What I found
Dear Fellow Aspirers,
My circumstances have changed a little since starting this post, I got a call from the CFI on Friday and they want me to start ASAP, and do my PPL in the States opposed to here as was originally planned. Before anyone posts a reply back saying "Be careful, popular wisdom always says do the PPL here" I've looked into and am going to be doing it to JAA standards but attaining a FAA qualification. This is in very busy airspace at a very busy airport so not that perturbed.
Consequently I'm going to have to source FAA material rather than JAA stuff. However this is what I found while doing my research. Buying a ready-made bag seems to be a waste of time, avoid it. Despite what I wrote earlier, Pratt’s books I have since found out seem to get a better score than Thoms.
I was planning on buying them from Amazon.co.uk (by far the cheapest) for £13.96 each. However I was only going to buy books 1, 2, 3 and 4 based on what I'd read that human factors and radio telephony are best covered in the PPL confuser and CAP 413 manual, so £55.84 so far
The confuser isn't available on Amazon, you'll have to source it yourself from wherever, approx. £22 I think.
I went onto ebay and found a guy selling a CRP 5 for £55. He also sells the Met CD for £45 and IFR and VFR + UK supplement Oxford CD's for a further £70 I think. He might be willing to do you a deal; he's easy to find.
All the following from flightstore.co.uk
Jeppesen European Professional Pilot Log Book
£24.99
AP-1 Protractor
Standard Flying School Issue Protractor
£4.95
ANZP-1 Plotter with Rotating Protractor
£12.95
Southern England & Wales UK 1:500,000 VFR Chart - New Ed. 30 £13.99
CAP 413 - Radio telephony manual
£13.00
AS-2 Scale Rule 22cm (9 inch)
Scale markings in 1:500,000 & 1:250,000
£4.95
Some of these products may be found cheaper elsewhere, I just used one website for convenience. Happy hunting.
Stephen