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

Great read for any pilot of any skill level! Rod's writing is entertaining to read; he is able to simplify and make information more concrete and easier to understand with his remarkable storytelling abilities. Highly recommend!

This book was well packed and delivered promptly. Thanks Amazon .Rod Machado's books pack a lot of information in one book. He has a way of simplifying difficult subjects . His illustrations are fresh and not the tired old illustrations taken from military manuals or the FAA pictures. If I was working on getting a private flying license this book would be my primary source of information for passing the written test. There are many good flying books available but this book stands head and shoulders above them all Tom

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.

I now have my private pilot's license thanks, as far as ground school is concerned, to this book. I had excellent instructors who were willing to answer "ground school" questions in the course of my practical flying lessons, but 95% of my preparation for the "academic" side of the tests, written and practical, was taken care of by careful reading of this excellent text. The material is well organized. It is clear, and the writing style engaging. The knowledge you have to master will always be considerable, but with this book you can find all you need, and the reading is not tedious. The dull work is leavened by reasonable levels of humor. There's a good index. I did use one other book in my preparation: The Jeppeson written test prep book which is about 800 FAA questions, along with the right answers and analysis of why they are right. But that was just to prepare for the test, in a tactical sense. The Machado book was where I learned the material upon which I would be tested. Apart from those two books, I did little reading, and I had no "formal" ground school. "Homeschooled", you might say.

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.

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.

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 ask and 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....

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.

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.

Book arrived in excellent condition.

It is a large volume soft back and it will take a while to read it all but what I have read so far makes good reading.