Originally Posted by
Broadlands
I make a point of asking the candidate on every test to explain what they understand by MSA, since they have written it down on their plog.
None of the candidates except one has been able to explain any of the figures. I keep feeding this back to the instructors, but they don’t understand it either!
I am surprised only one candidate has been able to explain the MSA figure in most plogs as I would have thought it would have been taught by their instructors. What has been taught for VFR PPL flying is likely to be some level of safety margin (probably 1000’) above the highest obstacle within a certain distance from track. I am not surprised a PPL candidate can’t give you the definition for the Minimum Sector Altitude as they are not taught that.