Top products from r/aviation

I don't know what the laws are like outside of Canada but up here you need to take ground school to get your PPL, you can't just challenege the exam AFAIK.

Copypasta'd from another post I wrote:

I'm almost done ground school in Ontario. We use From The Ground Up for everything. It's the aviation bible. There are other books that will go into more detail with certain elements like human factors and how altitude, air pressure and g-forces affect your body but From The Ground Up will cover it in enough detail to pass the exam. Let me go dig up my receipt and I'll get some more links for you.

EDIT: Links Added:

• All of the recommended study material from Transport Canada
  
• Human Factors For Aviation
  
• Aeroplane Flight training Manual
  
• And of course the AIM (Aeronautical Information Manual) and CARs (Canadian Aviation Regulations)
  
  EDIT2: You should know that getting your PPL (in Canada anyway) will cost around $10,000. I don't have that money either because I just finished university but I was able to find enough for ground school. I believe that you have 2 years to finish the flight part of the PPL training after writing the written exam and only 1 year to finish the written part after finishing the flight exam. However, you do not have to take the written exam once you are done ground school and your ground school never expires. Obviously, it is best if you can work on both parts of the PPL at the same time. I can't right now but in 2 weeks I'll be done ground school and won't have to worry about that again. Although, I'm hoping to join the air force and receive proper flight training with them so my plan doesn't work for everyone.

Stick and Rudder is an old classic that really explains well the basics of why airplanes fly and how to fly them. I also enjoyed Bob Buck's North Star over my Shoulder and Wind Sand Stars by Antoine De Saint-Exupery for some good armchair flying.

As others have mentioned, the FAA publications are indispensable. They are available for free from the FAA website, and cheap hardcopies are available on Amazon. Get yourself copies of the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge and the Airplane Flying Handbook. I think it's really worthwhile to get the hardcopy.

There are many useful websites related to general aviation. You can listen to air traffic control radio at liveatc.net, look up airport information at airnav.com, watch IFR flight paths on flightaware.com, and browse aeronautical charts in a google-maps-like interface at skyvector.com.

So this is going to be a bit macabre but I'll tell you about one on my list.

It is an established fact that most fatal aviation accidents occur between 100-350 hours of total flight time. It seems to be a interval where the confidence curve of the pilot and the competence curve of the pilot separate (delaminate if you will). To that end, a book has been written that discusses why and how this happens. In the interest of being a safer pilot, I think it'd be a good pic.

It may seem like a weird choice for a gift, but I find most pilots are pretty academic in their perspectives on the nature of the activity, so I think you'd find it appreciated.

The Killing Zone by Paul A Craig:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Killing-Zone-Second-Edition/dp/0071798404

Here's some interesting trivia. The prototypes of F-16 and F-18 flew in a fly off where the winning design would be awarded the contract for the Air Force's Light Weight Fighter initiative. The Air Force wanted another two engine platform like the F-15 but [John Boyd](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Boyd_(military_strategist), the greatest fighter pilot of all time, preferred a single engine design. The prototype YF-16 was unanimously picked over the YF-18 by test pilot group. A group of all fighter pilots. Unfortunately the generals and contractors bastardized the design by adding weight costing features without increasing the surface area of the F-16's wing. The Navy, for unknown political reasons, picked up the F-18 design.

For any military strategy/aviation enthusiast, I highly recommend reading Boyd.

They supported the vulcans in Operation Black buck, but still are gorgeous aircraft in their own right, those 60s lines will never be repeated.

Vulcan 607 is a great read on the whole operation.

...all the FAA handbooks are available for free.

I suggest you start with:

• Airplane Flying Handbook
  
  
• Pilot Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge
  
  
• Aeronautical Information Manual
  
  
• if you really get into it and want to know more about how things work, and are not afraid to get technical, The Aerodynamics For Naval Aviators is awesome;
  
  
• and one of my favorite See How It Flies by John S. Denker;
  
  
• and get yourself a copy of Stick And Rudder by Wolfgang Langewiesche while you are at it!
  
