CASA - ATPL Theory [Archive]

xCartzy

3rd Mar 2019, 05:41

Hi guys,

So I Just completed my last ATPL subject and I thought that I'd shed some light on the experiences that I've had with each subject and the exams associated with them. I'm doing this purely because I wish I had something like this when I was studying, and also to help those who are struggling. Just as a reference I only had a PPL at the time, so there's no reason why the inexperienced pilot can't complete these exams.

The ATPL Subject's aren't fun, and trying to find the study material is also pretty complicated. Basically the stuff that I and many other instructors have been using are old recycled notes from Nathan Higgins over at Advanced Flight Theory and also some notes from Flight Theory Adelaide, who as you know do training programs for multiple Airlines throughout the world, so their stuff is very good. The downside however to these notes being really good is that there is a lot of material in there that whilst is good to know, doesn't apply to the exam that you're studying. Nathan's notes are pretty good, but on some concepts he's only given a one sentence description of how that object / concept works, when really he should be describing it in as much detail as possible and also giving examples. Also in Nathan's notes there are a few areas that don't apply to your exam. The only way you can get around this is by checking whats in the Manual of standards on the casa website, and then studying accordingly. It sucks, but it is what it is.

I used the following notes for each exam :

Human Factors - Bob Tait's CPL Human Factors Book in combination with Flight Theory Adelaide Notes.

People Online will tell you that Human Factors is quite easy, but realistically it actually harder than everyone perceives. I struggled to Understand Threat and Error Management, and how it was written in the actual exam can sometimes throw you off. I ended up getting 88% after using some of the FTA notes. Bob Tait's CPL book will get you 75% of the way there, there's a little bit extra that you need which is covered in the FTA notes. I've had mates pass on just the Bob Tait book, but I think that may have came down to a bit of luck. Overall for Human factors, remember all the key facts from the Bob Tait book and have a really good understanding of how Threat and Error Management works, I've had mates in the past have a third of their exam consist of TEM's.

Meteorology - FTA Notes and Bob Tait's CPL Meteorology Book

This was the easiest exam that I experienced. There's no casa bull**** questions, Its either you're right or you're wrong. FTA notes got me a pass first go. You could use the Bob Tait CPL Meteorology book as a reference if need be. CPL Met and ATPL Met are practically identical, except that with the ATPL exam you have to understand how High Altitude charts work, and the weather that's associated ( Jet Stream's ). You will get questions on High Altitude charts and Jet streams so be prepared, everything else is very similar to CPL Met.

Flight Planning - Andrew Baumanis Online Course ( 2 Weeks )

Flight Planning is the hardest subject that most students struggle to pass. I did the course through Andrew who specializes in ATPL and IREX theory over in Perth. He doesn't do much theory providing anymore, but he does tutor and do the hard subjects like Flight Planning and Performance and Loading and IREX. He does everything online, but he requires around 4 students to put a course together, so if you know of 3 others who want to tackle this subject all at once, then this is by far your best option. Others will tell you to go to Nathan Higgins over in Queensland, the issue is that you've have to pay for flights, accommodation and everything associated with travelling all to be stuck in a classroom with 40 other Students. Nathan's course is only 9 days, where Andrews is 2 weeks + Ongoing support. And Andrew also states that if you don't pass you're more than welcome to sit on in, in the next course free of charge. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with Nathan, its just I'd prefer to go through Andrew as there's less costs associated and its more of a 1 on 1 situation, which to me feels like more bang for your buck.

Some people have studied this from old notes, but you've gotta be super intelligent and understand the process behind everything really well. The issue with self studying is that practice exams are no longer correct as your maps change every 3 months. So it can be sometimes difficult to see if you're answer is correct or not. I could rant on about Flight Planning until the cows come home. I failed once with a mark of 66% and went back 4 days later and passed. If I had any tips, its to know when to do a full flight plan and when to do only half. In some questions you can save yourself precious minutes by only doing half a flight plan. As everyone says, its an easy 5 hour exam that's gotta be done in 3 hours. With that being said, get the big questions ( 4 and 5 Markers ) out of the way at the start of the exam, and then come back for all of the 1 markers. I actually really enjoyed flight planning, and once you get the hang of it, its really quite easy. Also make sure youunderstand the limitations imposed on abnormal operations. From memory, some abnormal operations have a different MTOW and Max landing weight.

Performance and Loading - Andrew Baumanis Online Course ( 3 Day Conversion Course )

This subject isn't too difficult, Andrew offered me the 3 day conversion course pretty cheap and I wanted to get through this subject quickly, so I did it. Honestly you could study this one online, its not too difficult. Just make sure when you're drawing your charts up your lines are dead straight. The tolerance on an A3 sheet of paper on some questions are only 0.4mm which is ******* ridiculous, but that is casa for ya. I failed once with a mark of 69.4% and went back a week later and passed. Make sure you lines on your %MAC charts are dead accurate. Take off and landing charts have also got to be very accurate!

Aerodynamics and Systems - Nathan Higgins and FTA Notes.

This subject was my worst nightmare. I spent around 6 weeks ( 4 Days a week ) just getting through the notes, and that wasn't even all of them. The FTA notes are ridiculously detailed and go on for what seems like forever. Nathan's notes were very good for this subject, so I used his notes with FTA as a back up if i didn't completely understand a particular concept. This subject is all recall questions however you need to remember literally a **** tonne of information. I struggled with this subject just because my Aerodynamics Knowledge wasn't 100%. I failed once with a mark of 64% and went back about 3 weeks later and got 70%, I'd say I got pretty lucky. Remember to focus on the Aerodynamics side of things. In my casa exams I had a lot of questions to do with Aerodynamics, and make sure you understand how air flows and moves in front and behind a sound wave! One tip I found handy is if you don't completely understand a particular concept, there were multiple videos online that would explain it. I'd post some links, but pprune won't allow me as of yet.

