PPL Books: Which One?
 

Having recently started flying lessons with a view to gaining my PPL i have now reached a stage where i am looking at purchasing some of my own kit. Top of the list is a set of flying training manuals, however, does anyone have any opinions of which set of manuals are the 'best' and, more importantly, up to date?

The manuals i've been considering are:

Oxford Aviation PPL
Trevor Thom
Jeremy Pratt

Personally I used the Jeremy Pratt ones and found they covered everything I needed for the exams and were clearly laid out, I've heard people say the TT ones contain more detail - think it's best to thumb through them and see which format you prefer.

If you can get hold of a copy of the PPL confuser so much the better

When I did my PPl in the early 90s I used the Trevor Thom books as they were the only ones around. These days there is more choice and personally I feel that the Jeremy Pratt books are the best.

The only book youi need to buy brand new is the Air law book and in the case of the Jeremy Pratt books that book also covers the recent radio changes such as Basic Service.

As for all the other books I don't think in matters if you buy them second hand met, nav etc don't really change that much.

I used the JP books and found them to be thorough and comprehensive. Highly recommended. Can't comment on any of the others.

I have an old (1997) set of Trevor Thom books, so I thought I had better get some revised literature...

The Trevor Thom series are detailed and clear, with maybe too much information without drawing a fence around essential versus less important knowledge. My copies are black and white but I think the newer editions are colour ?

The Jeremy Pratt books are available for about 15quid each one of the set of 5 on amazon, but the Oxford aviation is 183quid for the set of 7. I haven't read either, so any comparative comments would be interesting. The larger format should be nice, but is it twin-columns of text ?

hugel

For me, all the above were useful from a general knowledge/exam perspective, now I'm almost done, I >really< wish I'd read "Stick and Rudder"

Would've saved a few hours in regards to applying theory to reality!

I read books by Trevor Thom and i would recommend them. They cover the syllabus, include explained diagrams and a nice question and answer section for each section you have studied. (The new version is in colour). I think they range from about 15-25 quid depending on the book.

I used Trev Thom's books too. Found them highly useful, then again those were the only ones I knew about at the time and ones that were affordable given my limited budget

I used the JP ones. Liked the easy going writing style with it's occassional humour to lighten things up from time to time. Along with the PPL Confuser it must have worked as I only dropped five questions over all 7 papers!