You’re due to start groundschool and wondering how you can best prepare? Here are a few tips I’d recommend to you…

✈︎ 1. Maths and Physics Revision – You’re going to need this one! Sorry to break it to you but I’m here to be honest…there will be a lot of maths and physics in groundschool. Don’t panic, if it’s not your strong suit then there are ways your instructors will teach you to make it understandable. Having said this I would highly recommend getting a head start and brushing up on all GSCE knowledge. Look for some online mental maths tests also a lot of people cover all of BBC bitesize Maths and Physics GSCE. Also a handy online book schools reccomend is https://books.apple.com/gb/book/maths-and-physics-for-pilots/id592113679 . Ask your training school you’re due to start if there is anything else they can recommend.

✈︎ 2. Aviation Background Knowledge – This is a good one to arm yourself with. Keeping up to date with the latest aviation news not only helps you in your awareness and understanding of the aviation world you’re entering into but airlines and even your school will be expecting you to know what’s going on. You’ll be quizzed thoroughly on this throughout your career and shows how much passion and drive you to have. A few sites you could look at are…

https://www.flightglobal.com

https://www.pilotcareernews.com/category/news/

https://simpleflying.com/category/aviation-news/

Also LinkedIn is a great platform to follow airlines and keep an eye on the latest news!

✈︎ 3. ATPL prep – Now this is a slightly touchy one. I think it’s great to go in with some basic ATPL knowledge and have read up on a few things HOWEVER if you research/teach yourself too much on groundschool subject it may actually hinder your learning. Be careful as to what you read/listen to as you could end up learning something inaccurate or against your ATPL syllabus. There is a lot of information out there and a fair amount which Isn’t true. I’d personally recommend watching the Met Office on YouTube as recommended by some of our instructors and perhaps some physics for example Bernoulli’s theory or how gyroscopes work. Look for highly rated videos and again just use them for basic understanding. You could always ask students at the school you’re looking to start for any recommendations. Feel free to ask me too if you’d like 🙂

✈︎ 4. Study materials – If you haven’t already read my ATPL study tips and advice blog then take a look, It will give you a list of materials I found great for groundschool. There may be other materials you’ll personally find work well for you so shop around and see if there’s anything else you’d like to try to make studying a bit more exciting/interesting.

✈︎ 5. Trial lesson! – If you haven’t already had a trial flight, I would strongly recommend doing so. For me personally, having had some flying experience before groundschool I found it a massive help in understanding first-hand how an aircraft works. You can better visualise the aircraft effects, for example pushing the control column forward I can visually recall this moves the elevator down which forces the nose down. It may sound minor but it’s a valuable tool that will assist you through groundschool.

Trial Flight – Brighton City Airport

I hope you find these tips useful, please let me know if you have any other questions in the comments below 🙂

I wish you all the best on the start of a very intense but extremely exciting journey!

Ashleigh x