Air Law

[Laichtown]

What is the best way to prepare for this? I've read the chapter a few times, but the info is very slow to pick up as it's a pretty dry subject.

Now trying to do it a section at a time with questions.

Cheers,

John

[PompeyPaul]

It's an entire book. Read the book cover to cover. Go back and go through the questions and answers. Buy a PPL confuser and CRAM all of the stuff that is in there. Memorise it, signals, VFR, everything.

Take out a subscription to airquiz.com and do the tests.

[Norfolk Newbie]

As has been said, read the book cover to cover several times and then cram like mad, use airquiz, the confuser and / or Jeremy Pratt's Simplifier.

If you're consitently hitting the 85% + on those, then you'll do fine...

I passed mine yesterday and its a dull, dull subject...

Good luck!

[polkm]

I think the best way is to practice questions, trying to digest material on air law is verrrry dull.

Try ebay, there might be stuff on there

[tangovictor]

i also found the books a tad, difficult to get along with, the oxford aviation cd's make it a much more enjoyable experience to learn, also with Air Law, a lot of it become very apparent, with hours flown

[Orville The Duck]

I used the Jeremy Pratt book and went through every page, breaking each page up into a list of questions and answers, then went through each list until I knew (most) of the answers. I find this a much better way to hammer information through the skull than just reading page after page of information (I developed an amazing skill of dozing off after 5 minutes every time I started reading the book, regardless of the time of day).

In hindsight I spent far too much time doing it, but got a good pass, so I guess the effort was worth it. One warning though, things come up in the exam (and the Confuser) which are not covered in the book, so try to read other things too (General Aviation Safety Leaflets, for example, came up in mine but are not in the book - look on the CAA website for these and lots of other good information).

If you think it might be of any use to you, PM me your e-mail and I will send you the questions / answers list (it's a Word document, around 50 pages - told you I spent a long time doing it). Same goes for anyone else who thinks it might help them.

Cheers,
Orville.

[Wessex Boy]

I am re-learning it after a 17 year break, I am doing the following:

Read AFE Book cover-cover
Go through it and make notes on all salient points, cover-cover
Test yourself with the questions at the end of each section.
re-read notes
Re-take test with questions, see where your weaknesses are
Re-write notes on weak areas
Now pick up PPL confuser and work through questions.
Take Exam and pass!

I have just tested myself and scraped 80%, but I was very weak on Controlled Airspace and ATC services, so I will re-do those and then hit the Confuser, I hope to take th eexam in a couple of week's time

[muffin]

I too am relearning it after in my case a 27 year break. Surprisingly I actually still remember some of it, excepting of course all the signals - which I never knew anyway first time round.

[S-Works]

Try doing it for an IR and then having a brainstorm and doing the same again for CPL.

It has to be the dullest subject on earth but after awhile it all starts to make sense!

[MIKECR]

Try doing it for ATPL, now thats dull! 400 pages of yawn.....boring....sleep! :ugh: :zzz:

[Wessex Boy]

I am doing my revision on the train on my 2-3 trips to the smoke a week, and surprisingly it keeps me awake (I have no idea how that works!:bored: )

[Fuji Abound]

Off thread I know but I still happen to have my confuser from many years ago in my draw.

I had to open it up wondering how many of the questions you would get right by just approaching the question with common sense - a surprising number it would seem! - although whether that common sense comes from many years flying I am not sure.

Have a look at some of the questions if you still have them around and give the most logical answer - you might be surprised :confused: .

[flyingsteve55]

Wessex Boy - You must be unique. The only time I ever slept on a train (apart from having had one over the eight) was when I was reaidng Air Law on the daily trip into Waterloo.

In response to the original question I echo views of others above; read it, read it again, do the q and a's, do the confuser til you are sick of it (look at the trends of the one's you get wrong and focus on them). Look out of the window when you are flying, talk to your instructor, anything. It does all come together in time trust me.

[pchappo]

airlaw is a crap exam and a crap introduction into the world of ppl training.

Its like doing an o'level at school - you arn't required to know and understand the information presented to you, but just be able to regurgitate the facts for the exam.

Surely the powers-that-be can come up with a more modern learning methodology.

