Number of Questions in EASA ATPLs
 

Hey guys,

Ive been trying to find a place where I can see the number of questions / marks per exam for the ATPLs.

Anyone written them recently for Principles, Performance, Gen Nav and Flight Planning would be super helpful.

Thanks :)

p.s. see everyone in FL next week.

I recently finished my ATPLs and still have access to the BGS bank, for Performance it is out of 35 marks, Flight Planning is out of 43 marks, Gnav is 60 marks and POF is 44 marks. Bare in mind that is marks not questions, as each question on the bank counts for one mark I think. If I remember rightly there were a few questions in my Flight Planning and Gnav exams that counted for 2 marks, so this would mean you may have less questions to do than the amount of marks I have posted.

Well I did the performance exam today and all I can say is WTF...I did Bristol and a few question banks and I would say at least 10 questions weren't in the banks. Anyone have the same experience or is it just me that's stupid? :ugh:

The BGS website contains feedback from 5 students who took this exam. One thought that 90% was new, but the others thought it was not a problem exam. The author of the most detailed post stated that the new questions were simply slight modifications of old questions.

It is true that the examiners are currently introducing new questions at a greater rate than was previously the case. This obviously increases the element of risk for candidates who have simply memorized the answers from the various question banks. But there is nothing unfair or unreasonable about introducing new questions. From the examiners’ point of view the ideal exam paper is one in which all of the questions are new to the candidates.

To maximize their chances of passing the exams, candidates must study the course material then use the question banks to develop their ability to recognize and solve the various problem types. The alternative method of simply memorizing answers from question banks requires less effort and has often been successful in the past. But it greatly increases the risk of “getting unlucky” in the new exams.

Well, I am busy with preparing for my last two Exams.
Meteo and GNAV.

I had feedback from classmates who have done MET, and said there are not many surprises to expect in the exams of new questions.
But in GNAV there are.
Since there are many calculations in the exams that will take a lot of time, what are the focus point to work on? What to expect? I passed all my exams in first attempt till now , and I would like to keep it that way.
Of course I am working also with books, to have accurate knowledge, not only QB work.
Anyone hints?

The questions have been changed and checked for accuracy in Performance, and there is a greater spread between the answers. As Keith says, slight modifications to previous ones. Not before time.

As for Nav tips, remember that it is possible to pass without the convergency stuff (at 1 mark per question) but you won't pass without whizzwheel skills.

True Alt increasing/decreasing
 

Hi

I know has been a while. Would you remember that when you mentioned "drift left - T alt increases and drift right - T alt decreases" was it applicable only to the NH or both hemispheres? Will appreciate you're help.

Thanks & Cheers

Thank you so much. Well my skills with the CRP5 are pretty good. No problem for me.

Really those Grid Navi questions are a problem in general. I have to revise Polar Stereographic Nav and convergence, but in general that wont be a problem.

Anything else I have to look at?

Thanks again Paco.

There are only a few grid nav questions.

One tip - if you're really stuck and are given a selection of four diagrams, look for two that are similar and reject the one that is wildly off.

Luvmathur

Go back to basics and work it out for yourself.

At the Equator the surface of the Earth moves to the east at about 1000 knots. In still air the air moves at the same speed as the surface.

If we move north or south of the Equator the circumference of the Earth decreases so the speed at which the surface moves east also decreases. But if air is moved north or south it tends to retain its eastward speed. This means that the air is now moving east faster than the surface. The overall effect is that the air tends to turn to the east as it moves north or south of the Equator.

If we have a low pressure area in the north the air is drawn towards it. The eastward movement of the air causes it to rotate anticlockwise around the low pressure area.

If we have a low pressure area in the south the air is drawn towards it. The eastward movement of the air causes it to rotate clockwise around the low pressure area.

So the effect of drift in the southern hemisphere is the opposite of that in the northern hemisphere.

And pressure pattern questions are relevant how?

Galaxy Flyer

Much of the material in the EASA ATPL syllabus is irrelevant, but students will gain nothing from wasting their energies in getting angry about this fact. The syllabus is what it is.

Whatever the arguments regarding relevance, it is far better to try to understand the fundamentals of any subject under study, rather than simply memorizing the answers to questions.

Tricky IMC Question
 

Hi All,

For some reason, I always find this particularly IMC style question relatively tricky. Even when I have been given the answer, I find it difficult to reverse engineer the question to try and find that particular answer.

Can someone please throw some light on this type of question?

Question)

During a descent, the static vent becomes blocked, how would this effect the Altimeter, VSI and ASI?

