In this section I've listed books, references, links and other resources that I've used over the years. Many of them are available for free.
YouTube channels for calculus, linear algebra, and physics:
Patrick JMT: https://www.youtube.com/c/patrickjmt
Khanacademy: https://www.youtube.com/c/khanacademy
3Blue1Brown: https://www.youtube.com/c/3blue1brown - contains beautiful visualizations
Books:
How to Ace Calculus: The Streetwise Guide (Thompson, Adams, and Hass)
Calculus: Early Transcendentals (James Stewart)
Introduction to Flight (John D. Anderson)
Understanding Flight (David F. Anderson & Scott Eberhardt)
Aerodynamics for Navy Aviators - a military training reference published in the 1960s, now available free from the FAA
Orbital Mechanics for Engineering Students (Howard D. Curtis)
Learn Python the Hard Way (Zed Shaw)
Automate the Boring Stuff with Python (Al Sweigart)
Modeling and Simulation in Python (Allen Downey)
Math for Programmers (Paul Orland)
Learning Geospatial Analysis with Python (Joel Lawhead)
Python for Data Analysis (Wes McKinney)
Resources I've referred to sporadically:
The Underground Guide to UNIX (John Montgomery)
For a general overview of flight operations and aircraft performance, I have two books sitting on my bookshelf by Swedish authors Olle Åkerlind and Håkan Örtlund. They are excellent books, but I think they may be out of print. The books are:
Instrument Flight Procedures and Aircraft Performance
The ABZ of Flight Operations (note: the Z is not a typo)
Airbus has produced a good series of short publications on flight operations. If you are not able to get official copies, you should be able to find .PDFs floating around on the Internet. Here is an incomplete list of this series:
Getting to Grips with Aircraft Performance
Getting to Grips with Modern Navigation
Getting to Grips with RNP AR
Getting to Grips with Cold Weather Operations
Getting to Grips with Fuel Economy
Getting to Grips with the Cost Index
Getting to Grips with Weight and Balance
Getting to Grips with MMEL and MEL
FAA: Advisory Circular AC-120-91A: Airport Obstacle Analysis
CASA (Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority): CAAP 235-4(0): Guidelines for the Consideration and Design of Engine Out SID (EOSID) and Engine Out Missed Approach Procedures
Transport Canada Advisory Circular AC 700-016: Compliance with Regulations and Standards for Engine-Inoperative Obstacle Avoidance
Airbus Flight Operations Briefing Notes: Understanding Takeoff Speeds
Civil air transportation is internationally regulated. The body that develops the international standards and recommended practices is called the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and has nearly 200 member countries. If you work in flight operations, you don't need to memorize all these regulations, but it's important to at least be able to know your way around them. A simple way of navigating these regulations is to divide the ICAO documentation into two series:
The ICAO Annexes: you can think of these as the standards
The ICAO Doc Series: you can think of these as detailed guidance materials for how to implement the standards
Annex 1: Personnel Licensing
Annex 2: Rules of the Air
Annex 3: Meteorological Service for International Air Navigation
Annex 4: Aeronautical Charts
Annex 5: Units of Measurement to be Used in Air and Ground Operations
Annex 6: Operation of Aircraft
Annex 7: Aircraft Nationality and Registration Marks
Annex 8: Airworthiness of Aircraft
Annex 9: Facilitation
Annex 10: Aeronautical Telecommunications
Annex 11: Air Traffic Services
Annex 12: Search and Rescue
Annex 13: Aircraft Accident and Incident Investigation
Annex 14: Aerodromes
Annex 15: Aeronautical Information Services
Annex 16: Environmental Protection
Annex 17: Security
Annex 18: The Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air
Annex 19: Safety Management
The following list is based on what I've worked with most frequently over the years. It's not a complete list, but covers the major ones. The full list can be found in the official ICAO catalogue.
Procedures for Air Navigation Services:
ICAO Doc 4444: Air Traffic Management (PANS ATM)
ICAO Doc 8168: Aircraft Operations (PANS OPS)
ICAO Doc 9868: Training (PANS TRG)
ICAO Doc 9981: Aerodromes (PANS ADR)
ICAO Doc 10066: Aeronautical Information Management (PANS AIM)
Other Docs:
ICAO Doc 7300: Convention on International Civil Aviation
ICAO Doc 7383: Aeronautical Information Services Provided by States
ICAO Doc 8126: AIS Manual
ICAO Doc 8400: ICAO Abbreviations and Codes
ICAO Doc 8697: Aeronautical Chart Manual
ICAO Doc 9157: Aerodrome Design Manual
ICAO Doc 9368: Instrument Flight Procedures Construction Manual
ICAO Doc 9613: Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) Manual
ICAO Doc 9674: World Geodetic System
I don't have any good reference books on this topic so I'll write a quick overview.
