Guy Leitch
Pooleys Air Pilot Manual. Volume 4. The Aeroplane – General Knowledge
British based Pooleys have become the industry standard for ab-initio flight training books in the UK and Europe. They have brought out Southern African editions of their Air Pilots Manual series and I have been reviewing one each month. This month I look at Air Pilot Manual #4: The Aeroplane General Knowledge.
South African flight schools are increasingly becoming the preferred training ground for students from across Africa, the Middle East and India. When Pooley’s books launched their Southern African series at the AERO Expo at Wonderboom this year, I was intrigued by how Pooleys has tackled the daunting challenge of becoming the standard reference work for this large and diverse market.
Apart from excellent text, the key requirement for a modern reference book is great diagrams and layout, especially for the more technical aspects of aircraft design and operations – which is what Book #4 covers.
A quick flip through the Pooley’s books will show that the layout and diagrams have elevated this niche publishing art to a new level. The diagrams, in particular, are models of simplicity and clarity. Importantly too, the text is organised into clear topics with headings and introductions that take the student seamlessly from one subject to the next.
The technical aspects of aircraft can be a daunting subject for non-aviation minded people who are wanting to become pilots – and yes, there are many, especially in Africa where many aspiring pilots are first generation enthusiasts, without having had the benefit of a father or grandfather in aviation.
The Southern African edition includes reference material specifically for the SACAA PPL syllabus. For the many students whose primary concern is to just pass the exams – without necessarily gaining a clear understanding of the principles of flight, the books include practice questions. This is important because the SACAA exams come in for steady criticism for their sometimes confusing questions. In the bad old days this may have been because the exams were first posed in Afrikaans and then translated into English. Nowadays the exams are set in English, but there’s still plenty of room for confusion. So the inclusion of typical SACAA questions is an essential for an industry standard reference text.
Pooley’s has been publishing these books for more than thirty years. The content has thus had the benefit of decades worth of refinement – and it shows in the clarity of writing. The book has a list of acronyms (although these are in fact abbreviations), which are a huge help for those new to the jargon of aviation.
Volume 4: The Aeroplane – General Knowledge broadly covers:
– The Principles of Flight
– Aircraft: technical and general
One of the reasons I was particularly interested in Volume 4 is because it deals with the basic but very vexed question of how wings produce lift.
Pooleys has stuck to the tried and tested mainstream school of thought that uses the Bernoulli Theorem, which posits that the wing produces a ‘low pressure vacuum’ above the wing as an explanation for how wings produce lift.
The other school of thought argues in favour of what is loosely termed the Newtonian explanation. Newton’s Third Law holds that: If two bodies exert forces on each other, these forces have the same magnitude, but opposite directions. Proponents of this school then conclude that wings produce lift by directing air downwards – and according to Newton, this produces an upwards reaction from the wing.
These two seemingly opposite approaches have been hotly debated by many writers of aerodynamic texts – especially those who seek to explain the principles of flight to new pilots. My moderator in this debate is our American columnist Peter Garrison who, in an article that went viral, said, “You will never understand lift. Forget it. You haven’t got a chance.” Essentially though, he also comes out in defence of the Bernoulli explanation – arguing like Spike Milligan referring to reports that he had died, that; “Rumours of Bernoulli’s demise have been much exaggerated.”
With this admonition still intriguing me ten years after he wrote it – it was reassuring to find that Pooley’s have stuck to the tried and tested Bernoulli explanation – which is after all, what the examiners are looking for. Our doyen of instructors, Jim Davis, has nailed his colours to the Newtonian mast and will probably have a conniption if he reads this. But the bottom line is – if you are studying to pass the PPL exams – this is the reference that gives you the conventional wisdom using Bernoulli.
The books are available online, or from any good pilot supplies shop. Or order online from: https://www.pooleys.com/shop/category/ppl-training-material-starter-kits/ppl-exam-preparation-books/
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Pooley’s Air Pilot Manuals
The Pooley’s Air Pilot Manual series is a world-renowned reference for both the student pilot and instructor. They have now brought out a Southern Africa series.
Pooley’s aim is to standardise the quality of flying training, teaching and learning equipment through schools and their instructors. Pooley’s says that all the aviation training publications they produce have been closely scrutinised by leading schools and instructors.
Over 35 years more than 200,000 copies of Pooleys manuals have been sold. There are five SA volumes covering all the key aspects of the Private Pilots syllabus – excluding South African licence radio patter. Their textbooks are constantly updated edited and revised.
The key volumes published for Southern Africa so far are:
• Volume 1: Flying Training
• Volume 2: Human Performance and Meteorology
• Volume 3: Navigation
• Volume 4: The Aeroplane: Principles of Flight and Aircraft General
• Volume 5: Air Law and Flight Planning.
Pooleys does not only produce books – they also have a strong online digital product range. Students are able to download the new SA manuals through the free Pooleys eBooks App and then in-app purchase the manuals.