PPL Air Law exam advise/story!

[CallumBurns]

Hi,

My name is Callum, I am 15 (16 tomorrow) and I have a story which will possibly help some PPL students with the air law. As we all know, air law is one of them subjects thats just very long and boring and a struggle to get through, or at least it was for me, but I have literally only just passed my law exam. I started off at 56% on my first exam, the second came at 67%, at this point I had a feeling I was going to fail my last one. I called my flight school and booked in for 2 hours of ground school and honestly, it was the best this I had ever done. I passed my third attempt at 100% after 2 hours of ground school. If you are a PPL student and not good a air law, I strongly advise you go and book in for a few hours of ground school! I would hate to see anyone in the position I was in as I was revising every day but could not pass the exam! I am due to go for my first solo tomorrow and looking forward to it!

I hope for the best in all you guys and I hope it all works out for everyone!

Thanks for reading! :D

[xrayalpha]

Enjoy your solo!

ps. It is a lesson in life: the most important class is the one just before the exam (most examiners, even at uni, are softies who can't help rewarding those who make it through all their classes!)

[thing]

Good luck Callum, solo at 16, something to be proud of mate. Let us know how it went.

[Howard Long]

Well done Callum.

I passed my air law about four weeks ago, managed 87%, and I did it from the book together with the help of doing about eight practice papers.

I have a different problem to you: I am old, the last time I did any formal training or exams was 27 years ago, so my brain isn't used to learning new stuff.

The same applies to the practical stuff. When I see the young guys going up solo after barely a dozen hours it can be a bit disheartening! It took me just shy of 24 hours to go solo, and in retrospect I was pretty happy with that.

But now I am onto the met exam, and I think I will be asking for some help along the same lines as you and get an hour two of ground school to ease the process.

Congratulations again.

Cheers, Howard

[KNIEVEL77]

A bit like Howard, I last took an exam 30 years ago and these exams do worry me!
I really struggle to remember things and am anxious that it may hinder my exam results!

[2 sheds]

As we all know, air law is one of them (sic) subjects thats just very long and boring and a struggle to get through, or at least it was for me,

Callum
I think that you are doing other trainee pilots a considerable disservice by promoting that attitude to the very necessary learning involved in training for a PPL. Why should it be as you describe when knowledge, understanding and application of the subject might just save your life, apart from being the basis of how you operate legally? It seems that you are not alone in this attitude - the whole approach by several people in the past seems to have been to ask for tips and advice on how to scrape through a written exam with scant regard for the object of the exercise - absorbing the information. You do redeem yourself, however, by advocating approaching the task in a far more organised manner! It would be useful and interesting if you described how ground school instruction helped and why you did not opt for it originally.

Enjoy your flying - even when head on to another aircraft!

2 s

[thing]

I have a different problem to you: I am old, the last time I did any formal training or exams was 27 years ago, so my brain isn't used to learning new stuff.

It's not a race Howard, enjoy the journey. I would echo 2 sheds sentiments as well. I'm sure we've all met while airborne pilots for whom air law is just something to get through. You usually meet them in the circuit somewhere.

[FlyingKiwi_73]

I have to echo 2 Sheds here, you don't pass these exams to get to fly. You pass these exams to learn how to fly and do it it safely and legally.

This site can be a bit forgiving Callum and i'm sorry if my post has a negative tone but you do need to really know whats in the exams and the books, as i say to a lot of people when they ask me why i do something this way or that while flying..."it keeps me alive".

Yes the validity of some of the questions or exercises in the exams can be debated endlessly BUT the learning is the important thing....

Lets think - taxi-ing in form your first solo and you meet me on the taxi way... which way are you going to go? You survived your first solo only to bend your aircraft and mine on the ground.

Granted Air Law can be dry... same can be said for Met (insert pun here) but if you just scrape past Met, or Nav for that matter.... mistaking a TCU or CB for a nice little CU could end in a very nasty experience :-)
(I actually really enjoyed Met and took my time with the study).

Enjoy the flying but take the book learning seriously, having that knowledge to hand when things go wrong can be very very useful. i salute you for being so young and getting so far already... well done mate!!!

FK

[Piper.Classique]

All the knowledge that is tested for is necessary. Some of it is however deadly dull to aquire. The lad passed at 100%, not easy. Every other subject can be made interesting by a good instructor, and many students will go deeper into the matter than required. I've been instructing a while now, and still have to force myself to keep up to date on air law. To judge from the frequent discussions on this forum, most people seem to find air law the hardest to assimilate.
Learning never stops, on the ground or in the air. The day it does is the day to hang up your headset for good. Enjy the flying!

[CallumBurns]

Thanks for everyone who supported me :-) I did infact take my first solo today in which was very good and I thoroughly enjoyed it! I am also now known as the youngest solo flyer in the country being 3 hours and 27 minutes from actually being 16!

thanks again!

[CaptainChairborne]

Callum is part of the future of GA in this country and we have done a poor job of welcoming him to it. He struggled with a subject, found a way of getting 100% in an exam, fgs, and we do the standard internet putdown


I have to echo 2 Sheds here, you don't pass these exams to get to fly. You pass these exams to learn how to fly and do it it safely and legally.

Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong

The exams are purely there to be passed. That is the exact and precise nature of exams.