Navigation - Nathan Higgins Notes / Andrew Baumanis Notes

Nathans and Andrews notes aren't too bad, but lack some mapping questions, but all in all are pretty good. In the exam I found I had plenty of time to go over the 3 mark questions, yet I was still getting the questions wrong. Make sure you understand how all the instruments work! All of my mapping questions in the exam always gave your position in terms of what radial you were on or what the DME was reading, they never actually gave me a set location to start with. Make sure you know the scale of the map you're using, because all of the 20 or so maps that you're allowed in the exam have different scales, so keep an eye on that. In terms of True Altitude let me clear something up. Nathans Method is incorrect, where as Andrews method is correct. If you go and have a look through universities and also through the EASA Exams in Europe that both refer to how Andrew does his True Altitude Calculations. I've also asked Gavin Secombe from CASA and he has confirmed that the correct way to calculate True Altitude is as follows.
4ft x ( Feet AGL / 1000 ) x ISA deviation = True Altitude Correction
Make sure you use Ft AGL! If the Temperature is Hotter you Add, Colder you subtract.

Air Law - Nathan Higgins AFT Notes.

Air law was interesting. This Subject took me all of 8 days as there isn't really much study to do, but more learn whats in each document and where to find it. One thing I would recommend is to not take everything into the exam. Find out whats applicable and only take that. There is no point flicking through pages that you don't need. In my casa exam I had a few questions in regards to flight and Duty times from both the Old and the new CAO 48.1's. I also had some IREX related questions, so I would highly recommend doing your IREX before the exam as it somewhat prepares you for Air Law. There are a lot of questions in regards to maintenance, such as who can carry out the maintenance. I had a couple of questions on unserviceable Instruments, and also Oxygen Requirements. If you use Nathans notes some of his questions are word for word what is in the exam.

Good luck to everyone attempting these exams, I hope that this helps you a little! Also if anyone's looking for a pilot to hire, I should have my CPL very soon, and will be on the hunt for a Job!
Cheers,

machtuk

3rd Mar 2019, 21:10

Excellent info. I'm sure there will be plenty thinking of doing the exams will be able to gleam some helpful stuff out of that detailed post.
a hundred years ago I did a full time course with Nathan, was tuff but Nathan got the whole class thru despite a broad age and experience level -:)
Good luck to all those that are on this difficult journey, something you will look back on some day sitting up there at 37000 ft and think I'm only using a small proportion of that knowledge-:)

josephfeatherweight

4th Mar 2019, 07:13

xCartzy - good of you to make such a detailed and thorough write-up for the benefit of your peers.
I do wish to perhaps make some suggestions to clear up some of what you said, however:
Nathan's course is only 9 days, where Andrews is 2 weeks + Ongoing support.
Nathan's course comes with the "+Ongoing support" and the ongoing support is excellent! I experienced exceptional service from Nathan and I highly recommend his Flight Planning Course.
It does appear that you didn't actually purchase any of AFT's (Nathan's) courses, which is fine, people on-sell/share/swap books all the time - however be aware that the support that comes with the purchase of the AFT courses/books is TOP NOTCH!
Cheers.

Slippery_Pete

4th Mar 2019, 09:01

If I was an employer in GA (which I’m not), I reckon I’d message you and offer you to call me for a job when your CPL is finished.

You seem to have your proverbial in a pile, which is a rare thing these days.

Good on you for posting something positive and helpful.

Chazlington

4th Mar 2019, 20:15

Great post and best of luck for the future. I'm in my early days of getting a CPL but this has managed to motivate me to get started on the end game theory.

Burleigh Effect

11th Mar 2019, 18:56

Hi xCartzy

Great write-up! I’m sure many (myself included) will get enduring value out of this.

Can I clarify one point...
Just as a reference I only had a PPL at the time...

Did you have the CPL(A) theory complete? I ask, because I’m in the process of converting a foreign licence and CASA indicate that prior to sitting any ATPL exam the candidate must hold an Australian CPL(A) or have completed the seven CPL(A) theory exams. My concern is that it will be a case of waiting until the conversion process is complete prior to being able to sit any ATPL exam.

Thanks in advance and thanks again for the write-up.

Cheers

BE

xCartzy

13th Mar 2019, 13:54

Burleigh Effect

20th Mar 2019, 07:47

Hi Burleigh Effect,

Yes I did have CPL(A) theory credit prior to attempting and completing the ATPL Exams. I think it may be best to Ask Gavin Secombe who's the head of CASA's exams. His email is ; [email protected] . In terms of your CPL licence conversion, have CASA asked you to complete any exams? If not then I'd say that you'd more than likely have to wait for the conversion to be completed before you attempt any ATPL Exams, but it would be best to email him. One thing that might be worth doing if you already haven't is the Instrument Rating Exam ( IREX )

Cheers,

Hi xCartzy

Thanks yet again for the great info. I’ll email Mr Secombe to get his perspective. I do need to do the conversion exams (FAA to CASA) and will find out if this then meets the theory requirements or if I would need to conduct the check flight, and be issued a CASA CPL(A) prior to being eligible to sit the ATPL theory exams.

Cheers

BE

NWS Inop

21st Mar 2019, 00:09

Great post xCartzy. I have also just finished the ATPL syllabus and am very glad to have it out of my life!
I was able to self study 5 out of the 7 subjects. I used an on line course for Nav and FPL with Rob Avery. He goes into deeper detail than some of the Higgins stuff, but I found it worked for me. The support he offers is also excellent.

PPSS

27th Mar 2019, 05:59

HI thanks for the post. You said one can study Perf and Loading online. Can you tell me which website can it be studied online?

ArnoldS92

28th Mar 2019, 00:21

Great post, thankfully I did my ATPL years ago. One thing I would love to know is how are you expected to pass Systems when all the syllabus books referred to as reference material have not been in print since 1988! The books do not exist anymore and some of the Systems questions refer directly to those books. Good luck with your career mate.

xCartzy

31st Mar 2019, 12:34

HI thanks for the post. You said one can study Perf and Loading online. Can you tell me which website can it be studied online?

