Thanks Keith !
I will be passing (not taking
) instruments, meteorology, performance and mass and balance next week.
My books were read and all AvExam questions are answered, so my method requirements are met
However, for the next subjects to come, I'm not so sure if I should still apply the same method...
Next set of exams will be flight planning, principles of flight, and aircraft general knowledge.
For AGK, i'm pretty sure it's best to read the entire books and to do all the questions.
But flight planning seems really easy - just time consuming
And POF is sort of in the middle I think.*
I am doing the flight planning questions right now, without having ever opened the books, and I find myself answering correctly to 90-100% of the available questions..
Overall there are just the same calculations to do over and over again with few variations and little specific knowledge to have (like what are the different fuel quantities required, how long before a flight should one file a flight plan and that's pretty much all..), and then careful thinking and calculations will guarantee the correct answer..
I calculated I would be spending like 15 hours just answering AviationExam questions on this topic...
Is it really necessary to see all avexam questions ? Could there be any surprise question like there could be in a subject like AGK, instruments or meteorology ?
Fellow ATPL students, does your method include answering all the questions on the question bank ?
*Note that I'm currently working for airbus flight testing department so I'm well used to calculations and the sort of tables/graph they provide in this 33-test.
Following subjects will be human factor, gen nav and radio nav.
Will it be beneficial to have seen all the questions on these subjects ? I believe it could very well be so.
By the way, here is an advice for all distance and heading calculations of flight planning :
Instead of looking up the points and measuring your map distance then measure it against a meridian to have ground distances, like a galley slave would do, simply use the approximate or exact formula for distance computation based on the coordinates (which are given in the question) :
Pythagore (assumes earth is flat, which works very well for distances under 1000-2000 km) : 1 degree of latitude is 60nm and 1 degree of longitude is 60*cos(latitude)nm
Or, for very long distances :
D=Rt*acos(cos(lat1)cos(lat2)*cos(lon1-lon2)+sin(lon1)*sin(lon2))
Where Rt is your earth radius in the chosen unit.
(This formula is very easy to remember, just remember lat lon then 1 2, 1 2, 1 2, works just as well with 2 1, 2 1, 2 1)
And simple trigonometry (in the plane!) to get the true direction.