Flight performance & planning exam
 

Hi all,

new on here so apologies if i'm in the wrong section of the forum. I'm ready to sit my ppl flight performance & planning exam in the next few days and have been using Pooleys pilot manual Vol.4 & Pooleys exam prep. book to study. Having spoken to a few people who have sat the paper(s) recently, they said there wasn't much in the exams relative to the exam prep book and there was also a bit of Navigation (route plotting) in there. Was just wondering if anybody else has found this? I was feeling pretty confident until now, having used the Pooley's books, but now i'm not sure what to expect in the test and concerned it may throw something up that i haven't covered in the pilots manual.

Any advice is greatly appreciated,

Thanks

PPL32

PPL Exams
 

Hi. Welcome to PPRuNe.

The UK CAA PPL Exams are in a mess at the moment. Lots of stuff not matching the textbooks, whatever series of books you buy.

The best thing you can do right now, is spend about £12 and get the McPhee EASA PPL Exam app for your phone, or tablet. All the current questions for all the PPL Exams, including the IMC Rating are on there.

Keep doing the questions on there until you are consistently getting 90%+ all the time, and no new questions come up each time you start a new set, and you will pass without any problems.

I know it sounds like cheating, but until the CAA get their act together, and sort out the Exams, that's the best way of being sure to pass.


MJ:ok:

I will second MachJump - The EASA PPL EXAM application is fantastic.

In my exam admittedly a few years ago now, did have a (relatively at the time) large navigational element to the exam. Quite a few questions asking for calculations on the CRP-1 (units, distance, time, speeds...etc...). Assuming that you are at the stage of your flying that you have done a couple of navigational exercise flights (flying a pre-planned route you plotted) there shouldn't be any issues, and you shouldn't come across anything new in that part of the test. I remember a couple of the examination questions having incorrect answers, and my CFI (& examiner) agreeing that this was pretty poor that the CAA didn't seem to check the answer sheets prior to handing them out, as he believed that I had the right answers.

Either way - the Pooley in my opinion are the better books to learn from - I couldn't learn from the AFE (which I did buy) I found that there was too much waffle, and the format (being quite large) was harder to read, and harder to transport anywhere. I'd stick with Pooley if I were you! :-)

Good luck for your exam!!

Hi guys.

Thanks very much for your replies. Real helpful advice that I will take on board. Sounds like EASA app may be the way to go along with the Pooleys manual. I know exactly what you mean about the answers being wrong. I had 1 wrong in my navigation exam and I was adamant that my answer and not the 1 on the answer sheet was correct. But what do I know??

Thanks again for your advice guys. Much appreciated:ok:

I just completed the FPP and NAV exams last week and scored 100% in both. I used a ground instructor called Nigel Willson at Easy PPL Ground School - Your fast-track to flight who is an awesome instructor.

Good luck with the exam, you may do this already but it’s good practise to study what you see in these exam preps. You may get some questions that you don’t know the answer to but are able to pass the question finding the answer from the app, as long as you study why it’s the answer then you’re studying right. :ok:

I passed mine a week or two ago with 100% and I used the old Pooleys question book and "PPL Tutor" app.

I had a chart based question, but it wasn't too complicated (still believe it should have been in the Nav exam).

If you can pass the Pooleys stuff with ease then I reckon you'll be OK.

Thanks very much for the best wishes. Passed with 1 wrong so the advice from you guys and the studying paid off! Call me a perfectionist but annoyed at the 1 wrong and think it was definitely 1 of 2 questions. Not sure which as I had to leave before paper was marked & got result later. 1 which was referring to a NOTAM or the other which was a question on a take off distance chart. If OAT is ISA & pressure alt. is 4000 ft (i think) would I have been correct in measuring up the chart from the 7 degrees C mark? Just out of curiosity. If so then it was the NOTAM 1 that got me!

Congratulations PPL32,

Well done for passing the exam!

ISA temperature at sea level is 15degrees C, In ISA you lose 2 degrees C per 1000ft, therefore in ISA it will be 7 degrees C - that part does sound right to me (it has been a while since I have done this). But that is only a small portion of the take-off distance calculations, weight, type of runway, long grass vs short grass, is it ground roll distance, or distance over 50ft, could you have misread the question, or used the wrong chart, or miscalculated the headwind component or forgot to apply the 0.33 (safety factor) that you need to add over the distance you obtained?

I would ask the examiner, or the instructor for a breakdown with regards to why you didn't get full marks on my next visit. Then hopefully you will learn from it! :)

Congratulations & Safe Flying!

Thank you alex90. I think everything was factored into the chart and it was OAT, pressure alt., weight & a headwind that was taken into consideration (as far as I remember) and my concern was regarding ELR for the pressure alt. which i did factor in. Like I say it must have been the NOTAM question then. Will definitely ask next visit. On to the next 1 now! Thanks again and same to yourself. :ok: