Could someone give me a review of Pallett- aircraft instruments and intergrated sys!

[SuperTed]

Could someone please give me a review of the book by Pallett aircraft instruments and intergrated systems.I would use the search function but its not working and I would like to know how good this book is for ATPL level before spending my £30!

cheers

[redsnail]

Yeah mate, I bought the book years ago for the Australian ATPL and I have used it recently for the JAR ATPL. In many areas is has perhaps too much detaill. However, it does do IRS/INS nav well, it has a refresher on nav principles. It does cover a lot of other areas as well. If you are buying it purely for the ATPL or you are short of funds, I would reconsider, however, if you want a good reference book for your library then it is worth it.

[AirScream]

When do you sit instruments SuperTed? I have recently bought a copy of the above mentioned book and HOPE to be finished with it by mid November. I could do you a deal if you can wait that long.

[SuperTed]

Airscream,

I was thinking about obtaining the book before mid Nov, but thanks for the offer anyway. Is the book any good then. I guess it must be if you are still using it!!

[Keith.Williams.]

Ted,

Although the JAA refuse to list the sources of reference for exam questions, I can tell you that PALLETT is one of them.

When constructing their notes, the FTO instructors use these books to obtain their source material. They then filter out the dross and give the students the important material, hopefully in an easilly digestible form. The trick here of course is to second guess the JAA and pick the right bits to include in the courses. The FTO notes are then revised in the light of student fedback. So by now they should be pretty close to the target.

If you have lots of time and money to spare then by all means buy and study the books. You should however note that you are in effect undoing the FTO's dross filtration process. Students who are already mastering the material often gain by doing this, and end up with a level of knowledge far above that required for the exams.

If however you are already finding the FTO filtered material hard to take in, then I would advise you not to increase your workload. If you cannot understand some of the material in your course notes it is far better to ask your instructor to explain it better, rather than going and researching it for yourself.

Only you can decide which of the above categories you fall into. Whatever choice you make, I would advise you to carry out as much pre-exam practice as you can, preferably with realistic feedback questions.

[SuperTed]

Thankyou Keith for that. I would like these books to gain a further understanding of the subjects and come the exams I will hopefully be better prepared for any questions that sometimes aren't covered by the FTO's; especially now that there is a larger question bank!

Many people I believe had problems with tachos which werent covered in as much depth by the FTOs as they needed to pass the instruments exam!

Keith, could you please tell me where I could find out about feedback questions and which books do the JAA use when setting these exam papers??

I'm also rather alarmed that there is no official syllabus - but rather some badly thrown together learning objectives, how the hell is any author meant to write books aimed at the JAA ATPL when there isnt even a syllabus to structure learning?? Crazy!

[Keith.Williams.]

Let me answer your questions in reverse order.

NO SYLLABUS
It is true that no proper training needs analysis has ever been carried out for the ATPL. Truly accurate training objectives do not therefore exist. The JAA has however issued lists of short statements of material to be included. The problem of course is in attempting to align the way in which the examiners and the FTOs interpret these statments.

When the FTOs started designing their JAR courses they used the JAA lists of subject areas, and their own previous experience in teaching the old CAA syllabus. The resulting courses were therefore largely based on the old CAA courses, with the addition of a relatively few areas of new material.

Unfortunately the JAA approach to questioning proved to be very different from that of the old CAA exams. The JAR questions tend to be much more theoretical and far more probing. They also appear to have tried to overcome the problem of different languages by using as few words as possible!!!

Not surprisingly the initial results were pretty awful. Over the past two years the FTOs have modified their courses and this, together with student feedback has led to a marked improvement. By now most of the course notes should be pretty close to the mark in most areas.


SOURCES OF FEEDBACK
All of the FTOs collect feedback questions and distribute them as part of the pre-exam consolidation phases of their courses. Feedback is also available from fellow students, pprune and a number of other websites.

There is however a need for some caution here. Firstly, the feedback is based on the (imperfect) recollections of students. It is therefore often incomplete and inaccurate.

Secondly, the feedback provided in most websites lacks any proper explanations of why any particular option is the correct one. Some months ago a great volume of POF feedback from one of the FTOs was published in a number of websites. On examining this I found that something like 40% of the answers were incorrect. Indeed some of these errors should have been obvious to anyone knowing anything at all about aerodynamics. I'm not suggesting that the instructors in that FTO know nothing about POF, but I did begin to wonder if the feedback had been deliberately planted to deter piracy.

I suggest that what students really require is a large number of realistic questions together with the correct answers and full explanations of why these are the correct answers. I have a book of over 1000 such questions, answers and explanations for POF but am not permitted to advertise in this forum.


TACHO SYSTEMS
The recent problem with exam questions on this subject is an excellent example of the difficulty FTOs face in attempting to interpret the JAA list of subject areas.

The June 2000 issue of the list of objectives includes the following

Remote (signal) transmission systems.

Mechanical
Electrical


This might be interpreted as meaning that students needed to be aware of:

The various types.
How each type works.
The advantages and disadvantages of
each.

Feedback appears to suggest that examiners also employed this approach, but took it to a greater depth than the FTOs had anticipated.

The PPSC notes are frequently criticised for including too much background material. The problem is of course that such material is "too much background" only until it appears in the exams. Then it becomes "a new question bank". In this particular case the PPSC notes (in common with all of the others) were inadequate. Overall I believe that the examiners can quite justifiably claim that all of the questions relate to the published objectives.

We should not get too depressed about the situation however. The list of objectives for the old CAA exams were far less detailed than the new JAR ones. In some cases a single CAA statement has been replaced by several pages. The CAA exam results were good quite simply because the system had gardually evolved over many years. The FTOs knew exactly what to expect in the exams, and taught their students accordingly. The JAA system will (hopefully) eventually reach this happy state.

LIST OF REFERENCES
Sadly I do not have an exhaustive list of the references used by the examiners. If I did it would be of little help. During my time in the PPSC I was the instructor for POF,engines and engine instruments. My book cases held approximatly 12 feet of shelves of reference books. The company employed 10 instructors to cover the 14 subjects. Each instructor had his own books of reference. Could any student really use all of these books?

If however you still wish to buy the references, you might be interested in the following:

POF
AP3456. Published by the RAF Central Flying
School. It comes in several volumes and will probably cost several hundred pounds.

Aerodynamics For Naval Aviators. Published by the US Navy and available from Star Publications. I believe it costs in the order of £50.

Aerodynamics Without Formulae. By Kermode. I do not know the publisher but it is probably available from Transair, Pilot Warehouse or Pooleys. I believe it costs in the order of £30.

ENGINES
The Jet Engine. By Rolls Royce. Available from Transair, Pilot Warehouse or Pooleys at about £50.

Aircraft Powerplants. By Kroese and Wilde. I believe it is published by Glencoe. The price is likely to be in the order of £50 to £75.


ENGINE INSTRUMENTS
Most of the above plus Pallett, and some of the books by Mike Burton.

The best source I have found on ECAM and EICAS are the Manuals for individual aircraft types. You should however beware. The old CAA syllabus covered only the basic versions of these systems. The JAA syllabus includes some objectives that can apply only to the more modern A320, 757, 757, 777 systems.

If however you have time for all of these I can only suggest you are not devoting enough to your course notes!!!!!

[ 07 October 2001: Message edited by: Keith Williams. ]