PPL Groundschool

[WILCO.XMG]

Hey guys,

I'm currently taking a gap year from University to do a few things to enhance my employability. And I want to get my PPL done, well ground school exams, RT Licence and Medical anyway. Finish the flying in the due Summer.

I am just wondering what is the right sequence to do all this in? Is their a right and wrong. I know you can't go solo until you passed Air Law so maybe thats a starting point?

Also is it more beneficial to go for the class 1 medial instead of the class 2, just incase you have it in the back of your mind to do ATPL's if the economic climate changes.

Cheers for your opinions guys.

WILCO.XMG

[MDHAC]

Wilco.xmg

Firstly I would question whether a gap year from Uni will enhance your employability? I would have thought it would look better on your CV if you finish what you started first and show commitment to completing the course (the way you had written it suggests that you've started Uni and are taking a break rather than a gap year before or after? Apologies if I have got this wrong)

Im also assuming that you mean in your gap year you intend to do the ground school and PPL which you will complete by summer, then go back to Uni after this?

On that note I would suggest:
First of all you take a trail flight/lesson at your local club to make sure you actually like flying.
Then get your medical. If you are planning on going commercial get a class 1, if you are just flying for fun get a class 2.
If you get a class 1 it will need renewing after a year. However, if you are going to Uni for a year or three you can then continue to fly on the class 2 without the expense of renewal (unless youre over 40/45?) until the time comes to start your commercial training (where you will need the class 1).
The reason I'd suggest getting the Class1 first, I would say is pretty obvious, but too be clear, get the class 1 so that you know you are medically fit enough to be a pilot before spending any (more) money.

Once you have this begin a course. From there the school will direct you in the best order to do the exams, and most peoples experiences follow the same (or similar) pattern.
Generally these follow the actual hands on learning.
Firstly you'll need to read up on the exercises before each lesson (and id recommend after), then you will need to pass Airlaw before going solo.
Next get the communications exam (this will help when you're in the circuit and when you start the cross country).
Next, do the Meteorology (whilst building your circuit hours).
Then, as you start the cross country flying do the Navigation exam (this will be easier as you can apply what you read to your flying actually getting the hands on experience will help digest what you read)
Then, I wouldnt say its too important which order you do the remaining three exams, but obviously you need them passed before the skills test.

Once you have completed your skills test, take the RT exam and submit the application for your PPL and Radio Licence at the same time (saves a few quid).
Also consider when taking the exams you only have a certain amount of time between passing them and applying for your licence before you have to take them again, I cant remember the exact details on this but if you visit the CAA website or look up Lasors you will find the answers.

Im sure there are many other posts on PPRUNE asking similar questions so may be worth searching for some of these to see other answers/opinions.

Regards

[BackPacker]

At the PPL level, groundschool is not mandatory, although your school might want you to believe differently so they can retain a steady stream of income. But it's perfectly OK to self-study for your PPL and not attend any formal PPL groundschool whatsoever. (Having said that, some people are not good at self-study and really benefit from classroom groundschool. But if you're a Uni student it should be no problem whatsoever to acquire the theoretical knowledge by self-study.)

Also, the ANO does not specify any theoretical exam to be done before you fly your first solo. Most UK schools have a policy of requiring Air Law before first solo though, mostly to force you to study while you do your practical training. If you have a good enough reason (for instance because it's very likely you will not finish your PPL in time, and thus your Air Law exam would expire), the school can waive this requirement.

Furthermore, I'm with MDHAC. A gap year from University is likely going to decrease your employability rather than enhance it. Particularly if you spend maybe three months or more of that gap year to obtain a PPL, which has no commercial value whatsoever.

[WILCO.XMG]

Jez you guys are starting to frighten me.
I'm actually doing an Aerospace Engineering degree. And I could be heading into my final year but decided against. Since there really is nobody employing I thought that taking a gap year and doing some things under my belt.

I want to finish my PPL exams - I currently have 20 hours and want to do the exams this year and blitz through the flying next summer. I'm hoping this will show employers the genuine intrest in Aviation i have.

I then am planning on learning a language (French or Spanish, not decided) to maybe make me look more attractive to prospective employers.

I then am looking at short courses, in Cranfield University, however they are quite expenisve and are generally for those already in Management positions in Airlines.

Do you guys not think this to be a good idea?

However yes I am not sure about the exams to go for first. I suppose the more "boring" ones to get out of the way like Air Law and Human Factors was my first opinion. Then I thought it was more sensible to go for the RT Licence.

However your comments about my gap year have me in a bit of a bummer.

:sad:

[Supermattt]

Hi Wilco,

I just got my PPL in June.

Do Class One medical first and then forget about medical for five years unless you go commercial.

