Your views on ATPL subjects difficulty
 

As I am soon enroling to do the ATPL ground studies I am interestd to find out from those of you who have already taken them which subjects did you find most difficult.....i.e. which would need that little bit of 'extra attention'?

In fact it may be easier if you just list what you thought were the worst 5

Thx DS

in order of hardness!!

gen nav.
met.
aeroplane performance.
theory of flight (only because of exeptionally poor instructor)
systems (not actually hard at all, just loads and loads of subjects within a subject)


most want to stick pins in your eyes boring: radio nav, air law, ops, parts of instruments.

most completely pointless (modular) VFR/IFR comms (already have a RT licence what is the point of these 22 question exams @ £62 each??)

Its impossible to say really, from my class some excelled in some subjects others didnt, apart from the comms papers, people finish these papers in around 3 to 6 minutes once you get to Gatwick! not heard of anyone resitting them, although Im sure someone out there has!

Dont be overwelmed by the course once you start, its looks like to much to do and its a steep learning curve, but by the end you are ready for the exams even though it wont feel like it.:{

Enjoy it, and have a social life, dont get into the habit of revising till late in the night, it does you no good, nothing worse than trying to get to sleep with formulas and info running around your head!

Dont stress about it now, whatever school your with will monitor your progress and advise accordingly.

Best of luck and enjoy.:ok:

A lot of it, I think, depends upon how your mind works.

Personally I enjoy anything relating to calculations and understanding how stuff works / problem solving. So, for me, PofF, Nav, P&P, M&B were all just good fun.

On the other hand, being required to use my memory a lot I struggle with - so Law and Operational Procedures were incredibly tough.

Met was somewhere in the middle - half memorisation, half understanding.


But, I know a chap who was an accountant by first profession (as you'll probably guess, I'm an Engineer) and so used to working with regulations - he found law very easy but really struggled with anything related to PofF and Nav.

G

(Disclaimer, I did CPL, not ATPL).

My five : Met, Gen Nav, Aircraft Systems ('cos it was fixed wing based and I'm not!! plus it's a vast subject), Operational Procedures (again, largely irrerlevant for a helicopter) and Air Law for being tedious.

GtE is right about ones own preferences and it does depend on your own strength. A friend (a software engineer) found HPL quite difficult!

Cheers

Whirls

subjects like ops and air law were, for me, feedback subjects. After reading the notes I concentrated on the Bristol database. This left me time to concentrate on tougher subjects like Met and try to understand all the theories and principals involved in it.

I'm only half way through the ATPLS just now, but this worked for me, giving first time passes in Mod 1.

some interesting answers - thanks guys...

I did think it's a bit of a subjective question but it's always good to know what others thought...

I remember from my PPL that Met was a bit of a pain but I did (in some twisted way) enjoy Nav.

Didn't get on with Law that much despite being in the legal profession.... often others would find me asleep clutching my air law book :zzz:

I havent actually started my ATPL yet but I think they're a little bit hard. You write them to work for an airline so they can't be easy but Im sure that if someone really wants to pass them, they will get the motivation to learn ans pass them all without a problem.

I'm currently doing my ATPLs and have done about 6-7 months. Personally I don't think any subject is hard...like some of you have said it's just lengthy and you need time to go through the subjects. Well at least I can say this up to now.:)

Worst five in order
Morse code
Morse code
Morse code
Morse code
Morse code
But this was in 1990
Do you still have to do it, or have teh CAA finally left the 19th century?

the caa have left the 19th century!! no morse code at all in ATPL's now.

- .... .- -. -.- ..-. ..- -.-. -.- ....- - .... .- - :ok:


.--- -... :8

Language, please!

(Decoded with the help of Wikipedia I might add!)

coded, also with wiki :D

Morse code is a little bit "before my time"

JB

I averaged 92% for the 14 exams over 2 sessions and 20 months on distance learning on the back of a very full time job.

Easiest were Gen Nav, Flight planning and Human Performance
Most boring air law and Ops procedures
Most pointless Systems
Most ridiculous Comms (should be one paper)
Most interesting Met

Biggest tips - understand pythagoras and the properties of triangles ie the sum of the angles =180 and be able to perform simple transformations

a+b=C
a=?

The ATPLs are not rocket science and it is the volume of knowlege required that is the filter not the difficulty. There is a sort of conspiracy to make the whole thing more difficult than it really is.

There are not many people who having spent £3k+, are going to say it was easy.

@chrisbl

gen nav - easiest one? what are you talking about? := :ugh: :)

I was thinking that... So you found great circle and grid nav, conical projection charts all a walk in the park huh?

gen nav:

Given: Position NDB (55°10´N, 012°55´E) DR Position (54°53´N, 009°58´E) NDB on the RMI reads 090°. Magnetic variation = 10°W. The position line has to be plotted on a Lamberts conformal chart with standard parallels at 40°N and 48°N. Calculate the direction (T) of the bearing to be plotted from the NDB.;

a. 272

b. 262

c. 265

d. 258

VFR comms:

What is the piece of equipment required if you are asked to "squawk 7700" ?

a. transponder

b. vacuum cleaner

c. a goat

d. I couldn't take it any longer lord i was crazed, when the feeling came upon me like a tidal wave.

gen nav clearly the easiest!!! :rolleyes::rolleyes:

That would be funny if it wasn't so ludicrously true...

Q. The control tower has authorised you to take off, what did they say?

a) Ride that horse, cowboy
b) On your marks, get set, go
c) 12" deep pan with extra ham and a diet coke
d) Cleared take-off

VCOM and ICOM are a joke. I want my £120 back :mad:

That's hilarious...
 

I'm currently doing ATPL's and sat VFR/IFR Comms on friday, they are a complete joke and should be given for free or at least 2 for the price of 1 (CAA take £63 each for them).

Can I ask what your secret is if you found Gen Nav the easiest subject?