Hi PPSS,

I paid Andrew Baumanis for an Online performance and loading course which took only a couple of days. Highly recommend his courses, he knows his stuff back to front! He still runs his company Flying Theory Solutions, maybe contact him and see what he can do for you, I think he requires a couple of students before he runs a course but It'd be best to email him.

Cheers,

jjhews

3rd Apr 2019, 12:25

Great post and thanks for the advice. Where did you get hold of the FTA notes; I can't seem to find or buy them anywhere.

plotplot

23rd May 2019, 00:18

Hi xCartzy,

Can you confirm that the true alt calcs always use AGL even when the question has given infromation using area QNH instead of local? Because you get wildly different answers depending on which number you use. Here is an example from Higgins:

You are cruising at A070 directly above a mountain with elev 6420ft. QNH is 1001 OAT -14degrees. The RADALT would indicate:

using the formula above; 4ft x (580 / 1000) x 15 = 35 (7000-35= 6965 = 545 RADALT)

However if you substitute AMSL for AGL; 4 x (7000/1000) x 15 = 420 (7000-420= 6580 = 160ft RADALT)

Using a CR3 if you line up A070 with -14degrees in the true altitude window, you can see that true altitude is in fact around the 6600 mark or just under, making the second formula correct.

Can you please clarify if I am missing something. Cheers

xCartzy

24th May 2019, 03:59

Hi Plot Plot,

To begin with you have to calculate the pressure altitude to then find out your temperature deviation from ISA. So In the example you’ve used, the QNH is 1001, cruising Altitude is 7000ft and the OAT is -14.

Firstly you’ve got to work out the pressure altitude, so for this example - (1013-1001) x 30 = 360ft. We then add this to our cruising height of 7000ft, so 7360ft.

We then round the 7360 to the nearest 500ft which is 7500ft giving a ISA temp of 0 degrees, thus a deviation of 14 degrees. Hopefully this changes your answer, if it doesn’t I’ll dive a little deeper when I get him from work. Also remember that your CR3 isn’t the most accurate piece of machinery.

Cheers,

drpixie

24th May 2019, 11:03

Plot plot - Important thing to consider is that these type of questions are not asking you to know some magic formula. In fact, these questions are trying to weed-out people who memorise formula but don't understand what's going on.

They are really asking: #1 do you understand the situation, and #2 do you know enough to apply basic info to solve the problem.

If you get lucky, maybe you happen to know an appropriate formula, but if you're not lucky on the day, the question doesn't match the formula. For all these type of questions, if you actually understand the situation, and know a little bit about the subject, you can work it out. So think about the situation and what it means, then apply what you know.

plotplot

24th May 2019, 11:30

It's not the formula that is hurting my head at the moment, it is determining which elements of information are to be used in said formula. I don't even use the formula I just use the CR3 much quicker and has been treating me well up until this moment. I had it all figured out and then reading a more accurate comment somewhere else that true altitude is really applicable to a column of air above a point on a sphere. Which stands to reason that AGL is the number that should be used and not AMSL. Which would make this question redundant because he's asking for a height above a specific point but is not providing an accurate QNH source.

Thanks xCartzy, but it doesn't change the answer by enough to justify that Higgins still says that the answer is 188ft, which you only get when using AMSL figures. This is what is baking my noodle; even if you allow for pressure height, the answers you get when using AMSL or AGL are different by hundreds of feet

When working off pressure altitude, in AGL;

4ft x (940/1000) x 14 = 56.4,
7000 - 56.4 = 6944
6944 - 6420 = 524.

I know the CR3 isn't the most accurate machine, but it's not out by several hundred ft unless you've done something wrong. I'm just going to assume that the questions in the exam are going to be asking for a height AGL and providing an accurate QNH, not area QNH. This isn't my first ATPL rodeo, and I know what CASA is trying to bleed out of you, I just wanted to check that I haven't spent hours building a working knowledge on a concept from an incorrect source. Which I'm going to need tomorrow haha.

plotplot

25th May 2019, 04:23

Well I just got back with a nice big 68% on the KDR sheet :sad: I don't know what it was but I just wasn't in the right mindset this morning for CASA's usual bull**** of asking a question in such a conceited way that you second guess yourself when you know the right answer because of their choice of wording.

Very disappointing result when I only have 6 KDR's in 29 questions. Doesn't help when you flunk both the 3 markers. Was completely stumped by the PSD question where I have been using Higgins' method of process of elimination of multiple choice answers. That's kinda hard when they want the answer written in the box now, so no answers to choose from. The question itself made no sense to me as the total endurance was not going to get the aircraft to it's destination in the first place. If anyone could shed some light on another way of working out PSD's without using the process of elimination method I'd be really appreciative because I'm stumped with that one.

Did get the true altitude one wrong as well. The CR3 is also rendered useless when they want the answer written in a box now. Surely they must have a buffer either side of the exact answer for these q's. If someone could answer this one for me I'd again be very appreciative:

You are overhead Canberra YSCB at A060. YSCB elev is 1886, QNH 1009 and OAT on the ground 0*C

What I did:

Pressure height of a.c. = (1013 - 4) x 30 + 6000 = 6120

ISA dev = -11

6120 - 1886 = 4234

4 x (4234/1000) x 11 = 186

4234 - 186 = 4048AGL.

Can't figure out where I'm going wrong with this.

Re-booked for 2 weeks time...

xCartzy

26th May 2019, 13:51

You’ve forgotten to apply your correction to the cruising altitude of 6000ft. You’re answer should be 6000 - 186 = 5814ft

Time Map Ground

28th May 2019, 05:48

Time Map Ground

28th May 2019, 07:53

With regards to the PSD calculations, AFT has written up a page or two describing how to "close-in" on the PSD position if you are not given any multi-choice answers. Perhaps you might want to refresh your memory on that. The whole idea is to trial and error until your ETI adds up to within 1 minute of the safe endurance given in the question.

