Dauntless software

[valcan222]

Hello everyone, I just had a quick question for and CFI's or anyone who may have some knowledge on this. I have began studying for the CFI and have like I am sure countless others found the study at home approach to be a little daunting. I have been going threw the PHAK, FAR AIM, the PTS and a few others and have found that while familiarizing myself with more knowledge is not too difficult, however as far as actually studying and having a set goal for subject areas is proving difficult. As i am away from home a good amount of time, I found a "test prep" software for the mac, ( which is what i have ) that has a study guide for the FOI and written test by Dauntless aviation. I was curious if anyone has used this as another valuable study guide. Or if anyone else has any recommendations they would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time everyone.
Brian

 

[rd757]

Sheppard Air. The only thing you'll need for the written tests. Follow the study strategy word for word and you'll have all three tests done this week (if you so desire). Do it.

If you already purchased the Dauntless program, check their policy on refunds. I was greatly unsuccessful with their Commercial test prep way back when and one of my good friends bombed his FOI written using their software (he had gotten 1 or 2 90+ scores with it). I haven't recommended it to anyone since.

 

[rframe]

I've used Dauntless for my past 4-5 ratings and scored mid 90's on them all. I really like the product. They provide a lot of updates and during the learning phase they provide rich explanations and illustrations so students know "why" an answer is right.

I recommend it to all of my students as it has a nice feature where their results are available for my review so I can see where they are doing well and where they might need more help. All of my students who have used it have scored over 90 on their written. The one student who wanted to do it his own way did terrible.

 

[🦈💜]

I bought their logbook software many years ago, when they proudly advertised that they, unlike the "alternatives", were a one-time purchase. A few years later, the logbook software downloaded an "update" (a poison pill) that made it stop working unless I "renewed" my license. Now, I'm one of those people who actually pays attention when I click on stuff, so I was pretty sure something wasn't right. The company was surly to me and many others who said "WTF?", saying "It's always required renewal, we just, being the kind souls that we were, never enforced it before now. Think of all the time you've gotten for free!"

So I, recognizing that the memory of the internet is often a bit more solid, found the page on the internet archive (internet wayback machine) where they clearly stated that it was a one-time purchase, and I posted it on various fora when the subject came up. Last time I went looking for it, I found that they had made a request to have the archive of their site purged from there.

This is Dauntless Software's robots.txt:

http://www.dauntless-soft.com/robots.txt --

User-agent: ia_archiver
Disallow: /

User-agent: *
Disallow: /checkrideforum/

Note how it -explicitly denies- internet archive.

I will never do business with them again. I think they're liars, I think they're crooks, I think they're evil, and I will do my best to always steer anyone away from their products. There are many competing alternatives, and many are superior.

-Fox

 

[soakingpilot]

Can anyone else chime in on this. Seems to be between Sheppard Air and Dauntless. With both of these packages as well your basically getting the written questions and explanations when your wrong essentially. Does anyone have any experience with how they track your progress. King Schools always did a good job for me saying which subject I was not so flash in and the others that were fine according to subject.
Cheers.

 

[🦈💜]

Can anyone else chime in on this. Seems to be between Sheppard Air and Dauntless. With both of these packages as well your basically getting the written questions and explanations when your wrong essentially. Does anyone have any experience with how they track your progress. King Schools always did a good job for me saying which subject I was not so flash in and the others that were fine according to subject.
Cheers.

Sheppard air focuses on getting a high score through memorization, but they do provide the information if an answer doesn't make sense. Use them if you know the material but don't want to get trapped by wording. You track your own progress, but it's not at all onerous.

Dauntless Software are crooks. Do not use them.

King Schools is good at presenting the test-prep material. Some of their courses are more prep focused, and others are more content focused. I do wish there was a "Option C" that provided a video-based course focused purely on content, with minimal focus on test prep, but for the CFI it's generally less critical.

If in doubt, study the material and then go with Sheppard Air to lock in a high score.

-Fox

 

[MercFE]

I've used Dauntless study for my PPL and A&P. Scored in the high 90's for all the tests.

I used Sheppard Air to study for my FEX certificate. Scored in the high 90's for it as well.

I would say I like the software and functions available through the Dauntless software more. I also liked that they would send me the required sign off to take the PPL written after I passed so many practice tests. Saved me money over having to review with an instructor. Not sure if Sheppard offers such a thing.

I agree with @Acrofox about the Dauntless logbook software "licensing," it is rather shady. However, I don't necessarily think the "crooks" part carries into all of their endeavors.

Either software you go with, you'll come out fine in the end.