Hi Bob and Team.
Well I managed to pass the CPL Perf yesterday and I have to say I could have done better if I hadn't made some fundamental errors (my fault not CASAs for a change).
I got all the PNRs and ETPs etc correct but they gave me 16 questions out of 30 on weight and balance.
Hope these tips may assist others:
Make sure you use Pressure Ht when calculating your ROC TAS and not simply use the IAS that they give you.
Make sure you read the ERSA rwy width carefully - they gave me YSBK and the answer was clearly 30 meters (or so I thought) But wrong.
When calculating your 'how much to add?' of either fuel or baggage, and where it goes, make sure you look at whether you should use the load sheet or Bob's flow calcs. And make sure you understand the question - Your Ramp Weight is XXX your fuel req'd is YYY your fuel on board is ZZZ so how much baggage assuming all else is in balance.
Make sure you understand this concept and Bob's formula as I got 3 questions on this and got them all wrong. You have to think about whether they give you ltrs or kgs and then make sure that you calculate them properly. I was careless with these and it cost me marks.
Finally, the perenial problem that many people seem to have - the dreaded P charts, and the TOL charts. I got 2 of the 4 of these wrongand I seem to recall that the key here is to make sure you look at the 'band of acceptable weights' and not just your answer. Look at the max landing weight at the pressure altitude and make sure you don't foget to check it to see that it is not lower than your chart answer.
Other than that, I found that I did finish the questions with 20 minutes to spare. Maybe I should have used that time tyop go back anc check but by then I was just happy to hit the 'finish' button.
If I were doing this for a potential employer I would certainly recommend CHECKING every answer twice to make sure you have not used an incorrect formula.
Now I have done the two hardest, IREX and PERF - (LAW AND AERO are resonably straight fwd) - the rest should be a little less complex. Good luck to all.
