Hi Jay and welcome!
To answer your question I think it will really depend on what the school you choose to train with will provide you with. To my knowledge most schools will provide you with the flying training, and it will be your responsibility to educate yourself through the ground school. On saying that however, you will have long briefings on certain subject areas that will help you with your ground studies and these will be of a practical nature.
Some of things that you will
need as part of the course are listed below.
- CRP-1 Flight computer or bite the bullet and go for a CRP-5 if you want to go and study for you professional exams after your PPL.
- Knee board. These come in lots of shapes and sizes, the A4 style seems to work well, for me anyway, but it is down to personal preference.
- 1:500,000 VFR naviagtion chart.
- Pooley's flight guide for all the information you need on the airfields located in the UK.
- Protractor and plotter for measuring true track and distances.
- Headset. The school will most likely loan you one, however, it is nice to have your own for personal comfort.
- Lots of pens and pencils, can never have too many
.
- The Trevor Thom series of books for the PPL ground studies. These books will provide you with all you need to know and more to pass the exams. Or maybe the Oxford CD ROM series, from what I have seen they are very good.
- Subscribe to the Met office website, its free! You will need to obtain the weather for all navigation exercises and having it online is very convinient. www.metoffice.com/aviation
- Subsribe to the Aeronautical Information Service online, its also free, and provides you with lots of useful information. www.ais.org.uk
- ..........and finally, a sense of humour
I am sure I have probably missed a few things out, but I think some of the essentials are there. Enjoy the course, it really is a lot of fun!
All the best.