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PPL self study materials question

When you start PPL training at a club you get a pack which includes a study book of PPL theory, QCMs, a progress planner and a couple of other things. You used to get this pack free of charge but now I believe some clubs charge around €30 for it. This is all you need to self study and pass you PPL theory.
The progress chart indicates the various learning points that need to be covered from the syllabus and in which order if possible.
Before and after each lesson the student is briefed and the various sections of the theoretical knowledge as found in the book are covered here along with things like doing fuel calculations, getting weather and understanding it etc. This is all done as part of the lesson and at no extra cost. If a student has a problem with a particular part of the theory s/he can always ask the advice of an instructor or perhaps a more experienced member of the club. That’s the advantage of the club scene.
It is of course, always possible to buy extra study material such as an online course or a DVD but I don’t know of many who do this.
The theory exam used to be free but in my case (many many years ago) the exams took place at a larger town like La Rochelle or Nantes (about and 45minutes to 1h15mins drive.)
They took place in a school exam type of environment and you got your results immediately following the exam ie you had a piece of paper with your results as you left the exam location.
A certificate followed on the post.
Nowadays I expect the examiner enters it on SIGIBEL (your online aviation record) as well.
It may be that today one has to pay to sit the exam but of so I doubt it is much.

France

I also did my PPL in the Netherlands and chose to do the theory preparation and exams with CATS. I have only good things to say about it. Their iPad/web app was all I needed to get ready, and then spent a week at their location at Luton for the brush-up and the actual exams. CATS fees, hotel and flights all together were still cheaper than many alternatives.
This was before UK left EASA but I know they still do EASA theory. There might be changes about them doing the examinations on site, not sure about that.

EHLE, Netherlands

Peter wrote:

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.

It certainly is an EASA requirement, so it must have applied in the UK as well. (And not even in an AMC but in the actual EU regulation.)

FCL.210 Training course
(a) Applicants for a PPL shall complete a training course at an ATO or a DTO.
(b) The course shall include theoretical knowledge and flight instruction appropriate to the privileges of the PPL applied for

For the LAPL, the exact same requirement is in FCL.115.

If might not have been a requirement under the pre-EASA regulation.

PS. Not everything which appears silly or useless is because of revenue or job generation.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

It is still damn silly not being able to take PPL exams, CBIR exams and ATPL exams without getting involved with ground schools, course providers and ATO/DTO?

This is pain in the a**se and unfair for someone with +80h week fulltime job (or someone who is smart enough to study on their own), it also penalise people when changing schools due to teaching incompetence or business going bust because they hold someone “theory & practice training records” (not my case but this question comes regularly in one of PPL forums, it’s even an ugly & sad reads sometimes when people pack up due to back experience with doing theory exams)

In the other hand one can take Part66 B1/B2 theory exams, FAA PP/CPL/IR/ATP as freelance without going via any course providers, none of their pilots did freefall out of ignorance…surely, if the FAA start requiring “course completion certificates” (with 3k$ course packages) to sit the various pilots exams thay would have put a nail in the coffin for anyone going to US in order to take these? they would likely need M1 visa for start and may require US education degree or equivalence !

Meanwhile, you can take the “ENS Ecole Normale Superieure” without any education background, you need an online registration and be on time on the day for 6h/8h exams in Maths I & Math II and Physics I & Physics II…there are no requirement for any previous course or studies, I know someone who scored it, he has never been in a school in his whole life !

Last Edited by Ibra at 22 Jun 07:35
Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

The concept of the DTO is relatively new and IMO there is very little difference in our club between theory and practical now and as it was before DTO’s were demanded. Same book, same pack, same aircraft, same instructors, perhaps even the same or similar cost. The main difference now is that we need a separate space; office or area where instructors and students can work, away from the hub bub of the club bar.

France

Why do you even need to do any TK studies in the ‘club’? I do agree for flight briefings you need space, ‘safety exit’ and 3 toilette types….there is no reason why you can’t just go and sit the exams?

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Training course does not imply mandatory bum on seat hours at a CAA approved school, which is what I meant.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

@Ibra tk studies and briefings go hand in hand here. There’s little point in doing a nav excercise using VORs if the student doesn’t know what a QDM or a QDR is.
The same goes for how to read a TAF or what a Metar is.
But this does not imply the seat on bum hours at an approved school which I think Peter is talking about. And yes you can take the exams, when you feel you are ready. There are no set number of hours of theory study. That is up to you.

France

Training course does not imply mandatory bum on seat hours at a CAA approved school, which is what I meant.

That is what I meant as well, the most useless time of my life were those “mandatory approved courses” and with no disrespect, I have not learned a single thing during PPL, CBIR, ATPL, FI boring theory sessions…funnily enough I learned more during some “gliding lectures” and reading books/websites/forums

Maybe I was not lucky? or I prepared too much on my own?

Paris/Essex, France/UK, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

Training course does not imply mandatory bum on seat hours at a CAA approved school, which is what I meant.

Yes it does. FCL.210 states that the course must be given by an ATO or DTO both of which are approved. (OK, technically a DTO is only implicitly approved – by not getting a non-approval to its declaration – but let’s not mince words.)

The number of hours must also be approved. They can be self-study hours, but they must still be in the approved study plan.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden
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