Toughest ATPL Subject???
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2006
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From: FL260
Toughest ATPL Subject???
Hi all,
I was very pleased when the postman came a couple of weeks ago... 92% Performance, 93% Principles of Flight and 99% for AKG.
Started my next phase straight away... Radio Nav seems ok... Comms, no problems, Air law, ok ish just very boring then I got to Instruments and Gen Nav..
.
Is it just me or do these two especially gen nav seem a lot more involved/ harder than the others??
I plan on taking the exams in June with a week at London met in May but right now Gen nav seems a bit out my depth...
What subjects did you guys and girls find tricky???
By the way good luck to all who should get March's results next week
I was very pleased when the postman came a couple of weeks ago... 92% Performance, 93% Principles of Flight and 99% for AKG.
Started my next phase straight away... Radio Nav seems ok... Comms, no problems, Air law, ok ish just very boring then I got to Instruments and Gen Nav..
.Is it just me or do these two especially gen nav seem a lot more involved/ harder than the others??
I plan on taking the exams in June with a week at London met in May but right now Gen nav seems a bit out my depth...
What subjects did you guys and girls find tricky???
By the way good luck to all who should get March's results next week
Joined: Mar 2007
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From: a flight level far far away ...
I sat Met, Instruments, PF, Coms, HP and AGK in Feb and they all seemed straight forwards enough (although the post man may say different next week 
) Started Phase Two, Air Law is boring, as per usual and Gen Nav seems really hard upto now. I seem to understand the stuff, but the example questions in the Oxford books seem really heavy going and confusing ...
) Started Phase Two, Air Law is boring, as per usual and Gen Nav seems really hard upto now. I seem to understand the stuff, but the example questions in the Oxford books seem really heavy going and confusing ...
Hovering AND talking
Joined: Feb 2003
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From: Propping up bars in the Lands of D H Lawrence and Bishop Bonner
Instruments isn't too bad and I had a very good tutor for the brush-up course. Gen Nav is time-pressured in the exam so you need to be on best and intimate terms with your whizz-wheel and there were aspects which I found hard. Met similarly but again, the tutor for the brush-up course did well to get across some of the principles!!! 
I also found AGK difficult because the subject is vast and I don't have a mechanical leaning! And neither have I ever flown a fixed wing aircraft!!
Different strokes for different folks - if I went on % marks, then the hardest would have been Ops Procedures!
Cheers
Whirls
I also found AGK difficult because the subject is vast and I don't have a mechanical leaning! And neither have I ever flown a fixed wing aircraft!!Different strokes for different folks - if I went on % marks, then the hardest would have been Ops Procedures!
Cheers
Whirls
Joined: Jan 2007
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From: EU
I'd say Gen Nav too, but only really because of the time pressure. Why on earth give you only 2 hours for what amounts to a 3 hour paper? What's the point?
Contrast this with the 30 mins you are given for the two Comms exams and hour for Human Performance. It took 3-4 minutes to do each Comm exam and 20 to do Human - and that's doing it twice just to be sure.
I found Met ok, but then I did do Met during the first year of my Geography Degree, so I might have had a head-start.
[PS: I'll stand corrected on the time given for the Gen Nav exam. Suffice to say that you don't get long enough by half!]
Contrast this with the 30 mins you are given for the two Comms exams and hour for Human Performance. It took 3-4 minutes to do each Comm exam and 20 to do Human - and that's doing it twice just to be sure.
I found Met ok, but then I did do Met during the first year of my Geography Degree, so I might have had a head-start.
[PS: I'll stand corrected on the time given for the Gen Nav exam. Suffice to say that you don't get long enough by half!]
Joined: Jun 2006
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From: Netherlands
Largely depends on your learning style and personality. I personally think Meteorology is a tough one. First of all because it's large en second because I find the theories incoherent.
Others have no problems at all with the MET subject but are having difficulties with Principles of Flight, Radio Navigation or Air Law because they can not see the "logic" of it.
By the way, General Navigation is based on a few basic principles. As said earlier, get very close friends with the Flight Computer and Bristol. Get to know the basic principles, i.e. high school geography plus the extras like Grid / Polar Stereo / Lambert / Mercator projection and related terms like constant of the cone, convergence.
Others have no problems at all with the MET subject but are having difficulties with Principles of Flight, Radio Navigation or Air Law because they can not see the "logic" of it.
By the way, General Navigation is based on a few basic principles. As said earlier, get very close friends with the Flight Computer and Bristol. Get to know the basic principles, i.e. high school geography plus the extras like Grid / Polar Stereo / Lambert / Mercator projection and related terms like constant of the cone, convergence.
Joined: May 2006
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From: Saraksh
don't say that Human Performance is very easy and enough time! For you, english speaking maybe yes, but it is very hard to read and remember all this special english words, i never saw before in my life... So it is ok, that they give enough time, it is really hard for non-native english speaking people
Joined: Jan 2007
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From: EU
I sympathise acuba! Any of the exams are far more difficult for non-English speakers because of the grammar mistakes in the questions. IMHO this is the CAA being illiterate and/or deliberately obtuse.
It's bad enough if you do speak fluent English, let alone if English is your second or third language!
It's bad enough if you do speak fluent English, let alone if English is your second or third language!
Joined: Jun 2007
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From: LHR
I will agree that General NAV is a bit tricky,
I dont know why I found the Inertial navigation systems part quite bulky and heavy subject.
MET in second position.
The rest of subjects can be dealt more easily with from my point of view.
I dont know why I found the Inertial navigation systems part quite bulky and heavy subject.
MET in second position.
The rest of subjects can be dealt more easily with from my point of view.
Joined: May 2006
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From: Saraksh
Joined: Dec 2009
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From: Earth
ATPL Subjects
Hi and thanks for your comments - I have just started ATPL and in the 2nd week feel like I'm wading chest high in treacle - well and truly stuck in General Nav.
I now know that this is perhaps the worst subject - the information just doesn't seem to want to go in - however many times I read it, the questions in the progress tests stump me every time.
Convergency / Mercator / Plotting / Scale / Lamberts / Oblique Mercator / Variation / Rhum Lines etc etc
Is this level of information included on purpose for any special reason apart from to cause frustration??
Jeez
Here's looking forward to the smily subjects.
I now know that this is perhaps the worst subject - the information just doesn't seem to want to go in - however many times I read it, the questions in the progress tests stump me every time.
Convergency / Mercator / Plotting / Scale / Lamberts / Oblique Mercator / Variation / Rhum Lines etc etc
Is this level of information included on purpose for any special reason apart from to cause frustration??
Jeez
Here's looking forward to the smily subjects.
Joined: Dec 2010
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From: somewhere on this planet
I struggled a little with Nav and met.long time ago...
all Passed, but in my point of view, the hardest was "how to find a job"paper, which is the last paper you have to pass when you receive this BS of blue license from these lazy chaps at the gatwick CAA.
all Passed, but in my point of view, the hardest was "how to find a job"paper, which is the last paper you have to pass when you receive this BS of blue license from these lazy chaps at the gatwick CAA.
Joined: Aug 2007
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From: Mare Nostrum
I Personally found gen nav easy but I have an extensive math background, I was the first one out of the exam around the one hour ten minute mark, but I walked out near last in meteorology and I thought I failed, but was happily surprised with a passing mark. To each his own
Joined: Jan 2006
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From: Near Glasgow
ATP Exams
Doesn't sound as though these get any easier. For me, God Bless the instructors at Oxford ATS ground school. I would never have understood half of it without their excellent teaching. Mind you that was in 1973! Not a hope of passing now, since I am retired. Good fortune and may all the right answers come to you guys (and gels).