Reading List and Other Resources

Reading List and Other Resources

These are the books, texts, and other resources I found invaluable when training for my private pilot certificate, instrument rating, and as the caretaker of a piston-powered light airplane. I've linked to eBooks were available, as I hate storing / lugging around dead trees.

Private Pilot

• Airplane Flying Handbook (free PDF from the FAA)
• Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (free PDF from the FAA)
• Jeppesen's Private Pilot Textbook and Private Pilot Maneuvers (these were what my CFI used when I did my private pilot at a Part 61 school)
• King Private Pilot Written Exam Videos (I used the DVDs)
• FAA Test Prep Online: Private Pilot (to run through enough sample questions I felt very well prepared for the actual written exam; getting the automated endorsement to take the exam was an easy, straightforward process)
• A video of Allan Englehardt giving the Private Pilot Oral Exam
• Private Pilot Oral Exam Guide

Instrument Rating

• Instrument Flying Handbook (free PDF from the FAA)
• Instrument Procedures Handbook (free PDF from the FAA)
• Jeppesen's Instrument/Commercial Pilot Textbook
• Rod Machado’s Instrument Pilot’s Handbook and Instrument Pilot’s eSurvival Manual
• Weather Flying
• Sheppard Air Instrument Rating Test Prep (a widely recommended prep course for the written exam)
• Gleim FAA Test Prep Online: Instrument Rating (I had the same experience using Gleim for the instrument rating written as I did for the private pilot written; definitely recommend it)
• Instrument Pilot Oral Exam Guide

Flying in General

• Stick and Rudder
• Fate is the Hunter
• A lot of people recommend The Killing Zone, though there are some questions about the statistics. I haven’t read it (yet?).

The Care and Feeding of an Airplane

Once you start renting higher end planes, or, gods forbid, make the mistake of buying one, you quickly move beyond things like “eh, pull the mixture until it stumbles, then add a little back in.” Lean of Peak is better for the engine, if you know what you’re doing. Here, learn how:

• Mike Busch on Engines
• Mike Busch on Airplane Ownership (Volume 1)
• Manifesto (A Revolutionary Approach to General Aviation Maintenance)
• Red Box, Red Fin (a good quick overview of lean of peak operation)
• Advanced Pilot Seminars: Engine Management Made Easy ($395 online course)
• Savvy Analysis. They offer a free analysis tool, and a “pro” service ($129/year) that includes report cards comparing your engine’s operation against a cohort of peers (e.g., a Mooney M20F’s metrics gets compared against those of over a hundred M20F and M20J operators) and ‘free’ professional analysis by engine/airframe experts. A big part of my upgrading my JPI EDM-700 to an -830 was the sort of data collection I could get with the more comprehensive set of probes and interfaces.
• Blackstone Labs engine oil analysis ($28 every oil change). Gives a great insight into what’s going on inside the engine, can watch trends and get a bit of peace of mind - or catch issues as they’re developing.

There’s so much more I can add to these lists, and will eventually...