ATPL exams this week

[Quidditch Captain]

Just finished taking my last 6 ATPLs today.

Interested in any opinions on how others found them.

Gen Nav was a real toughie, time wise. General feeling was that it was one of the most difficult yet - anyone agree/disagree?

QC

[Gin Slinger]

I agree - I left one question early on and didn't have enough time to fully work it though at the end.

[Send Clowns]

Any feedback from the Gen Nav, to help future students?

Hope you did OK guys!

[Gin Slinger]

SC - sorry, nothing really sticks in my mind as being 'new' - I'd seen all the types of questions before in my Bristol GS stuff, which I guess means it was all pretty standard.

The problem I had was the amount of questions requiring time consuming calculations, either on the nav computer or on the electronic brain.

My advice to others would just do as many practice exams as you can under strict time limited conditions – speed is the issue here.

On another matter, although I hope to pass all 8 I took, what is the consensus on when to do retakes? I have the luxury of being able to self-pace, so I guess doing them as soon as possible would be advantageous – not leaving them to the end. What’s everyone else’s take on this?
.

[pilota-italiano]

Hi Gin Slinger,

I took the BGS mod 1 in April and passed 5/8. I took the 3 I failed in Apr last week with you(I guess) .I though it would have been easier to revise something that was still fresh in my mind rather than start an other 6 subjects and then restart with the 3.

I have found them easier this time (MET,FLT PLN,INSTR),maybe I was more confident and prepared as I had a full month to concentrate in 3 exams only and I went through the notes and all feedback once more , or they were simply just 3 easier papers(Instruments still not easy enough maybe!!!)

However only my opinion.

Good luck everyone ,

PI

[Send Clowns]

That's fine if there's nothing new. Thanks Gin.

As for resits, when I did them I had one (Law, euch! And the instructor is now a colleague and still not forgiven me for dropping his excellent pass rate :D ) and took it the following month, with no break. If you leave them too long you will have to completely refresh your knowledge. Hope that advice is not useful to you :D

[Quidditch Captain]

Apologies for the delay to Send Clowns' question re feedback.
Just back from a few days away.

As Gin Slinger correctly states, there was nothing really out of line on the Gen Nav paper. There was just huge time pressure which means being accurate with everything as there isn't time at the end to check things through.

There was lots and lots and lots (repeat ad nauseam...) of CRP5 stuff. Most of these questions carried 2 marks, so crucial to get them right first time.

I agree with the philosophy of doing lots of practice questions, but time yourself each session and ensure you are hitting an average of under 2 mins per question over the whole range of question types.

Roll on the results.....

QC

[Airbus A320]

I took my 3rd attempt at Gen Nav last week, I have to say I thought it was quite a fair paper (mind you I thought the same about my 2nd attempt at it as well.....). I thought that Principles of Flight was an extremely tough paper (mind you, when is it ever not???). Best of luck to everyone else and I'm sure that by the time next Friday comes along when that magic envelope comes through the door, there will have been a quite a few filled pieces of underwear.

[airshowpilot]

I agree with Airbus A320. Nav was fair but P of F was very tough. Sadly, it's last chance saloon time for me (I've missed it three times by no more than 4%). D'oh! So, if I don't get it because of the abundance of high speed flight questions I'll be more than a little disappointed and disillusioned. And that's mainly because I'll have to marry an American girl to get my FAA CPL working for me. Perish the thought (I jest buddies!).

The ironic thing is that if I do succeed, the likelihood of me flying jets, let alone noting the temperatures and pressures and flight characteristics before, during and after experiencing the sound barrier is very remote.

Did anyone else take P of F and find it tough? Also, did anyone complain/protest about any of the questions?

Good luck everyone too!

[VFE]

High speed flight is a real hotspot for JAR - why oh why I do not know. It is nice that JAR think we will all one day fly Concorde but I think there're more important things they could pound us on!

Learn all the temp/pressure/density changes through a shock wave at different mach numbers. Other feedback from my exam:

Stick force stability, maneouver stability,
If mack trim fails, Mach no . limited
Which flap setting has worst effect on Cl/Cd
Most effective flap (single slotted, fowler)
Buffet margin decreases as .................
Loss of pressure after shock wave ?
What happens if OAT , AOA const, if pressure rises,
Waist, contoures or coke bottle contoured fuselage..
Above buffet onset acceptable?
Density and pressure before an expansion wave.

Bit muddled but that was my shorthand after the exam and it all don't make much sense now let me tell you! I passed with 82% so I guess I did something right for a change!

Good luck,

VFE

[Send Clowns]

Thanks VFE, that's very handy, so as to keep up-to-date. I'm teaching some P of F at the moment. Fascinating stuff I always find it, real physics in action!

[Quidditch Captain]

I did PofF in last phase so can't comment on last week's.

I wasn't implying that the Nav wasn't fair - just that the exam hall at LGW was still full at the final whistle, and opinions were unanimous that it was tough on the time side. Most people had no time to check answers at the end, and many had to guess or rush some questions at the end.

However the material was very fair with few surprises.

Good luck to those awaiting results! :eek:

QC