Although i must say - after airlaw the rest are a doddle!!!! (and enjoyable!)

[Wessex Boy]

But the key difference between Air Law and O Levels is that not knowing Air Law can cause you to lose yours, and perhaps others, lives......:eek:
I will only feel safe to fly if I pass it with a mark in the mid-high 90s....

[Sleeve Wing]

So right, Wessex Boy.

pchappo.

"airlaw is a crap exam and a crap introduction into the world of ppl training.

Its like doing an o'level at school - you arn't (sic) required to know and understand the information presented to you, but just be able to regurgitate the facts for the exam."

.............but necessary, old chap. .......just the same as The Highway Code.
So get stuck in and earn your licence. It might save someone else's neck if not yours.
:ugh: :ugh:

[Norfolk Newbie]

But the key difference between Air Law and O Levels is that not knowing Air Law can cause you to lose yours, and perhaps others, lives......:eek:


Although I would agree to some level (rights of way as one example), I believe that there is a great deal of information in the air law exam that is not going to cause any mortal danger if not known.

In particular the large chunks of the text about ICAO, for instance the fact that the aeroplane, fuel, spares on board are exempt from duty is unlikely to save anyones life anytime soon, and in fact having learned air law I feel my life is now significantly shorter :ok:

[IO540]

Some 95% of the air law taught in JAA PPL level is total cr*p.

The Americans don't teach most of this crap and they have the same GA safety record as UK or Europe. I've done the FAA PPL, IR and CPL writtens. 1" thick book for each and that includes the answers to the question bank.

There is a lot of stuff which a pilot needs to know but most of it isn't taught in the PPL. There is yet more which a pilot needs to know when going abroad but same comment. Then there is a whole pile more which any aircraft owner/operator needs to know but same comment. Then we get to instrument flight........... (same comment).

Little wonder most PPLs chuck it in within a year or two. You get your PPL and find yourself standing on the edge of an abyss, not knowing where to go (after you have done the Goodwood to Beachy Head on a sunny Sunday trip a dozen times).

The whole system needs an overhaul, to get people to fly a bit more hours. Presently, you listen to the radio and wonder just how many people out there have been up since last xmas. Very sad, IMHO.

[Laichtown]

Thanks folks,

Seems there is no easy way to do this apart from getting stuck in. Read the book about 3 times now. Started to do the questions after each chapter. Seem to be hitting 90%.

It is dull though. Please tell me the rest is better?

[Whirlybird]

It is dull though. Please tell me the rest is better?

I assure you, once you've done Air Law the rest are a doddle by comparison.

Some of Air Law is useful and necessary, but the last paper I saw had FIVE questions on the Chicago Convention!!! Does your average C152 flyer really, really need to know that stuff in order to fly safely?

[pchappo]

Wessex boy and sleeve wing - please re-read what i have said...

I am compairing the examination to the likeness of an old o'level exam - you know the ones which only require you to read and regurgitate facts and not actually understand or comprehend the information given to you.

I have passed my airlaw - and yes there are important fact to remember in there - but the majority of the facts have no direct relevance on the safety of you or your passengers.

Just having a piece of paper saying you have passed airlaw does not make you a safe flyer - it is the training you undertake which does that.

I suspect that the Airlaw exam is deliberately set in the way in which it is so that you learn to learn by repetition - and that it teaches you to learn in a very prescribed way (learning by repetition...) - very different to what other exams / qualifications do.

An example of this is the VMC minima - you get to learn it so you could almost say it in your sleep! - it is very useful later on for when you are deciding wether to fly or not....

Anyhow - safe flying all :) - and yes the exams are deffo more interesting after airlaw!

[Wessex Boy]

I do agree that a large chunk of it is unnecessary for a PPL to learn, but then again I had to take an exam in in-flight catering before I could crew a Wessex!
I didn't very often serve ICAO Schedule 28 to my Passengers (continental breakfast) Why do useless facts like that stick in my head for 20-odd years, but trying to remember the VMC minima for different classes of airspace just passes in one ear and out the other....?(tonight's train subject - airspace)

[IO540]

Probably because nobody gives a damn about visibility minima, in most realistic scenarios.

