general navigation ATPL
 

for the guys out there who hated/struggled with Gen Nav, could someone offer some words of wisdom or perhaps point me in the right direction to passing this subject or to any aids they found useful?Regards and thank you in advance

Let me guess... grid navigation?

1) Learn to love your CRP5 (I know, I know, it's a contradiction in terms). :)
Learn it inside out and practice until you can use it quickly and accurately. Fear not, you'll probably never ever ever use it again once you've got your first job.


2) Have faith in your groundschool / brushup instructor.
Large parts of general nav were a mystery to me until the brushup course, when I was lucky enough to have a brilliant ex navigator - who took sadistic pleasure in winding up pilots, but was also extremely good at getting his subject across. After 2 weeks of him I was literally dreaming general nav questions in my sleep, and the exam itself was a breeze. Thanks Baz!

Is there also somebody sadistic at BGS with Meteo also, like Baz with gen nav? Or he does also meteo-sadism? ;)

I'm with G SXTY on this one. It all comes down to how comfortable you are with the CRP5. God bless Baz - "put daarn your fu:mad::mad:ing plastic brain" :D

And thankfully once you have passed Gen Nav you can lay the CRP5 to rest in its leather sleeve. Mr Boeing and Monsieur Airboos have no requirement for you to bring the sodding thing to work when you fly one of their aircraft!

We all learn at different rates and some of us have different preferred learning styles. Try and understand the big picture first, then the formulae and make sure that if you cannot grasp a concept you get some remedial help. Pictures and world globes are great aids. What am I trying to do, apart from getting from A to B? - I have to think about wind, the curvature of the earth, time zones and the failings of maps and charts to represent what is really there on the ground. When the concepts are mastered it begins to make sense. Perseverence is required, and consider some extra tuition - it is only money!!!

Drawing little sketches of the problems and filling in the angles helped me.

Also remembering all the neu.... new.... pneumonics helps a lot.

What's better to solve problems in the Gen Nav: a whizz wheel (CRP5/CR3) or formulae+sketches?

Use the CR-3 (or the E6B equivalent) - you can do convergency and gris nav on the front face, aside from being much easier to use for the wind triangle.

Ditch the CRaP-5 and use the Jeppesen CR-3 or whatever equivalent is available by ASA. And this former Bristol GS instructor's video helped me so much that I bought some of his iBooks:

GNAV is actually one of the subjects, where you learn something useful for once. Yes, you're very unlikely to do any manual calculations like that in a modern jet, but it gives you good foundational understanding. As for the exam itself, I'd say time management is key. You get aprox 2min per question and you really have to fit yourself into those limits, otherwise you'll run out of time. So, learn to do the calculations fast and practice a lot. Good luck!

Yes those videos saved my life too ;)

if you contact cat3c they have private tutors available for helping with GNAV and other ATPL subjects also their is
ATPL Navigation