Your views on ATPL subjects difficulty
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 74
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From: Ireland
I'm half way through the ATPL's doing distance learning, and so far Gen Nav has been the most difficult, Air Law was very boring but not hard, Airframe/Systems is such a vast subject but very intersting so isn't too bad. Instrumentation was easy enough and Met is my best subject so I really enjoyed that one. As everyone else has said both Comms exams are an automatic pass. Mass and Balance is basic enough.The first time I opened the boxes and saw all 14 books 
was a bit overwhelming but all in all the ATPL's aren't that difficult once you get stuck into them.
was a bit overwhelming but all in all the ATPL's aren't that difficult once you get stuck into them.
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 129
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From: London
Is there anyone who has done their ATPL exams who was also a former IT person and has done a microsoft MCSE exam?
Bit of a long shot i know, but if you have done how would you compare the two? As i have done many of the latter it would be interesting to gauge the ATPL with something i know.
Bit of a long shot i know, but if you have done how would you compare the two? As i have done many of the latter it would be interesting to gauge the ATPL with something i know.
Last edited by Rj111; 11th October 2008 at 22:18.
Upto The Buffers
Joined: Apr 2006
Aviation Qualifications: CPL
Posts: 1,112
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From: Leeds/Bradford
I have a load of IT certifications, including an MCSE (which many find highly amusing given my extremely low opinion of MS products). The only similarity between the 2 exams is the fact that they're multiple choice.
Upto The Buffers
Joined: Apr 2006
Aviation Qualifications: CPL
Posts: 1,112
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From: Leeds/Bradford
Some are easy, some are hard. VFR/IFR comms are a joke, General Nav is tough, stuff like Air Law/Ops is just brute force fact regurgitation (how many fire extinguishers per pax, vortex spacing etc..). Some require decent maths, some just require you to pull the answers from the CAPs provided, plot distances or extract specific figures from airport plates. They're all a little bit different.
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 40
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From: The Netherlands
Mmm lets see...
Ops... I found it difficult to read since it almost put me to sleep.
Airlaw- it really DID put me to sleep. I feel lucky, it could have been a coma. In retrospect, Airlaw aught to have a health warning on the front cover.
PoF- not so bad but I found in the exam the CAA were really trying to mess with my head.
Met- not so bad. Some of it I found fairly interesting.
Gen Nav- dare I say it... I also found that one easy but I am a sick person and I like maths.
Comms - a joke. Why the hell do we have to do the comms if we already have an RT license anyway!? I thought comms required a special mention since it was a complete waste of my time.
Regards,
LG
Ops... I found it difficult to read since it almost put me to sleep.
Airlaw- it really DID put me to sleep. I feel lucky, it could have been a coma. In retrospect, Airlaw aught to have a health warning on the front cover.
PoF- not so bad but I found in the exam the CAA were really trying to mess with my head.
Met- not so bad. Some of it I found fairly interesting.
Gen Nav- dare I say it... I also found that one easy but I am a sick person and I like maths.
Comms - a joke. Why the hell do we have to do the comms if we already have an RT license anyway!? I thought comms required a special mention since it was a complete waste of my time.
Regards,
LG
Joined: Nov 2008
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
From: TURKEY
interesting
Guys, if you study, you will pass. Thats the end of it.
Got em all in the first try and an average of 93% from all 14 of the courses.
I think the ones you should be afraid of are the ones you need to memorize, ops, airlaw, HPL etc. Cause once you "LEARN" and "UNDERSTAND" the ones that need to be learned and understood then its just like a block of legos, you know what you need to do, just solve the dam question.
And yes you DO need to learn all this stuff even if you dont use it at all because there should be a line of respect for you job and its history. If you think its just too much and you dont need to know it then choose a different job. If not then everyone would be a pilot. Actually I dont get those pilots (or wannabees) that complane about the workload and too much info bull** cause its actually a whole lot of fun knowing/learning all that stuff.
Got em all in the first try and an average of 93% from all 14 of the courses.
I think the ones you should be afraid of are the ones you need to memorize, ops, airlaw, HPL etc. Cause once you "LEARN" and "UNDERSTAND" the ones that need to be learned and understood then its just like a block of legos, you know what you need to do, just solve the dam question.
And yes you DO need to learn all this stuff even if you dont use it at all because there should be a line of respect for you job and its history. If you think its just too much and you dont need to know it then choose a different job. If not then everyone would be a pilot. Actually I dont get those pilots (or wannabees) that complane about the workload and too much info bull** cause its actually a whole lot of fun knowing/learning all that stuff.
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 38
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From: London
I enjoyed studying the ATPL's. Its all about learning a new trade. I wish to spend the rest of my working life doing this and therefore I find it interesting enough for me to want to know as much about aviation as possible,yes some subjects are a pain but knowledge is power and it's better to have an understanding than to be in the dark (shame morse is not tested anymore, that was tough in the CAA exams but what a sense of achievement and you do need it in the IR test). Somebody in this thread stated that the systems exam was pointless!!! Do we really wish to spend 14 hours in an A380 flying across the oceans and not have any idea how it works. You should try the 3 month Boeing 777 systems course that I'm on at the moment now that is interesting or am I just sad 
Joined: Jan 2007
Posts: 1,246
Likes: 7
From: EU
Hey Sleepingpilot, did you sit behind me in the exams? We got the same percentage...
In all seriousness though, all subjects are reasonably easy to learn. They're just a bugged to remember a few months after you pass them!!!
In all seriousness though, all subjects are reasonably easy to learn. They're just a bugged to remember a few months after you pass them!!!
Joined: Aug 2008
Posts: 666
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From: Betwixt and between
And yes you DO need to learn all this stuff even if you dont use it at all
Apparent drift of gyros? WTF?-it's only apparent if you are a stationary observer on the Earth's surface. Why the hell is this essential knowledge for a pilot?
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