  When you are done reading this, you'll know more than many pilots out there! :-)
  
  

Yea the FAA publications aren't too bad, but for the newcomer I think Jeppeson is easier to understand and a little more comprehensive. Go get the Private pilot manual, only like $15 used.

The reason I corrected you in the first place is the same reason you are so vehemently defending yourself: because you believe the chief engineer deserves their proper credit.

I got most of these facts from this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003

I even had it opened while I referenced some of the facts I mentioned. I think you would really enjoy it and it would help you get some of your facts straight.

I did notice that, and it's appreciated. However reddit natively removes any comment that has a known link shortener in it. For readability and to avoid getting caught in the spam filter, I suggest formatting with the reddit hyperlink syntax in the future, like so:

[Tupolev Tu-154: The USSR's Medium-Range Jet Airliner](http://www\.amazon.com/Tupolev-Tu-154-Medium-Range-Airliner-Aerofax/dp/1857802411)

Which, when entered into a comment field and submitted, ends up looking like this:

Tupolev Tu-154: The USSR's Medium-Range Jet Airliner

Thanks for the comment! I've approved it now.

I haven't read this edition, but the Jane's guide is pretty good from my childhood memories!

I always recommend this book by Joe Sutter, head of the 747 project to anyone interested in the history of jetliners. Amazing stuff they went through to get the 747 through to production.

Congrats!

I always recommend this book to new Private pilots. Understand your certification, your legal and personal limitations, and don't put yourself in a bad position. Stay away from "get-home-itis", aka pushing the limits of your abilities (primarily weather related) just because you need to get home.

Have fun!

I used to work with two men who flew OV-10s in Vietnam. They loved the plane. If you have not read it yet, go read "A Lonely Kind of War." Great book.

https://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Kind-War-Forward-Controller/dp/0891416382

Hopeless Diamond. I highly recommend the book Skunks Works.

Good read and plenty of interesting facts about the design of the F-117 and other Skunkworks aircraft.

Might not be what you were thinking, but Stick and Rudder (itself perhaps historic) is a great overview of flight from the perspective of the past

I read this like 20 years ago, and have the audiobook now. I've spent many a commute hour listening to Mr. Rich's memoirs. Here's a linky to Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003


Fun side note, my stepmom's father (step-grandpa?) was a machinist @ Skunk Works. I mentioned this book to her and she said, oh yeah dad gave Kelly Johnson rides home every so often when his car was in the shop. Uhhh, what Mari?

Enjoyable book about it:

747: Creating the World's First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060882425/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_zPlSBbVYCGE5F

Highly recommend reading Ben Rich's autobiography about his time at Lockheed especially in conjunction with Kelly Johnson at Skunkworks.

U2, SR-71, Have Blue/F-117 all masterfully documented from an insider's perspective. Fascinating stuff.

If you get a chance, you should read 747: Creating the World's First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation by Joe Sutter.

Ben Rich - Skunk Works...read it, if not most in this subreddit have already ;)

by the way, has anybody else read this book?

http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003

it's a really good one. lots of cool information about the sr71, even though there's another plane on the cover

Jane's books are a good thing to start with:

Like http://www.amazon.com/Janes-Aircraft-Recognition-Edition-Guides/dp/0061346195#productDescription_secondary_view_pageState_1415834288638

giggles nervously

Someone wrote "CockpitConfidential". I'd love to read a pilot's actual confidential.

I would recommend you check out Road to the 707 by Bill Cook, one of the designers of the 707. He details many of the major advances in early aviation that got us to the modern jetliner.

I don't have a copy in front of me, but some of the major ones are: moving the propeller to the front (instead of behind the pilot as the Wright Flyer had) and adding ailerons to help with turns (instead of wing warping and rudder deflection).

The book does a very thorough job, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

edit: completed a sentence.

> Also, aircraft with swept wings tend to be much less dihedral, or even anhedral, because the wing sweep conveys some dihedral effect on its own.

I can't think of a single Western jet airliner that didn't/doesn't have dihedral.

(I realize that you didn't limit your statement to transport aircraft. But why wouldn't the same aerodynamic principles and engineering practices apply to them as to other swept-wing jet aircraft?)

