Originally Posted by
john_tullamarine
What an absolutely ridiculous question.
With respect, may I suggest that you might be missing the point ?
Theory stuff is just that and not to be confused with flying. The aim is to establish that the student (exam candidate) knows, and is competent to play with, a reasonable amount about the stuff. Often, if one were to be practical or otherwise close to Industry reality, it might be a tad difficult to make that assessment.
Practical stuff is for simulators and line checks.
I've not looked at the question in detail and it may well be inconsistent but that is not the philosophical point here.
Perhaps one might style the question as being not overly Industry practical ?
They’re doing ATPL exams, the P standing for pilot, not philosopher. There’s about 5 different steps in that question, 5 of which you would *never* do in normal line flying, and at best a couple of which you might do if you’re in the small % of people that work for Tim’s Twin Taxis or Claire’s Cargo Carriers.
The question is based on something like a 737, in Europe, where fuel is given in KGs… The nonsense about calculating moment arms etc, totally unnecessary and I imagine written by someone who’s at best had a fable on fight sim.
There seems to be this obsession with making the questions difficult, why?! Flying is pretty easy… If the exams reflect that then that’s absolutely fine…