As of February 2021 the FAA has cancelled the Student Pilot Guide (FAA-H-8083-27). The FAA issued the following statement in What’s New and Upcoming in Airman Testing (February 11, 2021):
FAA-H-8083-27A, Student Pilot Guide with Change 1 was removed from FAA.gov. The content is no longer relevant to the aviation community. There are numerous guides available with current information for the student pilot. At the time this guide was developed (many years ago), these types of guides were not available to the community and there was a need to publish something to help the beginning pilot.
FAA What’s New and Upcoming in Airman Testing (February 11, 2021)
But You Can Still Get the Printed & Kindle Versions
But for a few dollars you can still get paper copies (or Kindle versions) of the last version of the Student Pilot Guide from Amazon here:
Student Pilot Guide: FAA-H-8083-27A.1
This is the latest version (before it was cancelled) of the FAA’s Student Pilot Guide. It covers topics like how to choose a flight school, what flight training requires, medical requirements, how to study for tests, suggested study materials and more, including a large section of most frequently asked questions. Being an FAA publication, there used to be a free PDF version.. Before they cancelled it. You can also find an old (AC version) of the guide on the FAA website.
Also, check out our full list of recommended helicopter books.
Get Notifications from the FAA
You can stay up to date with changes to the FAA’s Airmen Testing and the associated FAA Handbooks at https://www.faa.gov/training_testing/testing/
On that page, you can also sign up for email notifications for updates:
