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Miles Magister
27th Sep 2013, 10:02
Guys,

I would like to ask which PPL study books you guys think are best suited to the new EASA examinations?

Thank you for your views

MM

Whopity
27th Sep 2013, 10:44
Those that state on them that they are for the EASA PPL. The syllabus has not really changed, the exams have just been rearranged slightly however; some of the new questions go into areas that have little or no relevance and where questions were not formerly asked.

airwave45
30th Sep 2013, 13:12
The syllabus _has_ changed.
Specifically the Nav syllabus.
Someone on here will be able to tell you which _specific_ book covers all the new nav topics, as only one book does.

The new PPL nav exam is an exercise in learning useless rubbish that you can forget immediately after the exam.
A significant waste of your time and effort, but mandated to get you through the box ticking exercise now in place.

other subjects have not changed significantly.

become expert on what projection your map is using (conic or mercator)
what straight lines on maps relate to (great or small circle navigation) which, is really useful to people flying Warriors . . . . . or other light aircraft (not)
Know how to spot a rhumb line at 20 paces, on different map projections.

Oh, be able to work out UTC from Local Mean time in places you'll never be able to fly to in a week in a light aircraft.
And once there, when given UTC be able to work out local mean time in Caribbean sunspots (which will now be on the opposite side of the planet from you), again, very useful to people flying SEP aircraft (if they have wing tanks the size of the Exxon Valdize)

The CAA syllabus _does not_ cover the things you need to know to pass the CAA/EASA nav exam. (not all of them, it gets about 80% of them tho)
so if you only get one wrong from all that you know, you'll scrape a pass . . .

Said as one who has just gone through this rubbish.

And remember, GPS is susceptible to jamming and interference (my ar5e)
There have been more days int he last 20 years unflyable in the UK due to volcanic eruptions than to GPS issues.

And NOT ONCE, not once are you asked to check NOTAMS before you commit aviation, not once.
What is more useful, avoiding blundering into a Red Arrows display or being able to spot a Rhumb line on a UK 1/2 mill chart . . . ?

Whoever wrote those exam(s) wants putting in the cupboard under the stairs with "D" hat on for a very very long time . . .

Can you tell I'm not impressed?

Whopity
30th Sep 2013, 14:39
The syllabus _has_ changed.
Specifically the Nav syllabus.If you look at the Nav Syllabus in AMC FCL 1.25 which has been in force for the past 13 years, and compare it with the EASA syllabus in the AMC to Part FCL you will see that there is very little difference! There is no CAA syllabus.

I did however say that questions are now being asked on parts of the syllabus that were not previously covered, as you have highlighted, possibly because they were not considered relevant to a PPL holder.

It is the exams that have changed, not the syllabus, and they are CAA exams not EASA exams.

pembroke
11th Oct 2013, 07:50
I had a chance yesterday to check the CAA source reference for the new question package, based on the answer book. I then met a new student, in his fifties, high achieving in his own world and really keen to learn. The following would put most people off! Required reading:
AFE (Pratt) 1-5, APM (Pooley) 2-7, Cambell&B-HPL, Jepp.-HPL Nordian-HPL/principles of flight. AIP-Gen, ICAO Annex,,,,,, CAP393/413 and the odd AIC.
So we are expect the student to use and buy both "standard" sets of books, ie AFE and AFM(T Thom), to undertake 100hrs study as yet to be determined, and then not be sure of an exam pass because of the above obscure reference sources which may or may not be covered! Of note, apart from the Navigation theory, which as Whopity says, was always included in JAR FCL, is the use of Nordian. It is only, as far as I am aware, used for ATPL. I have used it to teach ATPL and its use for even one question re. "principles of flight" seems ridiculous.

keith williams
11th Oct 2013, 13:06
The CAA answer book is intended for use by the ground examiners only and should never be shown to candidates. The references for each answer are intended to tell the ground examiner where the author of the question got the answer. In effect the CAA is saying “If you disagree with this answer please look at this source of reference before bothering us with a complaint”. They are not saying “Please ensure that your students/candidates purchase and read all of these books”.

In constructing the new exams, the CAA examiners appear to have gone back to the existing syllabus (detailed in PART-FCL) and attempted to provide questions for each element of the syllabus. But the content of the existing PPL Study books has been biased towards the areas that have previously been examined, rather than the full syllabus. This meant that reference sources for new questions on the areas of the syllabus that have not previously be examined could not be found within the existing PPL study books. To overcome this problem the CAA examiners have been forced to look further afield.

