Learning to fly is fun and exhilarating, but flight training needs to be complemented by theoretical knowledge study to become a safe and proficient pilot capable of taking responsibility for carrying passengers.
Both the Light Aircraft Pilot’s Licence (LAPL) and Private Pilot’s Licence (PPL) courses share the following 9 ground school exams:
Air Law
Operational Procedures
Flight Performance and Planning
Navigation
Meteorology
Human Performance and Limitations
Communications
Aircraft General Knowledge
Principles of flight
While at first sight this list does look a little daunting no prior background or experience of aviation is required. There is no minimum specified requirement for ground school prior to sitting the exams for the LAPL or for the PPL. The best approach is to work at the ground school in conjunction with your progress through the flight training syllabus. Running your ground studies in tandem with the flight training blends the theoretical with the practical and will tend to minimise flight training hours.
These exams must all be passed before licence issue and there are quite specific rules governing the periods of validity of the exams. All 9 exams must be passed within 18 months, starting from the end of the calendar month when your first exam was passed. Following completion of your last exam your licence must be issued within 2 years of the date of your passing the last exam otherwise you have to sit the entire 9 exams again.
You book to sit the exams on the CAA website and then when ready can sit the exam on a computer within the School of Flying. The exams are multiple choice and have between 12 to 16 multiple choice questions each, with each exam lasting between 20 and 50 minutes.
Flying schools are notoriously bad at providing Ground School training and often the student is given the list of exams to be passed and left to get on with it with little further guidance. Flying instructors like teaching flying, and when the weather is good, they are extremely busy flying. As a result, often there is simply no time left at all to teach ground school.
The good news is that some excellent textbooks have been written to get you through the exams. More importantly, they will give you the knowledge that you will need to be a proficient pilot. All LAPL and PPL students should purchase a complete set of one of the following series of textbooks and refer to them continuously through their training. The choice is between Pooleys Air Pilots Manual and Jeremy Pratt’s PPL course series published by AFE. Both sets of books are available to purchase at our pilot supplies shop.
Pooleys Air Pilot Manual consists of 7 books of which 6 are relevant at LAPL and PPL level.
Volume 1 Flying Training
Volume 2 Aviation Law and Meteorology
Volume 3 Air Navigation
Volume 4 The Airplane Technical
Volume 5 Radio Navigation and Instrument Flying (Not required for PPL) but used as main the text for IR(R) course.
Volume 6 Human Performance and Operational Procedures
Volume 7 Communications
Jeremy Pratt’s books published by AFE cover the same subjects in 5 books.
PPL 1 Flying Training
PPL 2 Air Law / Operational Procedures / Communications
PPL 3 Navigation and Meteorology
PPL 4 Principles of Flight / Aircraft General Knowledge / Flight Performance and Planning
PPL 5 Human Factors and Flight Safety
Above and Beyond School of Flying requires that all PPL and LAPL students sit and pass both the Air Law and the Operational Procedures exams before their first solo. This ensures that you are motivated to make a start on the ground school, which can otherwise get neglected in favour of the flying.
Before each of your flying lessons your instructor will give you a 20 – 30-minute pre-flight briefing which will cover those aspects of the exercises which you are about to cover in the air. These pre-flight briefings will only cover the essential information. A more detailed, long briefing will be given each Wednesday evening starting at 7 pm and lasting for about an hour. After each long briefing we can then spend an about an hour going through aspects of the ground school syllabus. Attendance at the long briefings and ground school Wednesday study nights is entirely voluntary and comes with a notional £10 attendance fee. It is a good idea to attend if you can. You will get to meet other student pilots with whom you share a common interest, and you may go on to share flights with them once you have gained your licence and are looking to build your hours.
The Wednesday evening long briefings will run on a 19-week continuous cycle covering the following topics.
Aircraft Familiarisation
Preparation For and After Flight
Effects of Controls
Taxiing
Straight and Level Flight
Climbing
Descending
Turning
Slow Flight
Stalling
Spinning
Take off and climb to the Downwind Position.
Circuit Approach and Landing
Advanced Turning
Operation at Minimum Level
Forced Landing without Power and with Power
Pilot Navigation
Introduction to Instrument Flight.
The final item is the passing of a practical examination which will lead to the issue of a Flight Radio Telephony Operators Licence. This is normally completed by taking a one-day course followed by a practical test which will be arranged through the school.