Questions: CPL Performance Exam
 

Just a few questions to try and get my head around what I'm about to attempt in the coming days.

- How many questions / marks is the average for this exam?
- I notice that the use of calculators is not permitted, whats the fastest way to crunch the numbers?
- Is there any bias or focus on particular areas of the syllabus? Eg: Weight/Balance or Take-off performace charts etc.

Any other tips that might help out?
Cheers

G'day Jazzy.

There's 30 questions as far as i know. 50 Marks in total being 1 or 2 Marks per question.

The exam centre will provide you with a standard calculator.

Make sure you know your ECHO charts inside out, as there's a fair chunk of them to complete.

And make sure you manage your time correctly, as 2 1/2 hours seems barely enough!

:eek: are you sure about the calculator bit?? I've just about completed the entire Bob Tait text book using only my flight computer to work multiplication and division calculations (and needless to say, I'm nearly ripping my hair out).

That'd pretty much solve 90% of the woes I'm having.. trying to divide 320600 by 2490 on a flight computer is not fun :ugh:

Yes, you will be supplied with a calculator.
I think this exam is one of the easier ones as it doesnt require the casa engrish pre requisite.
If you know the calculation from the Bob Tait books you shouldnt have a problem.
Bring a sharp pencil and a sharpener and keep it sharp when using the graphs/charts in the day vfr booklet for exams especially on the performance charts fig. 4 and 5 as sometimes the width of the pencil can determine a different answer
3 questions wrong equated to 90%

Good Luck

G'day Jazzy78910, below is a bit of information about the CFPA exam straight from the CASA website that you might find of interest.

Exam Time
The CASA allocated time for CFPA is 150 minutes. The average time taken for candidates to complete the exam has been 139 minutes. CASA assessed the allocated time for the current exam loading as adequate.

Pass percentage & pass rate
The percentage score required for a pass is 70%. The pass rate for the CFPA in period 01 July 2009 – 31 December 2009 was 63.49%.
The score band achieved in period 01 July 2009 – 31 December 2009 showed that more than 40% of candidates achieved scores of 80%+

Subject Feedback
The overall result for this subject is sound. As a general guide to further improvement, candidates who failed had knowledge deficiencies across the following subject areas:

• Extract from ERSA information relevant to aircraft performance; field length available (eg. TODA, TORA, ASDA, etc) and their relationship to one another.
• Airspeed Limitations – the significance of airspeed limitations.
• Aeroplane Weight Limitations, Loading & Balance – the relationship between fuel carried, burned off and aeroplane weight limitations; understand weight & balance theory, and weight limitations and loading characteristics listed in the ‘manual’ of an (exam model) aeroplane.

If you would like to check out stats for any other subject you can do so by clicking here
All the best for your exam.

Jazzy,

an exam i found probably one of my easier CPL's!:)

Most will tell you ECHO is the end of the world- it is not nearly that bad and just takes some dedication and study to master.. once you start to realize things about its characteristics and what's required to get its CG back into the green- things start to fall nicely into place.

Totally agree with the time issue- i just finished in time and had done a fair bit of prep. 2 weeks with moderate study i reckon is a good bet.

Aerodynamics is the hardest CPL by far imho due to the wording- the actual subject content is however interesting and quite relevant:ugh:

Thanks for the replies guys, I'm happy to report I passed without any worries - an 84%, not as high as I like, but a pass none-the-less.

This was the worst exam I've sat so far (haven't yet done NAV or Gen-Knowledge). Finished with 4 minutes to spare, and hadn't checked any of my answers :bored:

For others reference, the exam was something like:
- 3 or 4 take-off and landing charts to extract data from
- 3 or 4 PNR / ETP / CP type questions. (Know the formulas!)
- 1 floor weight loading type question based around the Echo's 450kg/m2 limitations
- 5-8 weight AND balance, or just weight OR balance calculations. (How much to add, how much to be moved here, ballast to add etc)
- 1 or 2 fuel or distance calcs
- 1 or 2 Pressure or Density height calcs
- 1 or 2 Rate of climb type questions (find out TAS, then multiply by 6, etc etc)
- 1 or 2 TODA vs ASDA vs TORA type questions

30 Questions totalling around 50 marks:
- The first 12 odd questions were 1-Mark, and quite fast to complete.
There was two 3-Mark questions that took around 5-10 minutes each, based on W/B
And the rest of the questions were for 2-Marks, which took their fair share of time too - lots of banging away on the old calculator!

Bob Tait's Text covers it all quite well, just ensure you can do the calculations in your sleep and there will be no surprises. I didn't use the Runway Distance Supplement or ERSA, that I was required to bring.

My downfall was the good ol' T/O and Landing charts. The lovely Day-VFR booklet they give offers blurry and hard to use copies of the P-Charts and I often found myself with an answer smack in the middle of two of the multi-choice offerings. Even working backwards from the answers didn't yield useful results. :ugh:

DH-200,
Could you offer a link to the CASA webpage that shows the exam stats in your previous post?

I searched long and hard, but never seem to be able to find anything I need on CASA's maze of a site.:rolleyes:

The CASA website certainly is a bit of a maze. The link again is here. Scroll down to the CPL section.

Apologies DH-200, I just re-read your original post and noted the previously supplied link! Thanks again ;)

Great overview. Thx

I sit for the exam in one weeks time, so hopefully this will help.

:)

My advice start at question 30 and work your way back, the last questions are worth more

CASA Style Desktop Calculator - Aurora DT210

As provided by ASL for CASA Flight Crew Examinations.

If you are having trouble obtaining one then you can order the same model calculator from AFT.

Navigation Equipment

Kids of today who cares what calculator, just do the bloody exam, you either know it or you dont!!

had to walk to school uphill both ways eh XX??

;)

To be honest, I spent all my study time doing my calcs on my iPhone, Using their calculators in the performance exam was no biggie. It's just a normal digital calculator... :ok:

and barefoot

A TAF is a forecast not an actual report (unless there is a METAR provided with it).

You shouldn't use forecast winds to calculate T/O or Landing performance, only actual winds.