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I am currently occupied with a large project which basically eats up all my money but will be done in a year or so. After that, I would like to get my PPL. So I am currently out of money but do have some time left which I would like to use to already study the basics.

Is there any freely available material targeting PPL training? I live in Western Austria if that is of any concern (this is also where I would like to perform any training - LOIH is closest to my location).

DeltaLima
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Tom L.
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    Welcome to aviation.SE! This question is about India but it's very similar, it might give you some ideas and you can check out more linked/related questions from it. – Pondlife Aug 07 '17 at 18:16
  • Hi. In fact I saw this question when posting but it really was targeted at India and I would say that regulations are probably rather different there. It also mentions the FAA which is US, even if most of the material will be related to EASA as well. I downloaded the PDF from there and I will need to find the material from the other link since the link itself was dead. Do you know of any material which is published by EASA (such as the material published by the FAA)? – Tom L. Aug 07 '17 at 18:20
  • Found it, anyone able to update the link from the thread of @voretaq7 to https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/airplane_handbook/media/airplane_flying_handbook.pdf – Tom L. Aug 07 '17 at 18:23
  • I've fixed the links, thanks for pointing that out! – Pondlife Aug 07 '17 at 18:27

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Get hold of a simple simulator to familiarize yourself with the basics. I enjoyed Microsoft FSX . It's not intimidating. You can follow along just getting the basics, and you can hear generic pilot talk. It's not going to guarantee you a jump start hours wise, but at least when you get to flight school, you may have heard some of the terms and even messed with certain controls.

Don't expect to skip ahead without serious time investment. A few hours playing on a simulator(emphasis on PLAYING) will help with familiarity and maybe confidence, but be prepared to spend a lot of time listening to your instructor.

Another good thing, though it sounds silly could be to invest in some training videos. I personally enjoyed the courses offered by sporty's pilot shop. It was $200 when I bought it, but I would argue that it paid for itself, since I needed less time paying instructors and renting planes to practice things.

On the other hand, sometimes you hear instructors say they prefer blank slates as opposed to people coming in with bad habits. Maybe be patient and wait until your instruction begins. That way you start off with the habits that your specific school likes to train.

Good luck!

ryanrr
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  • I have trained lots of people from private through CFI, and have not found (in my unscientific sampling) there to be a substantial difference between those who played flight simulator and those who didn't, in terms of private training. In some cases there may be some time savings on doing procedures in instrument training. Oddly enough, the biggest differentiator was those who had a spouse/close friend who flew (grin). They at least showed up having spent more time thinking about the previous lesson, and with a gaggle of questions. – mongo Aug 08 '17 at 12:54