Thought I’d share this here for everyone who just purchased the SWS Kodiak 100. It’s awesome of Ryan to take the time to put this together for the sim community. If you haven’t visited his channel, well worth the watch. One of the best aviation channels out there IMO.
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I do love watching Ryan’s videos. Have thought of his e course but it seems a bit pricey 🤷🏻
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Ryan seems like a great guy… his aviation channel is really fun. This is awesome!
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That course, is it on MSFS 2020 (is MSFS the simulator referred to in the title)?
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Yeah I feel the same. At $25 I wouldn’t have hesitated, but $50 is just too much…
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Most all of his references to simulators in his YouTube videos are for MSFS. As I understand the training course, he goes through basic real-world procedures he uses as well as the Garmin 1000 that you can adapt to either X-Plane or MSFS. He also builds flight plans for MSFS so his viewers that use MSFS can take the same flight he just took in his video. Although I have yet to check them out. Not sure if you have to be a Patreon subscriber or something to get them.
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I’m very much considering purchasing this. I do agree $50 is a little much, but I’m more than happy to support Ryan. Anyone who has tried it yet…feedback?
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I’m in the same boat. Price is a bit on the high side, but I really think I’ll get the most out of the Kodiak (and other aircraft) by taking the course. I’m honestly not using the sim to its potential because I just don’t have the time to try and figure it out over a number of weeks or months. After watching many of his regular YouTube vids, I know he’s an excellent instructor.
If you watch the short video on the course page linked above, he’ll tell you all about what the course is and who it is target at. MSFS is brought up several times. He’s well aware of this community. I bet he even dabbles in MSFS. Probably downloaded the posted skin of his aircraft on fs.to already.
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A while ago I paid for these videos. To me they were worth it. If someone is hesitant about the price, then I don’t see them being happy.
Anyway, the videos involve startup, takeoff, climb, cruise, descent and landing. As well as some time in a Kodiak simulator with the G1000 (not the Nxi).
If you support him through Patreon, he will provide you with airport (field) diagrams and a map showing the flight path he flew. This map is pulled from his Foreflight app. He’ll also provide information such as altitude, FOB, weather, track and distance. There’s also the video of the trip. If you watch his videos, you’ll note that even though he plugs a flight plan into the G1000, he usually only uses it for reference. Most of the time he’s in altitude hold and heading mode.
I have the training video and I have found it useful. As Ryan says, you can probably get all of the information in the video by watching all of his 108 videos but he condenses them into this training video. He also has the charts and checklists he uses in his videos as part of the training.
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Thanks for you review. My question would be how much can you really apply from his real explanations and experience into the Kodiak itself and MSFS… I am not sure if this is a study level aircraft, just bought it yesterday
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Not much I’d presume. He uses a g1000 vs the unfinished g1000nxi in sim for a start.
Love his YouTube channel and frequently watch his fantastic videos. But $50 for a course of lessons when the aircraft itself is almost half that price in the developer’s site is way too much in my opinion.
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I agree, love Ryan’s videos and would have bought this course for sub 30 USD.
As it stands now I have to skip it as I can’t justify the current for myself (which is more than the plane itself).
Does anybody who has purchased it already know if any PDFs are included (recommended flows etc)?
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I think it was mentioned in the “main” thread of Kodiak 100 in this forum that very little documentation is provided by the developers. So someone was kind enough to share the official POH of the real plane (about 400 pages). I browsed through it yesterday and it seems to have enough information to get us through all procedures. Also it’s a fairly high quality PDF and not the usual scanned stuff we’re often seeing. Of course some hints and gotchas just can’t go inside a manual and I assume this is the very stuff that Missionary Bush Pilot is teaching.
On the other hand I found that YouTube has plenty of Kodiak videos from various flight sims as it’s a popular aicraft in the sim world. A few additional presentations by the manufacturers themselves (especially one Mark Brown) seem to be sufficient to get us going without any overpriced lessons by an otherwise fantastic pilot and person.
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Would you mind sharing a link?
Thanks!
Thanks! 
Ryan asked his Patreon supporters who use sims to review the course a couple of months ago, long before the SWS Kodiak was released. Several of us went through it and gave minor feedback. Since it uses video in the real plane, it should help with any sim with an accurate Kodiak model. There are a lot of procedural tips though as Ryan says, most of the info can be found spread across his many YouTube videos. I think it is valuable to have it organized into step by step flight phases, but whether that’s worth the price is up to you. Ryan is a skilled and careful pilot who explains things with great clarity. Whether you get the course or not, if you’re interested in the Kodiak or in Bush flying, you can learn a lot from ALL of his flying videos. They are also very well produced and visually stunning (thanks to PNG). Note that while Ryan uses the official Kodiak simulator at his FBO, he says he has never used any PC sims. He’s interested but just doesn’t have time.
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I think the price is fair given that what you’re getting is condensed real world information from an experienced Kodiak pilot, not at just a training supplement specific to an addon. I might check it out after the holidays stop abusing my wallet.