MAKE SMALL CORRECTIONS
A FOUR-WEEK GROUND COURSE
Cross-Country Confidence for VFR Pilots
The Long Way
Training taught you to fly. It didn't teach you to go far.
Every pilot has the trip they dream about — the coast, the mountains, the place three states away. That trip is the one that never happens. Plan it leg by leg, and finally go.
WHO THIS IS FOR
You earned the certificate. You can fly. But the big trip never leaves the ground.
1
The same loop
You fly the same forty-mile hamburger run you have flown for years.
2
The trip that stalls
You think about flying somewhere real, then talk yourself out of it.
3
The skill-sharpener
Maybe you're not chasing one big trip. You just want sharper cross-country flying and the tips and habits that make you safer.
Whether you're chasing one big adventure or just want every cross-country to be sharper and safer, this is for certificated VFR pilots. Not for primary students. Not IFR training.
WHY THE TRIP NEVER HAPPENS
It was never the flying. It's everything around it.
The forecast looks marginal two days out, so you scrub the whole idea before you ever start.
You don't know where you'd put it down if the engine went quiet over country you've never seen.
The route runs through airspace, terrain, or a towered field you've never worked.
Real fuel stops, density altitude, and a loaded cabin turn the planning into a wall of math.
So you fly the same loop again. It asks nothing of you.
WHAT CHANGES
A long trip is just short trips with a plan between them.
01
You finally take the trip
Pick a place you have never flown and leave with a real plan and a date.
02
The decisions get small
Weather, fuel, terrain, and your outs become a series of calm calls.
03
Judgment that lasts
The part nobody teaches in training carries into every trip after this one.
HOW IT WORKS · 12 LESSONS · 4 TUESDAY EVENINGS
You choose a real trip and plan it across twelve lessons. Every worksheet you fill in stays yours, and you finish with a flight plan you can actually fly.
CLASS 1TUE AUG 4 · 90 MIN
01
Weather you can use
02
Fuel, glide & outs
03
Weight, balance & density alt
CLASS 2TUE AUG 11 · 90 MIN
04
Airspace past your sectional
05
Currency & night readiness
06
Get-there-itis
CLASS 3TUE AUG 18 · 90 MIN
07
The tools & the briefer
08
Money as safety
09
Passengers & diversions
CLASS 4TUE AUG 25 · 90 MIN
10
Cockpit, body & fatigue
11
The field manual
12
The psychology of going far
FROM PILOTS WHO STOPPED WAITING
“I’d talked myself out of the same trip for three years. Six weeks later I flew it, 240 miles, my whole family aboard.”
DAVE R. · PA-28 OWNER
“The fuel, glide, and ‘where would I put it down’ planning changed how I fly. Nobody taught me this.”
KAREN M. · CESSNA 182
“I finally have a system, not just a certificate. My first real cross-country was the calmest flight of my life.”
MIKE T. · PRIVATE PILOT
START FREE
Get the Adventure Checklist, on me.
The pre-departure list of the things pilots forget before a long trip — documents, databases, and the gear that turns a long day into a smooth one. Drop your email and it lands in your inbox.
TWO WAYS TO DO IT
MOST POPULAR
Live Cohort
$399
Four Tuesday evenings, 90 minutes each. Everyone plans a real trip in parallel. Starts August 4, 2026.
MOST PERSONAL
1:1 Mentoring
$75/hr
Your schedule, your trip. FAA-loggable ground instruction toward your certificate or flight review, signed.
Plan it, or it’s free. If your first session doesn’t leave you with a trip you’d actually fly, I’ll refund you in full.
WHO'S TEACHING IT
Brian Siskind is an instrument-rated commercial pilot and FAA Ground Instructor in Nashville. He flies a 1967 Piper Cherokee named Lucy VFR to places far from home, the long way. He co-hosts the Midlife Pilot Podcast and wrote Make Small Corrections. This course is the craft he earned on those trips.
QUESTIONS, ANSWERED
Do I need an instrument rating?
No. This is VFR cross-country planning and judgment. An instrument rating is welcome but not required.
Is the ground instruction loggable?
Yes. The 1:1 mentoring is FAA-loggable ground instruction toward your certificate or flight review, signed.
What airplane does this work for?
Any GA airplane you fly. You build the plan around your actual tail number, POH numbers, and equipment.
When does the next cohort start?
New cohorts run regularly with limited seats. Email to grab the next date, or start 1:1 on your own schedule.
You already know how to fly. This is how you go somewhere.
Go the long way.
The next live cohort starts Tuesday, August 4. Reserve a seat, or start 1:1 on your own schedule.
START THE LONG WAY
MAKESMALLCORRECTIONS.COM
