Theory PPL

[SkilledMusician]

Hi there,

I've become very interested in flying in the last year and would like to build towards obtaining a private pilots license. At the moment I'm not in the position to fly. I have zero hours and limited knowledge just from being interested and reading a lot. Without the means to fly, I figured for now I can at least get some good solid study towards the theory exam.

Could anyone recommend a good study guide or text books, perhaps tailored towards completing the theory exam? I am UK based and would most likely learn here.

Thanks,

SM

[phiggsbroadband]

Hi Skills.. The cheapest method would be to get yourself a membership of your local library, and then see what they have relating to PPL exams and Flight and Navigation etc. If they don't have the required books (i.e. any of the 7 'The Air Pilot's Manuals' by Peter D Goodwin.) then ask them for an Inter-Library Loan, and the books will arrive for you in a week or so.
Ultimately you will get a similar set of these books from your flight school as part of your PPL course, along with some navigational tools.


For general interest you could Google Nats AIP, and wade your way through some of the parts that interest you. Also a trip to your local GA airfield might be useful. When I did that many years ago, they gave me an old 1:500,000 chart for my interest.


If you have an air-band scanner, try to find the frequencies of all the stations within range, and get to understand the 'lingo'. I used to follow a freight airplane from Liverpool to London at 23:30 every night, I got to know which frequency he would switch to next, and could hear him all the way until London at 3000ft.. That was 'Gem-Stone 05 Mike', now no longer flying that route.

[gooddaysir]

If you're seriously interested about getting your PPL then you might as well buy the books rather than just rent them from a library. Im sure there will be many times in your future flying career that you'll look back at them for some reference or other, or even just to give to your future children who grow up to be fighter pilots.


The only ones I can recommend is the Jeremy Pratt PPL Course series of textbooks, which start with a nice fat blue 'PPL1: flying training' book, and then loosely follow with air law and meteorology and principles of flight and whatnot that you'll need to both pass the theory exams and become a competent private pilot. Its all youll ever need - your flying school will probably stock them but don't buy anything from there, I got mine a lot cheaper off tinternet and delivered free straight to my house


Ive also begged and borrowed some stuff like a kneeboard and a headset, but neither of these things are even remotely necessary when youre pre-solo


edit: nothing about flying is even remotely 'cheap', so spending a hundred antarctican dollars or so on some essential textbooks is nothing - as soon as you've had a lesson or two and haven't vomited or developed vertigo then you'll be hooked and end up spending thousands and thousands

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

If you are serious about understanding flight, there is only one book - 'Stick & Rudder'. Don't be put off by its dated pictures, it is a gem, and THE book to explain in simple and practical (no maths, just common sense) but entirely correct terms why aeroplanes fly, and why they sometimes don't.

[gooddaysir]

not only does stick and rudder appear to originate from sometime towards the earlier time of the cretaceous period, its also written by someone called WOLFGANG BAUMGEISTER or some ****!!


im trying to get my ppl not learn how to shoot down spitfires.

[BroomstickPilot]

Hi SkilledMusician,

This is some advice I gave to someone else a couple of weeks ago. It might help you also.

The first thing I would point out is that of all the people who actually get a PPL, fully 70% decide not renew their licences at the end of their first five years. (This does not include those who give up flying before they succeed in even getting a licence in the first place).

There are numerous reasons why people give up, cost and the demands of family especially loom large, but so also does the massive and expensive over-regulation of private flying in the UK and the limited things you can do with your licence once you have got it - unless you have plenty of money. There's an old joke ruefully exchanged among private pilots that 'if God had intended man to fly - he would have given us more money'.

If your intention is to fly just for a hobby, then you should also look at gliding and micro-light flying also. Micro-light flying is divided into two sub-categories, 'weight-shift' and 'three-axis'. 'Three-axis' micro-light aircraft especially are almost indistinguishable from 'Group A' and are in very many cases much better aircraft. These modes of flying are all much cheaper than 'Group A' flying and do not require a full PPL.

There is also the NPPL, which is a 'Britain only' licence that will give you limited rights to fly 'Group A' aircraft within the UK, although I do believe NPPL holders may now be allowed to fly over France. (Don't quote me on that; I'm not an NPPL holder so I am only going on hear-say).

Gliding has its own system of incremental certificates that can be gained step by step over time and micro-light flying is regulated by the BMAA who have their own licence system. I believe the minimum requirement for a licence to fly 'three-axis' is only 30 hours, rather than the 45 minimum for a PPL or 40 for an NPPL.

Incidentally, don't fall into the trap of assuming the PPL is a '45 flying hour course'. The 45 hours is merely a legal minimum. In practice few people qualify within this number of hours, 60 or 70 hrs being more common. And if, for work or financial reasons, you can only fly perhaps once a fortnight then you are probably going to require well over a hundred hours just to get your flying to a standard adequate to pass the PPL skill test.

You also need to be confident that you can pass the six ground examinations by self-study as ground-school facilities are few and far between.

Finally, you need to know before you start what kind of flying you wish to do with your licence once you've got it and know in advance whether you can afford it.

Good luck.

BP.

[Johnm]

If all you want to do is fly and go on the occasional trip then the microlight suggestion is a good one. The NPPL is being superseded by LAPL which is a European qualification as I understand it and will allow you to fly anywhere.

[worldpilot]

I would advice that you take a discovery flight to ascertain if flying is something right for you and if you are ready to take the risks.

A discovery flight gives you the opportunity to make sense of the art of flying and to look at it from a different perspective. Once you have gone through this experience, your chances of making the right and informed decision are better.

Good luck

WP

[SkilledMusician]

Thank you all for the informative replies. I guess I have a lot to think about and work out. My plan was not to rush into it. I run a business which at the current rate of growth, I should be doing well enough in a few years to afford to finance my aviation passion. My intention was to save up at the same time as waiting so I can get licensed as quickly and as cost effective as possible. Meanwhile I wanted to work towards theory as I love information and I could complete the exam sooner than instead of whilst getting the flight hours in.

Any further advice always appreciated.

Thanks,

Skill

[phiggsbroadband]

Hi Skills... You mention the theory exam (singular.)... It is actually several exams... Human Factors, Radio Telephony, Navigation, Airplane Technical, and Meteorology and Aviation Law. I think there may be an other these days as well. They have slightly changed the exams recently.

[Heston]

Suggest you ignore gooddaysir - obviously he thinks he should be a skygod and cant learn anything from anybody, and is not able to help anybody else either. Well news for him - he'd get his ppl quicker and be a better pilot afterwards if he read "some **** from the cretaceous period" and tried to get his apparently inadequate brain around it.


Langewiesche was American (test pilot for Curtiss) so shooting down Spitfires didn't come into it. And I don't believe the physics of flying has changed since the 1940s.


Shaggy is spot on - read Stick and Rudder and really understand what is happening.

[olasek]

read Stick and Rudder and really understand what is happening.I personally found this book boring, very repetitive.

I think most beginners PPL don't have too much problem mastering stick and rudder - the main issue lies in decision making and principles of safe flying. If there is any supplemental (apart from typical textbooks) aviation reading from which I learned most it is this small rather inexpensive book, you learn best from other pilots' grave errors:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71BW52PR7AL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.gif