Altimeter | VSI | ASI
1. Read Normal | Read Normal | Under Read
2. Read Normal | Read Normal | Over Read
3. Under Read | Remain Static | Over Read
4. Over Read | Over Read | Under Read

The correct answer, apparantly is 1...

As to my understanding, Vertical Speed Indicators read differential pressures changes from the static system, so if this is blocked, wouldn't this remain static (i.e No Pressure Changes measured), And also wouldn't the Altimeter Over read, (i.e the instrument still reads the less dense atmosphere of when the instrument was blocked)?

Any advice on this question would be greatly appreciated!

Wel if the staic pressure stayed the same.

1. Alt would remian at the same level.

2. Rate of decent would go to zero.

And Airspeed indicator would go through the roof as the static stayed at a constant pressure while the dynamic increased as the air density increased.

So I would say they are all a load of :mad: !!!!e answers.

Agreed
 

I would appeal the question! The possible answers given are crap, as Mad Jock has said

I always find these questions frustrating just because of the way they are written.

To work it out though, I find it a lot easier to just think of it as where the air was trapped, and therefore it's pressure relative to the new height to work it out, rather than just directly about the instrument readings.

For the ASI - just remember the Peru accident where the engineers taped over the static ports on a 737 to give the machine a wash and forgot to take it off again. The machine stalled out of the air because the asi readings kept increasing and they kept pulling the control column back.

I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking it maybe wrong.

I cant how pressure instruments relying on the static source + pitot pressure can 'read normal' when the static pressure is blocked or incorrect.

I find it impossible for the ASI to read normal with a locked in higher altitude pressure.

For the question database, I am using PPLQuiz. I thought I was nearly ready to take the exam, but after a lower than pass score on pplquiz, it makes me think there are numerous errors in their IMC question database. (I have been getting top marks in Air Pilot's Manual (Volume 5)).

The way I got taught and how I remember ASI errors in climb and descent regarding pitot and static blockages is the 'COPS DUO' way
..PS
COU Climb pitot blocked over read-- Climb Static blocked under read
DUO Descent pitot blocked under read-- Descent Static blocked over read

VSI should return to 0 FPM (Full blockage)
ALT should indicate the level that the blockage occurred

Something very odd here, the answers given sound more like a problem with the Pitot supply.

The analysis and conclusions drawn by Mad Jock are correct for a blocked static port.

As RTN11 has said, option 1 would be correct if the question had specified a blocked Pitot source.

Methods like "COPS DUO" are OK provided simply want to pass exams and have no wish to understand anything at all about how your aircraft and its systems function.

Its a good efin place to start! knowing what the errors are and and relating that to how the instrument and system work can make it easier to understand for some people.
Is that an OK response :mad:

I wasn't expecting the performance paper to be the same as the question banks by usually you can apply to ethos from the question bank to get the answer, some of the questions I didn't see any method to, for Istanance figuring out a airspeed such. Maximum endurance from the maximum range which was given, that may not be the actual question but it was like that for two or three of them. I did the oxford course for performance and didn't see it in there, will see the result and so it again I suppose.

As for gen nav I didn't see any major surprises in May, was pretty much typical questions you'd find in question banks, I'd say most where word for word from question bank. Unite a few calculations in ground speed and drift...at least 5 or 6 of those.

Either in gen nav or fling planning(think gen nav) there was a calculation question involve RAS which wasn't in the banka

In regards to RBI questions,

Does anybody have any tips or tricks to work them out?

For the questions I have read, it's almost like you have to reverse engineer the RBI method. e.g,

Q. Your are flying inbound to a VOR on a magnetic heading of 156 degrees M, the aircraft maintains the VOR QDM 150, which is located to the left of the NDB. What will the RBI indicate when the aircraft is abeam the NDB?

I understand it has to be slightly more than 090M, due to the angular displacement when abeam. But how would one work this out, as they give 094 & 096 as potential answers.

Many Thanks,

This is another one of the many questions which are phrased very poorly. From the information the VOR or the "VOR QDM 150" or whatever was located "to the left of the NDB", the NDB could be virtually anywhere. I think the key aspect of the question is to understand you are following radial 330 indound to the VOR, i.e. your course is 150 degrees magnetic. If your magnetic heading is 156 degrees, your nose is obviously pointing 6 degrees to the right of your course line. With a little interpretation, the question seems to imply (1.) you were abeam the NDB when passing the VOR and (2.) the NDB was on the right side of your course. If your nose was pointing in the direction of your course (150 degrees magnetic) when passing the station, your RB to the NDB would be 90 degrees. Since your nose is 6 degrees further to the right, your RB will be 90-6=84 degrees.

By the way, a relative bearing is never magnetic, true or otherwise. It's just relative, i.e. relative to the aircraft's longitudinal axis.

