I don’t know about you, but I like to be sure I am going to pass any test before I sign up to spend my time, and more importantly, my money, to take one. So in my history of taking FAA knowledge exams, I have relied heavily on practice tests online to rehearse for the big day. We all have purchased the different well know publishers prep books but I’d like to share a couple of my favorite websites.

I've never been great at thinking of New Years resolutions, in fact I typically forget to resolve to accomplish anything at all. So when I stumbled on this list of possible resolutions from the Aviation Mentor I was inspired. Well maybe inspired is a too strong of a word, at the very least I was motivated to point them out to you. They've got some great links in the article to training resources and articles worth reading. Take a look and let us know what you're resolving to do this year.

I'm sure many of you are having "cabin fever" and are itching to get out of the house and go fly. As luck would have it I have done a little bit of searching around the internet and found some educational websites to help keep your flying mind sharp even when you are weathered out.

As many of you who frequently surf the internet know there are literally thousands of aviation websites at your fingertips. The question you have to ask yourself is what do you want to know about? Initially I recommend looking around www.aopa.org as well as www.eaa.org. These two websites alone have thousands of articles, movies, as well as multitudes of interactive media that is very user friendly to work with. At AOPA’s website you can even earn FAA Wings credit for some of their online courses.

USA Today recently reported that background checks for aviation workers, once taken care of by the FAA, will now be conducted by TSA. The TSA terrorist watch list is larger than the FAA's and the checks will re-occur every time new names are added to the list. As an occasional airline passenger, I like the idea of increased safety.