Managed to get through with 82% for the exam, pleased i passed but at the same time a little disappointed i didn't score a little better but nevertheless i can move on to Air Law

My exam had 30 questions in it and had about 10 questions which were definitions (1 marks)

There was a few on the various load charts, Alpha, Echo and the linear charts regarding T/O weights (2 marks)
There was also about 3 PNR and 1 ETP, i think (2 marks), casa deliberately threw in the distances from A>B with the PNR. be sure to not just blankly start working out something when the question is asking for something totally different

There were a few fuel calculations all dealing with charter operations, none which started the variable, its just expected that you should know that.

The remainder was weight and balance/ shifting weights and i had 2 questions that were basically identical dealing with the forward limit, I'm not entirely sure which ones i got wrong tho since i haven't looked through my KDR as yet.

All in all the exam had nothing that didn't surprise me. If the time is spent with the text books, its pretty straight forward

1 question that did stump me a bit was that the TORA was 1350m, and had an ASDA of 1400m, there was an additional 80m of clearway at the end of the ASDA, with the threshold displaced by 40m at the start of the runway.

I'm fair certain that because the 80m isn't published it cant be used, which makes total sense. Got to love how CASA try to confuse you and unfortunately i slipped right into the trap.

Unlike many other reports i read i found that i had quite a bit about the Echo, maybe its because i expected so little from what i read?

I found that i spent a great deal of time with my workings, that time got the better of me and i didn't actually get the time to recheck all answers. Amazing that 2.5hours can go so quickly

Much thanks to Bob for his help which a few things in this subject thanks to Rich for the previous subjects...no doubt will be requiring some assistance in Air Law .

Thanks for your precis of the exam. Always useful to see what the current batch of questions are like even though they are random selection.

It is very stressful when you appear to be running out of allotted time for these type of exams.

I find it can be difficult to allocate time at the beginning of the exam when questions with different mark values (and hence you would expect different time-to-answer expectations) are randomly scattered through the exam. I was surprised how I ran out of time in one of the practice exams.

For what my plan is worth (the whole 2.2 cents of it) I intend to approach the exam by immediately answering the 1 mark questions without time allocation. These are usually quick to answer once carefully read but some require a bit more thought, making prior time allocation for each difficult and probably inaccurate. Once these are answered I will then allocate the remaining time between the 2 and 3 markers based on total value of marks allowing for a 10 minute check time at the end.

Those of us who have already completed this exam have the experience that may make this idea non-sensical. But nevertheless its a plan. Will find how good it is on Friday - got both Performance and Aerodynamics that day.

Hope others will add their bit. Wouldn't be the first time I have been shot down in flames. May not be the last either.

Cheers,

Pete.

This is a pretty good debrief, thanks Madox. Sat the exam yesterday and scored 88% - my lowest score of all the exams but still a pass. Bob's online practice exams were a great help preparing for this exam.

Definitely I would say read the question carefully is the best advice - I spent quite few frustrating minutes trying to work out why my landing weight answer was nothing like the answers provided before realising the question asked for landing distance required.

Also, be aware that there are some ambiguities - the alpha take off chart pressure height/temperature lines do NOT correspond correctly to the density height, so if you calculate density height and enter with that as your entry argument you will get a different answer. I actually resolved both possibilities and even though there was only 20kg take off weight difference between them, unfortunately each was closer to two different answers - flipped a mental coin and got it wrong.

I got 6 PNR/ETP type questions, so make sure you know these inside out. One asked about critical point, without mentioning ETP at all so remember that they are the same thing. It also threw another curve ball by asking what the change in flight time would be to the CP in a headwind compared to nil wind. We all know that the ETP will move upwind, but what effect does this have on the time to the CP? My logic was that any wind will increase the return flight time compared to no wind, so the time to the CP must increase. Unfortunately I got it wrong, but I don't know why. If anyone can explain this to me I would appreciate it.

Lastly, I did unfortunately get a hard ballast/minimum fuel ballast question with the CofG on the rear limit and the seat next to the pilot empty. After filling the nose, I chose to add 75kg ballast to the empty row 1 seat before calculating minimum fuel ballast. I got this question wrong too, so I would suggest you don't add ballast to row 1. It is frustrating to get questions like this that would not cause a problem in the real world, only in an exam question - it would be nice if CASA just specified to use hard ballast in the lockers only so we had a level playing field.

Hey Richard / Bob - hope is all well

Two questions if you can help out on -

The comment below from Madox1 - " 1 question that did stump me a bit was that the TORA was 1350m, and had an ASDA of 1400m, there was an additional 80m of clearway at the end of the ASDA, with the threshold displaced by 40m at the start of the runway" - any light on this ? I have seen this pop up before in the forum - just trying to make sence of it

Also re Rays question below - "what the change in flight time would be to the CP in a headwind compared to nil wind. We all know that the ETP will move upwind, but what effect does this have on the time to the CP"

I would expect with a headwind the time to the ETP would be longer v's no wind?

Appreciate your feedback

Regards

Hi Nikolaou,

Since a picture is worth a 1000 words I'll make it easy on myself and use a picture to show the dimensions of the runway Madox described:

NOTE: Madox said the clearway was in addition to the ASDA so I have drawn it like that. Normally the clearway is measured from the end of the TORA.

From this you can see the length of runway you can use routinely for the take off run is the TORA of 1350m (ignoring the displaced threshold for the moment). The ASDA is 1400m which is 50m longer than the original TORA so there must be 50m of surface available for an emergency stop after an aborted take-off i.e. a stopway of 50m.

Madox said there was an additional 80m of clearway after the end of the ASDA and you can see that in the diagram. However, the stopway would serve as clearway too so the total clearway available is 50+80 = 130m. You'd have to watch the wording on that one. If they say clearway of 80m, they mean 80m from the end of the TORA in which case it will only extend 30m beyond the ASDA. If they say 80m of clearway beyond the ASDA, it will be 80m beyond the end of the ASDA (as shown in the picture above).

Remember, stopway is on the ground whereas clearway is a clear climbing path through the air usually measured from the end of the TORA.

The displaced threshold reduces the TORA by 40m so the TORA becomes 1310m. I don't know how they worded it exactly in the question but if the published ASDA was 1400m then the actual ASDA available with the displaced threshold will only be 1360m.

As for the time to get to the ETP with wind versus nil wind condtions:

If you have a tailwind outbound, the ETP will move into wind and therefore be closer to the departure point. Your ground speed will be higher outbound because of the tailwind and you are not going as far so you will reach the ETP sooner.

If you have a headwind outbound, the ETP will be further into wind and therefore further away. Your ground speed will be slower because of the headwind and you are having to go further out so it will take longer to get to the ETP.

Cheers,

Rich

Excellent - Thanks Richard much appreciated well explained.

Regards