Hello!

Can you give me advice, please?

What are the best books, videos or other sources of information that will help me to understand everything from how a plane flies, to ATC procedures, to weather, etc... and the rest of theory in a simple manner? My goal is to improve my english as much as I can for about a year and a half by studying and reading everything that flight instrucotrs teaching people in pilot ground schools. God willingly I will save some cash by that time, sell eveyrthing I got right now and apply to U.S. flight school.

I'm 25 right now and that's the dream of my life to change my career and become a professional pilot before it's too late. 30 is almost a deadline to start a commerical pilot career here in Russia because of companies policy and politics. I also forced to get Russian airline pilot degree and diploma to get a job in a company - that's another 1,5 year. The only reason I want to travel to U.S. because I can get PPL/CPL license in 1 year that I can validate over here and get very mild medical check. If you have PPL/CPL license from a list of flight schools approved by our air transport agency your medical check will be cuted to 6-7 tests compare to those who attend to get their license in Russian flight school. Medical check in Russia is the biggest nightmare of all working pilots and it's nothing like in the U.S. You should pass thru dozen of checks and tests to extend your licnese for next year.

Now I need to put all of my time and effort to make my dream become true.

I would be very grateful for any feedback you could might be able to give me on my plan!

 

I used the Jeppesen text book for my PPL. It seemed pretty good to me. A little dry at times, but there are also lots of diagrams if you are more of a visual learner. Good luck, hope it all works out for you!

 

they is a book called "from the grounds up" canadian book. very good for basic knowledge and explains things in details.

if in advance each category u can get books.. aerodynamics, weather, communication, etc

 

I would not get a Jeppesen book. The FAA makes everything you need. The Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge and The Airplane Flying Handbook have everything you need to get started. The FAA books are cheap (free if you don’t mind reading them from a PDF) and most other publishers just take text and pictures from the FAA books to use in their books anyway.

Airplane Flying Handbook
Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge

 

+1 on pilots handbook of aero knowledge and airplane flying handbook. Those are the 2 I made all my students read.

 

That's good, because they are expected to know information contained within, according to the PTS. Not "optional". They have made a lot of improvements to both in recent years, as well as introduced new books, on floatplane flying etc...lots of good resources out there.

 

I wish I had referred to these more during my primary training. I'm using the FAA materials now for my IFR training, and they are actually outstanding! Scratch my suggestion, start with the FAA materials.

 

FAA Handbooks are good and free to download.

I would also recommend "Fly Better" by Noel Kruse. Excellent book one on aerodynamics, and book two is great on practical techniques to fly better. They are also free downloads, available at FLY BETTER......
Highly recommended.

 

I recommend "Stick and Rudder" by Wolfgang Langewiesche. It's a really great read for aspiring pilots as well as experienced folks. Written back in the 1940s, but the ideas still work.

 

From the Ground Up | Aviation Publishers
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Wolfgang Langewiesche, "Stick and Rudder" is another excellent source for the basics.