Hi everybody!
I’m a newly certified private pilot, took my PPL this summer in the US, but I live and study in Sweden. I’ve gotten a temporary allowance to fly with my licence here (until the 8:th of April), but I’ve noticed there are some small differences in rules and procedures (flight plan filing, for example). I bought some Swedish books (KSAB, if anybody knows them), but they’re not very good.
So now i’m looking for recommendation of books, does anybody have any good ideas? Are the rules in Europe the same as they are in Sweden, i.e., could I buy British PPL books?
The rules regarding log books are set by your National Aviation Authority. In the UK you can use virtually anything you like as a log book including electronic log books so long as you record those items listed in the National regulations. Clearly, you have a log book as you have a licence; the time to think about getting another is when that one is full.
Something to consider is that a physical log book becomes an interesting and historical document regarding your personal flying activities. I still have my father’s log book going back to the 1930s, I doubt that an electronic record would have any more apeal than a virtual synthetic wine.
Thanks, but I was referring to theory books, I should have made that clear.
So basically you’re asking about air law and perhaps radio?
I don’t know what the answer is regarding air law, because it’s still in a state of flux. I figure that in a few years I will buy another air law book and look for anything that’s changed but in the interim I follow the forums and hope that anything significant will be raised.
In the UK the CAA publishes some free and well written guides on radiotelephony, but locally there may be some differences.
The procedures are best learnt by flying with an experienced pilot. For example the stuff about keeping x metres laterally and x feet vertically from cloud, above/below altitude y, differently between day and night, and differently according to airspace class – nobody can remember that and everybody ignores it. Controlled airspace = KEEP OUT unless you have ATC clearance; end of story. IMC = KEEP OFF unless you have an instrument qualification. Visibility… 10km min if you are doing WW1 style nav, maybe 5km min if flying very low down (say below 1500ft) and you know the area well, and all the way down to the VFR legal min of 1500m (which is very poor vis) if you have GPS and know what you are doing. There is a lot of other stuff which is probably not air law e.g. all clearances must be read back in full, but this is one of many overlaps with the radio comms side.
But really there isn’t much in practical air law between the USA and Europe. The biggest things are that ALL CAS needs a clearance here (in the USA you can fly in Class D on just a 2-way radio contact, etc) and the radio talk is different in some ways.
Best thing is to fly with somebody experienced.