JulietKilo13

31st May 2019, 01:57

Hey mate, excellent post. I agree with everything you said and info like this is great for people who aren't sure what to expect going into exams.

I found the trick with Systems was doing heaps of practise exams and use these as a study guide. There is simply too much content to remember. It differs from other exams like Flight Planning, where you start off doing heading and ground speed calculations, then normal basic flight plans, then backwards plans, then abnormals - each thing builds on the last. Systems is just pages and pages of info, there is about 300 pages of info in the Higgins textbook (not including revision and practise exams) and in theory you could be asked a question on any sentence in those 300 pages. However, don't wrote learn the answers, some questions appear different on the exam. I would estimate that 90% of the questions in my exam I had seen (either the exact same or a variation of) in either the Higgins or Avery practise exams (I would recommend Higgins though). You last week before the exam should just be going over practise exams, and doing the same one multiple times. If you keep getting a question wrong, go back and study it some more.

Also I'm not sure what order you did the exams, but I would recommend doing Flight Planning and Nav after each other, they are probably the two most similar exams. It shouldn't matter which way around. I did Nav after Planning and I found it like an easier version of planning with some theory thrown in.

It took me ages to do Flight Planning, so I would recommend doing that one first. If it takes you over 6 months, like it did for me, thats chewing into your 2 year window by a fair bit. Maybe do an easier subject first if you want do 'get back into the swing of things' before tackling the beast that is Planning, but just be aware you might have to resit that exam. If you were going to do a course, Flight Planning is definitely the one to do it for.

Here are my ranks from hardest to easiest, plus some tips and the time it took me to self-study:

Flight Planning - You need to strike the right balance of being accurate and fast. Figure out what the question is asking for, don't bother doing a whole flight plan if you don't need to. [6 months +]
Systems - As mentioned above, heaps of content. Do lots of practise exams. [2 months]
Navigation - As mentioned above, I did this after Flight Planning so it just felt like an easier version of Planning. [1 month after doing Planning, allow 2 months if you haven't done Planning]
Performance - As OP mentioned, just be really accurate. [2 weeks]
Human factors - Find a good textbook as many are lacking on TEM. I actually failed this one with 67% because I thought it would be easy and I only put in about 5 hours of study. [1 week]
Law - The only tricky thing is the 80% pass mark. Just get good at finding things and don't try and remember stuff by heart. [1-2 weeks]
Meteorology - I agree with OP, definitely the easiest exam. [1-2 weeks]

Note: The times taken aren't my recommendation or anything, they are just so you can compare how long it takes to study each exam. I was working full time as a pilot, so things like overnights and checks definitely slowed my progress.

plotplot

9th Jun 2019, 14:06

Second time's a charm.. managed to pass nav comfortably yesterday. Took a different approach this time where I went straight to the 3 markers at the end, picked which one I thought was going to be easier out of the two, did that first, then went back to the start of the exam. This left me with 40 minutes to have a crack at the other 3 marker when I got to that point, and I still felt fairly fresh and didn't have 2 huge questions in a row to try and tackle. I recommend that strategy to anyone doing it also! Was also lucky enough that the PSD question was multiple choice so was simple enough to use process of elimination. xCartzy I wish I had found your thread a week earlier than I did and I might have had more luck with the true alt question first time around. If I can offer any advice about that exam it would be to make sure you're proficient with the math side of things. It's not hard math but easy to make a mistake on the calculator without realizing and boom wrong answer. Also be proficient with Mach, TAS and CAS conversions as some questions will provide the info in a roundabout way.

Flyer4040

28th Oct 2019, 11:36

Climb150

28th Oct 2019, 13:55

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/720x1280/screenshot_20191028_100825_photos_d250cebe0d7dab677e478eddd5 f634e484eafe99.jpg
When you passed your final ATPL subject you would have been given a print out by the ASL supervisor with the subjects and results written on it. What did you do with that?

Gflyerfly

28th Oct 2019, 14:11

Hi guys
I have a problem,
I applied for an airline overseas and they do require a letter from casa stating that I have a credir for ATPL theory and obviously casa doesn’t have as such,other states like EASA,FAA etc... they’ll either endorse your licence with frozen ATPL or give you a certificate that you’ve passed the theory subjects,but here they insist on pre-requisite report on form 059 which still doesn’t show the credit for ATPL theory and it’s like KDR’s whether you passed or failed.
what do you think I should do ?
any suggestions

If you submit the form under the self-service portal (can't remember which one but there's one), you'll be able to get a summary for the CASA atpl subjects (it's a summary of all your theory exam results), which will say that the seven atpls are credited. Sort of like AMET - Credited. Basically if you login to your self-service portal and check your theory exam results, the paper form that you get from casa will look fairly similar.

Bit hard to explain but I hope you sorta get my drift.

Runaway Gun

28th Oct 2019, 18:38

I don't recall seeing one of those...

Climb150

28th Oct 2019, 20:08

So part 61 really hasnt made anything easier!

Do you still need the exam passes endorsed in your logbook? Maybe take a copy of that and get it certified true.

Flyer4040

28th Oct 2019, 21:52

Bingo
you nailed it.
haven’t thought about it before
yea like a sticky label,which previously was enforced.
ill have to ask an examiner to see if I can do it

Time Map Ground

28th Oct 2019, 21:53

The pre-requisite report does show credited exams once you have passed all 7 subject parts for CPL & ATPL. Although I’m not entirely sure about overseas carriers, a pre-requisite report would suffice for the purpose of showing passes in all ATPL subjects when applying to Australian carriers.

