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

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Summary: Great All In One Book
Review: This is a excellent book. Mainly the diagrams, and pictures taken from actual flight manuals and charts, make it very easy to learn and comprehend. A large book it is, it is nicely organized as well as very good in summarizing key points that the FAA will ask on the exam. A good book for the soon to be Private Pilot

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Summary: Maddening wordiness before you get to the point!
Review: I bought this book on the strength of the reviews by others. A counterpoint, if I may. In an effort to make the book fun, (I guess), information is often hidden beneath layers of over-simplification and analogy carried on far too long. He had me screaming "get to the point!" This lack of crispness in writing style, is frustrating. Others obviously enjoyed this book more than I, but for my learning style, the inefficiency of this writing style was frustrating and time consuming. Not a book to easily use as a reference to specific questions you'd like answered (unless you have a lot of time).

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Summary: The right choice for begginners or professionals
Review: When I bought this book I was not a pilot yet. I started reading it and soon I decided to study at a professional flying school. To my surprise, almost everything that I had read before in this book was covered in class. The author explains tough concepts using examples and simple analogies. Important things are repeated over and over so you don't miss anything. If you read the book chapter by chapter you will end up having a very very good idea of what the basics and not so basics of flying are. If you want to learn what a private pilot needs to know....this is the book you're looking for.

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Summary: Excellent book, better than any FAA Reprint
Review: This is an excellent book, good explanations for difficult subjects. Nice depth of coverage, more than one needs to know just to pass the FAA Knowledge Test. I studied the FAA Reprints from ASA before I read this and still learned alot. That being said, this only covers topics on the FAA Knowledge Test. It would be great if this covered how to do Ground Reference, Takeoff and landings, for instance.

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Summary: A Must-Have Addition to Your Aviation Library
Review: Whether you're learning this stuff for the first time, or brushing up on material that didn't quite stick the first time around, this book is a must-have. It covers everything, with easy to undertand explanations (not regurgitations, but explanations), terrific illustrations (original graphics that compliment the great explanations), and some corny humor and funny stories that may actually make you chuckle out loud. I did.

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Summary: Make sure you have a highlighter pen
Review: I have to agree with the other reviews on this book. Rod Machado's use of humor and numerous illustrations keeps your studying lively. I especially liked how he can use more than one analogy to explain a topic. If he can't get through to you one way, he has another and possibly a third way to attack the topic. However, his use of humor and anecdotes can make the material a little crowded. I find that I have to reread things at least once before they really sink in. When you want to go back over a chapter, you have to fish through a lot of extraneous text to get to the meat. Judicious use of a highlighter pen helps.

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Summary: this book is an extrordinary handbook, the best yet written!
Review: Rod Machado ,a brilliant pilot and aviation author writes ALL the essentials for becoming a private pilot in a humerous, interesting way. After reading the book ,I was STUNNED on how much i learned and while having fun too!!!!

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Summary: Great to read even BEFORE you begin your flight training!
Review: I paged through several introductory private pilot manuals. None of the manuals conveyed the necessary information so thoroughly and in such an easily digestable form. I know I'll re-read this book as I begin logging hours in the sky. Thanks to this book, everything about flying an airplane is now one thousand percent clearer to me (including that fearful ATC interaction stuff).

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Summary: Aeronautical knowledge beaten into you with a funnybone.
Review: I have read a lot of books on flying an airplane, it wasn't, however, until I read Rod Machado's Private Pilot Handbook that I understood what the others were saying. (Especially the Government issued ones). So, does that make Rod's book a flying dictionary? Heck no... just makes it the next to only book you'll ever have to read on flying. Certainly the first one to read. I wish I'd known about it when I was a student - I could have impressed my instructor all the time instead just half of it. Rod Machado's powerful (how many people do you know who can turn electricity to water), funny, down-to-earth style makes you shout out loud: "So that's how it works!" And then cackle with glee. Thanks Rod. P.S. Should it occur to you, Rod, that your book may benefit from some re-designing, give me a call. I can help.

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Summary: Great fun and nearly complete
Review: As textbooks go, this is a wonder. Machado has a manic sense of humor, and he never stops laughing. Even the illustrations are funny. This is a great way to transmit information, especially to a reader who's been afflicted by the more traditional flight instruction manuals. The organization is good but not excellent (I find it irritating that the chapters are numbered in the table of contents but lettered on the page, and sometimes I can't locate things as easily as I'd like). But it's good to have around, the book you turn to when the others are putting you to sleep.