Rod Machado's Private Pilot Handbook: The Ultimate Private Pilot Book

As someone completely new to aviation, there is so much jargon and unfamiliar equipment and so many acronyms and that the potential for looking stupid seems high. I didn't know what a pitot tube is, and I appreciate the fact that Rod Machado doesn't assume that the reader knows that or even that they know how to pronounce it. He says, "that' pee-toe, not pilot" which is helpful. If you've hung around airports for the past ten years, you probably already knew how to pronounce it, but I didn't. This excellent attention to detail is this books strength. The author gives not one, but two photographs of pitot tube and explains that they are usually found under the left wing. As another example, I had read elsewhere that you need to test your fuel for water, but a single glance at the two photographs he included turned the concept from some vague ethereal haze in the back of my mind to a simple, "Okay. I get it." You can see this here on Amazon by clicking the "Look inside this book" link under the photograph of the book, then go forward a couple of pages to page A3. Figure 7 at the bottom of the page has the caption: "Under the wing is a fuel tank sump drain. Since airplane engines don't seem to run very well on impurities, the sumps should be drained before every flight and after every fueling." Figure 8 next to it shows someone checking for impurities witha clear plastic fuel strainer. Nothing beats seeing it.What I don't like about this book (and the reason I only gave it four stars) are the dumb jokes. When I read about the silly humor in another review I thought, "Lighten up, how bad can it really be?" Bad. Worse than you think. In fact, I think it detracts from an otherwise excellent book. What exactly does the author mean in the example above when he says, "Since airplane engines don't seem to run very well on impurities..."? Apparently, it's a joke (yuk, yuk). Besides from being distracting, it seems like what we get is a joke instead of information: what kind of impurities are we talking about here? Water? Or something else? These jokes are peppered throughout the text and they very quickly become tedious. I wish they were in the margin or in a different font so that I could ignore them. On page A5 the author talks about strobe lights on planes. One sentence starts, "This is necessary because..." I thought to myself, this must be an important point I'd better remember it. Disappointingly, the sentence ends with "...because screaming out the window does not work." If these silly jokes were in a special font I could have more easily skipped over them and they would have been less irritating.This is a large (as big as a medium size phone book), thorough and very well illustrated book and I'm glad I bought it.

This rating is for the seller since I haven't read the book yet. Good care was taken with the package. Book condition was actually better than expected. Thank you.

I have to say, when I first started reading "The Ultimate Private Pilot Book" by Mr Machado, I thought I had made a terrible mistake in my choice of methods for gaining the knowledge part of learning about flying. The book is hyped as funny and an easy way to learn. However, at first, I found Mr Machado's humor to be very punny and not so funny. I hear he is an incredible speaker on aviation topics, and I think he must write in the same way he presents his seminars. Probably works great in spoken word, but kind of gets in the way of trying to absorb lots and lots of technical information.Then, about 25% of the way through his book, something changed. I started to find myself smiling from time to time at his quips. Sometimes actually snickering. OK, once or twice I laughed out loud! I found myself thumbing ahead a few pages looking for the funny sidebars and anecdotes about flying experiences he or his students had.The topic of flying is not easy reading. It is highly technical in nature and there is a ton of things to learn, (and more importantly, to be able to remember). In review, Rod Machado has done a wonderful job of taking a difficult subject and presenting the information in a way that is somewhat enjoyable to read and absorb. Once you get used to his unusual sense of humor, the book is really quite a great way to learn to fly. But if I ever get to the point of having an inflight emergency and turning to my instructor and having nothing more to say than the words, "Bad Thing!"... I hope he pushes me out of the plane!! Read the book ... you will understand.One suggestion for prospective student pilots: Read about 100 pages or more before you actually start your flight training (in the air, I mean). It makes so much more sense when you read about the theories and practises of flying, and then go out and do it. Also, after you have scared yourself in flight training a few times, it makes alot of his stories so much funnier.All in all, I have to give it a "thumbs up". Good job, Rod.

This is by far the best review book out there for those studying for their private pilot's license. Rod Machado has a real talent on making the subject material interesting and easy to understand. Coupled with his private pilot workbook, these books have been a life saver for me! I was having a difficult time reading the private pilot manuals given to us for ground school, but Rod's books make the reading enjoyable. In fact, I am reading this book now more when I study rather than the book that was given to us for class. Rod's sense of humor comes through quite a bit in the chapters, but the way the material is presented makes it easy to understand and comprehend, especially some of the more difficult aviation subjects. And the workbook that goes along with this book is a great way to study for exams (the workbook has multiple choice questions that refer back to specific page numbers/paragraphs in the book to help clarify questions you might not understand). I highly recommend this book to anyone who is working on attaining their private pilot's license. If not used as a primary book to study from, it is a great asset to have as a reference to help clarify difficult subject matter or to help lighten things up a bit while you are studying.

This was bought for someone going through ground school. It is well written and I believe he felt it was a good choice to supplement the training.

If you even think that you want to learn to fly, this book is where you should start. It is explained so succinctly. His style is to make everything simple and logical. The reading is not so heavy or technical as to be beyond comprehension. His writing style is light, and almost conversational yet he imparts the knowledge you will need. So as a first book or for annual refreshment, this book is one of the very best. It really is an enjoybale read in its own right.

It's a great book to first time pilots, or to refresh your memory l, it has a very easy text to read, and also has lots of illustrations to show exemple for better understanding the subject.

Sehr gut gebundenes Buch. Komplizierter Stoff wird verständlich und einleuchtend erklärt--Highly recommendable*****Rob's like a true buddy, who one can listen (read) to and understand-It's like he knows exactly what student pilots might not always dare to askand spares them the embarassement that could therby arouse.His natural sense of humor invites into the depths of aviation and makes reading easy and fun.This book is for a pilot life....

Book arrived in excellent condition.

good book easy to read