5 comments about Private Pilot Manual.

1. Overall the book was great, it gave me my pilots license but the 1 thing the book didn't do so well on was the weather section. I had trouble understanding the weather theory section so I had to refrence another book so I could learn about the weather. That's it, just the theory, the weather reports and forcast section was good.



2. Yes, I know it's pricey. Think of it as an investment. Buy it. End of story.



3. I recommend this book because it covers all the material for the Private Pilot license in an easy to understand manner. It is full of colored pictures and important concepts in bold print. This is a great book for studying to become a private pilot.



4. I came to ground school with no knowledge of aviation. The Jeppesen text was chosen by our instructor. It is described as a comprehensive textbook that will prepare a student to take the written portion of the private pilot exam. (Jeppesen also publishes textbooks for the practical/oral exam.)
   
   The text is divided into five parts (Fundamentals, Operations, Weather, Performance and Navigation, and Integrating Pilot Knowledge and Skills). These are subdivided into eleven chapters. Each chapter includes a summary checklist, list of key terms, and review questions. In ground school, we are covering one chapter per week in a three-hour lecture.
   
   The chapter-end questions are a mix of fill-in-the-blank, matching, true/false, and essay. Answers and explanations are provided. For further review, Jeppesen publishes a separate Test Guide, which contains brief synopses of each chapter, and then relevant questions from the FAA's list of 900 possible multiple-choice questions for the written exam. The Test Guide includes detailed answers, explaining both the correct choice and the incorrect ones. This separate Test Guide is a valuable supplement to the Private Pilot Manual.
   
   I trust my instructor to give us the knowledge we will need in the cockpit and for the written exam. The most significant training occurs in the cockpit, anyway. However, I am fighting with this text every step of the way.
   
   I am reading this text from a position of no knowledge, and therefore some confusion is expected. However, I have 22 years of formal education, and have seen quite a few textbooks (mostly in the medical field).
   
   The writing style and quality of figures are typical of a textbook written by committee with no principal author. It also contains what might optimistically be called humanizing elements, but which I find distract from the task at hand. It may be interesting to know Amelia Erhart's last words to the control tower, but it is unclear how those words relate to contemporary air traffic control.
   
   Also, many figures are obscure or misleading For example, an illustration of Denver airport shows the skylines of Denver and Chicago floating in the sky above the airport. The two skylines are connected by a one-lane strip of pavement representing the amount of pavement used in the Denver airport.
   
   Overall, this seems to be a popular textbook. I wish I could find something better, but it may be that no such text exists.



5. This product is same as described in purchase. Delivery was very quickly and good conditions. I recommend this product and provider. Sincerely. Jose Pena

5 comments about Beginner's Guide to Reading Schematics.

1. Yup, this is a nice, basic book for learning how to read a schematic. If you intend on working with electricity and will need to read schematics then this is where to start.



2. I'm not a particularly techie sort of person, but I found I needed to have a grasp of the electronics of some of the equipment I use (I'm a musician). Most beginners books are overwhelming in theory and completeness and end up more confusing than anything else. This book is baby talk and exactly what I needed. The five stars are for its simplicity and usefulness. It has flaws and it's not exciting to read, but it has the simplest explanations of components I have come across. If you don't need to know everything, but just fix your wah wah or explore a little circuit bending, this book will demystify a lot of electronics for you. It won't tell you how to do anything, but it will enable you to figure out what you need to know from more complicated books. If, like me, you've started with electronics a few times and given up because the books you've used have offered way too much information and spent too much time on electrons, or just been written from too knowlegable a point of view (one 'basic' book I tried has four pages on capacitors that I read several times without really ending up knowing what they did), this is the book for you. It will make the books that have frustrated you in the past far more useful.



3. I'm just getting started teaching myself electronics. I've never been able to make heads or tails of a schematic. However, after about 2 evenings reading this book, I now have no problem reading the schematics for the beginners projects I've been working on. This book also explains WHY some of the symbols look the way they do, which goes a long way to help in reading schematics even if there is a symbol a little different than what's in the book. I would recommend this to anyone learning electronics.



4. This was an excellent choice. It gave me exactly what I wanted and needed, was in excellent condition, and was received in a timely fashion. Thanks very much.



