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PPL self study materials question

Hello everyone

I’ve decided to go the self-study route and, being located in The Netherlands, am considering Orbit Groundschool which has been recommended to me.

One thought struck me which is that it seems their learning platform is not in ebook form (though one apparently retains access to the platform afterwards).

It may be the lawyer in me but I generally like to have access to books for later consultation, revision, verification etc.

Am I over-thinking the importance of this? I’ve searched but don’t find an answer to this, and so would much appreciate your thoughts on this.

If access to the materials in ebook form would turn out to be useful I might consider other learning options, but which? EDIT: As I understand it there’s a requirement that one does the EASA theory at an ATO so I guess it isn’t as simple as just buying another solution and then do the exams.

Kind regards
Philip

Last Edited by philipus at 07 Jun 19:42
Netherlands

Hi Philipus,
When you select your flight school you can find out which offers they have for the theory. Some provide lessons in person, some self study tools and some others both options.

Some flight schools allow you to do the theory at a different ATO/DTO ground school (like Orbit or BluBird in Lelystad), and limit their services to flight training. In the Netherlands you can choose to take the theory exams in Dutch (there are some locations in the country) through the ministry, or in English through Austro Control (you can arrange that with Orbit in Arnhem). The latter option used to be a lot cheaper when I did my PPL, and it probably still is.

The self study material is usually an app or web site for e-learning, with progress tests to complete. Everything is logged so the ATO can demonstrate you went through the whole syllabus before they endorse you for the exam.

If you want books that you can integrate your studies with, and have with you also after your studies, you can buy the Pooley’s books.

EHLE LIMB, Netherlands

Thanks NicoKM, now I understand better.

Netherlands

I would generally advise a very fast read of the books – depending to some extent on your previous flying experience – and then just hammering the computer question bank (QB).

This is for all of the PPL, CPL, IR.

This is because European flying theory has a very large % of garbage on it.

But like I said it depends on your previous flying experience. If you have none then it will be a lot harder.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Usually when you start your PPL your experience is almost zero, and studying the material or reading the books is necessary before hammering the question bank, even though PPL theory is quite easy.
And when I’ve done the ATPL theory (and I expect it would be the same for CPL theory), I don’t think I would have ever passed if I used almost only the question bank. The best resource were the videos from CAE Oxford, very comprehensive and a lot more “entertaining” than the big books or a cold e-learning app with text and pictures only.

EHLE LIMB, Netherlands
EDHN, EDVM, Germany

@sw1969 the link didn’t work for me, but I tried correcting it

Peter wrote:

I would generally advise a very fast read of the books – depending to some extent on your previous flying experience – and then just hammering the computer question bank (QB).

Depends on the person, if you’re a fast learner in your early 20’s then maybe yes.

However if you’ve started this later in your life, with no previous experience, and have to balance family, life, and a job, then maybe reading and then understanding the topics is better, then smashing QB’s and then re-reading until you know by heart the topics related to questions you frequently fail.

Last Edited by The99percenter at 13 Jun 16:21
Switzerland

However if you’ve started this later in your life, with no previous experience, and have to balance family, life, and a job, then maybe reading and then understanding the topics is better, then smashing QB’s and then re-reading until you know by heart the topics related to questions you frequently fail.

If the material in the books was relevant then I would agree, but it mostly isn’t. I started my PPL at age 43, did the FAA IR at age 49, and now at age 65 would not dream of reading the absolutely dreary flight training books

OTOH some people love learning from books.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

@Peter
I didn’t say that, in the end, this will provide more useful knowledge instead of smashing QB, but that it might be a slower but more effective way to get through the exams.

In my experience, the amount of random, useless & irrelevant stuff they ask in the PPL exam is so high that you can’t reliably learn each answer (especially if you’re doing multiple exams each day), and the better but slower alternative seems to be to really understand the subject you’re being examined for.

Maybe I feel this way because in my case there’s been a greater difference between school supplied QB and exam QB (I’ve read of others who were given no QB), but this may be due to the PPL question banks being too slow at catching up with the “new” ECQB PPL 21.2 2021.
If anyone reads this and disagrees, then maybe I’ve been using an unsuitable QB, so I would appreciate letting me know of a better QB for PPL.

Last Edited by The99percenter at 13 Jun 18:14
Switzerland

I think there are more than one PPL QB or anyway different (with big differences) variations of the QB in EASA Land.
At the times I did my PPL in NL, in the same school we were 3 students: one of us did the exams with the Dutch ministry (in Dutch), with specific sets of questions. The other one went to Brussels (for English language) and had something more similar to the questions you find in the QB of the E-gle app (which happens to be Belgian). I did my exam with Austro (also in English) and the questions were very different and in line with the PDF you can download for free from their site.

ATPL is a different story, the QB is consistent across EASA and any app/web site is usually a very reliable (and paid) source and tool.

EHLE LIMB, Netherlands
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