Page 25 - Dear aviator...

explained very clearly that the books were not designed to teach you how to fly.
They were designed to give you the knowledge necessary to pass the aviation theory
exam.
“Great” - you may say - “Then those are the only books I will have to read in order
to get my licence.”
Well technically yes, but I would venture to say that it is a very poor pilot indeed
the pilot who is not curious to know more about aviation than only what is written
in an aviation course theory text. I’m not sure I would trust that pilot.
As for me, I already had a relatively healthy library of aviation-related material that
I had read cover to cover several times. But that library increased tenfold since I
started training. Now I know what you are saying and you are right: books,
especially aviation books, are bloody expensive… but you know what isn’t
expensive? A second hand book. And you know what is even less expensive? a third
hand book bought at the flea market or at a used book shop.
Aviation is remarkably conservative in terms of its principles and basics. A book
written in 1947 holds as much useful information on the handling of an aircraft as
the latest book on the same topic; often vintage books actually make things a lot
easier to understand: their illustrations are a lot clearer, explanations are more
down-to-earth with real-life examples; they might even drop in a joke or two (some
of them quite inappropriate by today’s standards!)
However, as with anything old or new, you should always exercise a healthy dose of
critical thinking before accepting what you are reading, whatever the source. That
is why I would suggest becoming comfortable with the subject at hand before
looking into extra-curricular material. What “comfortable” means is up to you, but
in terms of critical thinking, it means that you are able to understand that a book
on the physics of aviation written in the ‘60s will be mostly valid for flying today,
whilst a book on aviation legislation written in Britain in the ‘90s might be
completely useless if you are learning to flying in Australia today. There are
subjects that obviously don’t age well: point in case is air law (legislations and
regulations change at an almost dizzying rate and new editions of the texts come
out every six months); other subject books that are quick to become obsolete are
those dealing with anything to do with digital technologies such as satellite
navigation, TCAS, electronic flight computers etc… however, in defence of this, I
would pick up a book on dead reckoning navigation in a heartbeat as I believe that
this skill is something that all aviators should be familiar with… hell, I’d go even
further and have at least a working knowledge of celestial navigation (but that’s
just me).
Older books on power plants - whether piston or turbine - airframes, aerodynamics
and general aircraft systems are all good and useful according to me; those are the
things that you will be tested on and most of these subjects have not changed
much if at all.
The understanding of meteorology has come leaps and bounds from the simple use
of the Mk. I eyeball and the farmer’s almanac; but the knowledge necessary for the
modern aviator is scarcely beyond what we studied in high school science class. I
don’t think you need to worry too much about picking up an older text on how
clouds form and what cloud formations to avoid - however this leads at least
partially into aviation regulations, so again exercise critical thinking.

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