5. I bought this on impulse while ordering another book. Sorry I did, wasted my money. I can't really figure out who the intended audience is: If you have never been exposed to electrical schematics you wouldn't likely want this compendium of symbols with no conceptual background, and if you have had even a little conceptual background you have already been introduced to most of this. You don't need a book to find out what the schematic drawing of a transistor is, for instance, because any instructional material dealing with electronics circuits that you look at will include that information. Reading the individual symbols used in circuit diagrams and schematics isn't difficult- they are just symbols you can look up in any table of electronic symbols. The difficult part is conceptualizing how the components work together by "reading" the schematic- following the signal or current flow or being able to identify functional blocks, something this book does not help you with. All the circuits used as examples in this book are very basic, and the theory that is discussed is very superficial. I am not saying this book has no value, but it's value is minimal and can be easily found in the introductory chapters of most any primer on electronic circuits. For that I recommend a similar vintage TAB book written by G. Randy Sloan entitled "TAB Electronics Guide to Understanding Electricity and Electronics".

5 comments about Failure is not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond.

1. I highly recommend this book to all the poor men who already believe today that APOLLO is a whole fake
   KRANZ tell the truth it is obvious when you read him



2. While I confess to being a lifelong space buff, this book is the first of many memoirs I have had the pleasure of reading from the actual men and women who participated in one of the greatest adventures in human history. I read it nonstop from the moment I brought it home, and have reread many sections of it numerous times. I believe it is a useful historical record of the golden era of the space program, but also holds many lessons for those who find themselves in formal or de facto positions of technical leadership in all types of organizations - churches, consulting firms, technical contractors, manufacturers, and probably many others with which I am not personally familiar. Thank you Mr. Kranz for all you have shared!



3. My teenage interest in rocketry, launching about 1000 tiny rockets in all, my dreams of extraterrestrial voyages from reading science fiction, and being involved in real countdowns for liquid propellant rocket motors in the MIT Rocket Research Society all came back from reading this book. This is the perfect follow-on to Chris Kraft's "Flight: My Life in Mission Control" which came out a year later. Both are excellent. Kraft and Kranz were the guys we saw most of on TV during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Programs -- more than could be seen of any single astronaut.
   
   The first major Flight Directors of Mission Control of NASA were much more than masters of ceremonies. They had to make decisions on continuing or aborting or modifying missions, and any decision could have led to deaths. Because of the short times in which some decisions had to be made, Kraft (yes, Kraft) wrote the job description for his own position as Flight Director that said he had the final say, knowing that a mistake would be the end of his career at NASA, but also knowing that delayed decisions could kill the astronauts or the program. This necessitated building a team of specialists for each of the many aspects of the missions (communications, computing, engine status, crew status, etc., etc.) and trusting their decisions.
   
   Kranz was deeply affected by the deaths of three astronauts by fire on the ground in the Apollo 1 capsule. He was point man in the Apollo 13 explosion (as in the movie), and safe return to Earth of 3 astronauts. The details of how thorough simulations of missions were was a revelation to me. It all paid off, because almost no missions ran without failures. On-board computers were too slow or had too little memory, thrusters failed to turn off, all kinds of failure indicators would give false readings, hatches or seals would leak.
   
   Much that was kept from the public during the missions came out. The enthusiasm for the projects was incredibly high among the early birds in NASA, including the first administrators, who had to fight often for continuation of funding, especially after the USSR lost momentum, even to get the first mission to the moon. NASA pay was low, so the committment of so many on the team was not financial. The cooperation of contractors, notwithstanding some lapses in quality, was excellent, and included turning over copies of engineering drawings of all parts of a capsule or component. The willingness to take risks by NASA personnel and others during the Moon progrtam is awe-inspring, especially compared with today's timidity. Fom p383: "Lacking a clear goal, the team that placed an American on the Moon, NASA, has become just another federal bureaucracy beset by competing agendas, and unable to establish discipline within its structure. Although NASA has an amazing array of technology and the most talented workforce in history, it lacks top-level vision."
   
   Kranz was aware that he was making history. While he was steady and decisive (like Kraft) while on duty, Kranz revealed his extreme emotions at many points. While you should read books by astronauts, such as "Off the Planet" by Jerry M. Linenger, 2000, and "Last Man on the Moon" by Gene Cernan, the best overview for me has been through the eyes of the Flight Directors.



4. Gene's memories from the first halting attempts to launch rockets into space through the successfull Apollo moon program paint vivid pictures of what happened inside the space agency on a non-technical level in building the space program. Good review of challenging and motivating people to envision the what-if and do it step by step. Small references to lack of vision in senior leadership of space program after the Kennedy moon goal was achieved.



