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One of my first flight instructors, a man who had flown Hurricanes in the Battle of Britain asserted that he could teach monkeys to fly! However, "to be a pilot" Gordon added, "takes brains." I recently taught exercise nineteen to one student, who had nearly completed a PPL. Exercise nineteen is instrument appreciation. Having learned to fly with reference to the great outside, exercise nineteen is designed to show students what the instrument can do, or far more importantly, that most new PPL license holders run a real risk of killing themselves if they enter cloud and asume there is nothing to it and attempt to continue to fly in cloud. It takes three our four hours and the instructor's emphasis is heavily - don't do it. Instrument flying requires an instrument rating. However, this student was particurally gifted and he controlled the aircraft with well above average ability. His airborn training completed I checked his student record to discover he had hardly done any ground school. He sat a navigation exam and failed. The point is, no matter how good you are in the air, if you dont know where you should be, how to get there, in what weather you can do it, and have an understanding of your performance and your machines performance capability, you not safe and you are not legal! Sadly, in my view some flight schools disregard and devalue ground school. This is a shame because it is a lot of fun, it adds to the social side of flying to learn together, and it has to make for better, safer pilots. We cant all guarantee 100% in each exam but we can all aim for good marks, and we can all do the work. An understanding of Meterology will certainly save us wasted journeys to the airfield on poor weather days, and might one day save our lives. Students vary in motivation and ability. Most PPL students flying for a hobby and covering the airborn training in eighteen months will pass all the ground school with three or four hours study a week. That's a total of 200 to 300 hours. This is about right for the PPL. There are several good text books. I like the Air Pilot Manuals pubished by Air Pilot Publishing. I find them the clearest. They are also the official reference work on which the CAA exams and answers are based. One this site you will find help about which book to study and when to study it in relation to your flying training. You will also find details of future study days where you can meet with other student pilots or PPLs who wish to brush up their skills. I you would like it, I am available to teach small groups or one to one. My aim is to teach the subjects which will stand you in good stead for a long flying career. I am happy to offer revision courses but I dont coach or offer exam crammers. If you would like one to one or small group ground school please contact me. To access my online ground school you must register for this site. This is free and takes only a moment. Please register using the dialogue on the site home page.
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Ground School