(Part 2) Best products from r/aviation

Buy Fighter Combat: Tactics and Manoeuvring. It is the PhD-level thesis on air-to-air combat. Eat it up. You will be heads and shoulders above your peers if you can demonstrate a solid understanding of the concepts in that book when it comes to recruitment time.

Also, keep in mind that being a fighter pilot isn't particularly glamourous. You get to fly the coolest jets in the world, but 99.9% of the time, when you're deployed, the flying is boring as shit. Naval aviators? Take off, bus to a tanker, get gas, fly in a racetrack for 3 hours, get gas, fly in a racetrack for 3 hours, fly back to the boat, land. Sleep for 8 hours. Do it again when you wake up. Every six days. For 3-4 months.

Watch Jetstream and Speed & Angels.

Get your private pilot's license, glider's license, or recreational -- whatever you can afford. The sooner you get yourself into a cockpit the better. At the very least, try and go up in a high performance prop that's capable of at least 6Gs and get the instructor to do a full aerobatic routine with +6/-4 load. Some people take Gs better than others; you'll want to know if you're susceptible to fainting or throwing up. (I knew someone at the top of his class at flight school, right up until they started doing G-loaded maneuvers, at which point he started hurling at around +3/-2. He ended up getting kicked out as he couldn't kick it.)

Get into fighter simulators like Falcon 4.0: Allied Force, or the new Falcon 4.0 release from Benchmark Sims. They'll give you a far better appreciation of what's actually involved being a fighter pilot than any book or movie. (Took me about two weeks of reading manuals and practicing before I was able to lock on to a bandit in Falcon 4 from BVR and shoot it down. Learning the concepts of fire control radar and subsequent operation of said radars will be very enlightening, and again, will put you ahead of your peers.)

Engross yourself in the details. Get obsessive. Read and re-read Fighter Combat. Know the strengths and weaknesses of every fighter/attack jet currently flying in every air force. Know what a high yo-yo is. Know what your beams are, and how to notch them. Know about gimbal limits. Learn about jammers.

Eat up as much information as you can. Understand every concept being discussed in this thread about BVR tactics.. Learn as much as you can about the F-22, F-35, China's J-20 and Russia's PAK FA. The latter two are going to reach IOC around the time that you'll probably be strapping up in a J-35. Read all of the articles here and be able to make informed decisions about what you're reading and how that fits into your world view..

Watch this video of an F-16 pilot evading six SAMs over Iraq during Desert Storm and make sure that's something you want to do with your life.

Buy FSX and the VRS Superbug. Learn how to fly carrier patterns. It's one of the most challenging yet rewarding thing you can do on a simulator. (You'll want a HOTAS setup for the best effect.)

Read Vipers in the Storm for a very technically-oriented account of one F-16 pilot's Desert Storm deployment.

Read the official CV NATOPS publications (google it). Download and read the Air Force's F-16 Air Combat Command 16v5 manual. It's just as juicy as Fighter Combat.

Pick the aircraft you want to fly and know everything about it. Cut out pictures of it and put them on your wall. Know the emergency red book procedures off by heart. Buy the cockpit cut-outs that students use to learn all the switches and memorize them. When it comes to recruitment time and they ask for your three jet preferences, put that jet down three times, because there's no way you're going to fly anything else. Just, nope.

Know about the 10,000 hour rule (google it) and start chipping away. Immersing yourself in the world of fighter pilots now will pay off in years to come. When it comes time for your recruitment interview in 3-4 years time, you'll be so far ahead of your peers that you should be a shoe-in. Make it clear during your interview that being a fighter pilot is all you want to do. Have a list of every single aspect you've learnt (like red pages, BVR tactics, basically everything I've mentioned here), and get them to quiz you on the hardest ones (or ask if you can demonstrate what you know about the hardest ones).

And whatever you do, don't ever visit this site: http://www.becomefighterpilot.com/fighter-pilot-video.html. I purposely didn't make it a link. It is absolute horse shit. I know, because I bought it. A year ago. (And I'm 30 and have long since given up my chances of being a fighter pilot, which I regret on a daily basis.) It basically consists of: "get good grades, be a good person, do your homework".

No tl;dr for you! Print this shit out and do everything on it. Ping me in five years when you pull your first break turn at corner speed.

...

Know what a break turn is and why you would need to do one at corner speed.

There's really good test prep on Amazon. They update the test all the time so it's not the same as when I took it, but I had a lot of success using just the books on Amazon. I'm sure they'll help you too.

Also, STUDY AVIATION HISTORY and just geek out on airplanes. I had a solid 7-10 questions like

>which on of these has a propeller? A-320, A-6, C-17, or C-130

>how many apollo missions were there? 15, 16, 17, or 18

free points.

