Sitting ground exams b4 first flight!

[paton400]

Hi, i am currently saving up for my PPL. Just wondering if it is possible and advisable to sit the ground exams before i have my first lesson! This means that by the time i saved enough for the lessons, i will have passed the ground school and can concentrate on the flying!

[Lightning6]

Personally, I think it would be a good idea to do a few lessons first to see how you would 'get on' with flying, I appreciate your enthusiasm and I wish you well, I've no doubt you'll do OK, But why waste your time and money on doing the ground exams before your first lesson, (and I mean that constructively), you have plenty of time to do your ground exams during your training. It's a good idea to read up as much as you can tho', your FI will guide you through the right way to approach the course, but as I say, reading and learning before hand is not a bad idea. I wish you well and keep us informed of your progress. :ok:

[paton400]

i have been up in a light aircraft plenty of times with my dad so i know its for me! since i have quite a lot of free time, and am able to study at work that it would be a good idea to get the exams over and done with!

[Lightning6]

That's fair enough :ok: Go for it, I didn't realise your experience, so it's not a new experience for you, so dad's a pilot, what does he suggest? If it's something you want to do, which obviously you do, then go for the ground exams, it's always nice to get them out of the way.....Enjoy. :)

[Captain Smithy]

You're better doing the exams as you fly. Quite often the exam material will tie up with what you are learning, e.g. I managed to tie up Nav and Met with round about the time I was beginning my XCs.

There's no rush though. Best to take your time and enjoy it.

Smithy.

[Lightning6]

Agreed Smithy, it's all part of the training, as said in my first post, but he is hell bent on learning, nothing wrong with that, but I must agree that it should be consolidated with his PPL training.

[paton400]

yeh, my dad thinks i should go out to canada (where he lives) and do my training there!

So u r saying that things i will pick up during lessons will help with the ground exams?

[Lightning6]

Indeed it will, it's the same with anything, theory and practice should go together, There's nothing wrong with boning up, but, in my experience, as your FI takes you through the course, you will experience situations that you have only read about, that, combined with the theory will make life a lot easier, I'm probably not explaining very well here, but, I'm sure you will find it easier to do your ground exams with the help of your FI to guide you, they're not easy.

[Whirlygig]

I did half the PPL exams with only a half-hour trial lesson behind me.

Given that most schools will not let you take your PPL skill test without having passed all the exams and many schools will mandate certain exam passess before certain stages of training (i.e. Air Law before first solo etc), the more that you can get done before you start training, the easier the process is.

If you are doing a PPL full time, you are less likely to have the time to get through the subjects adequately so doing a few beforehand means less pressure whilst training, especially if you're going abroad for the training.

Air Law, Meteorology and Human Factors are three that can easily be studied without any previous aviation experience.

Cheers

Whirls

[paton400]

yeh cheers for the help! still got plenty of time to decide what im doing haha!

[Lightning6]

Whatever you decide to do, good luck paton400, I have a feeling you're gonna do well anyway, please keep in touch with your progress, and with any problems you may encounter, that's what the forum's all about.

[BackPacker]

One thing to keep in mind, and what hasn't been mentioned so far, is that the ground exams *expire* if you don't pass your skills test within a certain amount of time.

You've got plenty time to look up the details in LASORS so I'm not going to track them down for you now, but if you plan (due to finances) to do your PPL lessons once a week, it's something that you should take into consideration. If you do them too early you might find yourself in the situation that you need to do them all over again by the time you're ready for your test.

If you are going to do a three-week program in Canada or the USA, this is obviously not relevant. In that case get them all done beforehand, if possible.

[Mad Girl]

You get 18 months to pass all of the exams from start to finish and then a further 24 months to finish the flying training.

i.e. 42 months for flying...

Does that help?

[FREQUENTFLYER1234]

Being an FI and Ground Examiner myself, I would suggest that you at least start on the reading particularly if you are going to do in on an intensive basis.

My reasoning is that if you leave it you will be under quite a lot of pressure to get everything done. I have found with the students that are underway with the reading and have a few exams under their belt generally speaking, perform better than the ones that turn up on their first day and haven't opened a book.