Which exams before training in US?

[keithleng]

I'm planning to do my PPL at one of the Florida schools. I'd like to get some of the ground schools exams out of the way before I go but I probably won't be able to get them all done.

Does anyone have any advice on which would ones I should do first? Are there any of them that stand out as being particularly difficult or time-consuming?

While I realise that they are all necessary, I would imagine that some of them are more directly related to the hands-on aspects of flying whereas others will cover background/theoretical topics. If this is true, I'm guessing it would be better to get the hands-on ones done first so that I'm better prepared when I actually start flying.

Any other thoughts?

Thanks,
Keith

[Keygrip]

A very well placed and carefully thougt out question for a first post!! Enough there to make some people suspicious..anyway, in my humble opinion...

The main recommendation would be to delay your journey to the USA and ensure you have all the writtens done before coming out here.

"Groundschool" in the USA means "go home and read the book".

Air Law - slightly tedious and different in the USA from what you need to know in the UK (would be worth getting done and trying to keep at the back of your mind, as your USA instructor will probably have his blinkers on and not be aware that there are lands outside the USA).

RADIO written and practical - ENSURE you have both done before coming out. Go to your local school and sign up for a course of groundschool that terminates in passing the test. Some of the USA schools do not have R/T facilities and the tripe that they make you learn here will not work well for you when you return to the UK - the opposite cannot be said. The procedures you learn in the UK WILL work for 90% of flight operations out here.

Human Performance - rumoured to be relatively easy - crack it before leaving UK, just to reduce the amount required out here.

Aircraft Technical - later.

Meteorology - later.

Navigation - leave it till later if you have to - but navigation procedures are different here and I've found many an FAA instructor that does not know how to use the "wizz wheel" (so much planning being done on calculators and computers).

Which one have I missed - brain f**t going on here!!

[BEagle]

If you can do all your exams before training overseas, good luck and best wishes.

But just think about where you will take the exams. They have to be taken at a RF or FTO. If all the RF does is Groundschool, probably no problem. But if the RF is also struggling to find customers who want to learn to fly there - and discovers you want to sit the exams so you can nip off Stateside to an intensive PPL place, how keen do you think they'll be on you?

I offer my customers free exams if they train at my RF as a structured part of the course. However, if they want to do just the exams before going overseas to train cheaper then they will have to pay the same rates as the CAA charge.

[englishal]

There's a guy at Bournemouth who will do all the ground school and exams over a weekend...can't remember his name but I know a few PPruner's have used him before. Costs about 300 quid.

Why not do the exams in the US? If you are well prepared [ie. read the TT books several times] and the school is reputable, then there is no problem taking the CAA exams in the US. You can bang them out the first week...

Cheers
EA:D

[keithleng]

Thanks for the replies. I'm encouraged to read that it's possible to do the whole thing in a weekend. I might look into finding the guy in Bournmouth.

Having said that, I'm now seriously considering whether I might want to do the course in the UK after all.

I've been teetering on the brink of doing a PPL for years. I thought I'd checked out all of the options but for some reason I'd never come across Sherburn which is within comuting distance for me. I followed the link in the fly-in thread on this forum and was very surpised at their prices.

It seems I could do a 45 hour PPL with them for 3600. When I take into account the travel and accomodation costs of going to the States, there wouldn't be much in it. And of course at Sherburn, I'd be in my local area which is probably where I'd do most of my flying when I'm qualified; also, it would be UK RT and weather etc.

All-in-all I think I may well be paying a visit to Sherburn in the future. In fact, I might drive-in to the fly-in!

Cheers,
Keith

[Deaf]

Don't know what involved in US or UK theory for PPL but a weekend course might be a bit ambitious.

In Oz we have the Basic Aeronautical Knowledge for the GFPT (old restricted PPL for carrying passengers near the field) this is basically aerodynamics and engines with no nav, met or operations.

Many years ago I did a series of BAK courses with IIRC the then standard 2 hrs one night a week for 6 weeks and following requests ran it as a weekend course and it was a disaster. The underlying problem was that to cover the syllabus too much in the way of new concepts had to be imparted without time for the brain to digest them so that by the Sat evening I was looking at a lot of stunned mullets. It was only sucessful in the case of:

a) Students who had attempted to do the whole thing from a book, had most of the concepts and only needed help on a few points.

b) A introduction for one student who was rather bright, passed but I had to give him some revision a couple of weeks later as he had basically forgotten the lot. It went into short term memory but was not digested into long term memory.

Regarding learning from the books it helps if you have at least two to cross check and clarify points. An example of this is my wife who did an Oz ultralight course a year ago and I thought it would be just as easy to get the GA BAK done which covered the AUF requirements as well. So we go and examine (IIRC) 3 texts which cover the subject and return with the Thom book (on the basis that she felt it explained things best for her) and a few sample exams.

She disappears with the book and comes back with a query about a answer to a question from the problems at the end of the first chapter. The answer was correctly given as camber but neither of us could find any mention of it in the chapter. No doubt any book will have similar problems.

[Julian]

BEagle has the right answer - do all of them! Then all you have to concentrate on is keeping the aircraft in the air!!! Quite a few of the guys of my course were locked away at night studying and looking very nervous during the days they had exams, I saved bricking myself for the flight test :D

There are plenty of ads in the back of mags advertising ground schools. I did a 2 day groundschool and exams but they expect you to have gone through the books and have a working knowledge which they then build on, you wont manage it if you go in cold.