It is valid for 36 months according to FCL.025 (c) from the date that you passed the last exam.
There is also an overall time for the exams, no?
There is also an overall time for the exams, no?
Indeed there is:
FCL.025 Theoretical knowledge examinations for the issue of licences and ratings
(a) Responsibilities of the applicant
(1) Applicants shall take the entire set of theoretical knowledge examinations for a specific
licence or rating under the responsibility of one Member State.
(2) Applicants shall only take the theoretical knowledge examination when recommended by
the approved training organisation (ATO) responsible for their training, once they have
completed the appropriate elements of the training course of theoretical knowledge
instruction to a satisfactory standard.
(3) The recommendation by an ATO shall be valid for 12 months. If the applicant has failed to
attempt at least one theoretical knowledge examination paper within this period of validity,
the need for further training shall be determined by the ATO, based on the needs of the
applicant.
(b) Pass standards
(1) A pass in a theoretical knowledge examination paper will be awarded to an applicant
achieving at least 75 % of the marks allocated to that paper. There is no penalty marking.
(2) Unless otherwise determined in this Part, an applicant has successfully completed the
required theoretical knowledge examination for the appropriate pilot licence or rating when
he/she has passed all the required examination papers within a period of 18 months
counted from the end of the calendar month when the applicant first attempted an
examination
(3) If an applicant has failed to pass one of the theoretical knowledge examination papers
within 4 attempts, or has failed to pass all papers within either 6 sittings or the period
mentioned in paragraph (2), he/she shall re-take the complete set of examination papers.
I have a question for the people who passed the TK in France. I am looking for EIR/CBIR (still not fully sorted out in my head) but as in Belgium the authorities are not ready with the exam, I would have to pass them in France.
Any feedback on personal experience (are the questions in line with the AviationExam DB ?, can you pass the exam in english ?, how many sittings did you need?, etc) is more than welcome.
I passed the TK in France, was in the first or second class that Institut Mermoz offered when it became available. Back then, Aviation Exam was all I needed for the question bank, but others here wrote that since then, EASA has been adding questions which AE doesn’t have. I don’t know if they have made their way into the French database. The questions that I had on the exam were the relatively benign ones, I felt. The small total number of questions makes you nervous though, because on a total of 12 questions for one module you don’t want to get more than 3 wrong (IIRC) which can happen if you get bad questions or just unlucky.
I sat the exams on two consecutive days in Orly, but I felt that could have done all 7 in one day. It just wasn’t possible to change once I had the first 4 done on the first day. Others seemed to be more stressed/have more trouble though, I must also admit.
I did everything in French, but I think you could also do the exam in English.
Passed CBIR theoretical between september ‘16 (Mermoz class) and April 17’ (last certificate).
September : Mermoz Class
End of october : Succeed on four certificates
November – Feb : Started Flight training, so I cut some slack on the studies
Feb : Went back to work on TK
March : Succeed on two certificates, missed the last one
April : succeed on the last certificate (could not be passed earlier because of my planned vacations and DGAC agenda).
May : went to the ATO for the last 10 hours of practical training, and the test.
Theoretical training must be accomplished via Mermoz Institute in France.
2 full days on site (near Orly), + home training with their database and online tests to pass to be authorized to go to the DGAC exams.
More 1000 € for the Mermoz endorsement, plus the administration fee (about 300 € from memory for the TK, and 300 € for the practical test + an examinator fee of about 200 €, + again a few tens of euros to the DGAC for issuing the rating on the licence).
The mermoz database was more or less the same questions I’ve had on the exams, excepted for a few ones.
The official database is updated a few times a year, and there is a slight delay before Mermoz put his hands on those new questions and update his database.
So, there can be some surprises.
I succeeded on all the certificates on first try, excepted for the human factors.
From memory, you have :
- a total of 8 sessions maximum to succeed to all your certificates
- a total of 4 sessions max for each certificate
- a total of 18 months maximum between the start of your training (the 2 days at Mermoz) and the succeeding of the last certificate.
If any one of this condition is not fulfilled, you go back to the start (mermoz 2 days training, paying the bills, etc.)
You can pass the exam in english, you can choose to pass some in French and some in english, and the mermoz database is both in french or english (the Mermoz books are in french.only but there is others theoretical books on the market in english).
With the mermoz subscription, you also have access for the online database training, and the paper books (Ebooks are supplemental).
jeff64 wrote:
home training with their database
Which I never did, used Aviation Exam instead.
Just a hint on the exam :
on none of the Mermoz database questions I was asked, for the 033 certificate (flight preparation) to do some route and distance calculations.
So I went “finger in the ass” (like we say in french, don’t know the exact translation in english) at the exam, with only my pencil, and the DGAC-loaned-calculator.
I ended with a sheet of folded paper, marking and comparing it to other routes on the map, for determining the distance between two fixes, and guessing the right answer.
So conclusion : get a ruler and a protractor for this certificate.
I just memorized the 8 or so possible flight preparation questions with long calculations because I am lazy. IIRC I looked at how many times the highest (or lowest) number was right and that covered most cases, then I had two questions left to really memorize. Don’t remember in detail but something along the lines. Might not work if they made new ones but worked for me.