I agree that you need to know the subject to be able to fly safely, that is why you study it but you absolutely must not confuse knowing a subject with passing an exam in it, or conversely that if you have passed an exam you are an expert in it. An exam is a sit-and-forget exercise that measures your particular state of swottiness on the day so that the CAA can say it is being rigorous about training. If you need to pass an exam, then work toward passing the exam, anything else is misguided

If you want to become a good pilot then you need to know your subject in breadth and depth. Learn about it. That is not the same as passing exams in it

So, without looking, which pilots on here, who don't fly to marshalled airfields, can tell me the signal for opening your stairs? Or, who knows, off the top of their head, the definition of class B airspace?

[Piper.Classique]

Plus 1 for Captain Chairborne

Not that I have stairs in anything I fly, but I didn't even know there was a signal for it. Class B airspace? Second class version of Class A, as any fule know.
Off to look it up in case I ever fly near any of it, which is unlikely in my europe based puddlejumper. Did once get a VFR clearance into some class A, though. Must have got it right as they let me do it again to go home.

Lets think - taxi-ing in form your first solo and you meet me on the taxi way... which way are you going to go? You survived your first solo only to bend your aircraft and mine on the ground.

He is going to stop and ask if he doesn't know. It would be useful for him to know the default direction to turn if he meets you while airborne, though. If he meets you in the bar I suggest YOU buy HIM a drink.

Callum, when you get to fly solo enjoy your first solo. Try to ignore the more pompous members of this forum, your instructor will be a lot more use to you and sounds like a good'un.

[Howard Long]

First solo, excellent stuff!

If I may say so to other posters, I have been really quite surprised about some of the questions I see on here and in other forums from established PPLs asking questions that are indeed part of the basic PPL Air Law syllabus. But I am also glad that they do. Of course, the regulations change with some frequency, but what I've found in the month or so since I passed the exam is that there's an awful lot of stuff I can't remember from then. I am not sure I could pass it now. And I doubt many other could either without some revision.

There's both a problem and a benefit with exams. While you might not be able to remember the precise definitions or regulations, you do know that there's something about it in the regs, so you can always look it up. Maybe that's the point.

I am delighted that Callum passed his Air Law and has done his solo. I remember 30 odd years ago going up with my buddy from school who'd passed his PPL when he was 16 as a result of a CCF/RAF scholarship, and I've harboured ambitions since then which only became stronger. Not sure if my folks would've approved of our little trip had they known.

With today's risk-averse mentality, it is a breath of fresh air that younger people aren't always mollycoddled these days, something which so often stifles the key values of accomplishment, ambition, responsibility and accountability, skills that aviation fundamentally encapsulates.

Blimey I'm starting to sound like some kind of life-coach.

Cheers, Howard

[Howard Long]

Oh, and happy birthday to the OP by the way.

Cheers, Howard

[caber0]

Callum, Well done and congratulations on solo and birthday.

The rest of the exams are a lot more interesting to study for but you should really consider doing as many as you can over the summer so you don't get caught out by the EASA trap and have to start all over again after September. It should be easier during your summer holidays as no school stuff to think about while studying.

Caber:)

[FlyingKiwi_73]

Chap chap chaps,

First of all well done to Callum, its a huge leap for some one so young to take, i first soloed in a glider at age 16 and can remember the shear terror of being responsible for an aircraft. I hope you keep it up. Being able to do that so young shows a maturity that not many people possess at your age. again i salute you. I would certainly buy you a beer.

Now chaps, i think my sentiments in my post are echoed buy captainchairborne but he misses my meaning, yes exams are a hurdle to get past,... but my opinion i was trying to convey is with aviation pass and forget is quite dangerous. I fly in an area sandwiched between several schools with a lot of new or Training CPL's and their airmanship, RT, Nav (position reporting) is woeful and in sometimes bloody dangerous. These cookie cutter courses i think are contributing to a malaise in aviation, learning enough just to get through the syllabus and as quickly and as cheaply as possible, in my humble opinion produces accidents waiting to happen.

A few months ago one of these students having a very near airprox with me near Foxpine in NZ due to unintelligible and incorrect position reporting and flying non standard altitudes (this i filed) that is covered in the Nav and Air Law exams..

I am not saying the OP is at all representative of this, just the general sentiments of treating exams like hurdles and not learning experiences. I continue to go back to my books and revise. I have also continued to fly new types of aircraft and try new things having just completed my tail dragger rating on the delightful cub. continuing to learn is key. that's all i wanted to say the defense rests.

FK
Pompous Aviator extrodanaire

[Piper.Classique]

Thank you for that clarification, Kiwi. Congratulations of having done your conventional undercarriage training on the worls most versatile and charming aircraft. Continue to enjoy flying low and slow!

[wb9999]

Firstly, well done Callum.

Secondly, I think some of the posters on here are doing Callum a disservice (typical pprune). When struggling, rather than head for the Confuser (or it's modern day equivalents) like a lot of students, Callum went to an instructor for ground schooling. If only more students did that.

I personally found Air Law the most interesting, and Met the hardest and the most boring (although most useful post-PPL). Unlike 2 sheds, I don't think that does anybody a disservice - it is just how I found it and everyone is different.

[FlyingKiwi_73]

Thank you for that clarification, Kiwi. Congratulations of having done your conventional undercarriage training on the worls most versatile and charming aircraft. Continue to enjoy flying low and slow!

Hah it is odd bimbling around at cruise speeds i'd normally be landing at!

I do say, it was like learning to fly all over again... frustrating as hell, the tricycle jockey's have no idea!

Again well done to Callum!