Flyer4040

28th Oct 2019, 22:59

You don’t even need pre requisite report in oz as all the operators know the requirements,KDRs should be just fine,for overseas operators,they don’t know the requirements in Australia and pre requisite report doesn’t necessarily show you have passed all subjects,how should they know that
also with sticky labels,they just dont exist anymore and I’m stuffed ��
the casa REGS are ridiculous,they could just write a line ATPL CREDIT THEORY in the licence.

Climb150

28th Oct 2019, 23:32

Have you tried asking CLARC nicely if they can write you a letter saying you have passed all ATPL theory subjects? I know its a long shot but they once wrote me a letter stating that Australian licences dont have expiry dates.

Capt Fathom

29th Oct 2019, 01:34

The CASA Self Service Portal shows all your licenses, ratings, endorsements and medical status.

Climb150

29th Oct 2019, 01:58

We arent talking about local operators.

What Flyer4040 is getting at is the portal doesnt say "all ATPL subjects complete" or something similar.

Overseas airlines have no idea how many ATPL exams we have and aren't interested in becoming experts on how CASA do things.

Time Map Ground

29th Oct 2019, 14:51

I’m pretty sure any carrier that is committed to do some proper recruiting would have already done some research into the licensing requirements of the country that the candidate obtained their licence/subjects from. The CASA website is only a google search away, and they do make it obvious that there are 7 subject parts to be passed for the issue of an Australian ATPL (theory credit)

Capt Fathom

31st Oct 2019, 11:00

It’s your career, so it’s all up to YOU. No one here can help you with that!

Francis8642

9th Nov 2021, 23:16

Great information on the CASA ATPL theory. This would certainly assist many in completing their CASA ATPL theory exams. However, would you or anyone know what is the next step in obtaining a CASA ATPL?

Below is the extract from the CASA website. However, I would appreciate some clarity on it. How do I get my ATPL?You must be at least 21 years old to get your ATPL. You also need to do the following for the category rating you want to get with your ATPL:

hold either a commercial pilot licence or multi-crew pilot licence with the same aircraft category rating
complete the relevant flight training
learn the theory and pass an ATPL theory exam for the category rating
complete an approved course of multi-crew cooperation training
pass an ATPL flight test
meet the minimum aeronautical experience requirements.

1. What is the "relevant flight training" which is being referred to?
Would the hours obtained (1500+) during commercial flying be relevant?
Or would the relevant training undertaken during command upgrade cover this requirement?
2. Which examiner would conduct an ATPL flight test? No information on this is provided by CASA.
3. Would the "Minimum aeronautical experience" include the 1500+ hours with specific hour requirements for PIC, NIGHT, cross country, etc.

Thank you

NaFenn

10th Nov 2021, 14:20

1. What is the "relevant flight training" which is being referred to?
Would the hours obtained (1500+) during commercial flying be relevant?
Or would the relevant training undertaken during command upgrade cover this requirement?
I believe the flight training has to be completed by a Part 142 organisation and meet the requirements of the CASA Syllabus as part of an actual course. Airlines who have part 142 approval usually do this inhouse. Unfortunately commercial experience does not count for the training under the new requirements. I believe that Flight Options in QLD is one of the schools that offers the training and flight test privately - I'm not aware of any other schools that currently have the approval.
2. Which examiner would conduct an ATPL flight test? No information on this is provided by CASA.
Flight Examiners are no longer "CASA Officers" like they used to be, so there is no longer a list of them available online as it is another rating on your licence, like the flight instructor rating or instrument rating. The school that you go through would provide a testing officer for you.
3. Would the "Minimum aeronautical experience" include the 1500+ hours with specific hour requirements for PIC, NIGHT, cross country, etc.
Yes, there are specific requirements - see the link below

Probably worth mentioning that the ATPL test has to be conducted in flight or an approved sim in a multi engine turboprop, multi crew with the candidate as PIC.

You'll find more information such as the hour requirements here: https://www.casa.gov.au/standard-page/getting-your-air-transport-pilot-licence

DA40EQO

31st Jul 2022, 09:30

Hi all, after completing the final CASA ATPL exam I want to share some advice to do with the seven infamous exams. This post is heavily inspired by the user xCartzy who created a post very similar to this one back in March of 2019 that I found to be of massive help to myself and to many others, some of you may already be familiar with the post (originally I was going to post a link to that thread as well as other links that were helpful for a few of the exams... Unfortunately PPRuNe does not allow me to make a post that has links yet so I'll have to improvise here). Here, I’ll attempt to make a slightly more up to date version of the original post and I’ll try to expand on certain areas where I can. So first and foremost a big thank you to xCartzy for their helpful advice! I do feel that they covered most of it quite well but I’ll try and add to what they’ve already written so apologies if there’s an overlap of information here. This is to help those who may be struggling with the ATPL grind to those who simply wish to learn a little more about the ins and outs of each subject before embarking on the seven exams.

I was able to self-study all seven exams although it did take a fair amount of time (about a year and a half), I may have over-studied many of the subjects due to my cautious approach to them and you would likely be able to sit and pass each exam somewhat sooner. As for the material I used, I am more or less in the same boat as xCartzy in that we both used a mixture of FTA (Flight Training Adelaide) notes and AFT (Advanced Flight Theory) notes. I think xCartzy neatly sums up the quality of these notes in their post: “there is a lot of material in there (FTA) that whilst is good to know, doesn't apply to the exam that you're studying. Nathan's notes are pretty good, but on some concepts he's only given a one sentence description of how that object / concept works, when really he should be describing it in as much detail as possible and also giving examples. Also in Nathan's notes there are a few areas that don't apply to your exam”.

A note for CASA: The purpose of this document is to aid those who are currently sitting or about to embark on the ATPL exams. I have made every effort here to not disclose any confidential information in relation to the exams and so will not include any answers or actual questions found in the real CASA ATPL exams. At the end of each subject I will state some of the topics I happened to encounter in the real exam; these are purely to give the reader an idea of what might be encountered in the real exam and these topics listed are taken directly from the publicly available CASA document of Part 61 MOS Schedule 3, Appendix 1. If I have inadvertently disclosed confidential information/details, please let me know.

