So it was time to start cracking on with my final two exams, PPL Theory – Flight Planning and Performance & Navigation.
I must admit I found flight planning and performance and the navigation to be by far the hardest ones of the bunch.
The PPL Cruiser was very ineffective for learning due to the amount of graphs etc used in the exam. The schools practice papers were a lot more help.
I failed my first shot at flight planning and performance with 60%. While that is only one mark I found it really hard. I then asked an instructor for help and got ground school tuition. This was a major help for me and I passed the next shot with 93%. I should have got 100% but I dropped a mark by putting down an answer wrong, why? I have no idea because I said the right answer in my head.
I don’t like this exam, I feel it is not designed to test your knowledge but rather designed to just catch you out at every turn!
While I can’t list the questions here, there were a few that I don’t agree with at all!
Navigation was also a difficult exam, due to the struggles with flight planning I also got some ground tuition with the same instructor.
You will come across the CDMVT formula which you need to learn and understand.
On top of this there are a lot of practical questions and also “trick” questions so you need to make sure you read all the questions fully (read them twice).
Examples of the questions would be to work something out but then give the answer in a different measurement, if you don’t read the question fully you will not get the answer correct.
Make sure you know how to use your CRP 1 / 5 before you sit this exam!
I passed navigation with 75% but to be honest I am just glad that these two exams are out of the way now!
I know some people like to just learn the answers however if you are not given the test you are expecting you will have no chance of passing these two tests (especially navigation) without knowing the theory behind it. Make sure you learn how to work out the answers rather than just remembering the answers!
