ATPL theory relavence

[piginsh1t]

Seriously folks how much of the stuff in the ground school do you use day to day in an airline job?
or is it really just a test of 'ones' enthusiasm for flying?

all opinions welcome

P in S

oops 'relevant' not as above

[xyz_pilot]

The main relevance is that you need to pass to get a job.


Work Vvery hard pass the lot first time and move on to the next stage. I have seen lots of potential pilots get in into their head that “the exams are not relevant to being a pilot”. The then don’t work flat out to pass, fails exams, lose time and run out of money.


Work hard, pass, move on!!

[Bealzebub]

As XYZ says you need to know it to pass the exams, however a lot of the syllabus is very relevant to your day to day flying as an airline pilot.

The difference of course is that many aspects of a very broad range of subjects become much more specific to the type of operation you are engaged in. Additionally a lot of computerisation is tooled in to make the subjects more more user friendly.

However it is good to have ( or at some point had ) an in depth understanding of the various ATPL subjects and performance. Even though the subjects become more focused in the real world, a broader understanding is often part of knowing where to look for information when problems arise.

[HOMER SIMPSONS LOVECHILD]

ATPL=Airline Transport Pilots Licence,geddit??.If you want the to be a pro at this game you will need this licence.It's not rocket science but there is a lot of stuff to learn and yes a lot of it will be forgotten in the course of time.Remember that your grounding in the theory SHOULD be far more in depth than a ppl,you are supposed to be a pro! It annoys me when poor little rich boys in flying schools(usually with daddy paying)bitch and moan about all the irrelevant stuff they've got to learn.They want to prop up the flying club bar in Jersey and watch people swoon in awe at the steely eyed young ATPL but they don't want to actually do any work or acquire any knowlage to justify the kudos.
Sure, it would be better if it was all relevant stuff, but lets keep it fairly difficult folks.We don't want anybody to be able to do it do we?How could we impress the ppl's with our awesome understanding of second sector climb performance then?:hmm:

[Slim20]

XYZ and Bealzebub are spot on. I used to think that much of the ATPL stuff was irrelevant but more and more I appreciate the grounding it gives in the operational knowledge you need to display good airmanship and judgement.

It is always heartening to know that when the situation arises you have some store of knowledge about JAR OPS requirements, ATC regulations, performance requirements, flight planning and fuel policy as these things can often crop up.

I'm not saying I know all this stuff and religiously read my Oxford notes every day - most of it is in the company ops manuals anyway - but occasionally a situation will occur which causes something to stir in some dormant recess of my mind and I will remember some little scrap of information from ATPL exam days that proves useful.

Learn in order to pass the exams, but try to retain some of the vital info such as those mentioned above. It will serve you well one day.

[mad_jock]

Met I use the most out of all the subjects.

And its funny the things you use with expecting to.

One person i know was ferrying a plane trans atlantic when the GPS went down. Had to get out the old plotting board and chart and using NDB cross hatches work out the position. You never know when its going to come in useful.

Anyway its a very good way of cutting down the numbers going for CPL/IR if we didn't have it there would be 100,000s of unemployed pilots instead of 1000's

MJ

[piginsh1t]

Thanks for the replies everyone I appreciate them
I didn't ask for it to be easy just more useful than patience testing still this won't get it done will it?
I'm off to pull my finger out and put my head back in my books so I can move on to the next stage as suggested

may we all deservedly enjoy propping the bar up in Jersey or Philli for that matter( on our day off of course) sometime in the future

P in S

[sinistar]

There are a lot of attributes a prof pilot should have... I read a long time ago that one of them is that he/she will not readily take short cuts. If you are the type of person who wants slice a bit off here, bend that rule there or make that dodge to get things done any old how, then you are not welcome in this industry.

Try to project yourself a few years further on. How would you feel if a budding pilot wanted to skirt around the exams knowing yourself how much time , effort and money you had spent in order to pass them?

If you or anyone else cannot see the relevance and importance of the exams, then do us all a favour and stay on the ground.

[pilotwolf]

Be greatful you re not a rotary pilot 'cos even more of it appears to be irrelevant......

[P.Pilcher]

Some of the stuff that you have to learn may not appear relevant at the time but as you progress in your career it may do and may even save your and your passengers lives! It is also needed to sort the "men out from the boys".

Years ago I spent a brief period instructing in the ground school of a well known (now defunct) approved flying training organisation. Apart from everything else we did, a correspondence course in the ground subjects was run. We alsways tried to return marked assignments to students by return of post, but one hopeful never returned assignments on the navigation part of the course. It was my job to contact him to find out why. "Oh" he said, " I don't understand navigation so I dont bother to do it."

er... and he wanted to become an airline pilot?

P.P.