In the modern context (e.g. one gets weather from windy.com tafs/metars and not from the 19th century sources like Form 215) the most important part of the PPL syllabus is what used to be called Aircraft Technical. You don’t need to know how a plane works to fly it but you will continually struggle with a lot of stuff (and rely excessively on other people in the maintenance area) if you don’t know this. And forget anything to do with IFR or instrument flying, without this knowledge.
The next thing you need to know to an adequate level is Air Law. This is horribly taught, with a load of dross, and is quite heavily country dependent. You need to know about airspace classes A-G and privileges in each one and stuff like that. And you need to know that in the UK you can fly 10ft above Mt Snowdon (assuming there is nobody standing there and there is no building on it) but you cannot go lower than 500ft above Mt Blanc even if there is nobody standing there (which quite often there will be).
Navigation is another horrible area, mainly because it is impossible to fly without getting into trouble without fully using GPS 100% of the time. Especially in the UK with its incredibly stupid no-prisoners policy. You can use the WW1 methods but they will work only locally. But many hours are wasted teaching these methods. The backup for a GPS is another GPS and if GPS was jammed then you all up ATC for help. And many airfields are hard to find without a GPS, and especially grass ones can be all but invisible.
In the end you need to pass the exams and then the best way is to do some flights with an experienced pilot i.e. mentoring. A PPL won’t teach you to fly around Europe or even around the UK. Too many gotchas.
philipus wrote:
I guess I’ll just go with Orbit and get it over with haha.
FYI, from looking into distance learning options for an IR, it’s my understanding that Orbit repackages the content from Bristol Groundschool and adds some things such as the revision/brushup courses. The theory and software is exactly the same, access to question databank can be purchased as you go for the duration you need it. If you are happy with an even more hands off DIY approach and are happy to keep everything English only, BGS seems substantially cheaper than Orbit.
Thanks @Tango for pointing me to BGS, I hadn’t seen that one. It’s a pretty high mark-up by Orbit at 995 Euro, though they do offer the brush-up sessions. Are they really useful?
Tango wrote:
FYI, from looking into distance learning options for an IR, it’s my understanding that Orbit repackages the content from Bristol Groundschool and adds some things such as the revision/brushup courses. The theory and software is exactly the same, access to question databank can be purchased as you go for the duration you need it. If you are happy with an even more hands off DIY approach and are happy to keep everything English only, BGS seems substantially cheaper than Orbit.
Thank you Peter, this is very helpful to know.
Peter wrote:
In the modern context (e.g. one gets weather from windy.com tafs/metars and not from the 19th century sources like Form 215) the most important part of the PPL syllabus is what used to be called Aircraft Technical. You don’t need to know how a plane works to fly it but you will continually struggle with a lot of stuff (and rely excessively on other people in the maintenance area) if you don’t know this. And forget anything to do with IFR or instrument flying, without this knowledge.The next thing you need to know to an adequate level is Air Law. This is horribly taught, with a load of dross, and is quite heavily country dependent. You need to know about airspace classes A-G and privileges in each one and stuff like that. And you need to know that in the UK you can fly 10ft above Mt Snowdon (assuming there is nobody standing there and there is no building on it) but you cannot go lower than 500ft above Mt Blanc even if there is nobody standing there (which quite often there will be).
Navigation is another horrible area, mainly because it is impossible to fly without getting into trouble without fully using GPS 100% of the time. Especially in the UK with its incredibly stupid no-prisoners policy. You can use the WW1 methods but they will work only locally. But many hours are wasted teaching these methods. The backup for a GPS is another GPS and if GPS was jammed then you all up ATC for help. And many airfields are hard to find without a GPS, and especially grass ones can be all but invisible.
In the end you need to pass the exams and then the best way is to do some flights with an experienced pilot i.e. mentoring. A PPL won’t teach you to fly around Europe or even around the UK. Too many gotchas.
I’m unable to edit the post above, but I’m wondering if Bristol ground school is actually an option for me since I am based in the Netherlands.
I see on the website of Orbit Groundschool that there is a requirement by the authorities here (the ILT) that it is mandatory that the theory includes a brush-up/revision part.
philipus wrote:
I’m unable to edit the post above, but I’m wondering if Bristol ground school is actually an option for me since I am based in the Netherlands.I see on the website of Orbit Groundschool that there is a requirement by the authorities here (the ILT) that it is mandatory that the theory includes a brush-up/revision part.
Last I heard is that they are authorised to teach in EASA world.
Ask them?
philipus wrote:
I see on the website of Orbit Groundschool that there is a requirement by the authorities here (the ILT) that it is mandatory that the theory includes a brush-up/revision part.
Orbit is bound by Dutch CAA rules and to be approved as ATO that apparently includes said course. BGS is bound by UK CAA rules that are different (there are also some brush-up requirements by the way, but they seem to be a lot more flexible). You on the other hand are not bound by any of this and can sit with any EASA recognised ATO (such as BGS) and then sit the exams wherever you’d like
There is no mandatory theory course for the PPL anywhere in Europe, or is there?
I’m unable to edit the post above
There is a 2hr edit window. I am normally available to do it afterwards, if really necessary 
Peter wrote:
There is no mandatory theory course for the PPL anywhere in Europe, or is there?
No, to my knowledge there is no theory course mandated by a CAA, but local shools or clubs may mandate a specific one.
Peter wrote:
There is no mandatory theory course for the PPL anywhere in Europe, or is there?
There is a syllabus, but it is not quite as detailed as the ATPL/CPL/MPL/IR syllabi, as no learning objectives are given.
What puzzles me is that in some places, PPL ground school (presumably charged for) is mandatory. It’s a revenue generation practice, because there is no such EASA requirement, and the UK never had one either. When I did mine, 2000, I had the option of some ground school at £10 per evening, which was ok, but the 100% self study option should always be allowed. I did mentoring for 2 pilots and they did their exams entirely out of the system, before commencing their flight training.
