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#1908304
I tried searching to see if this was covered, but I can't see that it is. Apologies if I've missed it.

I have a lot of free time between lessons which I plan to use to study and revise the theory side of things. I have a load of books on order and I've started looking for good online resources, but being new I don't know how good, relevant or up-to-date they are.

Can anybody recommend specific good online resources to use?

I've so far found the Easy PPL online resource and the ARSim app for iOS. I'm quite liking the latter, but does anybody know how good this actually is? Is it accurate?

P.S. Exercises 7 and 8 completed! :D
#1908337
Congrats on the rapid progress!

I'm going to be totally unhelpful and instead of giving you good pointers to online resources, I will steal your suggestions :-). I haven't come across ARSim until now, but I feel like I need some kind of radio practise and maybe that is a good option! A quick look suggests it is US-centric (although they mention they have some non-US airports in their scenarios?) so there's a chance that things are not quite aligned with UK air traffic services (things like Basic Service, MATZ penetration etc). Will take a look anyway though!

As a reference for the theory side: I have passed all 9 theory exams, and I only used the Pooley's books (reading each one thoroughly once, then quickly a second time), EasyPPL (typically for 1-2 weeks before the exam, going through their slides once and then doing plenty of mock exams) and a bit of the PPLTutor app because it was cheap. I would say that PPLTutor is nowhere near as accurate or comprehensive as EasyPPL though, so I'm not sure if that added much. For me, it was the EasyPPL mock exams that gave me the confidence that I knew what I needed to know. I tried to get to the stage of getting 100% on the mocks most of the time and then there were no problems in the real exams (which I would say were slightly easier than the EasyPPL mocks, at least for me).
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By tr7v8
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908342
ericgreveson wrote:
> Congrats on the rapid progress!
> As a reference for the theory side: I have passed all 9 theory exams, and I
> only used the Pooley's books (reading each one thoroughly once, then
> quickly a second time), EasyPPL (typically for 1-2 weeks before the exam,
> going through their slides once and then doing plenty of mock exams) and a
> bit of the PPLTutor app because it was cheap. I would say that PPLTutor is
> nowhere near as accurate or comprehensive as EasyPPL though, so I'm not
> sure if that added much. For me, it was the EasyPPL mock exams that gave me
> the confidence that I knew what I needed to know. I tried to get to the
> stage of getting 100% on the mocks most of the time and then there were no
> problems in the real exams (which I would say were slightly easier than the
> EasyPPL mocks, at least for me).
I'd echo this EasyPPL was fantastic & very accurate questions in relation to the 'orrible CAA ones. PPLtutor is cheap, not very accurate & a bit simplistic. Some answers are just plain wrong! but easy to use and great to flick through whilst waiting for a bus/train/taxi etc.
My final 2 exams I was under time limitations so did ground school with Mark Watkins at Gamston whom I would really recommend.
Last edited by tr7v8 on Mon Apr 25, 2022 11:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908352
I've tried ARSim - didn't like it personally but didn't use it much. Take care with it. I tried a practice module for radio frequencies and it prompted me to say 118.555 as one one eight point fife fife fife (point instead of deecimal). Not sure if this is a US vs UK thing or not.

I've tried Wilco Radio and signed up for that - my personal opinion is that I wasted my money. It's OK and the layout is nice but I would have preferred to be able to speak to it rather than just select buttons. It helps a bit I guess.

Also recently been looking at G-UDRT (see what they did there...). Seems quite good and I think you can speak into it but not had time to check that out yet.

I also rate EasyPPL and I'm not enjoying the theory but find it's got me to where I am well enough. I assume that [usermention=23229]@tr7v8[/usermention] has made a mistake above saying it was fantastic, then not very accurate. I guess he meant PPL Tutor is cheap but not so accurate. For me, EasyPPL is good if you read through the slides, do the tests. If the test results are OK, then do the exams. If not, re-read the slides until the test results are OK. Then do the exams. At least 10 times or more and analyse your answers.

Other online resources - here. Great place to bounce off others but you know that already. I've watched a bazillion youtube videos and it's interesting, but I'm not sure what I'm learning from them. When I started, I listened to a few student pilot podcasts. There was one american one (can't recall the name but you'll find it on the usual podcast jobs). Quite interesting and started to get me tuned into listening out for radio calls quite well while driving to and from work. I think it's helped me tune into RT terms and listening out.

Download and read the Skyway code. Several times.

If there's a topic you are struggling with, try searching for lessons on youtube. I've found that particularly useful for Meteorology.
#1908542
I've just started using G-UDRT based on [usermention=25385]@Milty[/usermention]'s recommendation above. I don't think it does voice recognition (they have an explainer on their website as to why) but it seems very polished, well structured, UK specific and has a really good range of scenarios. Seems like the RT app I've been looking for!
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908635
ericgreveson wrote:
> I've just started using G-UDRT based on
> [usermention=25385]@Milty[/usermention]'s recommendation above. I don't
> think it does voice recognition (they have an explainer on their website as
> to why) but it seems very polished, well structured, UK specific and has a
> really good range of scenarios. Seems like the RT app I've been looking
> for!


[usermention=25756]@ericgreveson[/usermention] , I've just looked at it. Seems very useful but am I correct in thinking I'll have to download 4 voice settings to my tablet?

I watched the faq vid, which I also notice only referred to iOS, which is not appropriate for my device.
#1908642
I'm using the Android version which is fine. My Android phone (Pixel 3) already had all of the UK voices installed (more than enough). You can check in Settings, just type "Text to speech" to find that setting, then look at the installed voices and if they're not already downloaded you can just press the Download button to get them for whichever country you want (I guess you could have an Australian ATC if you really wanted :-D)
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908884
ericgreveson wrote:
>
> already had all of the UK voices installed (more than enough). You can
> check in Settings, just type "Text to speech" to find that
> setting, then look at the installed voices and if they're not already
> downloaded you can just press the Download button to get them for whichever
> country you want (I guess you could have an Australian ATC if you really
> wanted :-D)

Thanks [usermention=25756]@ericgreveson[/usermention] . I got to settings, found the voices, says all installed but can't make G-UDRT pick them up. Nevermind, it looks very useful without. I've downloaded and had a quick go. Must get back to Nav studies now though!
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By tr7v8
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1909115
Milty wrote:
> I also rate EasyPPL and I'm not enjoying the theory but find it's got me to
> where I am well enough. I assume that
> [usermention=23229]@tr7v8[/usermention] has made a mistake above saying it
> was fantastic, then not very accurate. I guess he meant PPL Tutor is cheap
> but not so accurate. For me, EasyPPL is good if you read through the
> slides, do the tests. If the test results are OK, then do the exams. If
> not, re-read the slides until the test results are OK. Then do the exams.
> At least 10 times or more and analyse your answers.
D'oh yes I was referring to PPLTutor. Post now amended!
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#1909126
T6Harvard wrote:
> I got to settings, found the voices, says all installed but can't make G-UDRT pick them up.

After you've installed the voices, force the app to close and then re-open it. It's appears to only check for the installed voices on each load.
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