Rating: 
Summary: Comedy Overdone?
Review: Rod is sufficiently thorough, covering all of the relevant areas that will help produce a safe-flying, intelligent private pilot. His explanations of weather are the best I have seen (I taught Meterology in the Navy and was a Naval Aviator for 8 yrs.) I liked the way he explained the logical use of weather info. I used the book to refresh for my BFR and don't feel a need to consult any other sources. I wavered between 4 & 5 stars because it seemed to go on too long. The main reason was some of the overdone humor! Hey Rod you owe me $5 for those bad jokes! Seriously, (huh?) he had some pretty good ones too (occasionally). One thing I really enjoyed were the ASRS reports (excerpts from real life accidents). Classic stuff that we can all learn from, perhaps least expectedly from a textbook. I guess another thing I liked was that it didn't really seem like a textbook. Overall thumbs up, more "goods" than "others". I'm sure I'll buy his follow-on instrument book. If your not the type to appreciate a little corny humor then you'd better stick to Jeppesen or ASA.
Rating: 
Summary: Good but not for everybody
Review: The book explains key concepts very well and has lots of diagrams. However, my problem was that the book was too verbose and the humor was too frequent. The length of the book made it a drag to read in the end. I also wish he had gone over some topics in more depth.If you don't want the details, don't mind reading a lot of unnecessary stuff and must have humor to take you through the dull topics, this book is for you. Otherwise I suggest reading Kershner's book (to the point and concise) and also grabbing a "intro to aerodynamics" book.
Rating:
Summary: Generally good, could use a few improvements
Review: Rod Machado has good illustrations, explains concepts and airplane parts well, and gives a lot of solid practical advice. However, he could do a better job of piecing together the tidbits of advice for a more smooth presentation of the techniques involved in the basic maneuvers the beginner must absorb. Also, summaries of the crucial information (perhaps at the end of the sections) would have been very helpful since it seems to get mixed in with a lot of the less-than-crucials. Less importantly, the book could use hard covers due to its large size :-)
Rating: 
Summary: Read Much Ado about Rod Machado
Review: (...) I am a published writer, and recently became a pilot. In my zeal to learn all I could about flying (...) I went about buying almost any good books I could find. (...) During the course of my reading various Flying magazines I had become familiar with Rod's easy-going, humorous (and yes, corny [it takes one to know one]) style of explaining things. (...) the book is absolutely the best investment you can make in a combined tool that covers the fundamentals of flight, the theory and issues related to the knowledge required, actual flying and aeronautical knowledge, nuggets of information, advice, yes, more corny (but fitting/explaining) humor, and more illustrations and color images than you could expect to get for such a reasonably priced book.
I am serious, I have paid double or more for books with one-tenth of the color images that this book provides. No, he just does not print different pages in different ink colors to prove how colorful he is, but page upon page of well written text, great images and illustrations, and photos are what make the book a winner.
The pleasant surprise is that I believe he made the pictures and illustrations himself and they are actually very good (simple, clear, and very effective), so he is a man of many talents (...)
So, if you buy ONE book related to flying, this should be it. (...)
Enjoy the book, and Happy Flying.
Rating:
Summary: Great Information for those who aren't in a hurry
Review: I found Rod's style to be humorous and helpful. However, he does tend to be pretty wordy. I found a great combination to be Gleim's test prep book and this one. The Gleim books give you the bare minimum of information, very quickly. Then for the places I needed more meat... this book was the perfect source--It explains things in a couple of different ways so if one of them doesn't do it for you, one of the others should. In fact, I still use it when I need something explained in english. It was a great addition to my library.
Rating:
Summary: Easy understanding
Review: The book includes lots of graphics to explain the idea of flying so that you can get deep memory about that. Besides Barry Schiff's and Trevor Thom's books, books from the author is highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Rod Machado = Funny and Relevant!
Review: Rod Machado is easily the best author in the aviation field. His work is always right on target and valuable to new pilots and veterans alike. He presents his material in a humorous fashion that makes it very quick reading and keeps you learning all the time.
Rating:
Summary: Good info gets lost
Review: This book has potential and one could certainly do worse. My main objection is that it is too verbose and has too much text that is of no value. Too many cartoons, anecdotes, etc. If Rod could provide a version of this book that gets straight to the point and stays there it would probably get a 5-star rating from me.
Rating: 
Summary: If you could give a book zero stars, this one would have it
Review: If you're learing to fly, don't buy this book. Half the text consists of stupid humor that distracts from the subject matter of the book. The other half of the book lacks basic fligh manuever information. If Rod MacHado knows what he's writing about, you can't tell from this book. Read Kershner's Student Flight Manual.
Rating:
Summary: A humourous and informative book! A must read!
Review: Rod Machado has written an informative book while at the same time not putting you to sleep. Rod uses some great examples from the ASRS reporting system, they show just how stupid people can be. Rod mixes in a little bit of humor to keep you wanting to flip the page, although it does seem that at times he tried a little too hard. Overall this is a great book that will make a great addition to any of the other private pilot text books such as Jeppesens, but I believe it should only be used to augment the information in the regular run of the mill books.
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