When flying, one isn't trailed by another plane containing CAA employees, filming whether you enter the occassional (or the not so occassional) cloud, and measuring the in-flight visibility as they fly behind you. And checking you don't exceed 140kt below 3000ft or whatever it is. And checking you are 1000ft vert and 1 mile horizontally spaced from the nearest cloud, etc etc.

[Wessex Boy]

Aaah but if you prang it and they find that the vis was below minima then you might find the CAA take a keen interest, as does the Insurance Company!

[Fuji Abound]

Aaah but perhaps only if the forecast minima when you set off was below minima as opposed to the actual minima when you arrived - and you would be pretty stupid to set off if the forecast minima was below your ratings - wouldnt you :) .

[tangovictor]

wait till you take human performance, what on earth does it matter, that you can name every part of the ear or nose ?
tv

[ThePirateKing]

I've taken Human Performance, and I can't name any part of the ear or nose! :}

[Mariner9]

I dont think it particularly matters that some of the questions asked right across the ppl syllabus are of no practical use for flying. The point is they demonstrate an ability to learn and reason. Useful attributes for any pilot IMHO.

[tangovictor]

Niether can I, however my point is, I learn't it, as per the book, stored it in short time memory just in case an exam question asked for it, which It didn't, so I wasted, a lot of time / energy, learning totally irrelavant info
tv

[IO540]

I dont think it particularly matters that some of the questions asked right across the ppl syllabus are of no practical use for flying. The point is they demonstrate an ability to learn and reason. Useful attributes for any pilot IMHO

On that basis, why not memorise sections of the bible? There is, as we are regularly informed, a great deal of wisdom in there.

This is very much the "olde English" mindset... how to separate the real men from the sheep. It would be more productive to focus on how to turn out pilots who know how to plan a flight from A to B and do so safely.

How come the FAA has managed to cut out most of the cr*p, yet there is no evidence of more accidents in FAA-land, where incidentally the great majority of GA in the known universe operates.

I've done the standalone JAA and FAA PPLs, have clocked up about 700hrs since, done the IR, and flown as far in Europe as there is avgas to be found, and I reckon there is more really relevant stuff in the single FAA PPL exam than in the 7 JAA ones. The exam is not a pushover, even if you did the JAA stuff recently it takes a while to get through it. And then you have the FAA oral, to make sure you know it, which can be 1-2 hours.

The FAA PPL also contains some instrument nav stuff missing in the JAA PPL, so beware.

The FAA stuff is not a perfect solution for flight in Europe (because one has to dedicate a significant portion of one's swatting time to learn US airspace rules and VFR chart interpretations which are quite different to Europe) but it is still a lot more meaningful than JAA.

[Mariner9]

I suspect IO that given the choice, most people would opt for 7 written exams rather than a single exam on the entire syllabus followed by a 1-2 hour oral, where presumably (I haven't taken an FAA test so I don't know) you couldn't just get away with guessing the answer. I would have thought that the FAA system separates the real men from the sheep even more effectively that the JAA system ;)

Don't disagree with you that the JAA syllabus could be modernised either. However, at the moment, it hasn't been, so if someone wants a JAA ppl they just have to knuckle down and learn the stuff.

[IO540]

most people would opt for 7 written exams rather than a single exam on the entire syllabus followed by a 1-2 hour oral, where presumably (I haven't taken an FAA test so I don't know) you couldn't just get away with guessing the answer

I think that's true, because it breaks up the revision. In terms of total swatting time there probably isn't much to choose between the two.

I know that myself, as a pilot who "should know the basic stuff from flying around" would now find it much harder to pass the JAA exams than passing the FAA one. The FAA PPL written is largely what most pilots would call common sense.

In fact a clever FAA PPL/IR N-reg owner with a lot of hours, a good tech brain and an interest in tech flying matters should pass the FAA CPL exam without any revision.

The FAA manages to deliver a solid ICAO compliant license (PPL or CPL - or indeed the ATPL which is still one book about 40mm thick, compared with ~ 700mm of paper thickness with JAA) in this way. Why doesn't the JAA do the same? I have never seen an objective analysis on this, and everybody I've met - airline pilots included - flying in the system just laughs when they recall what they had to learn.