If you can, get all the exams done as soon as possible. They will all help your flying.

If you are used to studying and fairly bright you'll have no problem. They are not really heavy and you can get through them quite quickly if you apply yourself. The content for each individual exam is small enough to be able to learn everything for that exam fairly quickly, revise it, test test test yourself and then sit the exam straight away. Little break, night out, and move onto the next one.

I don't think order is that important but, my humble thoughts:

Do Air Law early cause they'll want you to before going solo. My instructor got me to sign a bit of paper one day and was about to hop out the plane and unexpectedly send me solo - I hadn't yet done Air Law - so no go and weather prevented actual first solo for another month or more - pretty annoying.

Principles of flight & Flight Flight planning - principles of flight probably a good thing to understand when doing early flight training especially stalling, and good to think about weights, balances & planning early on so you are at ease with it when it comes to flying navs - perhaps do this one early on.

Navigation - pretty substantial one and alot of stuff you want to know and be good at for actual flying rather then just to pass the test. True that it helps to be doing navs to put it on context so a mid-way one maybe. When practicing, be silly with your accuracy - squint with your eyes up against your protractor when measuring angles, draw lines from the exact middle of the little circle that is an airfield on the map, very precise with whizz wheel etc- The exam requires you to be very accurate with your angles and distances - a small mistake gets amplified by subsequent calculations.

Meteorlogy - Depends how scientifically minded you are - quite substantial. Can probably leave till later in the course as you will probably rely on your instructor to make the weather decisions until later navs. But you should start looking at the weather everyday, looking at TAFs, METARS, and briefing charts and get used to thinking about whether you would fly into it - develop your judgement.

Aircraft General Knowledge - pretty basic mechanics, electrics etc. - just read, memorise & test.

Human Factors - pretty basic human biology. Again just read, memorise and test test test.

RT - The longer you've been flying and using the radio the easier this is going to be and no need to do it until the end so do it near the end. Make sure you are doing all the rdaio work from as early on as possible.

You have to pass the last exam no later than 18 months after passing your first exam.

Again, if you can, get all the exams done as soon as possible.

I hope this is of some help. Do let me know if you have any questions at all about exams, material, flying etc. etc. etc.

Cheers
Matt

[WILCO.XMG]

Matt

Some great suggestions there.
One question? How long did you spend preparing for each exam. Did you give yourself one month to do each?

Wilco

[turbulentmonkey]

just finished the last of my ppl exams. done them over the summer. would say 1 week for each of the 7 subjects if you get your head down

[GogglesOnTarget]

This is what I did:
1. Got class 1 medical to get peace of mind over ATPL in the future.
2. Did air law before my 1st flying lesson (Read J.Pratt's book).
3. Did some more lessons and then went solo.
4. Whilst bashing out circuits I read more J.Pratt books and did Met, Nav and HP.
5. Did my QXC and then started exploring on my own, going through MATZ and Class D etc.
After doing step 5 (above) I think I've made enough cock ups and had some good practice to go for my RT next week.
I've got nine hours to go so will take PP in the next 5 and then Technical at the end.
I haven't done any ground school, I've just read books and had a go on the PPL confuser. One thing I will say is that the subjects can seem a tad dry if you have no practice to associate them with.

Good Luck - it's a great laugh.
GoT

[Supermattt]

Hiyaaaa,

Yes I agree with Turbulentmonkey but was going to say two weeks. I think I did all the work for Human Factors in two nights, but Nav for example is more substantial and you need to do lots of excercises to get workings into your head. Met I found alot of looking at the weather helped, on screen and looking up into the sky.
I really like this view: Met Office: Surface pressure forecast (http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/uk/surface_pressure.html)

I must say I really enjoyed learning Met and Nav.

Cheers
Matt

[codemonkey]

fwiw i think it´s a good call to take a year out from uni, a lot of the worth of a degree is in the employment opportunities that come up for new graduates, so the timing of completion is more important than people realise.

if i was hiring and presented with several basically similar cv´s i´d definately favor the guys with the pilots licences, the one´s who´d cycled across america or been to the summit of everest, you get the idea. in that sense a PPL could be excellent value for money.

i would echo what has been said about getting a class 1 medical, flying has a way of snowballing and although people get into it planning only a PPL it´s not long before you start wondering what if.

the theoretical part of the course is no big deal, imho its cheaper, more effective and more efficient to self study than go to a ground school. i also feel like it´s better to be well into the studying process before actually flying, you´ll get more out of it that way.

[WILCO.XMG]

codemonkey -

great to see someone who is thinking along my lines as regards taking a gap year and making it of benefit.

Do you think one exam every 3-4 weeks is sufficient. Also how much is it do to these at a local flying school? £20 - £50?

