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Air Law exam with ZERO hours flying

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Old 16th Jul 2014, 22:52
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Air Law exam with ZERO hours flying

Hi All

I am due to start flying in September for my PPL. I have chosen the airfield & flight school that I am going to train with after going down to the airfield and taking a look around.

I am currently revising from the Pooley's Air Law guide, as I have been advised from a member of staff at the flying school to get the Air Law exam passed before I start training, so I can get my solo competed as soon as I am ready to do so.

The only problem is - I am finding it a little difficult to take in what is being said in the revision guide and being able to remember it. I was just wondering if you think this has anything to do with the fact that I have zero hours flying experience and therefore can't really picture what is being said in the guide? Or does it not really make a difference if you have had flying hours or non at all...

I am definitely going to see it through until it is passed with the aim of getting it passed within the next month.

Could anybody recommend any websites that are good for revision purposes please?

Many thanks in advance for your helpful responses!

pilotfromsheff
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Old 17th Jul 2014, 04:49
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I used an app on my phone, which just asks questions, I tried the pooleys book but was struggling to take it in (there is a lot in there which to be honest is irrelevant).
I also used the oxford aviation cd rom for a bit.
I passed with 95%
The app was by far the best for me as the questions were word for word what was on the exam.
it is called easa ppl and if recall cost about £9.
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Old 17th Jul 2014, 06:46
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Try AirQuiz.com, used it for my studies, highly recommended and really cheap. Generates exams from a database of questions and the guy who runs the site is very helpful and quick at replying to queries via e-mail. Good luck!
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Old 17th Jul 2014, 06:47
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Surprising advice from a training organisation:

You're not going to be going solo for 10-20 hours so you'll have plenty of time to get your head around air law once you are immersed in the flying training and get a bit of insight into what it's all about.

Leave taking the exam till you've done some hours in an aeroplane.
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Old 17th Jul 2014, 06:56
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I agree with previous. Things will indeed be much clearer when you are flying.

Also: better to get your medical first - if that fails, all the rest is in vain!
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Old 17th Jul 2014, 07:27
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You're not going to be going solo for 10-20 hours
Whilst realistic that is not always the case, IIRC when I did my Cadet flying scholarship, if you had not gone solo by 10 hours you were dropped from the course, most going solo at around 5-6 hours, I would point out though that these were youngsters on an intensive course who had gone through a selection procedure and had gliding and air experience behind them, but I have sent a number of non cadet students at under 10 hours.
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Old 17th Jul 2014, 07:49
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Its not actually a legal requirement to have passed the air law exam before you go solo. Schools tend to insist on it for backside covering reasons.


Like the others I'd say concentrate on getting into the air and getting the hang of it all first.


Of all the exams, air law is the most tedious to learn. Which may be another reason why schools like you to get it done early.
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Old 17th Jul 2014, 09:18
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If it's not required to do air law before solo why does every school insist on it. It's a very common mantra. If it's not manatory why do we all follow the same doctrine?

Anyway back to the op. I'm sick of having students who are ace at flying but can't get around to doing air law. I would say start as soon as you can, get the no brainer bits out of the way ( air law , medical) then you only need to worry about the other trivial things like weather, ability, aircraft availability , instructor availability, airfield availability and all the other things that keep us on the ground.

Have fun
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Old 17th Jul 2014, 09:22
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...and download a copy of the ppl confuser
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Old 17th Jul 2014, 10:33
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I feel your pain.

I'm about 30 hours in now, when I first picked up the Airlaw book and did some mock tests I thought I had no chance. None of it made any sense.

This is what I did... read the book first! Sounds obvious, but its a pretty dry subject and very tempting to skip or skim sections. You'll read sections and feel like its just not going in and get despondent, but you'll be surprised how much you digest. So, read it cover to cover before doing anything, maybe twice. Even if you feel like you're not 'getting it' straight away.

Then, I bought an old PPL confuser from Ebay, not cheap, about £40 and people say its a little out of date, but half the challenge is getting used to the way the questions are worded and the confuser really helped me with that, and I didn't notice anything that was not relevant or out of date.

Do a few tests from the Confuser, write down the ones you get wrong, read the explanations and retest yourself. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

I tried Airquiz but I found the questions to be worded quite differently to the actual test, or the confuser. I discovered pplcruiser.co.uk recently, I used that to study for R/T. Passed that with 85% after just a weekend of studying, it was a big help. Much better than Airquiz.

As for waiting until you've got some hours under your belt, it might make it easier to understand some of the language but I don't think it does any harm at all starting on it now. You know what they say, train hard, fight easy!

Good luck! Its all well worth the effort.
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Old 17th Jul 2014, 10:51
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I think a lot of my students use 1 of 2 websites either PPLCruiser or Airquiz they should get you through the Air Law exam

The feedback from the £9 app I get is it doesn't allow you to absorb the information, you are just literally learning the answer to the question rather than the theory behind it!!
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Old 17th Jul 2014, 11:45
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The first revision of the LAPL/PPL exams is now with the CAA. As stated in CAP 1192, the number of questions will be significantly reduced. There will probably be 6, not 9 exams; 3 double subjects and 3 single subjects.

