Yes the US books are very good for “classical” IFR.
To actually fly in the European system you need to pick up some practical knowledge.
Agree with the above, but some have found the PadPilot eBooks to be very clear and well written. These are for the full ATPL exams, so will contain a lot of extra material, but may be helpful if you are struggling with any particular subject and can be bought individually for each.
Also invest in a Question Bank subscription – books alone won’t be enough. I used AviationExam and BristolGroundSchool. The refresh of questions has perhaps reduced their value but they does help you get back into the mode of exam technique, question format etc.
Thank you all for many good replies
DavidC wrote:
some have found the PadPilot eBooks to be very clear and well written. These are for the full ATPL exams
That is not true.There is a set of books for EIR/CBIR exam. I studied for my TK exam in these. The books are fine but what I missed was some practical elements for the IR. For passing the exam PadPilot eBooks and a subscription to aviationexam.com is all you need.
Norske “Skylane-pilot” :) I think I saw your post on another forum too:
Boken [Phil Croucher] er vel ikke den beste jeg har sett. Mye pensum er presset inn på ca 300 sider og forklaringene er til dels rotete og dårlig strukturert. Bøkene fra Oxford har en helt annen kvalitet. Selv brukte jeg eksamsdatabanken til AviationExam mye i tillegg til boken. Det var nok til å komme igjennom eksamen med grei margin. Klasseromsundervisning foregikk i Littlehampton på sørkysten.
It is a concern that it [Phil Croucher book] looks like the book is not quite for IR beginners:
This book is for people who already hold an ICAO IR, and who can simply convert to the EASA version by completing the skill test and demonstrating to the examiner (during the skill test) an adequate knowledge of air law, meteorology and flight planning.
When it comes to Oxford books, is it a challenge of picking out the correct corriculum, for CB-IR? (and later BIR)
I have seen ATPL pilot have given high recommandations on the CAE books. If the correct CBIR chapters can be picked out they would be an option?
http://www.caeoxfordinteractive.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=61_71 (or maybe Oxford ATPL books = CAE books now?)
I found the IR part of iPadPilots books http://padpilot.eu/ir/
I like the books from FAA, and they are free too. But they only cover the praktical navigation thing, now laws and the other stuff. Instrument Flying Handbok FAA-H-8083-15B and Instrument Procedures Handbok FAA-H-8083-16B. Also, I have downloaded the PBN Manual from https://pplir.org/pbn_manual/ and their European IFR Qualifications Book.
I’m in the process of writing new CB-IR books now, and it will not be some trimmed ATPL-books.
There will be updated Learning Objectives for CB-IR effective from sometime in 2021 (not many changes though).
Drop me an e-mail if you want to «beta test» the books at erlend (at) avimedia.no – or be one of the first ones to get them.
I’d advise doing the whole ATPL theory. Few years after getting your IR you may want to become an instructor or do some commercial flying. I did my IR first, because I didn’t expect at the time that I would ever need anything more than a PPL/IR. I didn’t enjoy preparing for the same 7 exams again when doing ATPL.
As for preparing, the most efficient method is to use a question database and work from there. Aviationexam has reference materials and explanations for every question. ATPLquestions doesn’t have good explanations, but has a current QB. Use that just before your exams. Additionally, I used a set of 14 books from Oxford when the QB explanations were not enough.
All this is a memory exercise. You’ll learn instrument flying in the plane with your instructor.
I did CBIR exams and now doing my ATPL on top of them, while it’s redundant, I find it’s hard to do ATPL at first go just to start an IR training, the amount of work is just huge unless you are full time on it and the amount of motivation is tiny, unless you dream of flying a B737 for living or PC12 for fun it’s hard to keep steam going while flying a Cub or C172…
CBIR exams can be done in 7 days by 5h study of QB question/answers and explanations and hit the iron while it’s hot, the hassle IMO is rather logistics (e.g. taking precious time off work to go to sit them in some ***hole), ATPL exams in the other hand seems to need more own in-depth study for things to sink and planning for things to work, you have to know and go over the LOs IMO (going over QDB quickly while commuting to work does not guarantee a pass, I know that the hard way 
)
Still need more beta testers and guinea pigs! Of course you will get the books for free.
The two first books can be found on “Apple Books”: https://books.apple.com/no/author/erlend-vaage/id1534304178?itsct=books_toolbox&itscg=30200&ls=1.
Meteorology is right around the corner!
lava wrote:
So, back to CB-IR and theory exam. What books will take me there in the best way?
For the theory, inquire for a demo login with different providers and go with the one who’s style fits you best. Bristol, CAT Europe etc… +1 here for Erlends books. Good stuff!
You can check the EASA FCL learning objectives and get an overview of the theoretical knowledge goals. You’ll see that it is A LOT!
The theory that you will actually need to be a safe IFR pilot, i.e. what is relevant, will be learned during practical IFR flying instruction and thereafter when you have your “ticket” and gain experience yourself.
From my instructor point of view, once the basics are understood and manifested, I try to remember this quote: Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you’ve fed him for a lifetime.
Thus my goal is to instruct how to gather the critical information for and to execute an IFR flight (due diligence, note special procedures and weather/aeronautical decision making) instead of simply going “do this like that, copy paste”.
For the exam, unfortunately the answer is rote memorization of the question banks. AviationExam works well there.
