Hi Ted,
in regards to what books or series of books that are better or worse than the other. The two series being Aviation Theory Centre and Bob Tait's theory books.
I began as you with the ATC BAK book and found it informative and comprehensive. I was using the ATC BAK prior to signing up to the flight school i am with. When i signed up the CFI said his school prefers Bob's books, I bought a copy and found there is quite a lot of difference. The real clues are actually located in the fronts of Bob's and David's books. The short sections about the authors. David is from a military back ground with extensive knowledge of aviation and it shows in the texts, Bob is from a teaching background. The essential concept that is important to us students is the transference of knowledge, David does a great job at this yet Bob was a professional teacher and the result is text that is aimed at us boys with our toys. ATC texts do take considerable time to get through as you are aware by now, Bob's i find are easier to read and therefore quicker to get through and more time efficient. David's includes a lot more material, some I not to sure is really necessary but is there because it helps.
The other consideration is after BAK. Both series have the BAK as a single volume, yet to PPL ATC uses a 7 volumn kit in total about 13 cm thick of text that includes both PPL and CPL. Bob's is a single volume about 2 cm thick and covers only PPL. Bob's CPL course uses a 7 volumn text for CPL only. How thick i don't know. Yet the point is, going for PPL time is a serious question and 2 cm of text is quicker than 7 cm. also bob writes the text to be absorbed far quicker. I say Bob's PPL will take me 2 weeks to get through, i've bought myself the ATC PPL/CPL kit and i am looking at the box now, i guess probably 6 months to get through.
I have only obtained my BAK a few weeks ago, to get there i used both ATC and Bob's BAK books. This is a trend I am going to try as i proceed to the PPL and beyond to CPL. The reasons why, 1. Cover the same topics and information from two perspectives, though subtle, slight confusion on an issue from one text can be addressed differenly in the other text. 2. Repeating of topics and reading, though in normal life is not really an advantage, but in the air where ever piece of knowledge is the difference between having a great, enjoyable flight, and that of disaster, going over and over the material is not only useful for exams, but essensital for safe flying. 3. I enjoy flying to such a great extent, I want to know as much about it as i can. Using both series of books especially BAK gives me a greater understanding of the fundamental principles of flight theory. This is an important argument. doesn't matter what your endevour is, whether flying, business, sport or something completely different, gaining a thorough understanding of the fundamentals in the early stages, even if it takes longer, will pay dividends further in the studies. 4. More books, means more end of topic questions and answers and more practice exams. You need as many of these as you can get your hands on.
The drawbacks of using both series, 1. cost: you are essentially doubling the expenditure for text books, consider this along side the cost of flying lessons. Therefore, the extra cost of buying two sets of books is really a non-issue. 2. Time: It will of course take more time to get through all the reading. therefore you leasure time doing something else (movies, night clubs, etc) will be reduced. That doesn't matter because you go do an hours solo flying in the circuit and movies, night clubs become boring horible places anyway because you can only think of flying. makes going to work more boring also.
so my opionion and it is only my opinion, get both series of books. Bob's are far easier to read and digest, David's more extensive but will take considerable time. Example Bob's BAK takes me a couple of weeks, David's a month and a half. Considerable difference.
Thanks for listerning.
Thanks Bob for your books and go the Crows