> For example, the Tu-154, the workhorse Soviet airliner between 1970 and the early 2000's, was one of the fastest subsonic airliners produced, with a high degree of wing sweep, owing at least partly to its military origins.

The Tu-154 wasn't based on any military predecessor. It was a "clean sheet of paper" design. This is probably the most authoritative history of the airplane that's out there:

http://www.amazon.com/Tupolev-Tu-154-Medium-Range-Airliner-Aerofax/dp/1857802411

> The same can be seen in the preceeding Il-18 and Tu-104 aircraft, both developed directly from military versions.

The Tu-104 was developed from the Tu-16 "Badger" bomber. But the Il-18 wasn't developed from a military aircraft; it, too, was an original design.

My personal go-to is the Jane's Aircraft Recognition Guide. It's not 100% up-to-date, but it still has a picture of most aircraft you'd expect to see, and some that you will appreciate being able to identify down the road!

An excellent book on there matter is Sea Harrier Over the Falklands by Commander "Sharkey" Ward.

You should give this a read! Such a fascinating book.

Not sure if you're after anecdotes or technical but Chickenhawk is a good read.

the F-117 was basically designed with a slide-ruler, pen and paper with very little computer power behind it. Most of it is a series of 2d renderings put together. They literally had engineers designing and building them on the floor right next to the mechanics and welders and shit. The Skunk Works were an impressive bunch.

http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003

Go read it, its amazing.

Also, Clarence "Kelly" Johnson has some insight into it with his book, too.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0874744911

I used to have the second edition of this. It seemed really good at the time.

Very classy plane. I believe its on the cover of my FTGU (from the ground up)

Three books I really like:

• The road to the 707
  
  
• Joe Sutter's 747 book
  
  
• Boeing 777

https://www.amazon.com/Vulcan-607-Remarkable-British-Attack/dp/0552152293

​

Read this book - it's an incredible true story

Highly recommend the book Skunk Works - it covers the story of this plane and others Skunk Works

Get Ben Rich’s book about Lockheed’s Skunk Works Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316743003/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XzLDAb7GJBNX2 also Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond https://www.amazon.com/dp/1439148813/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_xALDAb3C5Q08N has excellent stories and Brian Shul has some excellent stories and photographs in his books but I don’t think they are in print any longer.

Depends how little of an aviation guy you are. Here's the Amazon UK link for it if you want reviews.

Here's the wikipedia link to learn some of the basics about the Skunk Works.

In short though, think of all the cool, black aircraft made for the US Air Force. Most of it was made by the Skunk Works who were a part of Lockheed Martin. Very impressive technology designed for a very demanding and dangerous job.

yep, that is exactly correct: https://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003

I just read this book: Flying the SR-71

http://www.amazon.com/Flying-SR-71-Blackbird-Cockpit-Operational/dp/0760332398

It's in the kindle store.

It's a very instructional book. You could probably fly a sortie after reading it ;)

I just about wore this thing out to the molecular level when I was of single-digit age
http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Airplanes-Third-Edition/dp/0618411275/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376886882&sr=8-1&keywords=field+guide+to+airplanes

Jeppesen's PPL Textbook

Stick And Rudder - Google Books

Stick And Rudder - Amazon

I assume you downloaded these;

Pilots Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge

Airplane Flying Handbook

Aeronautical Information Manual

Another book that helped me out is Stick and Rudder.

jane's guides, and time / spotting

A must read!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/067153761X?pc_redir=1410589799&robot_redir=1

This is the one I read: https://www.amazon.com/Forever-Flying-High-flying-Barnstorming-Autobiography/dp/067153761X

We used this book in ground school: http://www.amazon.com/Private-Pilot-Manual-Jeppesen-Sanderson/dp/0884872386

Here is the desktop version of your link

There's a great book on FACs and OV-10s: A Lonely Kind of War: Forward Air Controller, Vietnam.

In the book about him, the author describes Boyd's fight to cancel it. It says that originally, the B-1 couldn't make it over a some mountain ranges in the world. How useful would that be? It also explains that someone in the Air Force fought for it to have a ladder attached to the plane for ground crews to use.

