Air Law exam with ZERO hours flying

[pilotfromsheff13]

Hi All

I am due to start flying in September for my PPL. I have chosen the airfield & flight school that I am going to train with after going down to the airfield and taking a look around.

I am currently revising from the Pooley's Air Law guide, as I have been advised from a member of staff at the flying school to get the Air Law exam passed before I start training, so I can get my solo competed as soon as I am ready to do so.

The only problem is - I am finding it a little difficult to take in what is being said in the revision guide and being able to remember it. I was just wondering if you think this has anything to do with the fact that I have zero hours flying experience and therefore can't really picture what is being said in the guide? Or does it not really make a difference if you have had flying hours or non at all...

I am definitely going to see it through until it is passed with the aim of getting it passed within the next month.

Could anybody recommend any websites that are good for revision purposes please?

Many thanks in advance for your helpful responses!

pilotfromsheff :ok:

[wood73]

I used an app on my phone, which just asks questions, I tried the pooleys book but was struggling to take it in (there is a lot in there which to be honest is irrelevant).
I also used the oxford aviation cd rom for a bit.
I passed with 95%
The app was by far the best for me as the questions were word for word what was on the exam.
it is called easa ppl and if recall cost about £9.

[James1809]

Try AirQuiz.com, used it for my studies, highly recommended and really cheap. Generates exams from a database of questions and the guy who runs the site is very helpful and quick at replying to queries via e-mail. Good luck!

[Cusco]

Surprising advice from a training organisation:

You're not going to be going solo for 10-20 hours so you'll have plenty of time to get your head around air law once you are immersed in the flying training and get a bit of insight into what it's all about.

Leave taking the exam till you've done some hours in an aeroplane.

[Jan Olieslagers]

I agree with previous. Things will indeed be much clearer when you are flying.

Also: better to get your medical first - if that fails, all the rest is in vain!

[foxmoth]

You're not going to be going solo for 10-20 hours

Whilst realistic that is not always the case, IIRC when I did my Cadet flying scholarship, if you had not gone solo by 10 hours you were dropped from the course, most going solo at around 5-6 hours, I would point out though that these were youngsters on an intensive course who had gone through a selection procedure and had gliding and air experience behind them, but I have sent a number of non cadet students at under 10 hours.:ok:

[Heston]

Its not actually a legal requirement to have passed the air law exam before you go solo. Schools tend to insist on it for backside covering reasons.


Like the others I'd say concentrate on getting into the air and getting the hang of it all first.


Of all the exams, air law is the most tedious to learn. Which may be another reason why schools like you to get it done early.

[18greens]

If it's not required to do air law before solo why does every school insist on it. It's a very common mantra. If it's not manatory why do we all follow the same doctrine?

Anyway back to the op. I'm sick of having students who are ace at flying but can't get around to doing air law. I would say start as soon as you can, get the no brainer bits out of the way ( air law , medical) then you only need to worry about the other trivial things like weather, ability, aircraft availability , instructor availability, airfield availability and all the other things that keep us on the ground.

Have fun

[AndoniP]

...and download a copy of the ppl confuser :cool:

[SouthendPilot]

I feel your pain.

I'm about 30 hours in now, when I first picked up the Airlaw book and did some mock tests I thought I had no chance. None of it made any sense.

This is what I did... read the book first! Sounds obvious, but its a pretty dry subject and very tempting to skip or skim sections. You'll read sections and feel like its just not going in and get despondent, but you'll be surprised how much you digest. So, read it cover to cover before doing anything, maybe twice. Even if you feel like you're not 'getting it' straight away.

Then, I bought an old PPL confuser from Ebay, not cheap, about £40 and people say its a little out of date, but half the challenge is getting used to the way the questions are worded and the confuser really helped me with that, and I didn't notice anything that was not relevant or out of date.

Do a few tests from the Confuser, write down the ones you get wrong, read the explanations and retest yourself. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

I tried Airquiz but I found the questions to be worded quite differently to the actual test, or the confuser. I discovered pplcruiser.co.uk recently, I used that to study for R/T. Passed that with 85% after just a weekend of studying, it was a big help. Much better than Airquiz.