Apparently, the correct answer is 94 degrees.

I interpret the 'abeam' point as when you are at a 90 degree angle from the station, rather than 90 degree angle from the aircraft to the station.

For them to get 094 degrees, abeam must mean when the aircraft is at 90 degrees to the station, i.e have gone past the NDB, when your nose is pointed slightly towards it, having to go further is attain a 90 degree angle.

I would imagine, if the nose is pointed slightly away from the NDB, the abeam point would be reached before you actually get to the 90 degree angle from the station.

Very confusing.

ATPL Theoretical Syllabus
 

I'm probably going to let my ATPL's lapse passing the 3yr limit for the MEIR as happily flying in GA for the time being and the situation for progressing doesn't look good. Has there been any major change of syllabus in the ATPL theoreticals over the last few years or is anything planned? Got 98% average last time so not too concerned about repeating with a bit of revision and question bank.

How many ways can you describe an altimeter? :)

Apart from a review of the LOs later this year and possibly action taken in 2014, I don't see much on the horizon for at least the next 2-3 years.

They rewrote the syllabus about 2 years ago but I think it was moving various topics between the various subjects.

I finished mine last month and although I never relied that much on question banks, those that did/do will be in for a shock as they're writing a lot of new questions (which is good, I do think it's an outrage you can go into an exam and have already seen the exact question and been told the correct answer!)

ATPL Question bank
 

Hi everyone. Just looking for abit of information regarding the question banks. I have my 1st ATPL sittings not too far away and was wondering how alike the questions on there are compared to what I will be actually faced with?Any info would be great!


Thanks

can some oone solve this INS numerical
 

can some one solve the following one with some explaination

As the INS position of the departure aerodrome, coordinates 35o32.7’N 139 o 46.3’W are input instead of 35 o 32.7’N 139 o 46.3’E. When the aircraft subsequently passes point 52 o N 180 o W, the longitude value shown on the INS will be?
a. 099 o 32.6’E.
b. 099 o 32.6’W.
c. 199 o 32.6’W.
d. 299 o 32.6’W.

can some solve this please

As the INS position of the departure aerodrome, coordinates 35o32.7’N 139 o 46.3’W are input instead of 35 o 32.7’N 139 o 46.3’E. When the aircraft subsequently passes point 52 o N 180 o W, the longitude value shown on the INS will be?
a. 099 o 32.6’E.
b. 099 o 32.6’W.
c. 199 o 32.6’W.
d. 299 o 32.6’W.

Some subjects are still similar, but the UK CAA have changed 3500 questions already and are steaming ahead to change them all. Performance is definitely not to be relied on any more.

Latitude is unimportant in that type of questions.

To get from real position of 139o 46.3’E to the real position of 180o W (it is the same position as 180o E - around International Date Line) one must fly 40o 13.7' east or (which makes calculations more complicated but still possible and valid) 319o 46.3' west.

Let's assume one flies east. INS thinks that one starts at 139 o 46.3’W and flies 40o 13.7' east. Therefore INS calculates: 139o 46.3'W - 40o13.7' = 99o 32.6'W

If one flies west - INS thinks that plane starts at 139 o 46.3’W and flies 319o 46.3' west. Therefore INS calculates: 139o 46.3'W + 319o 46.3' = 459o 32.6'W = (-360oW around the globe) 99o 32.6'W.

slawek_s thanks a lot !!i may post some ins numericals in this post.hope you would help in solving them too

Well about this type of questions.
I use BGS online and atplonline.
In explanation in BGS online it says that I should appeal these questions, since it is actually part of Instruments exams. And not of GNAV.

So : Do these type of questions appear in the official CAA Exams? Because I will have my GNAV exam in 2,5 week and I dont want to waste time on things which will not be asked during exams.

Maybe you know it Paco? If you read this comment?

Well about this type of questions.
I use BGS online and atplonline.
In explanation in BGS online it says that I should appeal these questions, since it is actually part of Instruments exams. And not of GNAV.

So : Do these type of questions appear in the official CAA Exams? Because I will have my GNAV exam in 2,5 week and I dont want to waste time on things which will not be asked during exams.

Maybe you know it Paco? If you read this comment?

i dont have much idea about CAA exams i am actually preparing for Indian DGCA ATPL and these are included.

ok..all the best with your exams

Ah Thnx. Yeah I have only GNAV left. Passed the others all first attempt. But I feel pretty not happy about the fact that lot of questions are changed.
You know. Its the fact that you cannot prepare properly with QB. You should not only repeat QB and learing questions and answers by heart, but the thing is, that the questions are written in bad English. So its hard to understand what they try to ask.
How many exams did you have?