"John Stevens" wrote in message
om...
I'm a new student pilot (no aviation career plans) and am wondering:
What things should I buy for myself? Headset, logbook, calculator etc.

Most pilot shops and many flight schools will have some sort of "starter
kit", with a variety of things useful to a new pilot. The kit will usually
include:

* copy of the FARs and AIM (possibly in the same book)
* copy of the Private Pilot Practical Test Standards (PTS)
* plotter (basically a ruler calibrated in chart miles, with a
protractor in the middle)
* "E6B" circular slide rule (the ones found in starter kits will be
cardboard, but you can buy nicer metal ones too)
* possibly a logbook
* possibly some sort of textbook

These are all things that would be useful to a new pilot. If I were buying
the stuff separately, I'd get the ASA FAR/AIM publication, the PTS, a
plotter with a rotating protractor, an E6B, a logbook (of course), and
William Kerschner's Student Pilot Flight Manual.

There are other authors with good student manuals out there, I just haven't
used them so I can't recommend them. The FAA also publishes a couple of
very useful books (the "Airplane Flying Handbook", FAA-H-8083-3 and the
"Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge", AC 61-23), which you can
usually find at pilot shops. There are, of course, many other books that
will be useful as well. These are just the basics to get you started.

I'd say for now, get any decent logbook you can find, one without too many
pages. Until you've been flying a bit and logging your own time, you won't
really know what you want in a logbook. I like a logbook that has columns
for the types of flying I do, plus pages in the back for various
endorsements.

If you don't see yourself using a circular slide rule, a calculator will
fill in just fine for most things. IMHO, you don't even need to get one of
the fancy "electronic E6B" calculators, but lots of people do like them.
They certainly make the wind correction calculations easier. I happen to
like my manual E6B just fine, and it never needs batteries.

You'll also want a headset. Depending on your budget, you could go with a
Flightcom under-$100 model, a few hundred dollars will get you an expensive
passive headset or an inexpensive active noise cancelling headset, and for
$1000 you can get the top-of-the-line Bose. Everyone has their own opinion
as to which is best, so the best thing to do is try them on yourself. Make
sure the shop where you try them has an intercom so you can actually hear
what the headset sounds like, and if you can wear them somewhere noisy, even
better for testing how well they suppress the noise.

Personally, I got an under-$100 Flightcom model when I first started out,
and I think that was an appropriate way to go. The headset was pretty good,
given the price. After that, I got a couple of Peltor passive headsets,
which I really like. When I moved up to the ANR realm, I wound up with
Peltor's noise-cancelling model, which I don't like quite as much as their
passive headset, except that it does of course cancel noise, just not
cleanly. Maybe their more recent release is better.

I like the price/value for the Lightspeed noise-cancelling headsets, but
they are not reversible -- the left earcup has to go on your left side and
vice a versa -- which means you can't choose which side to wear the mic and
cord (depending on which side of the plane you're sitting on, where the plug
goes, and how your seatbelt fits, you may find you want that option...I know
I do). I've been eying the Sennheiser ANR model, because of their close
ties to Peltor and because it looks like a pretty good headset. Of course,
if money were no object, I'd get the Bose, in spite of what some people say
about it.

When you get further in your training, night flying will come up and you'll
want a couple of flashlights. A larger one for preflighting the airplane in
the dark, and a smaller one to use in the cockpit. I prefer white light for
preflighting, but in the cockpit, green or red allow you see almost
everything you need to, and without messing up your night vision as easily.

Finally, a bag to carry it all around in. You may not even need one of the
specially made pilot bags, but you'll at least want *something* to keep it
all together.

Hope that helps. You really ought to check out the rec.aviation.student
newsgroup if you haven't done so already. It's much more appropriate for
questions specifics to people just starting out learning to fly.

Pete