Though this may be painfully obvious to most, the single biggest piece of advice to passing all seven exams is to do as many practice exams as possible; continue practicing until you’re confident in both the subject and your ability to pass the exam, then sit it. For most, repetition is the most effective way to learn the content, as the age old adage goes: practice makes perfect. Often achieving at least 80% on practice exams (90% for air law) is sufficient to pass the real thing as that allows for a 10% buffer in case you don’t perform your best on the day. To echo one of my instructors advice “No one performs their best during an exam or flight test!”.

Each subject here is listed chronologically in the order that I sat them.

Air Law - AFT Notes and Exams / Pilot Practice Exams

There is very little theory to learn in the traditional sense as it is almost entirely the process of repeating practice exams in order to familiarize yourself with the contents of all the documents. There are a lot of useless documents that can be trimmed down, particularly rotary wing documents that appear here and there. Spend plenty of time getting comfortable with the ‘legal-ese’ type of wording that is used in these documents, often sections are written in negatives (i.e. an operator cannot do this, this and this...) so always read both the question and your documents very carefully. Also note that you may believe that you found the answer to the question in a certain paragraph of a section but always read the entire section as there are often contradictory statements or paragraphs that may change your answer entirely that are written just a little deeper into the section. PPE was a fine enough source for this exam but personally I wouldn’t recommend them for any of the other ATPL exams, I believe they’re more suited for all licenses up to and including CPL and IREX but not the ATPL.

Flight and duty time questions take some getting used to; again, plenty of practice exams will get you comfortable with how the FDP questions work and you’ll get the hang of it relatively quickly. There were questions on various topics including: Maintenance, Categories of operation, Visual approach procedures, Instrument approach procedures, IAL procedures, FDP, Recency, Instrument requirements, Engine start distances, etc.

Human Factors - AFT Notes and Exams / FTA Notes and Exams

AFT’s notes primarily consist of Bob Tait’s CPL book with the addition of Nathan’s notes that expand on certain areas as well as provide useful information for areas that the CPL curriculum either loosely touches on or doesn’t cover at all. With that being said, Bob Tait’s notes will provide for the large majority of information that you’ll use in the actual exam. The exam itself is not too difficult (being the second easiest ATPL exam after Meteorology) with a lot of it being very similar to CPL human factors. The main area that CASA hits hard with are the Threat and Error Management questions which are almost always ambiguously worded and often boil down to an educated guess. Myself and many others struggle with these questions despite many practice exams on threats, errors, countermeasures, etc.

Thankfully you can still pass if you do well on the rest of the exam, that being said, still study the TEM theory well and know the Bob Tait book back to front. It may sound silly but I found I could easily visualize undershoots/overshoot illusions (depending on the slope of the runway/terrain) by using a ruler to visualize the runway and a pen to visualize the aircraft and working with the written question to physically visualize it in front of you, I found this helped to get a better idea of the scene and easily answer whether it was an undershoot or overshoot which I have seen some struggle with. There were questions on: Motor skills, Error management, Spatial disorientation, Hearing loss, Types of countermeasures (TEM), Types of Threats (TEM), Categories of errors (TEM), Visual and somatogravic illusions, Runway illusions, Detection of hypoxia or hyperventilation, Anatomy of the ear and eye, etc.

Meteorology - AFT Notes and Exams / FTA Notes and Exams / Practice Exams From Various Sources

As many others have already said, this exam is almost the same as CPL meteorology making this the easiest ATPL exam of the seven. With that being said, there are around 5-10 questions in the exam on upper level meteorology including high-level jet streams and high-level synoptic chart interpretation so make sure you’re familiar with the signage and what all the numbers mean on these high-level charts as this is where the ATPL MET exam deviates from the CPL exam somewhat. Also make sure that you look very closely at the synoptic chart pictures provided for some questions as there is often a lot going on in one area (Cloud, CAT, Tropopause altitude, etc.) and CASA wants you to effectively interpret all weather phenomena there.

I ended up using various practice exams I still had from my CPL theory including Ground Effect exams; if you still have CPL meteorology practice exams I would highly recommend hanging on to them as they are useful as ATPL meteorology notes as well. Otherwise I used FTA and AFT practice exams which came in handy. Don’t stress on this exam as it’s all quite straight forward really and there’s very little CASA trickery involved other than the occasional question where the answers available are vague and can be interpreted incorrectly, make sure you read the question carefully. Also keep in mind that there are a few questions on interpreting TAF3 forecasts (i.e. Based on the provided TAF3 forecast, what weather would you expect for an arrival at 090030z). Otherwise there are also questions on: Thunderstorms, Turbulence, Mountain effects on weather, Wind shear, etc.

Aerodynamics & Aircraft Systems - AFT Notes and Exams / FTA Notes and Exams

This subject is incredibly content heavy and took me about three months to complete (I had to delay the sitting twice due to one of Victoria’s many lockdowns that we all know and love…). To learn the content well is manageable albeit time consuming. I suggest allocating a fair amount of time to studying this one. AFT’s notes are quite good for preparing for the exam and the practice exams that come with them are very similar to the real exam with multiple questions in the real exam being near exact replicas of questions I already did in the AFT practice exams which certainly helped with time and confidence. FTA’s notes and exams are incredibly in depth and go WELL beyond what is required for the curriculum, often asking questions that would never be asked in the CASA AASA exam. This is often in part due to the fact that while AFT’s notes and exams are essentially based entirely on the CASA AASA exam, FTA’s notes and exams are based on various sources including exam papers designed for even the UK CAA International Division which means it often bears little to no relevance to the CASA exam that you’ll be sitting. The only way the FTA notes help for this exam is if a particular topic is confusing and you need to solidify your understanding of it from another source.

