Customer Reviews

The Pilot's Air Traffic Control Handbook

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I enjoyed Paul Illman's Radio Communication's Handbook. I first read it ten years ago when I was training for my private certificate. I enjoyed it so much that I bought the updated version a couple of years ago. But I found that the new version of the RCH suffered from the same problem as the Air Traffic Control Handbook - too bloated with superfluous information and not enough on practical issues facing either a VFR or IFR pilot that wants to get real world advice on using the ATC system. When I bought the ATCH, I also bought Gardner's Say Again to hedge my bets in case I was disappointed with the ATCH. Having read them both back to back, Say Again is a shorter read but fuller of useful advice and also easier to follow. I think the ATCH suffers from poor editing and could be a better book if it were shorter but more pithy. Maybe this will be corrected in the next edition. I won't single out the ATCH on this critcism though; most aviation handbooks seem to gain unnecessary weight with each edition. For example the Jeppessen IFR handbook was a mere 150 pp back in the sixties now its a nearly thousand page behemoth and I'm not sure it's much better (issues aside about the myriad changes in regulations, technology, and airspace since). More than any endeavor in aviation the KISS principal reigns supreme.