-Nothing beats hands on experience. If you can get a job working for a repair station, DO IT.
-These pdfs are very useful.
-If you can not get a job, go to your local airfield. NOT the airport. They have security. airfields don't, typically. Go around to the local shops in the area and talk to the owners. Tell them you are wanting to get your A&P and are looking for somewhere to help you get your hands on experience besides the school. Maybe an internship or something to 1) get that foot in the door or 2) AT LEAST know what you are getting yourself into.
-If you are already in a school, hear are some things you are going to need to know:

• Keep your eye on the prize and don't get discouraged.
  
• If you understand something, don't hold the knowledge in. You learn 100% more by helping others understand the material that way.
  
• If you don't understand something, ask questions. Bug the **** out of that instructor. They are there to make you understand it and if they aren't explaining it well enough and are being a dick about it, then /r/aviation is a click away. I would and I'm sure others here would be more than happy to help you understand.
  
• Get Prepware for the writtens. It's actually a great study reference guide. If prepware is too expensive, then just the ASA General, Airframe, and Powerplant books are your best bet. They come with some good Oral questions to study and a Practical guide on what to expect. Prepware is just super useful to help you figure out if you are "test" ready yet. Which brings me to another thing.
  
• When you are mock testing yourself over the writtens. You have an hour on the general, but only 60 questions to take, while airframe and powerplant are two hours and 100 questions a piece. Use a scratch pad. Use it to write down the ones you are unsure about and come back to them once you get through all your questions. The worse feeling is being on a timed test and being stuck on question 10 because you can't remember the damned answer.
  -My last piece of advice is read the FARs! You need to know FAR 1, 3, 21, 23, 25, 35, 39, 43 (and appendix A, B, C, and D), 45, 47, 65, 121, 125, 135, 145, 147. I threw in a couple extras just because I thought they were cool to know. But seriously, you want an A&P certification? One of the only mechanical certifications given out by the federal government? Then read the laws they made for us. Super important.

Since we're on the subject of SR-71 reading material... I give these three my complete and total recommendation.

SR71 Blackbird- Stories, Tales, and Legends by Richard Graham

REALLY good read. Essays and interviews from all kinds of people involved in the program- pilots, RSO, mechanics, crew chiefs, engineers. 11/10 very fun read

Archangel to Senior Crown: Design and Development of the Blackbird by Peter Merlin

More about the technology, history, and politics behind the aircraft. Not as 'fun' as the first one, but very detailed. Also comes with 4gb of manuals for the SR71. Allow me to clarify that, the book comes with a DVD with shitloads of manuals and documents from Lockeed, USAF, NASA, etc. I'd give it a 9/10 based simply on it being a bit dry at times.

Lockeed SR71 Owners Manual by Haynes

Yes, the same company that makes the owners workshop manual for your car... Lots of pictures, detailed diagrams and schematics, very informative. Makes a great bathroom reader. Fun! 10/10

Read up. Learn as much as you can PRIOR to even going. This saves a lot of money (no need for ground school if you know it all) and will allow you to advance more quickly, rather than doing the same basic flights over and over again.

Perhaps pick up a test prep book such as this one on Amazon and study it. Use the internet when you get stuck on different parts.

Also, I kid you not, flight sim. Flight sim will allow you to practice your instrument scan, navigation techniques, procedures, and more. Keep in mind that it wont give you the 'feel' of the aircraft, but it does have plenty of benefits. Learn real world information, practice it in flight sim, and when you feel like you've gotten most of what you can out of those two things, start your lessons. This will allow you (as I stated earlier) to save money, be more prepared, and generally make for a smoother transition into the aviation world. Just keep in mind that flight sim is not 100% accurate with everything, but can still be a viable learning tool.

Fly safe out there!

Not paper airplanes, but metal wing models. The wing models are now owned by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Some are currently on display at the Smithsonian in DC.

Two FANTASTIC books that touch on this are:
Peter Jakab's Visions of a Flying Machine and
John Anderson's History of Aerodynamics

An interesting fact: Dayton was plumbed with natural gas for the street lamps. The Wrights designed and built a natural gas engine to run off this to drive the machinery in the bicycle shop; it was this engine that provided the power for the wind tunnel.

So, when I was in A/P school, all my books were paid for by my tuition. I don't know how much these books are.