There were 50 questions in total (so you can in theory get 15 wrong), some of which are on: Fuel systems, Pressurization/air conditioning systems, Pneumatic/hydraulic systems, Flight forces (S+L & Total drag curve), Asymmetric flight, BGT, Autopilot systems, Specific auto throttle scenarios, Fuel information, Thermal plugs in the wheel, etc. Note that all the questions are factual recall questions, there are no calculations or formulas required. Also, I did not get any electrical/hydraulic visual diagram questions, however I get the feeling that those questions do exist in the question bank, it’s just that I got lucky and didn’t get any by chance.

Occasionally a video can explain a topic or system far better than any paragraph or diagram can. Here are some YouTube videos which I found helpful with a few different concepts in this subject (as mentioned before, I originally had links here but unfortunately I can't post links yet):

Combustor - Explained By Engineering Explained *I found this video in particular to be incredibly helpful, props to the original creator*
Turbofan by-pass ratio. By Roddy Mc Namee
Jet Thrust reverser By SHADOjet
Understanding How an Aircraft's Jet Engine Starts! A look at the Start Sequence of a Turbofan Engine By JxJ AVIATION
Understanding Turboprop Engines: Thrust Generation and Comparison with Turbofan Engines! By JxJ AVIATION
Understanding Turbofan Engines and Functioning of Auto Thrust! By JxJ AVIATION
What is high speed aileron reversal? By flight-club
Flight Management Systems Explained By Doofer911
Servo Tab | Pilot Tutorial By Pilot Effect
The Critical Engine | Pilot Tutorial By Pilot Effect

Performance & Loading - AFT Notes and Exams

After Systems, this subject was a bit of a breather as the content heaviness for this subject was a fraction of what systems was. That being said, the exam for this one isn’t all that easy but isn’t too difficult either. This subject took longer than what it probably should’ve taken, in part due to having to delay exams because of lockdown yet again and also due to feeling some level of burn out from systems. Performance aerodynamics makes a re-appearance for this one however it’s also a fraction of the size of the performance aerodynamics in systems so it isn’t too bad. My advice for this subject is to make sure your lines are dead accurate as the tolerance for answers are very small (for example: a) 5.1 b) 4.9 c) 5.9 d) 5.3).

Many recommend using a protractor to help with this exam and whilst I can definitely see it’s benefit, I didn’t use one myself as I couldn’t find one and couldn’t be bothered buying one either; the truth is is that you don’t need a protractor but just make sure you’re accurate. Most of the questions are multiple choice including the big 4 marker questions thankfully. There’s only a handful of type-in questions and they’re mostly just with the smaller 1-2 marker questions. There’s a lot of 1 marker questions based on CAO 20.7.1B that are more or less a breeze to get through and are easy marks, one thing to note is that there is a difference in answers depending on if the question is asking about a ‘net flight path’ or ‘gross climb gradient’. I also had one question in the exam for CAO 20.7.0 which was also straight forward.

There were 32 questions in total including two 4 markers, about one 3 marker and a few 2 markers, the rest being 1 marker; this can of course vary depending on the person but this should give you a rough idea of the general layout of the exam. I only had one or two box loading questions and there were only maybe half a dozen performance aerodynamics questions. Some of the topics covered in the exam include: Holding configuration, Loading terms and concepts, CG limits at take-off, Payload calculation, MLW calculation etc.

I recommend having a quick read through of a blog post on Aviation Theory Services' website that is at least a little helpful at preparing yourself for the exam, it’s recent/relevant and isn’t a bad source to just give yourself a general idea of where to start with the exam prep, the blog post is called 'How to pass ATPL Performance and Loading first time!'.

Navigation - AFT Notes and Exams / FTA Notes and Exams

This exam was pretty full on but overall manageable if you smash out practice exams over and over again, you might even see a question or two that you recognise. I had two 3 markers and out of the total 27 questions I had maybe 3-4 questions requiring me to bring out the Low Altitude Enroute Charts.

However, one thing I found interesting was that while almost all of Nathan’s mapping questions were in Queensland, New South Wales or (sometimes) South Australia; every single one of my mapping questions in the actual exam were in Western Australia, that is not to say that all your mapping questions will also be in WA, but it’s worth considering. Don’t stress about your maps being up to date as my maps were maybe a couple years out and worked just fine for me; however, when you get to flight planning I do recommend that your maps are up to date or at most one or two editions out of date.

The only problem is that I use Jeppesen’s so in both the practice exams and the actual exam, mapping questions will begin with something like ‘Refer to L7’ which must be the Airservices equivalent as they never once lined up with my Jeppesen charts. In fact, that statement at the start was better at telling me what chart it isn’t… In the exam it was helpful that they added what territory each location was in which helped me find these places, despite all of these locations being in WA. I went on to migrate from Jeppesen maps and use the Airservices ERC HIGH maps for the next exam, flight planning, which was a small learning curve but I’m glad I did that as it made studying easier.

The one marker questions were surprisingly pretty straight forward with the exception of a couple curveball one markers which caught me off guard. I found time was a bit more critical in this exam compared to the other ATPL subjects so far, while there was still a buffer of time when I finished the questions, I only had time to quickly skim over my answers rather than the more thorough check I’d usually do when I finished answering all the questions in previous exams, so make sure you keep yourself moving with this exam and I’d recommend starting with the three markers first, then two markers then one markers; you’ll find the the three and two markers will take up nearly three quarters of the exam time.

I also want to echo xCartzy’s advice to “Make sure you understand how all the instruments work!” And also when and where to apply magnetic variation / deviation on mapping questions. Also to clear up the confusion on xCartzy’s post about the correct true altitude formula, I used the following formula and it never gave me a single problem in practice exams and when I applied it in the actual exam it worked perfectly (note that if you use area QNH you are simply using MSL as the ‘Altimeter height above QNH source’):

True Altitude = Indicated Altitude + (0.004 x ISA Deviation x Altimeter Height Above QNH Source)

True Height = True Altitude - Airfield Elevation

Also, when a question asks for you to calculate Radar / Radio Altitude of an aircraft, it’s just another way of CASA asking you to calculate true height which is simply a matter of recalling both these formulas and applying them in the order written above for some easy marks in the exam.