5. Gene Kranz does an amazing job of showing what people can do if they have the right leadership, teamwork, commitment and passion.
   
   The book allows us to see Kranz's perspective as flight controller, (and later flight director) during his tenure on the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs and beyond.
   
   From the tremendous successes, to the gut wrenching failures, to the heroism, to the practical jokes, this book has it all. Gene Kranz was a key player in helping to create a culture of Tough and Competent flight controllers who had discipline and morale. They knew the true meaning of teamwork.
   
   One of the stories that impressed me most was after the devastating tragedy of the Apollo 1. A fire on the pad killed Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffe while they were training in the capsule. Afterwards Kranz got in front of his flight controllers and said:
   
   "Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, and neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been the design, build, or test. Whatever it was we should have caught it."
   
   Kranz and his people (as well as everyone else on the space program) took responsibility for their actions and went on to amazing successes. We crawled out the cradle of this home we call earth and explored another world. Twelve men in all walked on the moon. Also, three astronauts were brought back home safely from the brink of disaster in Apollo 13. We had truly gone where no man had gone before.
   
   These were human beings, and they are the best of the best. Not an Astronaut was lost during any of the following Apollo missions. The tragedy on the pad drove the commitment of everyone on the space program to an entirely new level. As a matter of fact, not a man was lost once they left earth on the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.
   
   Gene Kranz sums up how he gained his skills to be a top flight director when he said:
   
   "The flight director's ultimate training comes at the console, working real problems, facing the risks, making irrevocable decisions."
   
   This book belongs on any bookshelf, but not to be looked at, but to be read and understood. We all have the makings of greatness, we just have to take responsibility for our actions and do the very best we know how. What other amazing things can we accomplish as a species if we have the right leadership, teamwork, commitment, and passion?
   
   The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking

1 comments about Practical Photovoltaics: Electricity from Solar Cells.

1. Practical Photovoltaics is one of the finest, most comprehensive guides to the world of solar energy. The book starts with a beginer's course in solid state physical devices (which taught even an Electrical Engineer such as myself new things) and leads into the history of solar cell materials and procedures over the years. Next comes an in-depth discussion of the various types of materials, and how they are suited for different applications. He makes logical predictions about the future of some of these materials, and hints around at what new techniques scientists are starting to look at today.
   In the appendix, he even describes how to assemble your own array of solar cells for those who wish to try a hands-on approach to learning.
   Oh, yeah, one more thing: he has a decent list of recomended readings at the end of each chapter, allowing you to select topics that interest you to continue your reading.

5 comments about How Cars Work.

1. I changed jobs and became a parts delivery person. The knowledge I have received from the book as helped me in knowing what my customers are talking about and thus can relate messages to the sales staff. For my job and personally, I like knowing what the function of the parts are and where they are located. I am so glad to have the book. It was well written and made learning easy.



2. I like the simplicity of How Cars Work. It has helped me communicate with my auto mechanic and has allowed me to make easy repairs and save money too. I've also been able to diagnose brake problems before they got out of hand.



3. The information was clear and informative. I am glad I bought it. The order also arrived in timely fasion.



4. My grandson is interested in cars & such so I thought he'd like to know what makes them tick. He started high school so this should help.



5. The publisher's blurb on Amazon here is a bit vague on what this book is actually designed to do. I wish they'd published the author's quote on the Amazon description that they printed on the back of the book. It would have been a clue to me not to buy it (so perhaps that is why they didn't include it). So, I'll type it here for those who may also find it a useful clue:
   
   "When I opened my tutoring center I couldn't find enough reading material for my teenage students, especially the boys. So I started writing short descriptions about car parts aimed at improving reading comprehension. I used simple drawings to help students visualize and associate the car parts with words. Eventually I had enough material for a a complete car book and... well... this is it!"
   
   Having read that on the back, I thought, "Well, of course. This book does read just like a collection of definitions for a juvenile mind that doesn't want to learn as much as skim a concept."
   
   When I got this book, I was hoping for a quick overview of the car. A quick read to look at to gain background understanding before jumping into more complicated books, since I know nothing about cars. It didn't help me much.
   
   Yes, it's a quick read, but it's over-simplified. It's like reading a dictionary without seeing the words in context and hoping to retain the words you learn as useful vocabulary. Or it's like reading only the chapter summaries of a text book which are geared not to help you learn the concept, but to jog your memory after you've read the full material and understand it.
   
