Commercial study material recommendations?

fiveoboy01

fiveoboy01

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I figure I should knock out my commercial since some of it ties in with the instrument, before I forget half of it lol.

What do you recommend for study materials/books?

I am leaning towards ASA's 2017 test prep/study guide and oral exam books. As I liked their stuff for the instrument.

Anything else I might want or do the pros here recommend something else?

Thanks:)
 
I'll let you know tomorrow if the ASA books work. Ha. Kidding. ;)

Seriously though, they're all fine. Today my instructor pulled out an old Gleim to hunt up some more things to ask me, but he's used that, the ASA books, some stuff from the net, some "liberated" docs from some big name schools (easily found online), his own stuff...

I haven't seen a significant difference in quality level or items covered. They all seem to work.

For the written tests some suggest Sheppard Air or Dauntless or similar. They're fine for that, but they're focused on that singular goal of passing a standardized test. They won't be enough to cover it all.

And definitely don't forget the FAA books. As much as they could be awful coming from a large bureaucracy, they're actually not. They cover all the material. Just maybe not always in an order or format that matches how some people think.

Probably the really critical part is to have at least a decent sense of what needs to be memorized, what can be looked up, and where it can be found in the FAR/AIM.
 
fiveoboy01 said:
I figure I should knock out my commercial since some of it ties in with the instrument, before I forget half of it lol.
Click to expand...

None of it is instrument related. It's pure VFR training and checkride. Similar to the private but with different maneuvers.
 
I'm aware that it's VFR.

My instructor said there is overlapping knowledge on the written.
 
King and Gleim are top tier IMO. Can't go wrong with either.
 
Which FAA books/ACs are useful for commercial, beyond those geared toward the private pilot license and instrument rating?
 
fiveoboy01 said:
I'm aware that it's VFR.

My instructor said there is overlapping knowledge on the written.
Click to expand...

I haven't taken the tests in several years, but I really don't know what parts of the written would really overlap. Shouldn't you really remain proficient and able to pass the written tests no matter how much time elapses anyway?

As for the original question, I'd just use Sheppard Air as your study guide.
 
As far as written goes Sheppard !
 
I am probably looking at the Commercial and CFI tickets in 2017. I'd go the same route as the last two. Gleim books.
 
For my instrument I got an app for the written and the ASA Oral Exam guide. Worked great for me.
Currently studying for the Commercial, albeit really slowly, and am doing the same thing.
 
Thanks for all the advice.

It doesn't look like there is a textbook that is geared just for the commercial ticket(they're all study guides) - they're all an instrument/commercial combination book. Do these textbooks concisely separate the material for the instrument and the commercial? I know Bob Gardner frequents this forum... I was looking at ASA's Complete Advanced Pilot, authored by him.

To answer a previous question, the point is, I am fresh off my IR and really only want to study the new material rather than take a lot of time filtering out things I've already learned and studied. Not really an efficient method.

If not, and the test prep and oral exam book will do it, then I won't buy anything else.
 
You may want to look at the Oral guide and analyze what the differences really are between the Commercial and the Private. (Hint: Not much. But you'll want to know the limitations of a Commercial certificate and where those limitations come from in the FARs... Which will lead directly to what needs to be studied if you remember everything from the Private rating...)

My oral wasn't heavy on Private knowledge but the examiner set up a very long XC to assess that. If that had been done wrong, they'd know what to harp on. After that it went into specifics of legal limitations of a Commercial certificate and then heavily into aircraft systems (you're a Commercial applicant, expect to be able to explain every system on the aircraft in detail, including stuff like what voltage the voltage regulator drops out at both low and high -- if it's in the aircraft manual, it's fair game)...

Also airworthiness and determining it is a big deal at the Commerical. Know exactly the rules for minimum equipment lists (the scenario is, of course, that you've been assigned to fly an airplane and something is inoperative -- can you legally fly it? -- since that's a common place for a new Commercial pilot to find themselves, flying poorly maintained junk...) and also what things can change an MEL or what to do when an MEL doesn't exist.

Know exactly what "holding out" means and why it's a hot button item for FAA these days. Expect the standard scenario, "Your friend wants to go to Vegas this weekend. Can he pay you to fly him and his friends there?"

Etc.
 
My glider student used Dauntless Aviation software and did very well.
 
denverpilot said:
You may want to look at the Oral guide and analyze what the differences really are between the Commercial and the Private. (Hint: Not much. But you'll want to know the limitations of a Commercial certificate and where those limitations come from in the FARs... Which will lead directly to what needs to be studied if you remember everything from the Private rating...)

My oral wasn't heavy on Private knowledge but the examiner set up a very long XC to assess that. If that had been done wrong, they'd know what to harp on. After that it went into specifics of legal limitations of a Commercial certificate and then heavily into aircraft systems (you're a Commercial applicant, expect to be able to explain every system on the aircraft in detail, including stuff like what voltage the voltage regulator drops out at both low and high -- if it's in the aircraft manual, it's fair game)...

Also airworthiness and determining it is a big deal at the Commerical. Know exactly the rules for minimum equipment lists (the scenario is, of course, that you've been assigned to fly an airplane and something is inoperative -- can you legally fly it? -- since that's a common place for a new Commercial pilot to find themselves, flying poorly maintained junk...) and also what things can change an MEL or what to do when an MEL doesn't exist.

Know exactly what "holding out" means and why it's a hot button item for FAA these days. Expect the standard scenario, "Your friend wants to go to Vegas this weekend. Can he pay you to fly him and his friends there?"

Etc.
Click to expand...

What I was looking for. Thanks, Nate!
 
fiveoboy01 said:
Thanks for all the advice.

It doesn't look like there is a textbook that is geared just for the commercial ticket(they're all study guides) - they're all an instrument/commercial combination book. Do these textbooks concisely separate the material for the instrument and the commercial? I know Bob Gardner frequents this forum... I was looking at ASA's Complete Advanced Pilot, authored by him.

To answer a previous question, the point is, I am fresh off my IR and really only want to study the new material rather than take a lot of time filtering out things I've already learned and studied. Not really an efficient method.

If not, and the test prep and oral exam book will do it, then I won't buy anything else.
Click to expand...

Sorry for being late. Yes...the advanced book has a chapter just for commercial pilot applicants. In it, I get into what kinds of jobs you can get with a plain-vanilla CPL (not Part 135) and some insights into flying for hire based on a non-airline career of doing just that.

Bob
 
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