View Full Version : FI revalidation test
BEagle
31st Jan 2009, 08:38
I see that the CAA has produced a Supplement to Standards Document 10, in which questions, some of which are likely to be posed at the FI revalidation Skill Test, are listed:
http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a341/nw969/Internet/zxzxz.jpg
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/33/Stds%20Doc%2010%20v5%2009%20+%20Supplement%20v1.pdf
There are 250 questions. If you leave out the ME and Aerobatic ones, that's 219. Of these, a staggering 68 are on Met. Roughly a third....
What is it with the CAA and s*dding Met? Is it just that it's an imprecise science, allowing a lot of waffle? Or what.
Sh*t happens, weather happens. Be able to read the forecast and understand a TAF / METAR. Endex. Why do they seem to want everyone to become amateur weather-guessers?
Couldn't agree more. Since joing the airlines I take even less notice of theoretical met. than ever. TAFs and METARs are different - I take a GREAT deal of notice of them - but the rest is just squiggly lines, and almost always wrong beyond one or two days.
Granted that's UK only operation, but do we really need to know the weather between Recife and Dakar to teach S&L 2?
I personally view met as one of the most important aspects of flying. I understand the vibe re: CAA obsession but c'mon.. its not exactly on a par with radio navigation theory is it? I personally know of at least one friend who'd still be here had they understood more than simply how to read a METAR. I would actually go the other way and suggest there's too high a reliance on simply reading METARS and TAFS these days. Example: a METAR won't tell you about a fog bank 10 miles away but an understanding of met theory might make you aware that its a real possibility and if so - where are you gonna go? Decend thru it? Hmmm.! Bit pointless asking renewing FI's all about it tho.
VFE.
BEagle
31st Jan 2009, 15:08
Which is why I said you should also be able to read the forecast....
But 'List the characteristics of the troposphere in terms of gaseous composition, water vapour content, temperature and pressure.'?
:uhoh:
Duchess_Driver
31st Jan 2009, 17:27
Never could remember what the weather was going to be like on a Thursday morning in January in Bombay or Mumbai or whatever it is this week!
More to the point, why did I need to know?
TAF/METAR:ok: 'bout all you need in conjunction with 214
Tell that to Buddy Holly's pilot...
Civil Aeronautics Board Report on the Crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper (http://www.fiftiesweb.com/cab.htm)
50 years ago on Tuesday. :(
VFE.
BEagle
31st Jan 2009, 18:49
So, if you're a low-time pilot and you take-off late at night, with the gyro caged, without an IMC qualification (having failed your initial IR) in an aircraft with unfamiliar instrumentation, without having bothered to get an updated forecast in the US Midwest in winter, somehow knowing all about being an amateur weather-guesser is going to help you?
Rubbish.
Well it would at least have kept him on the ground thus avoiding the accident or am I missing something?
VFE.
EK4457
31st Jan 2009, 19:42
The incident above was contributed to by a lack of wx information given to (and requested by) the pilot rather than an inability to read METAR/TAFs.
However, the overriding cause (IMO) was an inability to fly that specific A/C in IMC. Everything else was contributary.
It may be the case that a better wx report would have caused the PIC to canx, but this is common sense as opposed to lack of met knowledge.
Let me be clear, the importance of met in aviation cannot be overstated.
However, the insane beauracracy of the authorities has meant that this manifests itself in exams as Indian monsoons and winds in the sahara desert.
You get told that the wx is as perdictable as day and night and follows a few very simple rules. The reality is that multi million pound computers and career meteorologists struggle to predict the next 12 hours.
Met is very important, but the emphesis is in the wrong place.
Just my tuppence.
EK
Good point but then you could say that about most of the groundschool requirements under JAR surely?
VFE.
I did a renewal 18 months ago and had to do a lecturette too!
Lots of obscure things, but it is good to know that you can't be 'done' for low flying if you can PROVE that you did it to save your skin! I'm now doing MCC training at Dundee and a bit of instructing when I feel like it!!dbee
Whopity
9th Feb 2009, 16:57
I did a renewal 18 months ago and had to do a lecturette too!well it has been a requirement for the last 9 years!