As for waiting until you've got some hours under your belt, it might make it easier to understand some of the language but I don't think it does any harm at all starting on it now. You know what they say, train hard, fight easy!

Good luck! Its all well worth the effort.

[B200Driver]

I think a lot of my students use 1 of 2 websites either PPLCruiser or Airquiz they should get you through the Air Law exam :ok:

The feedback from the £9 app I get is it doesn't allow you to absorb the information, you are just literally learning the answer to the question rather than the theory behind it!!

[BEagle]

The first revision of the LAPL/PPL exams is now with the CAA. As stated in CAP 1192, the number of questions will be significantly reduced. There will probably be 6, not 9 exams; 3 double subjects and 3 single subjects.

It has also been proposed that the (a) to (d) answer sequences will also be randomly changed, to make it more difficult for cheats to learn that the answer to question 57 in Paper 8 is (b), or whatever...

A further revision will then be conducted, to develop more reasonable questions which the average trainee should need to know and answer without difficulty - it is hoped that this second revision will be released along with the LAPL/PPL AltMoC next April.

So waste your money on an 'app' if you wish; pretty soon it'll be useless!

[cockney steve]

I bought a set of Trevor Thoms on the bay, several years ago... AIUI aeromedicine aka Human Performance has changed a bit...the basic art of navigation and the physics of flight and how an engine works are all very much as they were in the days of the Wright Bros, Sir George Cayley et al.:)
Actually, of course, there have been advances in scientific understanding but very little of the fundamentals are affected.

Air law has evolved with the flying machine. It is a horrible, dry, academic subject to get to grips with if you're not that way inclined....as advised, slog through it.
Iread all bar the IMC books and have a fairly broad knowledge. tried the on-line tests and was agreeably surprised at how much i had retained.

I AM NOT A PILOT AND HAVE NEVER LOGGED A TRAINING HOUR!

I have attempted to master both fixed-wing and Rotary models. I can tell you, it's generally acknowledged that they are much harder than full-size!..BUT you are aware of what control inputs do.

The more studying you do,the closer you should get to a minimum training-hours licence.

Good luck with your air-law!just keep re-reading it in between the other subjects.....incidentally,i found an awful lot of the syllbus seemed to repeat in the Thoms, so 5? books only really carried about 3 books of new info...the rest was subconcious revision.

[dagowly]

I used airquiz and the questions are nothing like the new exams. I bought the pooleys new mock exams booklets, passed all 9 exams then sold them on for little loss to another member of the club. I did 6 of mine before I started flying and got pretty much near 100% in all of them (stumped by a question in met led to a 95%.)

[fireflybob]

If it's not required to do air law before solo why does every school insist on it

18greens, where I teach we don't insist on it.

I can't really see that knowing about the Quadrantal Rule and Airspace Classification etc is necessary for anyone to go solo.

(Pith helmet donned)

[foxmoth]

I can't really see that knowing about the Quadrantal Rule and Airspace Classification etc is necessary for anyone to go solo.

No - but anyone flying solo really should know the right of way rules which is also part of the Air law exam, certainly schools I have flown for recommend the air law is done first, but it was not insisted on.

[BEagle]

My policy was that a First Solo was tightly supervised from the ATC tower by the FI who'd sent the student solo, so any problems would be dealt with directly.

Also, First Solo is a carpe diem event, so to deny it to a student who hadn't passed Air Law & Op. Procs is a bit harsh.

However, having achieved the milestone of First Solo, students also knew that they wouldn't fly solo again until they'd passed Air law - so it was in their interest to get it out of the way as soon as they could. We used to require Air Law & Op. Procs, Human Perf. (because 'headshrinker horse$hit' is a piece of pi$$ anyway) and RT theory (because a lot of it is really Op Procs anyway) before second solo. Also Met, Nav and FP&P before first solo cross-country and RT practical before Q X-C. That just left Aircraft (General) & PofF to do before the Skill Test.

[BillieBob]

No - but anyone flying solo really should know the right of way rules which is also part of the Air law examA pass in the Air Law exam is no guarantee that the candidate knows the right of way rules (or vice versa). Until the CAA gets around to plugging the loophole (which it is, at last, about to do), it is only necessary to purchase a 9 quid piece of software and the written exams are in the bag - no need to 'learn' anything.

