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PPL training books

Old 24th Jan 2014, 23:46
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PPL training books

Folks,

I am just about to begin my PPL training and I hear that the PPL training books are the best way to study for the exams? Especially by Trevor thom?

I also heard of a ppl confuser to study also? What exactly is this?

Thanking you kindly
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Old 24th Jan 2014, 23:55
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Birch & Bramson ' Flight Briefing for Pilots' in my day. Still on my bookshelf.

OK, just my bit of fun. But the 'old book' you must read is 'Stick & Rudder'. Should be required reading for every PPL stude. Don't be put off by the ancient presentation and graphics - it's quite excellent and explains soooo much that crops up here and wouldn't had the studes read it.
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Old 25th Jan 2014, 01:47
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I prefer the Jeremy Pratt books - but I also hang onto my books as you never know when you want to look something up.

The PPL confuser is a book of sample exam questions for practicing before taking the real exams. However, the real exams have recently all changed, and I don't believe that the confuser has. Also it's best to concentrate upon knowing the subject, rather than just studying for the test.

G
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Old 25th Jan 2014, 07:13
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Study material for PPL

Hi Gally2,

I have been out of flying for about five years or so, so you must forgive me if some of my advice is a bit vague. But I'll do my best.

First of all, there are two main ranges of books for PPL, the Trevor Thom series and the Jeremy Pratt series.

Mr. Thom has been dead for many years, so current editions of the books in the series named after him have been written by different authors (and almost certainly by two or more different people).

I have no idea whether Mr. Pratt is still in the world of the living or who actually writes his book series; (anybody know)?

Of the two, my own personal preference (when I bought new books in about 2005) was for the Jeremy Pratt series. I found the writing style in the Thom series heavy and stodgy and the type face harder on the eyes. However that is purely a personal view.

One thing not to fall for is to be talked into buying the PPL 'kit' which consists of a cheap pilot case full of J Thom books a basic whizz wheel and some cheap nav instruments. This will make you shell out upward of £200 up front, will tie you in to the Thom series and will remove all opportunity to exercise personal choice over your nav instruments. (For example, if you have ambitions of going commercial later then you may as well by a CRP-5 whizz wheel to begin with rather than get the CRP-1 included in the kit and then have to pay much more for a 5 later). If you want a pilot case, there used to be a very good 'Pierre Cardin' case available for about £20 mail order.

My advice would be to buy your text books one by one over a period and as you need them. Each time you buy, go to a pilot shop and browse among the textbooks and choose the one you feel best able to work with. The result will probably be that you will choose some books from the Thom series and some from the Pratt series and one or two odd ones from other sources.

The PPL Confuser has been out of print for a good many years (as also has been the IMC Confuser). The 'Confusers' were books of questions of the same sort used in the PPL ground examinations. Essentially they were books of multiple choice questions each giving four answers to choose from. They were very good in their day, but as the years pass I suspect they will be losing their relevance to modern day flying, especially in regard to aviation law. (Don't risk using an out of date book on aviation law).

Rather than chase around looking for obsolete books I suggest you subscribe to an on-line question service. I never used these for PPL; (I originally did my PPL in 1960), so I can't tell you the names and web addresses of the on-line question banks but I am sure others will be able to. I would imagine these will be much better for a current student than the confusers.

There could also be other possibilities. I seem to remember that a few years ago a series of DVDs was put on the market which were effectively textbooks provided in animated form. (Rather like the series OATS published for the ATPL). I would guess that these would be excellent as they would deliver the knowledge in a much more easily assimilated form. Here again, I can't tell you the name of the series or whether it is still available, but I am sure others will be able to tell you.

Anyway, I hope this helps.

Good luck with your training.

BP.
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Old 25th Jan 2014, 07:16
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Mr. Thom has been dead for many years, so current editions of the books in the series named after him have been written by different authors (and almost certainly by two or more different people).

I have no idea whether Mr. Pratt is still in the world of the living or who actually writes his book series; (anybody know)?
The most recent editor of the UK-version Trevor Thom books was Peter Godwin, the CFI of Bonus Aviation up until when they went bust about a year ago.

Jeremy Pratt was looking well when I saw him about 2 months ago. When not writing books, he's managing director of AFE - the flight equipment and publishing company.

Rather than chase around looking for obsolete books I suggest you subscribe to an on-line question service. I never used these for PPL; (I originally did my PPL in 1960), so I can't tell you the names and web addresses of the on-line question banks but I am sure others will be able to. I would imagine these will be much better for a current student than the confusers.
CATS (Cranfield Aviation Training School) do free online PPL material, presumably in the hope that everybody will be so impressed they'll stick with CATS when they then do their CPLs or ATPLs. I've not seen their PPL material, but I did my CPL groundschool with them and was fairly impressed.

