May ATPLs
 

Mainly a post for people to commiserate, but how did everyone find the May exams...in particular Ops Procs and Met?
Down here, at London Met, we're feeling slightly overwhelmed - are 17 appendices the norm? I know even our invigilator was aghast at the number of pages in the exam.
Quite a few new questions kicking around...and we've still got HPL to go!!

The Meteorology exam was extremely difficult. I think even someone who had studied the subject for a considerable amount of time would have struggled. I believe the CAA have probably brought in a consultant who doesn't realise the level at which this subject is taught. Even one mark questions were made into something beyond the normal boundaries (eg im sure most people who took the met exam knew that large supercooled water droplets create clear ice and small rime ice ....but even those questions were made into much longer versions!)

I would say that the exam was not of a normal standard expected and like the performance exam from previous months should be looked into....i know everyone from our exam room found it extremely difficult with most thinking they have probably failed.

Any other opinions from the rest of the country appreciated!

Thought it was alright actually . .. . . . . but then again I did my brush up at Bristol !

17 attachments was abit OTT, but then the Q's with them were straightforward.

Let's see what HPL has in store tomorrow . . . .

Flight Planning
 

Although I haven't sat Meteorology this time around, the most difficult of the exams that I have found so far has to be Flight Planning. It has been the only exam that I have needed all the time allocated. How did you all find it?

Oh well....back to the Airlaw/HPL study!!!

Best of luck to you all with tomorrows last couple.


ADRH

I was actually expecting Met to be worse than it was. I sat a last minute practice exam before going in which that gave me real shock. So when I got to the real thing I was almost relived. Almost.

When the invigilator told us there were 17 appendices there were a few big sighs around the room but I think we are better off with as many as possible.

All the information is in front of you and it saves you having to mentally visualize what is happening and then pick the answer with the best wording. So I think a lot of people will have done better that they thought. Fingers crossed.

General Nav was an odd one. Just a single, very basic, plotting exercise. But they made up for it by having lots of extra whiz wheel work, my CRP was smoking by the end of it.

Lots of what happens to your CAS/Mach/Tas questions in instruments and a few odd flight director ones as well.

The start of the week went very well for me.

The performance was very fair i thought. I even got the graph one right.........i think, but the word is that its been appealed and everyone is getting the mark anyway !!! :ok:

Mass and Balance was a very straight forward exam. No + or - Mass, no filling a trim sheet in, only one mass shift question !!

Ops was average i thought. A couple of questions that i aint seen before. Was speaking to some of the Bristol guys after and there feedback at brush up sounds pretty good. They all recognised everything in the exam !!

Flight Planning was a nightmare. There were two 4 mark questions and that could be the only thing that saves me as i got them right. Some very dubious questions (ie Aberbeen CTA).

Radio Navigation..........don't even go there :{

HP + L today :uhoh:

TenAndie,

Just to pick up on your comments as quoted below:


"The performance was very fair i thought. I even got the graph one right.........i think, but the word is that its been appealed and everyone is getting the mark anyway"

Could you elaborate as to your claim above, has your school told you this or are you just speculating as to the possible outcome??

I too sat the performance exam which I found to be very fair, but the last graph question did stump me a little, got a different answer every time I did it!!. :mad:

It would be interesting to find out about your comments.

Good luck with them all:ok:

Can anyone remember a few questions from the Met Exam on Thursday:

1/ Taking off in the early morning after a clear night ... would the wind suddenly change / large but gradual change up to 5000ft. (i think it may have been one of those answers) ?

2/ What was the airmass shown in the annex ?

3/ Can anyone remember the answers to the last 2 questions on the paper about the Metar predictions from the annexes?

I've found the point allocation for the questions for all my exams last week a bit strange. Performance, for example. The later graph question with the answer 175m (I hope), couldn't really have had any other answer, there was nothing tricky about but it was worth 3 points. The earlier one with the answer 525 was only worth 1 mark yet the answer spread was very close - i did it four or five times always arriving at the wrong answer, 440. :\

Same with law.. all sorts of simple seeming questions worth 2 points.

Anyhoo.. a tortuous 2 weeks awaits.

I had one in a previous met exam. I could not see what the issue was. It turned out during the inevitible post mortem that I had completely missed that the chart was for a different FL range than the question...oops!

I thought the question in the Perf paper with the answer of 525m was a three point question...i'm almost 100% sure it was:confused:

going back to met exam can anyone help with those questions above ?? thanks

Oh - i couldn't remember which of the 2 was the 3 pointer but someone assured me the next day that it was the "175" one. If not that's -6% to me :{

andyfpilot

Re the Met exam, I put a large gradual change up to 5000ft, but I wasn't too sure about that question. What did you put?

Re Met:Really wasn't too sure about that one, but I went for the same answer as you ...hope its right! I need every mark going in that exam especially as that was a 2 marker question.

Did the question you are thinking of refer to the conditions the evening or night before then start with; “you are departing from an airfield early morning the wind is calm and variable what would you expect during the climb?”

I seem to remember thinking about an inversion, causing a sharp increase in speed and change of direction (in the climb) and that fitting one of the answers.

I would also appreciate any comments on the METAR questions, I think I chose (a) on the last question. I think it was describing the expected weather in a Col over Zurich although I can’t remember what time of year it was?

There is a good chance I am wrong however as it was my third attempt of Met, still the CAA canteen is quite good and the free exam pencils come in handy.

re last 2 q's on met paper...I seem to remember going for a wind direction of 210 deg on one of them and 240 deg on the other, cant remember which options they were though im afraid.

I personally thought that the take off (early morning inversion) question was a large but gradual increase to 5000ft...i stand to be corrected though.

Col question in MET was Zurich in October, therefore light winds, calm conditions, Fog, poor viz etc. It was a 3 marker as well!!

The wind question was take off after a calm clear night in high pressure (low level inversion), so the answer would be rapid change in speed/ direction with altitude ( windshear)

Does anyone remember what they put down for the annex showing an airmass? I think it was either polar maritime / tropical maritime??

Thank god I did these a few years ago, Id get about 10% now if I sat them..:uhoh: