Atpl Inst & Navaids

[flying ginge]

Hello,

straight to the point, what a **** exam this subject is. I just don't see the relevance of most of the syllabus. Who gives a f... which gimbal the latitude nut is attached to. What difference does it make to me as a pilot? I believe this subject needs to be modernised taking into account things like TCAS EGWPS etc. The paper I sat had one question on each. Anyway thats what I think. By the way I did pass.

flying ginge

[empacher48]

Well Done Flying Ginge!

I have yet to sit that exam, but have Flight Nav General next week - then Flight Planning two weeks after that.

I hope to sit Navaids some time next month! Any further tips you can provide?

;)

[mattathm]

Horah horah...... Ginge.

I hope the exam writers are reading this!!!!

The whole PPL CPL ATPL IFR and BGT exam sylabis is F%$#*ed !

They get you to learn and read up on so much irelevant crap that is just a severe waste of time.

Pilots exams should be on the stuff you need to know in regards to a pilots aspect, not an engineering one or a astrologers one, or an acreditted met observers one or a avionic technicians one or a ............

BGT for example, you are the pilot of something PT6 powered, you walk up to your machine, give the prop a spin around, kick the tyres and close the door, now you are sitting in the cockpit looking at the engine instruments ready to start.

Oh the engine instruments...... thats the 30% i got wrong in the exam but still passed by getting 70.

Just as well i know all about blade creep and divergent ducts, in case i have to make a turbine engine sometime............

what a load of crap, come on ASL and whoever makes these exams, cut out the bull****, it doesnt weed out anyone, it just mind ^$^^&$% them.


:ugh:

[haughtney1]

Having done UK JAR (14 Exams!) and the ASL (NZ) ATPL's......trust me when I say..thank your lucky stars....the ASL exams although a bit irrelavant..dont have a patch on JAR's ideas!or lack of.....plus its 75% to pass here:uhoh:

[I Fly]

It always makes me wonder when someone at the beginning of their career know exactly what the need to know throughout their career and survive it into old age. If there are some hard lumps in it, chew them up and swallow them down, it will make you a better pilot. Or do you just want to be an aeroplane driver? If you always want the cheapest, quickest, easiest way, you might get a licence but you will not keep a job.

[flying ginge]

to survive into old age will require a sexy wife to come home to from my "aeroplane driver" job...:rolleyes:

[Sqwark2000]

Can't agree more Ginge,

Did the exam myself recently and like you wonder when I will get to use my new skillset in calculating East or West Drift.

you have to wonder if ANY PILOT knows what latitude the lat nut is set to so that you can do the calculation in the first place?

S2K

[Sqwark2004]

Hey Ginge,

I hear you got a bit sick of waiting for the call and got a new job.

Be careful with that one, I saw your Chief Pilot jump outta the plane and light up a ciggy whilst off loading the bags, in front of a turbo-prop being re-fueled.

Anyway. Good luck with it, hope your two year bond can be cut when you finally get the call from one of the Gods.

S2K4eva

[flying ginge]

Sqwark2004,

alas my friend you have me confused with another member of the ginger brethern. However I believe I know this man and got seriously on the piss with him in NS in December.

Flying ginge

PS He loves tequila slammers, as we all do:}

[The Messiah]

Yeah they'll read this forum and modernise the exam and then they'll accept that Bernoullis theorem is a load of crap too.....dream on.

[Sqwark2004]

I sat this exam a couple of days ago and found several questions in it that I did not have any reference to in my PPSC notes.
Also had a question where half of two answers were correct but the other halfs were not i.e. the last half of A and the first half of B.

Is this common in the ATPL exams?
If ASL are allowed to make mistakes, and expect us to understand what they are aiming at, are we allowed to do the same with our answers?

Or is this just another hair brained scheme that makes the rich (ASL & CAA) get richer and the very very poor (G.A. drivers and most turbo-prop F/O's) go broke?

And then to charge us the full fee if we have to re-sit the exam....


:{ :mad: :{ :confused: :{

Somebody Help us all!!!!:sad:

S2K4eva

[mattyj]

"It always makes me wonder when someone at the beginning of their career know exactly what the need to know throughout their career and survive it into old age"

Good one IFly..if you remember anything 10 days after finishing the exam you're a better man than me!!