G

Last edited by Genghis the Engineer; 25th Jan 2014 at 07:27.
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Old 25th Jan 2014, 08:16
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Thanks

Thanks Genghis!

BP.
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Old 25th Jan 2014, 15:59
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I too prefer the Jeremy Pratt books, but like Genghis I keep mine. But you really don't want old ones anyway! They get out of date; some subjects change more than others, but just about all of them will have changed after a few years. I would buy the books....when you've done a bit of flying and studying and know which ones you prefer, as you need them, one at a time, but new or at least fairly recent.
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Old 25th Jan 2014, 20:20
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I used the Thom books now called The Aircraft Pilots Manual and an MCQ website together with ground school handouts / notes. Got the first book free with a 5 hour introductory package and just stuck with the series. Bought the rest on eBay (checking that they were the current edition - it appears they have been updated since I bought my set in 2012).

As regards question practice the ground school instructor ran mock exams and went through some MCQs to explain what the examiners were getting at. I found the practice questions were helpful to check I had not missed anything out or got the wrong end of the stick but in the end it turned out that learning from Rick and reading the books meant that I ended up not using all the sections of the MCQ website.

Chris


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Old 27th Jan 2014, 15:40
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The FAA website provides various free publications. Worth a look. The link below will take you to a handbook covering all ppl ground subjects. Well written and illustrated in glorious Technicolor (download as pdf). Slightly “American” but the Principles of Flight are the same on both sides of the Atlantic – except the CAA will make things much more complicated and charge you a minimum of £200 for doing so.

Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge

Next link also covers ppl syllabus

Welcome to the free online private pilot ground school

Third link will generate mock exam papers in each subject. £20 for a year (unlimited use). EASA syllabus – not American

AirQuiz - Online Practice Examinations for Pilots
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Old 29th Jan 2014, 04:43
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it depends where you are learning
i would suggest to speak to a flying instructor or flying club that you are having your lessons with
and ask what books to get
like the Trever Toms or the AFE text books
but dont buy from the airfield go on amazon and buy the whole set you will save alot of cash doing it that way round
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Old 29th Jan 2014, 23:07
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Dear Gally2

For Air Law read CAP393 UK air Navigation order
Its free from the CAA at

CAP393: Air Navigation: The Order and the Regulations | Publications | About the CAA

The most important part is the SECTION 2 THE RULES OF THE AIR REGULATIONS 2007

This version was up to date 1/1/12 and is the current version

That will cover a large part of what you must know for Air Law.

Additionally you will need CAP413 which is Radiotelephony Manual

CAP 413: Radiotelephony Manual | Publications | About the CAA.
That will tell you everything you need to know for RT.


Also visit the following for the full list of Free CAA publications

List of Flight Crew Licensing Publications | Publications | About the CAA

Also take a look at the RAF text books AP3456 at

RAF College Cranwell - The RAF Manual Of Flying (AP3456)

The RAF Manuals are far superior to any of the text book you purchase.However they also go in to much more detail, they used to cost around £35 each but also come with a free amendment service.

Now as Euro land control our world you might need to go to the EASA world
at EASA - European Aviation Safety Agency. BEagle who visits this forum some times can advise you, try to PM him he is the real expert.

Somewhere there you might find the syllabus,s for the ground subjects and flying syllabus. Or go to AOPA at General Aviation's largest, most influential association in the world - AOPA , Join them and they can help a lot.
Now re the PPL confuser its Ten years out of date but the question are good practice, the only real thing that's really changed is Air Law, the Met , Nav, Systems are all still relevant but different as they are EASA world. Now I have one if you want it its well used but intact, you can have it but pls pay £10 for post and packing.

On a general note as others have said,' don't just learn to Pass the exams'
Learn to understand. Also just to check out your instructor, Ask them where you can find the Rules of the Air? (50% wont know)

Additionally you will also learn a lot from something we used to call the Air Pilot. Now called the AIP. Tells you all about NOTAMs AICs and lots of other goodies.
Go to
NATS | AIS - Home
sign up its free.

Additionally for aviation Met go to

https://secure.metoffice.gov.uk/logon.jsp, register for a free account.

The above will provide you with most of what you need to know without paying.
Have fun you lucky chap and enjoy your training don't rush it,

Rdgs ***

Just found this Met Syllabus see link
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/srg_lts...3052013.pdfits the EASA PPL

Suggest you look further around this link area and you should find the links for the other subjects.

Last edited by orionsbelt; 30th Jan 2014 at 16:51.
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