ICAO standards say that each member state must publish detailed information about their country's aeronautical infrastructure, including navigation data on airports, runways, airspace, airways, waypoints, navaids, obstacles, and much more. Most states will publish this information in a standardized document called an AIP, short for Aeronautical Information Publication. States must also announce whenever there are temporary or permanent changes to their information. Standardized ways of promulgating such changes include NOTAMs, AIP Supplements, and AIP Amendments. Ideally, these changes get bundled into monthly update packages which follow a 28-day calendar called the AIRAC cycle.
It may surprise you that in this day and age, many countries still publish their AIPs in semi-digital formats like .html and .pdf. Fully digital formats have been proposed, but widespread adoption globally is still a ways away.
Several aviation organizations have large-scale infrastructure modernization programs underway. These programs affect aeronautical information management so it's important to keep up with the latest developments. Here are three important modernization programs:
ICAO Global Air Navigation Plan: https://www.icao.int/global-air-navigation-plan-ganp
FAA NextGen: https://www.faa.gov/nextgen
Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR): https://www.sesarju.eu/
And five system developments which affect data structuring and exchange:
AIXM: https://aixm.aero/
FIXM: https://www.fixm.aero/
AMXM: https://amxm.aero/
FF-ICE: https://www.eurocontrol.int/concept/flight-and-flow-information-collaborative-environment
GIS (geographic information system) tools are important for aeronautical information management. Below I've listed some examples, ranging from free to industrial-grade:
Google Earth - a free tool that's useful for quickly visualizing data
QGIS - a free tool with more functionality than Google Earth.
ArcGIS - not free; a tool developed and owned by Esri. Esri offers a lot of courses on how to use Python with ArcGIS for customized data management.
FME (Feature Manipulation Engine): a platform built by Safe Software that has built-in AIXM capabilities.
For basic and advanced training on AIM topics, I used to refer to a European company called GroupEAD, which offered basic and advanced training courses. However, as of January 2026, GroupEAD has been absorbed into Eurocontrol, and I'm not sure what will become of their training courses.
From the Ground Up (Sandy MacDonald and Isabel Peppler)
Aeroplane Flight Training Manual (Transport Canada)
Aeronautical Information Manual (Transport Canada)
Royal Canadian Air Force Weather Manual (DND)
Airplane Flying Handbook (FAA)
Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (FAA)
Instrument Flying Handbook (FAA)
Instrument Procedures Handbook (FAA)
Weight & Balance Handbook (FAA)
I have come across a lot of high quality YouTube channels on aviation over the years, but I haven't organized them into favorites. Try to avoid the "clickbaity" channels; if you are not sure, see what kind of feedback shows up in the video comments.
Society of Aircraft and Performance and Operations Engineers: https://sapoe.org/
SmartCockpit: Resources for pilots. They have a lot of aircraft manuals. https://www.smartcockpit.com/
Skybrary: Flight ops and ATM resources: https://skybrary.aero/
FAA Safety Team: Courses and webinars, many of them free: https://www.faasafety.gov/default.aspx
Aerospace Industries Association of Canada - they publish an industry report with the Government of Canada every once in a while: https://aiac.ca/
Les Ailes du Québec: Canadian aerospace news and opinion: https://www.lesailesduquebec.com/
Code7700: in-depth discussions about flying: https://www.code7700.com/. They have a really good page on OEI obstacle analysis.
AvHerald: a website which tracks incidents and accidents globally; try to ignore the comment section: https://avherald.com/
The Copetti site: more about computer engineering than aerospace, but it contains very detailed technical analysis of various video game consoles: https://classic.copetti.org/writings/
The Omega Tau Podcast: This was a high quality science and engineering podcast run by Markus Völter and Nora Ludewig from 2008 to 2023. Each podcast is typically a 2-3 hour long interview with an engineer or scientist, from a wide variety of domains. The home page link is http://omegataupodcast.net/ but if that doesn't work, you can still find the audio archives on various podcast platforms on the Internet.