If a student hasn't proved to an instructor that he has adequate knowledge of those elements of the theoretical knowledge syllabus necessary to safely complete a first solo, he shouldn't be going in the first place, no matter what exams he has passed.

[worldpilot]

I have been advised from a member of staff at the flying school to get the Air Law exam passed before I start training

Great advise and at the point. And, it is a common sense approach though.:ok:

Knowledge of air law is essential to situational awareness and it is of utmost importance to have a good understanding of the ramifications before getting airborne.

It is all about maintaining the safety of flight. Don't be fooled about the idea of just passing an exam. That's definitely going to pose a huge challenge down the road as you explore the flight environment which is really complex. So study hard to gain insight and understanding, and use your instructor as a reference point to guide you. That's the way forward.

WP

[Heston]

I can't decide whether WP's post above is tongue in cheek or not...


What Billiebob said is the key: "If a student hasn't proved to an instructor that he has adequate knowledge of those elements of the theoretical knowledge syllabus necessary to safely complete a first solo, he shouldn't be going in the first place, no matter what exams he has passed."

[worldpilot]

@Heston,

The relevance here is to get the big picture mind set. It really makes no sense to enroll in aviation training without understanding how the rules and regulations Impact aircraft flight envelope.

Essentially, what the Staff is saying, is to get informed in advance of the training and pass the exam unfront to alleviate the obstacle before commencing with the training.:ok:

It is my experience that such a move reduces the workload and enables better focus on learning how to fly.

WP

[TimGriff6]

Is it not a bit more complicated than doing a bit of self study & sitting exams?

Learning air law (and all of the other topics) at an early stage is a great idea but there are lots of rules about the recorded ground training you have to have done, the length of time you have to do the exams, how many times you can take each one and how long the pass lasts before you have to take them again.
I would suggest looking up the CAA rules for the exams and making sure that you will be able to achieve your aims without wasting money. (If you can actually understand the current rules about the exams, you will have gone a long way towards getting a pass in air law!! ):)

[Heston]

@worldpilot


I fully understand the point you're making and I can see the logic in it. But I disagree. My students are learning to fly for pleasure, spending their own money, and if I told them they should pass the Air Law exam before they started training I wouldn't have any students!


Certainly I'd expect someone who was enthusiastic to have done lots of reading round the subject - but things like aerodynamics, aircraft technical, met and navigation, not Air Law.

[worldpilot]

@Heston,

I also understand your perspective. However, in contrast to you, I don't disagree with your projections because I know that when it comes to knowledge transfer, subtle nuances exist.

However, it suffices to say that a good instructor will stipulate conditions for training based on his/her experience. That seems to be the case in this respect.

I personally attained my pilot certificate through a '21-day program' and it was of huge advantage for me to get ready for the training upfront and was able to pass all exams within 7 days of commencing with the training. I went solo After 12 hours of dual training.

Anyway, make sure you keep those students coming to you for airmanship training and keep the flag flying.

WP

[PPLvirgin]

In my opinion, a lot of the learning should be done at each individuals strength as long as they fulfill legal requirements etc..

For example, i did a week long crash course for all of my exams and RT. This suited me perfectly as my ability in retaining info immediately is far better then learning something over a long period of time - my air experience is what i would use to hone my skills.

Before every lesson i would read a book, youtube of flight sim the early practical lessons so i knew the "moves so to speak for advanced turning, clmb, low and slow, staight and level. this helped me greatly and more iportantly suited me.

I felt prepared most of the times and much to my sintructors annoyance my first advanced turns and several other elements were better than his attemtps lol.

For me I would always encourage anyone to get the paperwork, the pain in the ass stuff out the way and then you odnt have to worry about it, all your efforts would go into the practical's of flying which can be tough enough!!!

regards

Tris

[FirstOfficer]

Good Evening BEagle,

Do you know when the revised examinations will take effect from?

Regards

[BEagle]

Sorry for the tardy response!

I've asked the CAA for a progress report regarding the LAPL/PPL exams and am awaiting a reply.