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EIR/CBIR - France

Good morning everyone, on Friday I passed my last theoretical test for my EIR/CBIR in Orly France. I think I made the mistake to try and pass all of the exams in French, of which I am not a native speaker. In between 2 jobs I also had 2 months to fully focus on the flying – so I am now also ready for my check ride which I hope to do within the next couple of weeks – depending on the paperwork arriving from the DGAC. It then can take up to 21 days before they allow you to take the test.
In short I passed 6 of the 7 modules in September of 2015, being in between to very demanding jobs with a lot of travel I worked on the theory every single day for multiple hours – I used the multiple choice base of Mermoz – where I also did my theoretical training (utterly useless 1.5 days spend in a class room where you run through the syllabus). It served me well but for all of the 062 Radio navigation where the focus of their Multiple choice base is so far of what is being demanded in the exam that it actually took me 4 times to make it through the exam (to be fair I tried twice in the same day which is against the rules but the supervisor pushed me to retake the test the same day since I missed by 1 point).
I’m not employed in a technical domain like many of the posters here who seem to be very well versed in these things – I am also not a mathematical whizz kid which is also not very helpful as a lot of the work is around sin/cos and other fun stuff which I have since school long forgotten about. My reason for posting is to advise everyone working on their EIR/CBIR with Mermoz to work on their radio navigation exam – to not strictly use the books and multiple choice questions provided by Mermoz – you will fail. I studied the module together with my instructor for a bit (to be honest I was shit at it at first) and passed last Friday, when explaining to the supervisor again, none of the questions in the exam (a lot of them are around GPS, GNSS, FMS, etc..) where in line with the questions I had seen in the Mermoz QCM I was overheard by another candidate who came to see me, together we have emailed Mermoz to let them know – he also suggested Aviation Exam as all the questions for the new exam apparently are there – I had not tested this myself but he swears by it. Hope this was helpful and does not breach any of the policies – I am not affiliate with either of these institutions. Apologies if this post breaks any of the rules, just thought is was helpful given the number of posts I have seen here related to the EIR/CBIR in France.

Wim

LFHN - Bellegarde - Vouvray France

Congratulations on passing

Don’t worry about the theory content – 90% of it is irrelevant and is not used. Real-world IFR is a lot simpler… OTOH there is a lot of stuff you need to learn which isn’t taught and you will pick that up as you go along, possibly by flying with other people. I think I learnt nearly all I know off the internet

Don’t think for a second you are breaching any policies by recommending a handy commercial product. Everybody needs to know what the best tools are. Aviationexam.com has been around for years – in fact I mention it here though I found out about it only after I was finished (I used another site which was rather poor).

Interesting to hear that if you do the exams in French you get full European privileges. I heard something ages ago suggesting that you would get only a nationally usable IR or something like that.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Congratulations.

I’ve been through the same and know how hard it is, especially when you are juggling all your other responsibilities as well.

EGBE (COVENTRY, UK)

Congratulations.

The main difference between the French Private IR and the CB-IR is that the former does not require English LP.

There are actually two flavours of the French Private IR. The “old” one with a TK that does not cover some of the EASA requirements, and a newer one that does. For pilots holding the former TK, the conversion to EASA IR should be identical to conversion from any ICAO IR. For pilot in the latter case, the ELP level 4 or better will suffice.

I have not found firm reference concerning the conversion, except this note which is not dated but appears to be from Nov 2014, and which is the DGAC proposal.

LFPT, LFPN

Hello Wim and congratulations!

Thanks for the feedback. Since we discussed this matter over the phone (last summer if I recall it well), I have not taken the plunge with Mermoz yet. Still on the to-do list, though.

All the best for your check ride.

Last Edited by Alboule at 16 May 20:22
LFNR

Quick update on my CB-IR, yesterday I passed my check ride, the planet has one more instrument rated pilot. Look forward to using the PA24 – 260C for a lot of travelling now including joining some of the EuroGA fly ins now that I have a little bit more time.
For me the “adventure” kicked off in 2014 (December) with my initial “stage” at Mermoz in Paris – 2 days wasted where all they actually do is take you through a syllabus that is frankly outdated. Followed a couple of months of self study on all of the theory, I would describe me as a completely agnostic when it comes to maths so I struggled a little more with some of the modules. Overall I must say I learned loads, and for those who are wondering to take the plunge it’s my view that doing an IR definitely makes you a more complete pilot. Having passed all the theoretical tests (in French which is a mistake I won’t be making anymore going forward) but one (air nav see above in this thread) a little later than the rest. I did my training with Aeralp in Grenoble LFLS – very professional and lots of real world IFR experience (icing, turbulence, TS etc…) with instructors who actually care and have thousands of hours of proper single engine IFR experience. Can’t recommend them enough.

Yesterday, I did my check ride with my instructor in the right seat and the DGAC gentleman in the back seat – 1 NDB approach to minima (real minima in this case as the weather yesterday morning was suitably shit) a go around, stalls, 60 degree turns and unusual attitude all in IMC conditions (real life IMC) then return Grenoble for an ILS to minima and landing. A good briefing to kick it all off and a solid debrief with some honest and useful comments from the examiner. In the plane taxiing back to the stand he had already said I did a very solid check ride and had seen professional pilots do less well, which was a very nice compliment. LFLS – LFLN was the destination and LFLY (Lyon Bron) my alternate – the Euro 2016 sees lots of ZRT’s in place in France at the moment which massively limits the choice of IFR terrains at the moment to do any training. This evening I am a very happy man and I look forward to now taking the family and friends flying to many exotic spots all over Europe.

Anyone thinking about doing their IR in France that wants any advice or just a chat please feel free to PM me.

Wim

LFHN - Bellegarde - Vouvray France

Congratulations. Well done! Maybe you’ll need to change your forum name, though.

Last Edited by Rwy20 at 26 Jun 16:59

Absolutely brilliant Wim! Congratulations. Must feel fantastic.

You don’t need an IR to come to our fly-ins but for sure it helps to get around Europe.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Congratulations, also on operating possibly one of the best looking GA aircraft and supremely practical 260C.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

Rwy20 wrote:

Congratulations. Well done! Maybe you’ll need to change your forum name, though.

Congratulations! Jolly good show. You should be a good inspiration for other aspiring IR candidates like @Nestor .

Wrt the forum name, we will remain students our whole life regardless of our ratings and licenses.

LFPT, LFPN
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