Re: theoretical PPL material
"Peter" <nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:grfut15ltienl5fiin0kno5tgepp8aqcar@xxxxxxxxxx
>>I'm looking to get the PPL coursework. What is the cheapest I can get
>>it for, or is anybody trying to get rid of second hand?
> The Trevor Thom books are probably the standard thing to get; the CAA
> exam material uses terminology which is based on the way these books
> are written - or vice versa; it doesn't really matter but a lot of the
> stuff is playing with words so you need the "right" study material.
The Thom books are okay, and everything's in there that you need, but
remember there's nothing like interacting with a good ground instructor to
(a) get his view on things; and (b) have things explained to you. Some
things in aviation are facts (e.g. how a wing works) though others have many
interpretations (e.g. how to do a forced landing). Also, I found my
instructors had some useful rules of thumb for doing stuff (how to remember
when a compass under- and over-reads using a rude acronym, how to know when
you're in the right place to turn onto your base leg, etc) that aren't
necessarily in the book.
Additionally, remember there are some free sources of authoritative
material. The obvious example is CAP413, the official manual for
radiotelephony, which can be downloaded from
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP413.PDF
> The PPL Confuser is a very good way to get hold of loads of specimen
> questions. It takes a while to work through it but if you do and get a
> good score on that, you will be fine in the actual exams.
The Confuser is excellent, though as others have pointed out, it's to be
used to test yourself, not to learn from. What's great is that as well as
telling you the right answer, it explains why that's the right answer in a
pretty comprehensibe way. Beware, though: when I was doing my PPL I recall
coming across at least two questions where the answer given was wrong. One
was something to do with the quadrantal rule in the air law section; can't
remember the other. (This said, in my navigation exam, the actual question
was completely wrong, as the grid refs of some of the points on the routes
were nonsense, and the examiner hadn't spotted the errata ***; fortunately
I figured what was wrong and found the right places by working back from the
destination airfield, which was marked correctly, and managed to pass).
The Confuser is also certainly relevant and up-to-date, assuming you get a
new or recent second-hand copy. The examiner (also an instructor at my club)
was a little stunned when, before my air law exam, I showed him the question
in the book and said: "I think the answer is <blah>, but it says not - can
you explain why?" - his first reaction was: "But that's a current question
in the exams! Where did you get that?".
D.
.
