Fair enough - As long as you make an informed decision. I get a bit frustrated sometimes with the overly optimistic view some people have getting into this industry; Sorry if I came across a bit harsh
I used propilot for my studies - Sorry I must have missed that question.
The propilot series focusses on the learning objectives and the syllabus, but tends to skip the more interesting side bits. They are perfectly adequate to study for the exams and get a good score (in conjunction with for example aviationexam). They are very easy to read in general and you'll make quick progress moving through the syllabus. They also have a decent amount of pictures and the font is rather large so their thick 700 page books read more like regular 350 page books. It's not as much as it seems.
What they do seem to lack in my opinion is a "flowing story" or a "red line" through the chapters. For example, rather than giving you a story structure to remember something, the book will skip that and just give you a list of memory items. It is not that bad in most books, but for air law for example becomes as boring as dishwater when you have entire chapters consist of:
Planes are separated both laterally and horizontally. Lateral separation is based on the following requirements:
A
B
C
Conversely you can also be separated horizontally, provided that:
X
Y
Z
Except in: K and L
I personally find stuff like that really boring to read..
Similar things tend to happen near the end of the bigger books, like meteorology and aerodynamics. The later chapters become much more bulletpoint like than actual text and gloss over the interesting stuff.
Overall they are decent books, they'll get you through it. You can always get an Oxford air law book on the side if you want to read up on certain topics in more detail (or download them in pdf
). I know that Stapleford uses propilot.
As a reference, I know a few former SFC lads and they're now flying for Ryanair, Stobart and one on a learjet 45 for a small charter company. So the books/training will certainly get you there.