| The Microlight Pilot's Handbook contains everything you need to know to get through the PPL(G) written exams on Air Law, Meteorology and Human Factors. It may sound ideal, but in truth it doesn't actually contain enough knowledge for you to be able to fly confidently in today's highly utilised airspace. I'd recommend it as a good starting point and a useful reference for the exams, but you need more .... so read on below! | |
| Commonly known as the "Trevor Thom" books (after there original author) the "Air Pilots Manual" series are both easy to read and authoritatively written. The "gold standard" of PPL text books, this great volume takes you through both air law and meteorology. More importantly than just "passing the exam", this book will help equip you to fly your new gyroplane out there in the real world. | |
| I for one groaned many years ago when "Human Factors" was added to the PPL syllabus. Having now sat various Human Factors exams I have to say that it is one of the more interesting and engaging subjects in the ground school syllabus, and well worth the time. Needless to say, this is the book to learn it from! | |
| What's there to say? This one will teach you skills you wish you had never learned - but if you are going to fly a highly capable gyro which can cover long distances at relatively high speeds then you need to know how to manage the navigation aspects of the flight. If you don't then at best you will upset lots of people, at worst you could hurt yourself or others. Master the "whizz wheel", map reading and grapple with the numerous units used in aviation to measure the same thing (was that litres, imperial gallons or US gallons? Kilometres, nautical miles or statute miles?) with this excellent volume. | |
| I won't pretend that I've read this one, as instead of using this book a learnt my RT the hard way from the CAA's own little publication. This just has to be better (there's no way it could be worse)! | |
| How could anyone fail to make an impression when they have a name like Wagtendonk? That aside, this book will teach you all about how rotors work - lift, drag, autorotation, teetering and all the other mysteries of autorotative flight. There's loads of stuff in here that you don't need to know, but at this price who really cares? If your Instructor does ground school on autorotation and the like, this is probably where it came from. This is the book I wished I had read during my PPL training rather than just before I did my Instructor's course. | |
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"Short Hops" by Shirley Jennings is one woman's account of learning to fly her single seat homebuilt gyroplane. Perhaps not entirely relevant to someone learning to fly on a modern factory-built 2-seater, but a cracking read none the less. It's available via the British Rotorcraft Association website |
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The PPL(G) Syllabus
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The syllabus for the Private Pilots Licence (Gyroplanes) is available via the British Rotorcraft Association website |