My son has just done the Air Law PPL one.
16 questions…
This is mad. Get 5 wrong and you fail. But the topic is so broad. This is the hardest exam of them all.
The HP&L in the JAA IR was only 24 questions and it made it tricky to pass.
On top of that, about half of the questions have zero relevance to flying…
When I did HP&L (at the beginning of JAR) it was stupidly easy. I think there were 30 minutes for the exam. I’d done after 5 minutes. Read through the questions twice more to make sure I’d not made any stupid mistakes (or missed something) and left after 10 minutes. I think I got 100%.
I joke note when I say that there was a question:
What can cause pilot incapacitation?
Hypoxia
Sneezing when in the flare
Instructor hitting student over the head with a clip board for saying something stupid
(I’ve forgotten what the fourth one was, but it was equally ridiculous!)
I agree about the 16 questions though. It doesn’t really test knowledge, and is more luck about which questions come up.
In the navigation one that I did, you could only get 7 questions wrong (or was it 9?) before you failed. There were 5 questions that were linked, where the answer of the pervious one built on the next one. Get the first one wrong and you couldn’t get the next one right. The first question called for measuring a direct track between two airports. The others were things like, what’s the magnetic track, if the wind is xxx/xx what heading should you fly, what will be your ground speed etc. Hardly fair if you make a mistake on the first one!
If they make you study / hammer the online QB / etc for a month, and give you only 16 questions, why not give you just 4 questions? The possible mark would be 0 / 25 / 50 / 75 / 100% and the last two are a pass. You will still do the same amount of revision because you don’t know the four questions…
With just 16 questions, and with so much garbage in there, loads of “good” people will fail the exam. It is about £40 but IIRC you can’t just keep re-taking it. When I was doing mine, 2000, you got one re-take (for which there was another question paper with different questions) and after that it got more complicated (CAA/Gatwick etc).
I got a question on who was most likely to contract AIDS, a pilot, a butcher or a nurse… < sarcasm > I love those relevant and well-defined questions < /sarcasm >
Probably most on here, including me, would fail an EASA air law exam! At least in the FAA system (and Australia for that matter), the BFR requires 1 hour of ground in which you should be quizzed on things such as (changes to) air law…. I took the UK CAA air law (and HPL) exams in 1996 when converting my Australian licence….that was the last time I ever formally studied the subject…
The UK theory driving test has 50 questions and the pass level is 86% (43 questions) so it is rather surprising that it is 16 questions for air law. Then again, you are not supposed to be in immediate proximity to other aircraft when flying as is the case when driving!
I head up the legal function for a technology company with operations throughout EMEA and typically have to pick up different aspects of law from around the region which I can then address or advise on. When I did the air law exam 3 years ago, I realised that the test was not about understanding the legislation and rules, but simply memorising and responding with an expected response. In the practice tests, there were a few questions I would get wrong because I was analysing the question too much – the air law test is not about legal comprehension.
Having 16 questions suggests that it is just a check of the basics and is not a proper evaluation of knowledge and understanding of the various legal aspects. I suspect that like much in the PPL theory syllabus, the objective is to get people through that aspect of the overall PPL training. In any event, you need to know the law/navigation/HP&L etc., but if you can’t fly the aircraft safely, you won’t get your PPL. Presumably the CPL/ATPL exams are more complex and extensive (although I do not know about the quality of the questions) due to the potential nature of the operations and the fact that there are passengers.
The way it used to be, was that except certain core/fundamental principles, the details were irrelevant. The “competence” was to be able to maneuver in the books of regulations. You should be able to find what you were looking for. The questions where more in the direction of “your PPL has elapsed by more than 6 months, in which BSL would you look to find out how to renew it”. Try to “maneuver” within the EASA regs, it’s a nigthmare. They aren’t designed for normal people to read them. In that sense, 16 questions are more than enough.
Legal documents, just like technical documents, have a certain structure which makes it easier (but no less time consuming) to follow once you devine it, but even then, there can be ambiguities in the interpretation as we have seen in other threads here. I totally agree with the earlier comment that the air law test was not entirely relevant to being a competent or safe pilot, although there were some questions about where you would find certain information.
Best test true or false question I ever saw was the US driving theory test taken in California in the early ’90’s:
“You have just had a beer with a tequila chaser:
A. Yes, you can drive;
B. No, you cannot.”
30 questions which took me less than 5 minutes, but some people seemed to be really struggling… maybe it was working out how many of those they had had the night before and the fact that they drove ok after? 
Peter, bearing in mind that you are vociferous proponent of the FAA system, in the Private written there are only 60 questions…with a required pass mark of 70%…,and I don’t think 16 of them relate to air law….and if there were you could technically get them all wrong and still pass…
16 seems to me to be more than enough specific questions for the purpose of demonstrating a reasonable level of understanding of a subject…
But in the FAA system there is a very thorough oral exam where you need to know the details of part 61, 91 and the AIM. In Europe the knowledge about part FCL (equals more or less FAR part 61) and NCO (part 91) is somewhere near NIL. ;-) So, even though you’re right about the easy written in the USA, I am sure the certified PPL knows more in the end than in Europe. But not only the testing is to blame, it’s mainly the fast changing air law under EASA.
When I took my air law exam in Switzerland to convert my FAA certificate, I had to study law that was not in force anymore for several years. Maybe that’s why I am negatively biased.
