, though. 

Edited August 31, 2020 by EricJ