I am on my way to higher ratings and licenses. My dream if to become a Flight Instructor one day (part-time). In order to start CPL or FI, you need to study and pass the 14 topics of the EASA ATPL Theory Knowledge.
After having tried the ATPL 9 years ago … and failed due to lack of motivation, I decided to tackle it again as a Modular student through Distance Learning … but this time with a better plan of action. In between jobs I used 3 months (72 nett days) to study all 14 topics and pass the exams in Brussels. It worked !
Please read the whole story on:
EASA ATPL Theory Knowledge in 72 days … and 9 years
Wow, my deepest respect, great job! I‘m on a similar track, but I’m struggling to find the motivation that is needed to succeed.
Congratulations, 9M!
I would never have the will to this. And still, I am a full-fledged flight instructor.. 
Seeing your results, I was thinking: I know one wants to keep some margin, but still, you could probably have spent only half the time studying and you still would have passed. If I ever (again, very unlikely) go for a CPL or ATPL, I will just go for the minimum learning and just “give it a shot”.
Thanks guys.
@Caba: I had great motivational support from fellow students who all struggled just like me… just getting a sms every now and then helped. let me know how I can help…
@boscomantico: it is true that it can be done with less effort. The issue is that you need to find a sure way to find out where that boundary of effort lays for you… During my exams in Brussels I have met several ICAO (=non EASA) professional pilots who had to sit those exams so they could convert their CPL/ATP into an EASA one. Some of them used such technique: they hardly studied but relied on their knowledge. They go and sit the exams: either you pass (yieppie!) or you fail. For those exams they fail, they study a bit extra so they pass on a second seating without having to do much effort.
This technique stands in stark contrast with the young ab-initio ATPL students who aim at airline jobs: not only do they have to pass the exams, they also better do it without failing and with high scores so they stand out on future job interviews. And that is also the direction the ATO pushes you to because they want their students to have high scores. I did not have that pressure so my method sits in between those two extreme cases.
Congrations, great job.
I also would never have the will to do this.
The only explanation for the 14 exams is that they are just a make work project; Europe and the UK are nutty this way. For my Canadian CPL I studied what probably amounted to 4 or 5 full days and got an 88 percent. For my IR theory test, I hammered from dawn to dusk for three days and got an 80%. I have a couple of engineering degrees, so I know how to study and to write technical tests, but the exams seemed about right for the task. There were very few useless questions or rote subjects. Of course there was nothing for jets (that is what the type rating is for if you choose to pursue it); Honestly, who needs to know about reaction or impulse blading? If I was at GE or Rolls Royce designing turbines, then that is a different story.
Once I have the hours (1500), I can get a Canadian ATPL, which involves one more test. I anticipate this will take about a week of studying. This all seems very reasonable and commensurate with the requirements of the job.
In place of getting thousands of hours in small planes and turboprops (which you normally do in North America before moving to a commercial jet), are the UK and Europe just trying to keep the riff raff out by making it such a hassle? It alwasy shocks me that a 200 hour ATPL in the UK could be RHS in a Ryanair jet. No wonder some of those crosswind landings look bad.
I know one wants to keep some margin, but still, you could probably have spent only half the time studying and you still would have passed
I was going to do that when doing the 7 JAA IR exams, but the CAA here runs a fixed time schedule for sitting them and if you fail one you cannot re-sit for 2 months, and if you fail one twice you get into all sorts of other problems. So I banged the question bank (on an Ipad bought for the purpose) until I was getting 85% consistently; this took about 35 exams (about 10hrs) per subject. The JAA ATPL QB is about 90% complete and utter tosh but luckily I had to do only about 1/3 of it.
@Peter: for IFR, the ATPL QDB contains a lot of unnecessary knowledge indeed. For a future airline pilot or flight instructor, it is a good course and good questions as long as you don’t loose your nerves over the 1-2% stupid questions.
@9M, IR theory was not too bad, I just hit the QB and passed. Overall it was like 97% or so, but I almost failed in my favourite subject, instrumentation. It´s quite easy to screw up if you only get 12 questions in the exam. One silly mistake and a couple of unknown questions nearly got me!
I´m now thinking about first doing the US IR written test during my holiday in July, if I should find an instructor who´s willing to endorse me. The flight to the West Coast should be long enough to work through their QB and pass. I know their procedures quite well and the ink on my EASA-IR-written is still fresh.
The oral exam is a different story of course, but the examiner usually asks relevant things that are worth knowing anyway.
I will tackle the CPL or ATPL theory in autumn and winter, I just can´t see myself studying while the weather is great. What do you think about CPL vs. ATPL when my only intention is to become an FI and subsequently an IRI? Note: I don´t want to do it for money, just for the fun of it.
I did mock exams for the IR on Friday. In the mid 80s on everything but made a hash of Flight Planning because it was my 7th exam in a row and I could barely read at the point. 3 weeks to the real thing and hopefully then I can happily forget all of that useless information.
Saying that my University is a registered PPL theory institution and we’ve applied for DTO status, meaning I could potentially do flight instruction as part of my day job, but then I’d have to do all of these exams again to CPL standard!
7 exams in a row is very hard. I don’t know anybody who did that. 3-4 in one day is more usual.
Also a big factor is whether you can hammer the computer QB immediately before each exam. I reckon that is easily worth another 10% or more because the stuff goes into your “shorter term” memory and when the exam starts you can do the questions which you immediately recognise. I even arrived at the CAA car park at 6am and sat there with the Ipad for a couple of hours… If you do 7 exams in a row you won’t have time to do this. When I was at the CAA building the lobby had a load of people sitting there with sandwiches and Ipads and doing the QB between exams
Having been flying Eurocontrol IFR for some 5 years by the time I did the JAA IR exams, I really saw the material as the biggest load of irrelevant tosh ever. This is sad; such a waste of human effort, time, resources, and so many new IR holders being no more able to fly from A to B than a plain new PPL holder is able to do a decent trip (i.e. almost not at all). In any other field of human activity, where the process is assessed according to results, this would be a scandal.
