pilotads
28th Aug 2004, 07:53
g'day
i'm about to sit my ATPL flight planning test and have put my self through hell trying to prepare it's still taking me 30 to 20 mins to complete a whole flight plan and my teacher said during the exam it should only take 10 or you risk running out of time. Any hints on the test and hints in tackling PNRs would be nice
oxford blue
28th Aug 2004, 19:14
I assume that you are talking about the JAA ATPL flight planning exam, otherwise, presumably, you would not be posting on this particular forum.
You will not be required, in the JAA ATPL flight planning exam, to complete a full flight plan. The questions only ask one line of a flight plan, and usually, only one or, at the most, 2, items from that line.
However, your instructor may be more generally concerned that you are a bit slow with the CRP5, or whatever other flight planning nav computer you are using. If that is the problem, then he probably has a point. Both Gen Nav (to a high degree) and Flight Planning (to a slightly lesser degree) require that you are good and slick with the nav computer. You will lose so much time if you keep having to remind yourself how to work the damned thing in order to get heading from a given track as opposed to how to get track from a given heading. Just work like a dog through the worksheets that your FTO uses, to get you slick on the CRP5. It will pay off, I promise you, in both of these exams!
As for PNRs, find the groundspeed out O. Find the groundspeed home H. The time to turn is T. E is the SAFE endurance (as opposed to the tanks dry endurance).
Then T = EH/(O+H). It couldn't be simpler. End of story!
Unless, of course, the fuel consumption out is not the same as the fuel consumption back. In that case you use d (the distance to the PNR) = F (the SAFE fuel)/ (CO + CH), where CO and CH are the fuel consumptions out and back in Kg/nautical ground mile.
Sounds complicated, but isn't. Try it and see!
Best of luck!