ATPL - Human Factors Exam?

[BOK_]

G'day All,

I'm just about to sit the HF ATPL (A) exam and have been using the 1996 Bob Tait Human Performance and Limitations (for PPL and CPL) book as study material.

Has anyone sat the exam recently and if so, what matertial did you use?

Will the Bob Tait book be enough for a decent crack at the exam or do you think it is worth getting the Nathan Higgins book as well and having a read up of that? I've heard a few mixed reports about this particular exam.

Thanks in advance....

BOK

[AviatoR21]

Hey BOK,

i just did the ATPL HF exam a month back. I used Bob Taits book and Nathan Higgins notes but i think Bob Taits is enough. I scored well but beware some of the questions are very tricky so make sure you know everything well, dont believe it will be like CPL level where the questions are pretty straight forward. Good Luck!

[Wing Flex]

BOK,

Be-aware that there are newer versions of his book. The 1996 edition that you quote having may not cover all the material required.

[Aviator500]

BOK. I used Trevor Thom Human Factors for Professional Pilot, The bob Tait from CPL, Rob Avery ATPL practice exams and WA Aviation College practice exams. Practice exams are the key. You may get away with Bob Tait but always good to get another source

[Aussie]

Bob Tait is great for HF, however its the age of your material that could get you into trouble.

[Di_Vosh]

My 2c

Mate,

Read up on airline accidents such as:

Tenerife
Portland (USA)
Everglades
Erebus

(I don't have my Bob Tait book handy, so don't know if they're in there)

There are also good suggestions on the threads linked to the bottom of this one (esp wrt practice exams).

Good luck!

DIVOSH!

[puma4319]

hey BOK,
i did the ATPL Human Factors exam recently and used the Bob Tait book and some AFT exams. It was more than enough, you should be fine. But a good idea as said above is read up on those accidents as you are almost certain to get a couple of questions on them.

good luck mate!

[BOK_]

Hey team,

Thanks for all the replies. Decided it would be worth the investment to get the higgins HF book and I'll defnitely look more into those mentioned accidents.

Thanks again.....


BOK

[Sqwark2004]

BOK_

I wouldn't stress too much over this one if I was you. I did this exam, a day after my law exam, last December after 5 days of studying for the two of them - with 1 1/2 of those days off for a job interview.

I used Nathan's notes and spent plenty of time doing the sample exams. If you can get through all of them without any problems then you will do fine in the actual one.

Goodluck

S2K4

[AerocatS2A]

Human Factors was the easiest one so far for me.
Personally I wouldn't worry about reading about specific accidents (although they are interesting anyway.) The questions in the exam give you all the information you need about the accident and you just need to apply some of the basic CRM/human factors stuff you've learned in the course.

I used the AFT Nathan Higgins correspondance notes which include the latest Bob Tait notes.

The only question I screwed up was about threat error management. It was presented in a way quite different to how Bob Tait / AFT had treated it. Subsequently all four answers seemed "right" to me.

I suspect threat error management may be one of things that is not covered in Tait's earlier books.

[Fhead]

you don't need to study up all the accidents but you'll get the answer quicker and know the answer if you do. download the air crash investigator shows and then they tell you what the CRM and human factors thus giving you the answer and they are a lot more enjoyable to study. you don't need the whole series just the specific accidents I’ve forgotten which ones.

If you don't feel ready to take the test do more study on different books. They take there question out of specific books (also forgotten which ones but an atpl instructor should be able to tell you) and its not only CRM on top of CPL HUF they also go a lot more into things like to eye, inner ear hypoxia just a few examples. Get some up to date practice exams so you get an idea of the questions.

[JulieFlyGal]

I just scraped through this exam and just passed. Thought I had it all covered well after using the practice exams from AFT and scoring very well in it. But the CASA exam questions were something shocking. No questions about past accidents and incidents related to poor CRM, nothing about glass and modern cockpit design (it's ATPL afterall) and the questions were written to deliberately trick you and not test on your knowledge and understanding. I actually enjoyed the course material (used the ones from AFT) and found it interesting and actually learnt alot for the sake of my own health with flying but CASA's exam questioning leaves a lot to be desired.

[flyhardmo]

questions were written to deliberately trick you and not test on your knowledge

Found that with alot of Atpl questions especially with airlaw and aerodynamics.. CASA is running out of things to ask because people are learning the course and passing so they need to throw in trick answers (the questions are usually straight forward).
Brilliant part is someone can guess an answer, pass and still knows squat while someone who understands how and why something works but cant find what they know in the multi choice answers given and they can fail by a small amount..

[lowy43]

I studied the Secombe Human Factors course back to front and could literally recite alot of it, and found this to be of no use whatsoever come exam time.

Luckily I had a quick read through the Bob Tait book the day before and this saved my backside.

The Secombe course notes seem to be cut and pasted from some American manual that has no relevance to Australian regulations or indeed the CASA exam.

I have since bought Nathan Higgins material for the rest of the subjects and they are not only informative but interesting as well.

[Mecarsa Bitrusty]

Did mine a few years back and I found Tony Wilson to be worth the read.

[Terry the bush]

I agree, Tony and Nathan Higgins are both good sources of info, also buy some of Nathans exams available online for cheap. Above all, know your stuff, the questions can be quite tough.

[Captainbridge]

I agree, seacombes atpl course was a joke, the guy had no idea

[xxRED BARONxx]

Buy a book called Human Being Pilot and read the TEM section and you will pass