FPLA - B727 manual notes in exam

[TLAW]

Just about to re-sit this exam, my 2nd attempt. I first attempted this exam at the end of last year and got 58%. I have since sat and passed P&L, the moderator checked my B727 manual and insisted I rub a heap of pencil notes out. Nothing too sinister, just the usual rewriting of confusing rules and putting them in more useful places.

My question is - has anyone sat FPLA recently at Bankstown and if so, did they go through your manual with a fine tooth comb and make you remove stuff?

[777WakeTurbz]

If its anything like the ASL in Maroochy they will flick through your book and look for anything obvious and make you erase it if they see it. So you could either write it in very lightly or write it in hard then erase it. You should still be able to see it.

They also get you to erase route distance totals. People wrote the total distance for routes known to be used in the exam on our ERC charts, but they checked them pretty closely and made them remove them.

Of course this is only what i have heard, I never used any of these methods because they are not in the fair spirit of the exams (Not that flight planning has a fair spirit, it is mean and nasty and upsets a lot of people )

Good luck with your 2nd try!

[TLAW]

Originally Posted by 777WakeTurbz

Of course this is only what i have heard, I never used any of these methods because they are not in the fair spirit of the exams (Not that flight planning has a fair spirit, it is mean and nasty and upsets a lot of people )

Good luck with your 2nd try!

Thanks mate - I was fully expecting to go into the exam with a clean manual, but after I did a ground course the instructor recommended various pencil 'additions' to the manual. Seeing as how every else seemed to be doing it, I saw no reason to disadvantage myself by not doing it too. As I said, nothing too sinister, just writing out the fuel policy stuff on the fuel policy page, making a note to check for gear down or tail skid factoring, adding a column for 65,000 in between 60T and 70T on the descent page. Basically nothing that isn't already in the manual somewhere less useful.

First attempt at FPLA, examiner checks, no problem. P&L exam, examiner checks and tells me to rub out a heap of stuff, none of which was any use, so no great loss.

I'm basically stressing over the inconsistency of it. And I need all the help I can get in that exam.

[training wheels]

If it's any help, you are permitted to tag and index pages of the B727 manual. Where I did my exam in Melbourne, the exam convenor did flip through the B727 manual but didn't check any of the ERC charts. They are meant to check everything but some do a better job than others at checking.

[777WakeTurbz]

That last part was all sarcasm mate, everyone goes in with some additions to make things quicker or easier to do. And as training wheels said, tab EVERYTHING, including all the emergency stuff. Gear Down/Depressurised etc.