Newbie having trouble with searching for apps.

Question

I'm an experienced an experienced Windows user, finding myself surprisingly lost on my new iPad and iTunes.
(Surpising because, although I'm used to dealing with oddball and sometimes frustrating things on Windows,  I had heard the Mac and iPad interface fast simpler to navigate and more frustration free.)
So please excuse what may seem like dumb newbie questions about what should be, and probably are to you experienced iTunes and iPad users, simple things:
For starters:
I'm search for a few apps in the app store that I know for sure exist and know the exact names:
One is the
iPad User Guide
The other is
the AOPA flight planner app.
I know it exists because it's installed on my wife's iPad. Can't remember how I found it on her iPad.
When I use the apps store search box (whether I do it in the app store in the iPad or in iTunes on my Windows 7 computer)
I keep failing to find them.
I've tried putting
                       iPad user guide
                        AOPA flight planner
  or even just                AOPA
in the search box in both environments and clicking the search (magnifying glass) icon.
I either get a mess of apps with  AOPA in the name (but not the one I want)
or a message saying the equivalent of "sorry... not found." 
What the heck am I doing wrong?
All help appreciated.
Alex

Answer 1

You are not doing anything wrong. Those apps just do not appear to be available any more.
They will always be available to your wife since she downloaded them and they are backed up in her iTunes Library (assuming she synced it with iTunes since downloading them) but it would appear that anyone else trying to find them will be unsuccessful.
These are not dumb questions nor are they trivial concerns. The whole digital distribution method has many advantages, but you just ran into one of its drawbacks.
"Ownership" of software was always a controversial subject, but the way things are going the argument will soon be a moot point... unfortunately.