There’s were quite a number of calculation questions in this one and not as many theory questions as I thought there’d be. But overall the calculation questions weren’t anything too difficult. Some of the questions cover topics such as: Magnetic compass errors, ILS errors, Radar principles, SSR principles, Recalculate Climb, Airspeed/Mach number calculation, Determining an ETA, ETP calculation, Actual W/V calculation, GNSS principles, Gyroscopic precession, True height calculation, Radar principles etc.

Flight Planning - AFT Notes and Exams / FTA Notes and Exams / Rob Avery Compressed Course Notes and Exams

The big one, this took me about 6 months to self-study and somehow ended up walking out with 94%. I highly recommend reading the official CASA rounding regulations from Pages 25 to 34 in the CASA ATPL Exam Information Booklet. Reading this document is very important to rounding things correctly the way CASA wants you to, this is something I've noticed theory providers can do differently sometimes; of course all that matters is that you do it CASA’s way. Keep in mind that this document does not cover all of the rounding and interpolations required but it does cover the most important ones, the remainder of these rules can be gathered from whichever theory provider you choose to study with or feel free to shoot me a message and I’ll try and answer the best I can.

The common adage “practice makes perfect” applies to this exam more than any other one, do as many practice exams as you can get your hands on ideally from different theory providers too as this will give different structures and approaches to the exam. I noticed that the way casa wrote the questions in the real exam were slightly different to what I was used to as it was a little different to how Nathan or Rob wrote their questions but it shouldn't be enough to throw you. This exam is easily the most time critical of the seven exams and took me several practice exams to fall into enough of a rhythm that I could finish with a comfortable amount of time left.

In the real exam I finished with about 5 minutes remaining but I did slow down my pace towards the end and took it more carefully as I became more comfortable with the time I had remaining. I strongly suggest starting with the 5 markers and making your way down in the marks to finish on the 1 markers, this will make your life so much easier and less stressful in the exam. Also keep in mind that you should be working at a pace of 3.6 marks per minute, most 1 and 2 markers will be much quicker to complete than this pace, this gives you more time for the 3, 4 and 5 markers that tend to sit around or even above the 3.6 mark per minute rate.

It’s worth noting that this exam isn’t particularly difficult once you get the hang of it and the flow of doing questions, that simply comes with practice. The time frame is the difficult part so build yourself upon speed and accuracy and you’ll be okay. I’ve heard a saying floating around for this exam and I think it’s painfully true and it goes something like ‘Flight planning is an easy 5 hour exam that needs to be done in 3 hours’.

Highlighting is a massive tool to help you as well, whether that be in your ERC HIGH’s or B727 POH. Obviously you can't write in any documents but you sure can get creative with a 6 pack of highlighters. For example, on the ERC HIGH maps highlight routes that are common in practice exams (Important routes to highlight include: Q33/Q158, J251/H84, Y69, Q210/Q53, Y465, H345, Q923/H119, Y59, H91, J64, A464, B598, Y36/T63/J72, Y31/Y13/T27, etc.) on altitude capability tables you don't have to memorize which flight levels are west and which are east, you can use the colours of navigation lights to help remember and mark the flight levels (west (left) flight levels = red, east (right) flight levels = green).

Other highlighting tips include: Highlight the ISA temperature figures on the left of the TAT table (pg 3-106), for the OEI cruise tables (pg 5-10 to pg 5-13) highlight the flight levels red and blue so you know the hemispherical directions of each level but don’t highlight all the flight levels as in this abnormal configuration you’ll realistically never go below FL180 or above FL280, do this for the gear down tables as well (pg 5-28 to pg 5-31) but only highlight the flight levels from FL100 to FL200, for the yaw damper cruise tables (pg 5-24 to pg 5-25) only highlight FL290 blue and FL280 red as these are the only two possible FL’s in this configuration (it’s also worth noting that at FL290 your mach number will always be M0.726 and at FL280 it will always be M0.736), finally for the depressurised cruise tables (pg 5-18 to pg 5-19) I’d recommend only highlighting the entire FL130 row on both pages as this is the only flight level you’ll cruise at in a depressurised scenario (also note that you’ll only ever cruise at M0.59 when depressurised).

For any depressurised scenario you’ll inevitably have to calculate a descent from FL130 to wherever you’re landing, the data for this descent can be assumed to be unaffected by landing weight so always just use the following figures: TAS = 231 kts, Time = 13 minutes, Zone Fuel = 520 kg, Air Nautical Miles = 50 nm; this will save you some time and is guaranteed to be correct. Also, I can’t be 100% sure of this but as far as I’m aware you’ll never be tested on or have to use the ‘Emergency Operations’ section (pg 6-1 to 6-3).

The exam is made up of 50 marks and the one I sat had 17 questions and consisted of: three 5 markers, two 4 markers, six 3 markers, three 2 markers and three 1 markers. The high number of three markers seems to be a common theme for those that have sat this exam. The questions I got included topics such as: Determining LW, PNR position calculation, CP position calculation, payload determination, sector FBO, ect.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thank you for reading, I hope it has given you at least one useful bit of advice! I wish you the very best with these exams, with practice and dedication you’ll make your way through these exams and come out the other end with a frozen ATPL and another victory over CASA…

Sparkie12

8th Apr 2023, 23:58

Great info. Much appreciated. DA40EQO

Pacificpilot07

1st Jul 2023, 07:05

Starting my ATPL journey and the information being shared is very helpful. THANK YOU!

Q: Is there a way to get FTA notes online? Reason for asking is Fiji doesn't offer much on the courses.