ATPL EXAMS-15 MINS BREAK,WHAT A JOKE!

[kennyboy]

Having just taken the 'navs'atpl,s at Silsoe I could not believe there was only 15 minutes between the gen-nav(2/30hours)and the radio-nav(2 hours).Felt absolutely drained after these two.

Is this legally an allowed break?

Would appreciate other thoughts on this.

[groundfine]

15 minutes does sound like bad news. I don't know if anyone is interested in how things were in the bad old days of the mid seventies? The practice then was all 9(?) major subject exams in one week, you weren't allowed to stagger them for first attempt. There was a limit, I think, to the number of failed papers otherwise you did them all again? The following week was the wretched Performance exam done from a (faded) photocopied set of graphs of the Tristar, various type rating related subjects (nightmares of drawing the variable pitch prop oil system) and a dead easy morse exam once you had worked out that three "dashes" on the light meant "S" and three even longer ones were "O"! Exams then were essay based with free hand drawings expected and like today not very focussed on the up to date world as it was then - Loran navigation was old hat even then. Calculators not allowed, actually not many people had portable ones - I think we used slide rules and those circular ones CRP 1 or 5?
Anyway for anyone who has persevered through these "boring stories of .... glory days" (credit: Bruce Springsteen)what might be of greater interest is that those difficult days were also darkened with enormous worries for the future of aviation as the OPEC group of oil producers had just got together and put up the oil price by 400%. Result: big layoffs, goodbye CourtLine, and ExBOAC VC10 Captains applying for the same Flight Instructor jobs as me! Funnily enough it turned out to be a good time to be trying to start in the business because by the time I had sorted a licence out there was the opposite imbalance developing of too few newly qualified pilots and this resulted in one very happy turboprop copilot (now long haul Captain).
I hope the same end result for all you wannabees. Good Luck!

[Right Way Up]

Kennyboy, it sounds very harsh. I am sure though that this surprises no-one. If anybody who is a Balpa member (very cheap for trainees) who suffers similarly, please complain to Balpa, maybe they can exert some influence on the CAA.

[Token Bird]

I think the legal situation is that you should get a 15 minute break every 2 hours and a half-hour every 4. Hence a 15 minute break between a 2 1/2 hour exam and a 2 hour exam is not far off. So stop being such a wimp!

[Flypuppy]

It didnt stop you chatting up the skinny tart in the bar later on in the evening Kennyboy

[Megaton]

I agree but nobody forces you to sit consecutive exams. A sensible approach might have been for your school to spread exams over the four days. Mine didn't but, apart from the gen nav, none of the exams took the allotted time so plenty of time to drink more coffee.