Atpl flight planning suspended
 

hi all,
Long time listener, first time caller. So I just checked the ASL website and apparently the Atpl flight planning exam cannot be sat until further notice. Anyone got any info or ideas about this?
Thanks,
Farmer Dan

ATPL Flightplanning issue
 

I have heard some pretty wild rumors going around about this one. I rang someone about it, in CASA this morning. Quite simply i believe it is a technical issue. NOTHING more, nothing less.

The old, "Gone Tech" issue.... Pull the other one. :ok:

Looks like Flight Planning is up and running again - Home - Tasman 3 Customer Portal

I believe CASA were uploading the new exam questions which are based on the Boeing 767. It just took a few hours to get the new exams in the system. About time they stopped using the 727 for this exam.

Cheers,

Tiger.

What are you basing that on?
CASA still list the 727 performance manual for that exam.
Could make for an awkward time if they are 767 questions.

They were going to a 767 when I did mine. And that was the mid 90s!

I honestly don't understand this fascination with the exam changing from a B727 to a B767... the aircraft type is irrelevant, it's the concepts they're checking you understand. They could cross out B727 and call it the Echo MkXII... it won't change the fact you burn a different amount of fuel for normal, 1-inop or depressurised.

When I did Flight Planning, half the exam was based on the Super King Air, which was quite practical. The other half was based on the Echo Mark ??
Or was it the Seagull?

It's quite simple. Adult learners like to see the relevance of what they are learning. If you can provide that, learning outcomes improve. That is, students learn more stuff and they remember it better. It's a measurable fact.

Now we all know that the content of ATPL Flt Planning has only passing relevance to real life. But if the aircraft is at least one that is being used in Australia, there is a certain interest along the lines of "I might fly this one day". Or at least "I might fly an aircraft like this one day". The B727 fails on both criteria; the B767 is arguably more contemporary and matches what's in the Systems syllabus.

The A320/A330 is probably the best option for the ATPL syllabus, not least because - I'm told - Airbus offer the technical specifications for free, so students wouldn't have to spend $50-ish buying the utterly & mindlessly irrelevant Boeing B727 book. (Whose pages are reasonably soft and quite absorbent, which gives it its one and only known use outside CASA.)

Tiger do you actually know this is correct or are you just speculating...?

Just called CASA and they said the B727 is still used for flight planning and I was the third person to call up and ask whether the B767 had taken its place.

Damn it man - this is the internet. We are not interested in the truth.
Actually ringing up and finding out data from a real breathing humanoid is just not right.

Get back into your e-box, and don't go trying to find the real answer - we are hear to argue about crap until we forget what we are arguing about.



Is green = sarcasm on here, or is it just a BT thing?

It's a BT thing.

The Echo Mark IV and King Air were from the CPL exams when I did them.

... As I said on the other thread, if you are flying a 767 (or even a 727) you will be using computer flight plans these days - so both are "unsuitable".

Perhaps they should base the exam on a jet GA type - something in which you are still expected to manually plan - something like the Westwind.

I believe it was 'offline' for about 3 weeks due to cheating. Exam answers were being passed around and had landed in the hands of a CASA worker. The exam has been redone with new questions (still 727) and back online.

I was told by a reliable source that CASA suspended ATPL Flight Planning because someone was caught in the exam with cheat notes containing exact CASA Flight Planning questions and answers.

Because of this CASA had to take the exam off the system for a week and put new questions and answers in because if one person had exact questions and answers for the exam then many more could.

As a result of this a reputable ATPL theory school which usually had 50% of its classes in Flight Planning pass had only 3 out of the 36 students of the last course pass this exam with the new questions and answers. So the pass rate of 50% of 36 students has gone down to only 8% of 36 students. This means that the new exam has incorrect answers of the questions given or the new exam is far too hard.


If this is going to continue to be the pass rate for the new ATPL Flight Planning exam than Australian Aviation won't have any more ATPL pilots which might be a good thing for CASA in the short run because their going to get a lot more money for people re-siting this exam but bad in the long run for the obvious reasons.

If anyone has had any experience with this new exam please feel free to post on this forum or pm me.

If you are properly trained and taught how to work out an answer, then it should not be a problem. Bad luck if you fail, chin up and try again.
If you have access to CASA questions and you fail because they changed them in the exam (which they should be continually doing imho), then you must accept that you reap what you sow. If you put nothing in, you get nothing out.

Or it could mean the "reputable ATPL school" was teaching to just the old answers and not the syllabus.

Or we could go back to THE OLD system.Hold the exam 4 times a year always a completely new exam and you had to wait 2 months for your results.