Customer Reviews

Rod Machado's Private Pilot Handbook

5 star:		(67)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I purchased a copy of Rod's book before I even started my flight lessons. I quickly decided that even if I did not pursue my certificate that I would read this all the way through. It is that well written.

The reality is that many introductory aviation books are little more than a list of test questions. While being able to pass the multiple choice test is important, being a better pilot as the result of your studies is even more important. If you only want to pass the FAA test then go ahead and look elsewhere. If you actually want to understand the concepts then buy this book.

Years ago I took a Private Pilot Ground school. The text and the instructor both offered all the excitement of eating dry shreded wheat. I never finished the course. Rod's text enables you to actually enjoy reading about seemingly mundane topics such as airfield operations. I only wish he had written some of the Statistics texts we used when I was an undergrad.

If nothing else buy the book for the diagrams and illustrations. Then, when you are stumped about a particular subject you will have a reference that will make the concept readily understandable.

I consider this book a MUST HAVE for any aspiring pilot or even for anyone just curious about aviation. It will give you everything you need to pass the written AND it will make you a better pilot at the same time.

Machado's book covers a wealth of information and interjects a lot of humor to keep some of the drier areas (e.g,. airspace -- yawn) of aviation palatable.

I would recommend readers not get too hung up on the FAA Knowledge Exam, aka "the written test." While this book IS an excellent review for it -- except possibly the minor continuous changes in FAA regulations -- it covers far more material. As such, it's an invaluable review for the practical test, as well as a reference when you pursue your instrument and commercial ratings. For example, among the numerous diagrams and pictures, are some excellent cutaway illustrations of instruments. Supplementing this is a good discussion on instrument limitations and errors. Although the same material is in the FAA Instrument Flying book, Machado's presentation is clearer.

Especially nice are excerpts from ASRS (aka "NASA form") reports about a particular incident or accident germane to the topic at hand. These help provide the "why" behind the material, e.g., "why do we ALWAYS physically verify that both gas caps are tight?"

The humor, while welcomed, can be a little too much at times. For the reader who wants a more direct approach, I'd recommend William Kerschner's books published by Iowa Press. Kerschner is legendary.

I'm an avid reader and a student pilot with 40 hours in a Cessna 172. I've known about Rod Machado's books for some time but never really took the many opportunities presented to actually crack them open, I'm sorry to say. The fact that most of my pilot friends had this book should have clued me in but... Before now, there have been relatively few books dealing with aviation that I have found to rave about (among these are all the Proficient Pilot books by Barry Schiff and those by Trevor Thom). This is one of those rare books. The author outlines principles and concepts in a clear and easy-to-understand format, loaded with illustrations to help the pilot better understand what is being written about. One can tell that Machado deeply understands the subject matter. I would have liked a little more coverage on actual flight training in terms of landing, take-offs, etc. but there are already so many excellent tomes on these subjects that I really can't complain too much about this book's chosen area of coverage. Keep it up, Rod!

Covers in immense detail the topics covered in ground school, while at the same time very interesting to read. Full of humor and tons of illustrations. It is almost possible, I've found to gather all information covered in text by looking entirely only at the illustrations. This book is never tedious or dry. You will learn a whole lot more from in than what is covered in the Jeppesen's "Private Pilot Manual", and it is a far far more interesting read. Airspace will make a lot more sense too.

Covers Aerodynamics, Engines, Flight Instruments - in great detail how those work the way they do and why, Airspace, Charts, Radio Nav, Weather, Weather Charts, Cross countries and more. Also chock full of neat info. Great for those who hate math as well as those who can't live without it. The end of each chapter contains a "Postflight briefing" that can be skipped but goes into detail about information that might be considered abstract. Such as for instance, how a gyroscope works, or how the jet stream forms.

Should definitely be read in lieu of or in conjunction with Jeppesen's Private Pilot Manual.

Many private pilot manuals place all their emphasis on passing the "written" only. Therefore they offer only enough dry material, without any explanations -- just to pass the test. This is a shame, especially for someone becoming an entry-level pilot. This book is different. It's written in a refreshing conversation-like style. It has all the required data one needs to pass the test, but goes one or two steps further in actually EXPLAINING the why's and what-fors. (What a concept!) I found I could actually sit and read about FAA regulations, and NOT begin to get brain fade after 10 minutes. The pages are interspersed with side bars, accident reports, and hangar-talk to give the gray matter a bit of a breather; and there are more than enough graphics to help you to understand a rule or concept. Oh yes, the humor -- well some of it is corny, but not any more-so than one would have during a chat with a friend. Hey, flying is supposed to be FUN. The humor is there to make a particular point, and to help you assimilate the fact easier. I did not find it to be over bearing -- I welcomed it.

This book could be used soley as a preparation for the written; though it does not have review questions at the end of each chapter to ascertain if you've retained the particular lesson. I found it would be best used as a complement to a study guide for the written. It's also easy on the brain. It can be read anywhere, anytime; and at the same time, you're not only LEARNING the requirements for the test -- but garnering aviation KNOWLEDGE.

I am very familiar with Rod Machado (the flight instructor, not the opera singer). His knowledge of aviation is second to none (except whoever taught him), and he knows how to communicate this knowledge to student (and other) pilots (like myself). He is especially proficient (and good at) at meteorology (the study of weather, not asteroids).