But these 3 books kind of go over the basics of airplanes, NOTE: In aviation there are like, 30 different publishers and they all publish the same info, for the most part. I'll just discuss the books I have experience with.

https://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-Maintenance-Glencoe-aviation-technology/dp/007112991X

https://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-Basic-Science-Michael-Kroes/dp/0028018141/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0028018141&pd_rd_r=9AQVXAHX7HKX18ZETEVP&pd_rd_w=wLMpb&pd_rd_wg=YrBDV&psc=1&refRID=9AQVXAHX7HKX18ZETEVP

https://www.amazon.com/Aircraft-Powerplants-Michael-Kroes/dp/0028018745/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0028018745&pd_rd_r=9AQVXAHX7HKX18ZETEVP&pd_rd_w=wLMpb&pd_rd_wg=YrBDV&psc=1&refRID=9AQVXAHX7HKX18ZETEVP

The red one is the introduction. Tells you the basics of how airplanes work, types of materials used, processes, tools, and Federal Regulations

The Green one is engine stuff. Top to bottom, everything you wanna know about aircraft engines. How they work, different types, etc

The blue one goes into detail about aircraft structures. Again more in depth into on materials and stuff

This next book is kind of the same as the Red book, but a bit more detailed and in depth. IMO a bit more technical, but has great info.

https://www.amazon.com/Aviation-Maintenance-Technician-Handbook-FAA-H-8083-30/dp/1619540258/ref=pd_sim_14_8?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1619540258&pd_rd_r=9AQVXAHX7HKX18ZETEVP&pd_rd_w=wLMpb&pd_rd_wg=YrBDV&psc=1&refRID=9AQVXAHX7HKX18ZETEVP

There's also this book published by the FAA

https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/advisory_circulars/index.cfm/go/document.information/documentID/99861

When I was in school, they made physical copies of this book, but I'm not sure now. Essentially the FAA has specific methods of how to do things. Now for major manufacturers, like Boeing for example, they have THEIR own proprietary method for doing things, and they write their own manuals. But on smaller airplanes like Cessna's or homebuilt aircraft, these manufacturers don't really have specific maintenance instructions. The you for somethings, but a lot of times, you want that FAA book.

There's like a billion types of homebuilt options. Are you wanting to design from the ground up, or building a pre-designed airplane from a kit or prints?

I received a couple of awesome clocks as a gift a few years ago, one looks like an air speed indicator (similar to this but a little different: http://www.amazon.com/Trintec-Series-Airspeed-Indicator-Square/dp/B00H0ORE6W) and the other was an altimeter (like this: http://www.eglider.org/accessories/altimeter-wall-clock.html) they have them for all sorts of different gauges and such on planes. I thought they were pretty unique and really cool. Highly recommend it.

Decades ago, I read a good book titled “Igor Sikorsky: His Three Careers in Aviation”. It described how his first aviation career was in Russia where he developed some of the first multiengine aircraft. In addition to designing and building the planes, he also had to teach himself to fly them. Following the revolution, he immigrated to the United States. He was able to start Sikorsky Aircraft and began his second career building large flying boats. His third career was developing and flying helicopters. Once again, he had to teach himself to fly. Charles Lindberg wrote in “The Wartime Journals of Charles Lindberg” about visiting Sikorsky and trying to fly one of the early helicopters. He wrote about he’d move the cyclic a little and nothing would happen, only to move it a little more and a lot would happen. That puts Sikorsky’s accomplishments in even sharper perspective. He was a truly remarkable man, one of the last of the great aviation pioneers.

https://www.amazon.com/Igor-Sikorsky-Three-Careers-Aviation/dp/0396072828

Had they gone through with this, it would have for sure made carrier life different, since you can get a 130 anywhere you want with mid air refueling. But as you can see, it really mucks up flight deck operations.

If you have any love for the Herc, I highly recommend this book. Herk: Hero of the Skies My dad bought me a copy back in the late 80s early 90s when he worked at Lockheed after retiring from a USAF career with the Herc (he later went back to work for the USAF as a civilian...again with the Herc.) Best damned plane flying, and I'll fight anyone over it. 😎

I grew up with Train Song and Plane Song, two beautiful picture books with incredible illustrations and lovely sort of impressionistic text that just talks about what the subject is and why people find them useful and important. They're great for young children but I think they hold up pretty well for adults too. https://www.amazon.com/Plane-Song-Trophy-picture-book/dp/0064433676

You're welcome! If you're really interested, this book is fantastic;
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1853108340/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1371169400&sr=8-1&pi=SL75
Even a math-phobic like myself enjoyed it.

If you want to read up on the history of combat aviation in Iran's Air force, I recommend you talk to /u/x_tc_x. Who is he?

He is an Austrian military aviation author and co-author of these books:

1

2

3

4

He is pretty active on reddit and comments on the Syrian Civil war conflict almost everyday.

Edit: I read the 3rd book and while it mostly focuses on the Arab-Israeli wars, it taught me some things that surprised me and fell in place quite nicely given other things that I knew of these wars. So, I definitely recommend all 4 books. I only skimmed through the 2nd and 4th books.