Page 17 - Dear aviator...

unknown medical condition you cannot hold a valid medical certificate for your
licence and you just wasted everything: your money, your time and your dreams. I
urge you to make certain that you can hold a valid medical certificate for whatever
licence you are going for before you start training.

Written exams

So the big question is “Do I have to actually study to get a pilot’s licence?”. I’m
afraid the short answer is yes.
But before you go running off screaming that you don’t wanna and that ain’t
nobody got time and that you jus’ wanna fly, please just humour me for a couple of
minutes.
First of all, the amount of study you need to put in is directly dependent on what
licence you’re going for.

- The Recreational Pilot’s Certificate is, unsurprisingly, the easiest; you sit for
a single in-house exam run by the school you’re flying at. CASA, the federal
aviation authority in Australia, is nowhere to be seen. Your instructors are
going to be very knowledgeable of the exam as they will know exactly what
questions there are and how to prepare you in order to answer them
correctly.

- Next up is the Recreational Pilot’s Licence. Emphasis on the word ‘licence’.
This is the same level of difficulty as the RPC exam but it’s done at the CASA
level. It is likely going to be a computer-based test at a dedicated venue
(often decorated with ominous posters warning you against the
consequences of cheating) and the questions will be randomly taken from a
question bank; your instructors will not know what specific questions will be
asked but in general if you are ready to sit the RPC test you are definitely
ready to take the RPL test; a quick side note… before any aviation licensing
exam, CASA or otherwise, you may have to sit some form of English
language test, a radio equipment proficiency test and a basic aeronautical
knowledge test; again, your instructors will give you all the necessary
information for you to pass these tests.

- Now we get serious. The Private Pilot’s Licence is a single CASA administered
exam covering all aviation subjects. Whilst the previous two exams can be
somewhat managed with just being attentive during class, this is an exam
that requires deliberate and thoughtful study. It requires you to spend some
actual time and brain power to understand potentially obscure concepts and
become comfortable with some pretty specific knowledge. The exam itself is
3.5 hours long, which is a long time to maintain concentration. My
suggestion is to become accustomed to that timeframe whenever you are
studying.

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