Mental Math for Pilots (Professional Aviation series) [Paperback]

Ronald D. McElroy (Author)

Book Description

Series: Professional Aviation series | Publication Date: September 1, 2004

For pilots looking to improve their math skills in the cockpit and easily perform math calculations in their heads, this book offers numerous tips and invaluable tricks to help in all areas of cockpit calculations. Pilots are guided through basic and more advanced formulas with explanations on how to perform them without needing paper or electronic calculators, step-by-step instructions, practice exercises, and personal advice from experienced pilots. Easy and quick methods for calculating airborne math problems, enroute descents, and visual descent points are covered. Numerous references, math memorization tables, lists of formulas, and definitions for terms and abbreviations are provided. This book will be useful for pilots gearing up for airline interviews, preparing for checkrides or proficiency checks, or wanting to improve their in-flight calculations performance.

Editorial Reviews

Review

In this era of EFIS, FMC, GPS, and 'fly by wire' aircraft, the most important cockpit 'computer' is still the mind of the pilot. Mental Math for Pilots revs up the brainpower to quickly process not only those pesky math questions asked during airline interviews, but expands the mental hard drive to handle a wide range of practical number problems in flight. Learn Ron's techniques and you just might be able to leave the calculate mode in permanent off! WAYNE PHILLIPS Aviation Author FAA Designated Pilot Examiner AOPA Air Safety Foundation Presenter Captain - United Express -- Wayne Phillips --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Ronald D. McElroy has been a pilot for over 24 years and is the author of Airline Pilot Technical Interviews and Flashcards. He lives in Castle Rock, Colorado.

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Aviation Supplies & Academics, Inc.; 2nd edition (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560275103
• ISBN-13: 978-1560275107
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,154 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #20 in Books > Professional & Technical > Transportation > Aviation > Piloting & Flight Instruction

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

62 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Way Overpriced!, January 9, 2001

By 

Richard T. Leitner (Bellevue, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mental Math for Pilots (Professional Aviation series) (Paperback)

Mr. McElroy's book has some neat math shortcuts for common aviation problems, but it is a pretty skinny book and not worth near the asking price. I've been an airline pilot for about 5 years, and a military pilot for about 10 before that. I'll admit that there were 2 or 3 shortcuts I didn't know (though less that I'll actually use!), but the prevailing comment among other airline pilots I showed it to were "You can tell the author is an airline pilot!" as they pointed to the $27+ price. I agree, this book is worth $10 or $12 tops. . .I could summarize all the shortcuts in a page or two. As for interview prep, you're better off using one of the books written specically for that purpose.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I am a bit puzzled, June 19, 2003

By 

"sgiuffrida3" (Fresno, Ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mental Math for Pilots (Professional Aviation series) (Paperback)

This book is over rated! It comes across as giving the pilot all these tips and formulas but falls way short on the task. First off, the typeset fills only half the page making the book in reality about 25 pages. It goes on to show you basic math found in any private pilot instruction guide. FH/C temp conversion, subtracting military time, and RVR which is all the same as in the NOS/Jep charts and Ops manuals for the plane you fly. The second half of the book has the times tables, subtraction tables, and division tables. He put fuel dump calculations in along with wet runway computations, this is not only a waste for pilots flying anything short of a jet, but worthless due to FMS and EFIS on bigger airplanes not to mention the F/E sitting sideways behind the captain. In short the book is outdated. finding reciprocals, compass turns to a heading, and ANDS are all in the flight manuals. In short this book fails to teach much. It is not worth the [price] that is for sure.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not recommended, June 22, 2007

By 

A. Bentz (Washington, DC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mental Math for Pilots (Professional Aviation series) (Paperback)

For its price, I found this little booklet not helpful. The first 5 pages are essentially advertising for a consulting firm (the author's employer) that prepares pilots for airline interviews. The final 5 pages again are mostly advertising for that same company's products. A 14-page appendix contains a review of how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide (at the level of teaching you that 3 + 4 = 7). Another 10-page appendix contains addition, subtraction, multiplication and division tables. In the remainder of the book (55 - very small - pages), I found exactly one useful rule: how to meet a crossing restriction. There are one or two other rules that in years of corporate flying I have never found useful (such as how to calculate your hydroplaning speed - interesting in concept, but practically not very useful).
If your math is below high school level, this book may be useful to you. Otherwise, I wouldn't recommend this book.
If you are planning to prepare for an interview, I would recommend you save the money you would have spent on this book and buy "Everything explained for the professional pilot" instead; and if you are interviewing for a job in a turbine-powered aircraft, "The turbine pilot's flight manual" - both those books are MUCH more helpful.