   Generally, I have no difficulty absorbing technical information, but this book doesn't give you the full context to grasp the concepts behind the list of "car parts". I plan to keep this book in my library as a quick reference dictionary of sorts, but in retrospect, I wish I had not purchased it. It is badly overpriced and not much use for a novice looking for a cohesive understanding of cars.

5 comments about Kids' Paper Airplane Book.

1. They have some planes with preprinted pictures that I would have prefered they left out like a vampire and ghoul. I don't know why they have to make stuff which doesn't need to be scary.



2. The paper in my printer has been stolen, all the loose paper in the house has gone the same route. Flying through the air and landing in various places like behind the couch, under the tables, into the closets, and onto the bookshelves.



3. this was a Christmas gift for my 11 yr. old grandson. We have had so much fun doing this together and his father joined in to add even more fun. Winter has flown by much faster with this FAMILY TIME craft project. We are looking forward to logging our flight distances as soon as the weather warms a bit. Quiet time together becames lots of laughs and individual creative juices began to flow. who knew paper airplanes could be so much fun.



4. My son just turned 8 and has really been having fun with this book recently. He got it as a gift when he was 5 (despite the recommended age range of 9+) and would always get frustrated when he tried to do one himself because he couldn't fold it as precisely as required and then it didn't turn out right. So he lost interest in it, but discovered it again recently - now he can do all of the airplanes himself and is having great fun. He does like to make paper airplanes out of just about anything, but this book has neat patterns and different shapes to try. Fun for littler ones too if they don't mind a grown up helping (and if you don't mind if they squish it after all your hard work!).



5. Most of the planes in the book were very easy to fly, and the children had fun making them. I also liked the extra activities and information included to help them learn more about flying.

5 comments about How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen air-Cooled Engine (All models, 1961 and up).

1. Truly an invaluable book. I am rebuilding my 1600cc dual port engine with this, and John Muir's "How to Keep You're Volkswagen Alive". This book's numerous pictures, advice, and technical information combined with Muir's common sense and experience is a great combo!



2. I have not used this manual yet, but it appears to have the information I need to maintain my 1971 VW Super beetle convertable show car.



3. The How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen air-Cooled Engine was over my head.



4. This book is fantastic. Its very detailed and gives you the information you need to do this job proficiently.



5. This a well prepared thesis. The details provided by the author are excellent and the reference matterial useful. The photos, black and white, are just too small to see the image and deduce the exact aspect he wishes to display.

5 comments about Auto Repair For Dummies.

1. Why hasn't there been any newer editions since 1999?
   
   Self-reliance with regard to car maintenance is something that I have always wanted for myself.



2. Has been an all-inclusive auto resource. For newbies, but is packed with stuff.



3. After watching my sister go through several Auto Tech classes to learn how to work on a car, I was intimidated by the amount of time & money I thought it would take to get the same knowledge. Then I found this book. I've been a faithful reader of the Dummies books for a long time, and this one just reinforced my opinion of them.
   
   After reading this book, I am able to change my own oil, check & change my brakes, change a flat tire, know which replacement tire to buy and why, and diagnose almost any car problem myself. I have saved hundreds of dollars (maybe over $1000 by now) because I knew exactly what I needed a mechanic to do to my car whenever I took it in.
   
   As a bonus, my car now runs better than it ever has before, because this book also covers preventative maintenance in extreme detail. It even lays out a monthly routine for you for checking most of the systems in your car.
   
   I highly recommend this book to absolutely anyone who wants to learn about cars. Even if you know nothing except how to start, drive, and stop your car -- before reading this, I thought the rim CAME WITH the new tire! -- this book is for you.



4. Before this book I didn't know a thing about cars. Now, I would still say that I don't but, I would NOT go to the mechanic for everything.



5. I've always relied on mechanics (with mixed results), but I wanted to know what was going on with my car and to be able to perform basic maintenance myself. This book is very easy to use (MUCH better than my owner's manual). It provides a good overview of how cars work, as well as specific advice for particular repairs and maintenance. If you're already a gearhead, this is presumably too basic, but if the inside of your car is a great big mystery to you, this is definitely the book to get.

5 comments about The Art of Electronics.