The fact that an ATPL manual has been used as a reference for a PPL question is not in itself inherently wrong. The PPLsyllabus is simply a subset of the ATPL syllabus. In POF for example, both would cover Lift &Drag, but the PPL syllabus would be limited to the simple end of the spectrum. But the ATPL manual would probably cover the entire spectrum in detail. The fact that the ATPL manual chosen was a NORDIAN version is probably simply because that was the first one that the CAA examiner picked up. (Yes it really can be as arbitrary as that)

If the new exams are permitted to remain largely unchanged for a reasonable period oftime, the authors of the PPL study books will eventually update their books to match wider range of material being examined. In the immediate term, course providers will undoubtedly be keen to ensure that their customers receive adequate preparation for the new exams.

I am not arguing that the current situation is a good one, It most certainly is not. But there is little to be gained from getting excited about non-existent problems.

pembroke
11th Oct 2013, 14:03
I only used the exam answer sheet/book as I said, as a reference source for topics to be studied. (FE/GR and ex C.of Papers)
Keith, what's missing from the above is our most important thought, that is the student and potential PPL. As discussed elsewhere, a simple question bank would suffice, similar to the FAA. Instead from October 1st we are presented with questions in Nav., very different, complex and importantly, not relevant to the PPL course. As I say, imagine you are a student PPL and when asking about the ground school element of the course, are told that 1)We are unsure what the syllabus is (apart from the FCL ref.),and 2) You have 9 exams, parts of which we can't be sure what to teach or self study.
And then you say "the industry" will catch up"! So we can't recommend which books to study and we don't know how much formal ground school to give.
Finally, we are told informally that the PPL course is to be reviewed next April, and you wonder why steam emanates from my ear lobes.

keith williams
11th Oct 2013, 15:09
I only used the exam answer sheet/book as I said, as a reference source for topics to be studied. (FE/GR and ex C.of Papers)

With the current situation that is probably the ony way in whch ground instructors will be able to get sufficient information to advise their students how to prepare for the new exams.


Keith, what's missing from the above is our most important thought, that is the student and potential PPL. As discussed elsewhere, a simple question bank would suffice, similar to the FAA. Instead from October 1st we are presented with questions in Nav., very different, complex and importantly, not relevant to the PPL course. As I say, imagine you are a student PPL and when asking about the ground school element of the course, are told that 1)We are unsure what the syllabus is (apart from the FCL ref.),and 2) You have 9 exams, parts of which we
can't be sure what to teach or self study.

As I said in my previous post, I am not arguing that the current situation is good. It is not good at all.


And then you say "the industry" will catch up"! So we can't recommend which books to study and we don't know how much formal ground school to give.

You can advise your students to look at the syllabus and prepare for the worst case scenario. Basically they must be ready to face questions on all parts of the syllabus as published. They will of course be totally unimpressed with it all. Ground instructors should take the same approach in deciding what to include in their lessons. If an instructor's reaction when seeing a new question is to say something like "Strewth I can't answer that one!" then he/she is not ready to teach the material.


Finally, we are told informally that the PPL course is to be reviewed next April, and you wonder why steam emanates from my ear lobes.


I do not wonder about it at all. I can fully understand why people get wound up about it. But the syllabus is not actually new and everyone appears to have been quite happy to ignore its limitations in the past. The only thing that has actually changed is that the fools at the CAA have started to examine a much wider area of the syllabus. The fact that seeing what is actually in the syllabus did not cause their alarm bells to ring does not surprise me at all.

JAKL
16th Oct 2013, 19:55
Re: And remember, GPS is susceptible to jamming and interference (my ar5e)

I seem to remember seeing a Notam early last year regarding the 'testing' of the satellites that would render GPS signals unreliable in the midlands for a period of time. I would imagine 'testing' means the Americans were jamming and interfering with 'their' satellites.
If that was the case, anybody flying using GPS only would have had a problem, especially in poor visibility.
So it is a good idea to check notams before flying, it is recommended and with todays technology (iPhones, iPads, android phones, computers, laptops, landlines, etc) it's not that difficult.

paco
17th Oct 2013, 17:42
"which _specific_ book covers all the new nav topics, as only one book does"

If it isn't my one, then that's 2! :)

I think it's about time that the PPL syllabus was sorted out - as someone said, the idiot(s) who chose the recently issued questions ought to have their respective butts kicked, but a lot of people are going on to be commercial pilots, and we see the dire results of the current system here.

Phil