It has also been proposed that the (a) to (d) answer sequences will also be randomly changed, to make it more difficult for cheats to learn that the answer to question 57 in Paper 8 is (b), or whatever...

A further revision will then be conducted, to develop more reasonable questions which the average trainee should need to know and answer without difficulty - it is hoped that this second revision will be released along with the LAPL/PPL AltMoC next April.

So waste your money on an 'app' if you wish; pretty soon it'll be useless!
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Old 17th Jul 2014, 19:19
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I bought a set of Trevor Thoms on the bay, several years ago... AIUI aeromedicine aka Human Performance has changed a bit...the basic art of navigation and the physics of flight and how an engine works are all very much as they were in the days of the Wright Bros, Sir George Cayley et al.
Actually, of course, there have been advances in scientific understanding but very little of the fundamentals are affected.

Air law has evolved with the flying machine. It is a horrible, dry, academic subject to get to grips with if you're not that way inclined....as advised, slog through it.
Iread all bar the IMC books and have a fairly broad knowledge. tried the on-line tests and was agreeably surprised at how much i had retained.

I AM NOT A PILOT AND HAVE NEVER LOGGED A TRAINING HOUR!

I have attempted to master both fixed-wing and Rotary models. I can tell you, it's generally acknowledged that they are much harder than full-size!..BUT you are aware of what control inputs do.

The more studying you do,the closer you should get to a minimum training-hours licence.

Good luck with your air-law!just keep re-reading it in between the other subjects.....incidentally,i found an awful lot of the syllbus seemed to repeat in the Thoms, so 5? books only really carried about 3 books of new info...the rest was subconcious revision.
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Old 18th Jul 2014, 19:43
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I used airquiz and the questions are nothing like the new exams. I bought the pooleys new mock exams booklets, passed all 9 exams then sold them on for little loss to another member of the club. I did 6 of mine before I started flying and got pretty much near 100% in all of them (stumped by a question in met led to a 95%.)
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Old 18th Jul 2014, 20:49
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If it's not required to do air law before solo why does every school insist on it
18greens, where I teach we don't insist on it.

I can't really see that knowing about the Quadrantal Rule and Airspace Classification etc is necessary for anyone to go solo.

(Pith helmet donned)
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Old 19th Jul 2014, 09:41
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I can't really see that knowing about the Quadrantal Rule and Airspace Classification etc is necessary for anyone to go solo.
No - but anyone flying solo really should know the right of way rules which is also part of the Air law exam, certainly schools I have flown for recommend the air law is done first, but it was not insisted on.
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Old 19th Jul 2014, 13:26
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My policy was that a First Solo was tightly supervised from the ATC tower by the FI who'd sent the student solo, so any problems would be dealt with directly.

Also, First Solo is a carpe diem event, so to deny it to a student who hadn't passed Air Law & Op. Procs is a bit harsh.

However, having achieved the milestone of First Solo, students also knew that they wouldn't fly solo again until they'd passed Air law - so it was in their interest to get it out of the way as soon as they could. We used to require Air Law & Op. Procs, Human Perf. (because 'headshrinker horse$hit' is a piece of pi$$ anyway) and RT theory (because a lot of it is really Op Procs anyway) before second solo. Also Met, Nav and FP&P before first solo cross-country and RT practical before Q X-C. That just left Aircraft (General) & PofF to do before the Skill Test.
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Old 19th Jul 2014, 14:30
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No - but anyone flying solo really should know the right of way rules which is also part of the Air law exam
A pass in the Air Law exam is no guarantee that the candidate knows the right of way rules (or vice versa). Until the CAA gets around to plugging the loophole (which it is, at last, about to do), it is only necessary to purchase a 9 quid piece of software and the written exams are in the bag - no need to 'learn' anything.

If a student hasn't proved to an instructor that he has adequate knowledge of those elements of the theoretical knowledge syllabus necessary to safely complete a first solo, he shouldn't be going in the first place, no matter what exams he has passed.
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Old 19th Jul 2014, 16:51
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I have been advised from a member of staff at the flying school to get the Air Law exam passed before I start training
Great advise and at the point. And, it is a common sense approach though.

Knowledge of air law is essential to situational awareness and it is of utmost importance to have a good understanding of the ramifications before getting airborne.

It is all about maintaining the safety of flight. Don't be fooled about the idea of just passing an exam. That's definitely going to pose a huge challenge down the road as you explore the flight environment which is really complex. So study hard to gain insight and understanding, and use your instructor as a reference point to guide you. That's the way forward.

WP
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Old 19th Jul 2014, 19:25
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I can't decide whether WP's post above is tongue in cheek or not...


What Billiebob said is the key: "If a student hasn't proved to an instructor that he has adequate knowledge of those elements of the theoretical knowledge syllabus necessary to safely complete a first solo, he shouldn't be going in the first place, no matter what exams he has passed."
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