The afternoon after in the pub usually wipes my slate clean

[buster172]

:}

This is a cracking post.

I’m studying for the last 6 exams at the moment and I regularly have fits of hysteria when trying to remember the thousands of little, irrelevant, YES, they are irrelevant, bits of information.

The exam pass mark could be higher, if we were taught and expected to learn what was 100% essential knowledge. Wouldn’t that make us better pilots? As stated before, that’s what we want to be.

Friends outside aviation don’t understand how frustrating the ATPL experience is, so to have an educated audience to complain with, much better

:ok:

[High Wing Drifter]

Oh contraire! I found the subject interesting. Surely, you need to have covered all the bases and basics - know what is behind the panel. Are you guys suggesting that there are two types of ATPL: Reet Old Nail Theory and Airbus Theory??

Also, TCAS and GPWS are in the syllabus. BGS explain the additional warnings too.

:8

[bonvol]

Ahh , you young fellas have it too easy :E .

In my day we had to do mercatorial sailings, gyro steering, grid nav and some other useless stuff I forget. Seems nothing has changed since the sixties, just old useless stuff has been replaced with new useless stuff.

Later in your career you will find you still have to learn and retain lots of irrelevant junk. May as well get used to it. At least as soon as you pass these exams you can forget most of it.

[DVR6K]

I quite agree about the irrelevance of much of the ATPL groundschool. Quite why sticky gimbals and dither motors are of interest to me is a mystery. Even with up to date things like GPS in Radio Nav, I still couldn't give a monkeys about space segments and downloading of almanacs.

But it is just a tick in the box that you need to get the ATPL so it's gotta be done!

The good thing is that most of the questions relating to the bitty parts of the Instruments course come up as 1 question in the exam. I remember my instructor telling me if I see the word "trihedron" in the exam, tick it, as it's the only time it ever comes up and is the correct answer so no point in wasting time thinking about it. Plus, the French write the paper so gyro drift is always measured when the gyro is in Paris so 15 x sine 45 (I think) gives you the answer which I have written in my book as (b). (Don't necessarily take my word for it though, it might have been the question I got wrong!)

Good luck!

And a tip, if you don't know the answer, go for the longest one...

[High Wing Drifter]

I remember my instructor telling me if I see the word "trihedron" in the exam, tick it, as it's the only time it ever comes up and is the correct answer so no point in wasting time thinking about it.
Not that would condone blind ticking (heaven forbid!!) but that reminds me of the "6 Micro Teslas" advice too? :rolleyes:

[Dirtbox]

Aaah, and where I would I be without the "piezo-electic dither motor"??

[DVR6K]

All absolutely correct.

I would not say "blind ticking" as such, let's call it "exam technique"!!!

I don't know how I'd get through the days not knowing that Duralumin is difficult to weld...

[BoeingMEL]

Qustion 1: Is it right and proper that pilots acquire a thorough understanding of the equipment they will fly? Answer: Yes!

Question 2: Is it sensible that candidates should show that they have the stamina and determination to complete a demanding and (mostly) relevant course of study? Yes!

This 16,000 hour retiree thought he was an "expert" on syllabi and exams as a younger man........ until he encountered his first temperature inversion, flew an imported jet with uncalibrated gyros, flew a light aircraft with the filler cap unvented etc etc. I could write a book!

The system, like it or not, also acts as a filter to sort the wheat from the chaff. Sorry Flying Ginger but you're looking like chaff at the moment!

When candidates finally get thet elusive ATPL in their hands, it reflects more than priceless privileges... it says a huge amount about the holder.

If you can't stand the heat.... good luck anyway! bm

[Patty O'Doors]

Oi have to agree with the last post by Boeing, in fact to be sure, it reminds me of the story about the Airline Captain who stepped over a Granny in the terminal, who had just collapsed from heat exhaustion.

A distraught member of public caught up with them and said " Didn't you see the old woman?"

"Of course" replied the Captain.

"Didn't you think to help her she might have been dying?"

"Oh dying" said the Captain "That's easy, you should tell her to try JAA exams, now there's difficult" ;)

May your God go with you.

[Flying Farmer]

Just wondered, any of you fellas complaining about the ATPL exams actually flying for a living yet? :*