In my opinion, a ladder is absolutely unnecessary weight on this plane. I don't see how one can't find something to climb on if necessary.

I highly suggest reading it if you're an aviation fan. Boyd did amazing things in his career and the Air Force screwed him. Amazon.com

There’s a really interesting book out there about Operation Black Buck , the RAF Vulcan Bomber - Victor Tanker missions during the Falklands War.

Shithead McCuntface Jesus Diaz again without crediting the source where these pics came from.

For those of you who want to know more about those pics, see a lot more such pics and read some more:

1. Kelly: More Than My Share of It All
   
2. Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed

I think it's sand. I did some research, and it turns out the photo is from Robert Mason's book called "Chickenhawk".

The caption to this photo:

"We had so many shot-up rotor blades at the Riflerange we used them to make a mess table. In Bong Son valley, we were shot at constinously. Thats Don Reynolds and Bob Keiss talking shop at our chow hall."

> I can't think of a single Western jet airliner that didn't/doesn't have dihedral.

All I said is that as wing sweep increases, you tend to see less and less dihedral, sometimes going into anhedral, because the wing sweep introduces dihedral effect on it's own. Even in western airliners, aircraft with more swept wings have less dihedral. Take the 727 or HS Trident for example, comparable sweep to the Tu-134/Tu-154 and almost no dihedral at all.

And of course, almost every western high-wing aircraft has anhedral. The Bae 146 is one example, as someone said, and moving into cargo aircraft you have the C-17 and C-5, among others.

> The Tu-154 wasn't based on any military predecessor. It was a "clean sheet of paper" design. This is probably the most authoritative history of the airplane that's out there:
http://www.amazon.com/Tupolev-Tu-154-Medium-Range-Airliner-Aerofax/dp/1857802411[1]

Thanks for the link- I'll check it out. For the Tu-154, I didn't mean that it came for a bomber, but I could have sworn that it originated from a military specification for a government transport and then state airline use. Might be wrong though.

I have read couple of books, like this one
https://www.amazon.com/Flying-SR-71-Blackbird-Cockpit-Operational/dp/0760332398

Quite hard core on it's level of detail, he literally flies checklist item by item on the book, so casual reader might want to skip this one.

But yes, I can believe it was stressful. Picture this: you are somewhere over freezing cold ocean. Flight has not gone by the book, you are low on fuel. Your planned rendezvous point with tanker is in the middle of thunderstorm. Neither has tanker's flight gone exactly as planned... your
radar screen is flickering... no contact yet... (insert heavy breathing here).

If you manage to survive this one, there's still two fuelings to go before you're home.

The F-16 was built to compete with the F-15 believe it or not. Boyd's group actually came up with the A-10 as well, or at least some of the guys. This is a fascinating book on it: https://www.amazon.com/Boyd-Fighter-Pilot-Who-Changed/dp/0316796883

There's a lot of other stuff though. The F-16s can't go as high or as fast as the F-15s. The F-16's radar is the size of a couple large pizzas, the F-15's is the size of a small dinner table. We went to Red Flag a long time ago when I worked F-16s, and our pilot came back pissed because they couldn't keep up with the F-15s.

A-10 is slow though, and has no air to air radar. They carry Aim 9s and that's about it. I'd be more scared of being shot down from ground to air in an A-10 than a Blackhawk.

Check out the book Cockpit Confidential - I was an extremely fearful flyer as you described, and my husband bought me this book. It went a long way to helping me handle my fear just by educating me on the process. Knowing what to anticipate each step of the way made me feel more calm. I wouldn’t say I’m totally over my fear, but I went from begging my parents to let me stay home from family trips and having major panic attacks before boarding to having flown by myself around the US, to Europe, and to South America. All without medicating myself with Xanax as I used to do. I flew over 25,000 miles last year, which is amazing for a girl who was known amongst family and friends as the one who hated flying. Recently I even flew in a little Cessna floatplane which I was SO scared to do, but I pushed through and I’m glad I did. You can do it!!