When you apply for a practical exam, you have to supply a sheet detailing the hours and flights. The CAA checks this very carefully, at least over here.
Going down this route, looking for recommendations for the distance learning. The 7 CB-IR subjects are a subset of 7 (of 14) ATPL subjects, so I guess those who can offer solid CBT for ATPL may also provide a good offering for CB-IR?
I am looking for something more extensive then an eBook.
For question database and training there are dedicated apps which seem to get good feedback, like AviationExam.
I have identified some ATOs but would love to hear your first hand experience with distance learning theory.
I’ve passed 5 of the 7 CBIR theory exams so far, 2 more to go next month. This was my experience:
1. I’ve used the Padpilot iBooks as a base to understand the subjects. They are well written and well illustrated. This is mostly sufficient, although in Air Law I had to supplement it with the Oxford book as it provided more (useless) details that were asked in the questions.
2. I’ve used AviationExam extensively for question training. It also provides (mostly) useful explanations and user’s comments to each question.
3. I’ve also written summaries of some of the more important concepts into a notebook. This proved to be useful for some of the harder subjects, like Air Law.
I’ve tried to understand most subjects rather than just memorize the questions (except where it didn’t make any sense), but you could probably pass by spending all your time in AviationExam. Be prepared for a sea of stupid, unrelated, badly worded questions in the EASA question base…
I would also not recommend doing all tests in one session, except if you like to torture yourself. The hardest subjects are Air Law and Meteorology in my opinion, put at least those two into separate sessions.
Good luck!
I must say I’m kind of mystified by the CBIR theory. I signed up with Bristol Ground School as CBIR doesn’t exist in Ireland. The Full IR mandates 200 hours of theory, where the CBIR is 80 hours. Bristol basically sent me the Full IR CBT package and told me what to omit. By the time I finished the CBIR learning objectives I was at 80% completion of the full IR course! The only difference is some jet specific stuff (which is actually interesting!)
Given the hassle of travelling to the UK for the exams I agreed with a local school that if I show them proof of the hours I’ve put in, they’ll sign me off to do the Full IR theory exams here subject to passing mock tests with them.
AFAIK the only thing above the CBIR theory is the old JAA IR (7 exams) theory, and above that is only the 14 exam CPL/IR “ATPL” set.
And the 7 JAA IR exams were supposed to contain no “big plane” stuff. At least that was the case in the UK version of it. I did them in 2011.
Well done Nick. Yes Air Law and Met are two most horrible topics.
Peter wrote:
supposed to contain no “big plane” stuff
There’s plenty of it in there!
That material, zuutroy, would have definitely been eligible for an appeal had it appeared in the actual exam(s). I have met a few people who did appeal some questions, although obviously one would not bother doing so unless one failed 
Is this UK IR material? It looks like some subset of the 14-exam set. But AFAIK there is no subset of the 14-exam set which is directly usable for just a “private IR”.
That is straight from the UK Full IR syllabus as offered by BGS, which is 7 of the 14 ATPL exams. To my knowledge the full IR exams ARE just a subset of the ATPLs. For example there’s no difference between the ‘Instrumentation’ exam for an ATPL student and an IR student, though there would be for a CB-IR student.
That is really bizzare. That sounds like the CBIR theory has gone backwards since I did the 7-exam JAA IR here. The CBIR theory should be even (slightly) smaller than the JAA “PPL IR” stuff, but they seem to have given you a subset of the full ATPL exams, which resembles something out of c. year 2000 when a “PPL IR” exam set did not exist.
But it was always the case that some countries in Europe never produced that “PPL IR” syllabus and students doing exams there had to do something “off the shelf” which means something straight out of the JAA (later EASA) ATPL question bank. This is a well worn topic and e.g. one could have sat the 14 ATPL exams at Athens for €5 each (and get the original JAA QB, full of crap questions with wrong answers) or at Gatwick for say €70 each (and get a much better quality QB with the bad questions weeded out). And then (as per my link to the rather long writeup above) the stuff one did in the ground school FTO was something else………..
It seems that you’re correct in that a quick glance at Part FCL suggests nothing in the screenshot is among the learning objectives for the full IR TK. I guess the TK schools (and maybe even the question banks) have either a CBIR setting, an ATPL setting, and nothing for the halfway house that is the full IR.
EDIT: Now my question is whether the IAA make a delineation. I would be unsurprised to turn up for the IR exams and find EFIS and autoland questions in the instrumentation exam.