Did all the parentheses in the previous paragraph annoy you? They will in Rod Machado's book, too. This book is LOADED with them. Mr. Machado can't seem to write more than 2 paragraphs without adding a joke or pun in parentheses to 'keep it light'. Don't get me wrong: the instructional information contained in this book is very thorough and presented clearly in layman's terms. I actually enjoyed some of the sidebars with anecdotes of his experiences as a pilot and a Certified Flight Instructor. THOSE were funny and entertaining. But the humor interwoven into the instructional text is WAY overdone and is mostly third grade humor. His attempt and making EVERY sentence funny gets old after about page 9. For instance, in the section on aerodynamics and the four forces of flight, Mr. Machado writes:

"Yoda, the transcendental handheld philosopher from the Star Wars movie trilogy, frequently dispatched Luke Skywalker with the benediction, May The Force be with you. In aviation there are four forces and they are always with us, whether Yoda or your flight instructor intervenes or not."

Aside from being a poor attempt at using humor to hold my attention (unless he is trying to teach my 8 year old son - mention Star Wars and he'll read the whole book), it is incredibly wordy compared to:

"There are four forces acting on an airplane in flight."

The occasional joke would have been fine, but turn to any of the 572 pages and you will find several attempts at humor, most of which fail. This also includes putting a cartoon or digitally altered picture on EVERY page. For example, one picture shows a Cessna 172 with 6 Boeing 737 engines mounted on it with the caption "WOW! Those aftermarket add-ons are really something aren't they?" My son is rolling on the ground with laughter. I only see it accomplishing 2 things:

1. It didn't make me laugh
2. It took up alot of space.

There are so many of these type drawings that it makes finding pertinent diagrams a task, to say the least. This book could have been about 1/3 thinner and alot easier to read had the author only cut down on the humor and lightened up on the cartoons. The layout this book is very disorganized, making it a confusing to follow.

Yet I do use this book frequently. Why? Because when I have trouble with a concept I am reading about in my 'Jeppesen Private Pilot Manual' (a book I highly recommend, as well as the Guided Flight Discovery program it is a part of), I will pull 'Rod Machado's Private Pilot Handbook' off the shelf to use as a backup. If I can cut through all the puns and the funny little pictures, his explanation of material is very easy to understand. Getting to that point, though, is so laborious that I would never use this as a primary study reference for my flight training. I do recomment this book, but only as a backup to some other text.

By the way - I think I can speak on this topic from the authoritative point of view because I AM a student pilot.

I read the other reviews here, and felt the need to add my opinion. I've been flying for over twenty years, and teaching for over three. As Rod suggests, I offer my students the choice between the Jeppesson and Machado texts. Not only do my students enjoy the Machado flight manual, I find that they understand the material better. If any material is interesting to the student, they will learn it more easily and remember it.

I also am curious that another review found the book to be less than technically correct. Simply look at the stack of awards that this book and it's author has received. Without hesitation, I let my students learn from Rod who is one of the most published and honored flight instructors in the United States. The book is not an engineering text book, and few students would finish their training if we treated them all like engineering students. I find Rod's explanations to be more accurate and understandable than the FAA's own manuals.

I highly recommend this book based on the content, and the impact I've seen this book have on my students.

*** This book will help you ***
If you are learning to fly, as I am, this book will really help you. I've used software and video, and this book is much clearer, entertaining, and memorable.

*** Finally, someone explains WHY ***
Machado takes the time to explain the "why" behind so many aspects of learning to fly, and all the strange rules and regulations, which makes it all easier to understand.

*** The humor is entertaining ***
I even confess to looking forward to the sometimes silly jokes Machado uses to help your brain relax on a regular basis.

*** The book is huge ***
Over 500 pages of information, in a large format, this book will not be flying with you on a small plane - it weighs a ton! I've taken to removing a chapter at a time so that I can carry it around and read it when I get a moment. The book is really too big to move without a forklift.

*** Good prep for the FAA written test ***
Machado slyly avoids many references to the FAA test, I assume for two reasons:

1) To not annoy people that already have their certificate reading the book to refresh;

2) To try to avoid seeming like he is only teaching you the basic test material.

Whatever his reason, it's working - I'm getting the knowledge I need for the test, in addition to other stuff that I would probably not have learned had I focused exclusively on test prep.

I'm looking forward to getting more stuff from Machado, like the instrument book. It's next on my list!

Rod is sufficiently thorough, covering all of the relevant areas that will help produce a safe-flying, intelligent private pilot. His explanations of weather are the best I have seen (I taught Meterology in the Navy and was a Naval Aviator for 8 yrs.) I liked the way he explained the logical use of weather info. I used the book to refresh for my BFR and don't feel a need to consult any other sources. I wavered between 4 & 5 stars because it seemed to go on too long. The main reason was some of the overdone humor! Hey Rod you owe me $5 for those bad jokes! Seriously, (huh?) he had some pretty good ones too (occasionally). One thing I really enjoyed were the ASRS reports (excerpts from real life accidents). Classic stuff that we can all learn from, perhaps least expectedly from a textbook. I guess another thing I liked was that it didn't really seem like a textbook. Overall thumbs up, more "goods" than "others". I'm sure I'll buy his follow-on instrument book. If your not the type to appreciate a little corny humor then you'd better stick to Jeppesen or ASA.

It never ceases to amaze me how much has been written about aviation and how confusing it can be to the initial student. I read this book cover to cover when learning to fly. I also read many others but found this to be the most complete and certainly the most readable. Moving on though my flight ratings I found myself using it often as a resource as we tend to forget such things as how many hectopescals are standard and that can be embarrasing when doing an ATP oral and not being able to explain the end of a METAR. I have had my students use it thought the years and the feedback is uniformly highly favorable. I would encourage all to read it and to make sure your instructor knows you are so you can read a chapter ahead before each flight (i.e. VOR Naviagation) before you go intercepting VOR radials. Machado is very good and a legend in flight instruction. This book should be THE book for all student pilots.