Im hoping to do my Class 1 Medical in Gatwick in November so I've booked an appointment with my GP tomorrow to go over my Asthma.

Its never been a problem, ie i play competitive sport (University football team), never had an Asthma attack and am in no way dependant on an inhaler.

So i hope this isn't a stumbling block before i go on. Also going for a Eye Test too. To make sure i don't get any nasty surprises when i do get to Gatwick.

[GogglesOnTarget]

Exams are £25 (set by the CAA), you shouldn't be paying any more. Good luck with the medical.

[MDHAC]

Your asthma shouldnt be a problem, especially if you can play competative sports with no problems.
I also have asthma (and you need a letter from your doctor befroe you go but im guessing this is why you are seeing them?) but I had no problems passing.

One word of advice I would give you going into the medical. Wear trainers.
Because you have asthma it is more than likely they will make you run around the outside of the building 2 or 3 times before coming back in for another peak flow.
I had to do this which wasnt a problem, but I did find it funny that the person who was also doing their test that day was stood outside smoking whilst I was running around, yet they just had the normal test!

[GogglesOnTarget]

My peak flow was a tad low, but it was snowing outside and the docs all wanted to go home so they didn't bother with any KV and I got my piece of paper anyway:E

[WILCO.XMG]

MDHAC?
Whats the story with the letter from the doctor i need to get. I printed out the requirements to pass the medical and he seen that a doctor letter was needed but assumed not for asthma.

Can you shed any more light on this.

[MDHAC]

WILCO.XMG

I took my medical back in 2007 and so the details are a little hazy. I was informed when I rang up to book the test (I mentioned I had asthma then) that I would need a letter from my doctor to say that my asthma was under control. The doctor also added a bit about my medication and dose, and frequency of prescription, and also a history of peak flow (although i have no idea where they got this from as I dont go all that often!).
Id suggest you give them a call, it might not be needed now, but they'll know better than me.

Regards
MDHAC

[turbulentmonkey]

The order you do the exams might not matter that much, but to get the most out of your training I would say have a good read through/study all of the aircraft technical and principles of flight exam. Checking suction = between 3 and 5, ammeter = charging etc, isnt much use if you don't know what they do! I got through quite a few hours before learning the function of these instruments and what they indicate. Knowing what to look for obviously helps learning, worth considering when you check the hourly training rates. So if I knew sooner, I would have done technical exam earlier. But that's just my opinion...

[WILCO.XMG]

I've been back now getting my teeth into Pratt's books.

Now I want to practice all I've read and studied, I have used the Q and A simplifier and I have heard airquiz.com mentioned.

Also everyone i know talks about how the PPL confuser is the holy grail and is a must buy.

I've read a few threads and it seems that the confuser has become discontinued?

Is it a book worth buying if it isnt up to scratch?

Are there any alternatives out there?

[richs3]

I bought the latest copy of the confuser about a year ago, while there are quite a few errors (which I actually found rather disapointing) I still found it to be a really usefull asset.

However possibly better than the confuser (and more accurate) is airquiz.co.uk

[TractorBoy]

There's no fixed order to doing the exams, although my school insisted on Air Law pre solo.

I did Air Law first as, quite simply, it's the most boring subject I've ever been examined on and wanted to get it out of the way before I started self-harming !!! :} (although of course it's extremely important to know...... :\ )

[GogglesOnTarget]

Some people will say the Confuser was no help and others will say they didn't even bother with it.

I found it to be invaluable (regardless of the mistakes) as the CAA have a nasty sense of humour when it comes to the format of questions and trying to catch you out.

An older version will still be good practice and at least give you the gist of what to expect.

They have been hard to come by, but do pop up on Ebay occasionally. I've even seen a PDF version kicking about!

@TractorBoy - Airlaw is a mandatory requirement for solo.

[BackPacker]

@TractorBoy - Airlaw is a mandatory requirement for solo.

Not legally, but lots of schools have it in their policy.

[GogglesOnTarget]

Hi BackPacker,

I got it from LASORS2008

[BackPacker]

Interesting. Where?

[GogglesOnTarget]

Interesting????

C3.3 a.i

GoT:8

[BackPacker]

I was just doing an exhaustive search for the word "solo" in LASORS and hit upon the same article.

But... The whole of section C3 applies to Gyroplanes. There is no comparable requirement in section C1 (Aeroplanes) or C2 (Helicopters).

Nor in section C4 (Balloons, Airships) or C6 (Microlights etc) for that matter. I wonder what's so special about Gyroplanes that the ANO would requires Air Law (plus a few others actually) before first solo there, but not for any other aircraft type.

[GogglesOnTarget]

well spotted!

I wonder