The Dreaded Written Exams

The fact that upon arriving at Anglo and not having completed any of the JAA PPL written exams, meant that i had a mountain to climb in the two and a half weeks that i was there. This mountain was furthered by teh fact that i had only just started reading the Trevor Thom books on the severn subjects. Anyway, without further adue, successive days of reading, on various occasions numbering upto ten hours a day meant that i was soon ready for the Aviation Law exam. Although not the easiest of subjects, due to the fact that facts are facts that must be lernt and that an overall good general grasp of the subject was required, a first time pass ensured that once again i could leap into the sky on my first solo at Gillespie.

Met and Human Performance, enough said. They were simple enough after the straightforward nature of each exam was understood. Navigation, perhpas the most difficult subject to grasp due to the fact that i tried to learn how to navigate in theory, without the practical element being added. The exam itself, which consisted of plannign a nav trip on a CAA 1:500 000 scale chart and then answering a few questions on radio navigational aids was actually quite fun. Although a failure occured on the first attempt, a quick nav trip upto Hemet ensured that a pass was achieved on the second attempt.

Once again, comms was straightforward due to the fact that teh R/T work involved was mostly covered in the practical flying course, well all except Pan-Pan and Mayday, fingers crossed. The task of Flight Planning was attempted and although challenging in places, it was not as difficult as it first seemed to be. Finally, Aviation General and Principles of Flight. Although the indepth and broad nature of this topic meant that revision needed to be structured around certain key aspects, the fact taht a quick grasp was gained, combined with the knowledge gained after compling my relativly few hours meant that once again, a first time pass was achieved.

Overall, the task of the written exams was very demanding, but was attempted with great enthusiasm. The pure lust for flying propelled me on, knowing that without the passes gained, my dream to gain my licence would never take-off.