1. Are you an undergraduate student preparing for your first interview with a semiconductor company? Or a graduate student who knows the complicated things but still fumbles with simple RC - RL circuit questions and how simple concepts relate to form the complex things you are conducting your research on? This book is for you.... I need not praise it any further as most of the good points can already be seen in the preceding 119 reviews. Everyone seems to love this book. If you're looking for a quick review of basic electronics, you should add this book to your library.



2. The Art Of Electronics combines a lot of practical information about electronics that makes it a very useful reference text. I just wish they would update it. A 2007 version would probably get 5 stars.



3. Perhaps it is rare to review a book after 20 years of owning the 1st and then the 2nd edition. This is an invaluable book for the practicing engineer or inventor or hobbyist. It eliminates much theoretical background and gets to practical implementation. You will find a wealth of practical tips that you will never find in standard engineering textbooks. This is a reference book that I have used for many years. However I agree with the last reviewer that it is in dire need of an update. Needless to say there are 10+ years of advancing technology some of which would be valuable to included. It is still quite a useful book however. At this point, if you are a perspective buyer you may want to wait for an update.



4. It is obvious to some that this book would contain material for the design of electronics but everyone who has any interest in the subject could just as easily learn electronics by giving this a read and performing some of the practice problems. I wish this was my text book in college. The book is a very easy read as the authors keep the material light at first and build on the knowledge gained from earlier chapters. I would recommend to anyone who might be interested in the subject.



5. Buy this book, complement it with Tietze & Schenke's book and you got a very respectable library covering semiconductor circuits. The T&S book will give you the solid circuit background on the mathematical modeling of semiconductor devices as circuit building elements and that EE's should need to consider in serious projects. This book does very well on the "intuitiveness" side of subjects but clearly lacks in providing an in-depth calculation basis on the subjects it covers. This might be OK for most uses but if you are working on mission-critical circuitry or on circuitry that must perform in extreme conditions you'll certainly need to use more math that you'll be exposed in this text.
   
   In a nutshell, if you start with this book and then read T&S on the same subject you'll build a very solid base in EE.

5 comments about West with the Night.

1. Fantastic! I don't care if Beryl Markham wrote this or not (it is rumored that her third husband, a Hollywood ghostwriter, wrote the book). Beryl Markham's story is fascinating: from growing up in East Africa on her father's horse farm, to training race horses, to her time in Africa as a pilot tracking wild game from the air ... all culminating in her historic solo flight across the Atlantic from east to west. This book brings the ultimate forms of praise from me: (1) I could not put it down; and (2) I am now seeking out anything I can find out about this amazing, daring woman. No matter who wrote the book, the use of imagery is astounding. Highly recommended.



2. Much more than a memoir, Beryl Markham's work is a means of transport, not dissimilar to her beloved plane. It took me back to the Africa I lived in as a young bride, to its stark beauty, its dignified and desparate people, the language of its silences. Her tale of matter-of-fact mercies, and of cruelty equally unremarkable, is the stuff of life, as full of hope as of despair, for its millions of people. Her sensitivity instructs us in things as disparate as a young zebra's personal quirks, or the way the setting sun reflects off a downed plane creating an illusory lake in the dry Serenghettti. We learn of the hunger of a dying man for news from the city, and of the joy of friendship restored, but mostly, we learn of the heart and mind of a brave, independent woman for whom Africa is, eternally, home.



3. As a child growing up with her father in Africa, Beryl Markham faced down lions and wild boar. As an adult she trained race horses before learning to fly airplanes and becoming a bush pilot. Eventually she became the first pilot, female or male, to fly west with the night and cross the Atlantic ocean solo from Europe to North America. Markham brings the African bush to life with stories of boar hunts and elephant hunts. Of horse races and airplane flights over desert terrain. She lived a courageous life in a time when girls were only supposed to wear dresses and play with dolls and flying airplanes was a man's job. Highly inspirational to read!
   
   There's so much to talk about in mother-daughter book clubs or any book club. How was Markham's life different from so many of the girls in her time? How would her life have been different if her mother was also in Africa raising her?
   
   This book is beautifully written; I've read it three times and each reading I glean more and more from it. I highly recommend it for anyone in high school or older.



4. Absolutely captivating personal account of times and places long gone. As a fan of "Heat of the Sun," this book was a treasure.



5. I agree with Hemingway that this is a piece of high literature that reads like fiction and spreads itself before the reader like a well-produced film. It drove me to learn more about the author and her life.