Whether you are learning about aviation for the first time, or filling gaps in your personal knowledge on the subject, From the Ground Up offers you the most comprehensive package of aeronautical information in one complete, extensive, and award-winning form. Considered required reading for student pilots in many countries throughout the world, this book delves deeply into the full range of aviation topics, including airplane systems, theory of flight, engines, airports and airspace, regulations and procedures, air and radio navigation, weather, communications, airmanship, human factors, and safety.

Over half a century has passed since it first appeared as the publication of choice for fledgling flight school enterprises. With such longevity and strength of reputation, this accurate and extensive repository for aeronautical information is an essential resource to form the cornerstone of any aviation library. You'll find everything you need to know within its covers: a book taking its name from the only sure way to learn the fundamentals of flight: from the ground up.

'There is a smoothness and ease-of-reading that make this book a pleasure to read... everyone out there should read the engine section, which is excellent and covers timing, carburetors, magnetos, solid-state ignitions and even procedures for a backfire during starting... if you are going to buy a flight manual and only want to have one around the house, this is the one.' -Private Pilot Magazine

'[From the Ground Up] offers a wide range of advice and information, technique and instruction, on practically every aspect of flying - in a single volume... The level of detail and its easy-going writing are way ahead of some of the textbooks we're used to, especially when it comes to radio navigation and aircraft technical explanations... I found From the Ground Up so useful that it's becoming part of my deskside library.' -Flyer Magazine

'For 50 years the book From the Ground Up has been published and is one of the most comprehensive volumes on the subject of flying and learning to fly... it can be read right through, from cover to cover, or can be dipped into for information on specific subjects. Some aviation books cannot comfortably be used in this dual role.' -International Flight Training News

About the Authors
'Sandy' A. F. MacDonald --A pilot for thirty years, a veritable encyclopedia of air regulations and navigational data, the author of millions of words on aviation, Alexander Forsyth MacDonald was a pioneer of what still stands today as the standard curriculum for ground school flight training throughout the world.

'Sandy' MacDonald never let his wide experience permit foregone conclusions or second-hand information cloud his writing. Any fact that he committed to paper was checked and double-checked by recognized authority. Because of this meticulous care, From The Ground UP has become the reference manual of choice for flying schools and clubs in some 28 countries around the world. He learned to fly in Virginia in 1916 and saw active service as a fighter pilot during WWI. Seriously wounded in combat, he returned to duty as an R.A.F. instructor, thereafter serving in the R.C.A.F. until 1932.

In 1939, he became director of the Paterson & Hill Aircraft Company taking on the duties of Chief Ground Instructor. He quickly became responsible for the graduation, in ground school subjects, of more than 35 percent of the Elementary Flying Instructors engaged in the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Later, he was appointed Chief Air Navigation Instructor of No. 20 Elementary Flying Training School in which capacity he originated some of the first practical navigation flights to be established in any flying school. It was during this period that From The Ground Up was really born, for the notes that he had made for these courses would later serve as the foundation upon which he developed the manual itself. He received the prestigious Writing Award from the Aviation/Space Writers Association of America for his work on From The Ground Up. His work was described as 'excellence in content and meritorious authorship of an aviation/space manual.'

Shortly before his death, he was honored with the Sherman Fairchild International Flight Safety Award. Once more his authorship of From The Ground Up was recognized with a citation that referred to 'his extraordinary thorough and well-written contribution to the art of flying safely.' This popular ground school manual will forever be a timely and fitting memorial to this dedicated instructor.

Isabel L. Peppler-- As the editor of From The Ground Up for over 30 years, Isabel Peppler made an extensive and lasting contribution to the development of this renowned aeronautical textbook. A graduate from the University of Toronto and a former editor with publishing house, Maclean-Hunter, she earned her private pilot license in the mid-1960s at which time she also undertook responsibility for the content and management of this publication.

Over the course of the following three decades, she applied her editorial, managerial, and publishing skills to the evolution of 'Sandy' MacDonald's original award-winning text, expanding its subject matter twofold while ensuring its substance remained true to its originating author's wishes. Highly active in a number of aviation circles, including the Ninety-Nines women pilots organization, her perpetuation of this literary legacy of 'Sandy' MacDonald has created a legacy of her own, one which stands as a world-wide benchmark for the understanding and application of basic and advanced aeronautical information.

Soft Cover
356 pages, Glossary, Indexed, Illustrated

Publisher
Aviation Supplies & Academics, Inc. (2003)