PRACTICAL GUIDE
Obtaining your ATPL licence isn’t an easy feat, quite the opposite, everyone who has gone through this experience agree that to successfully pass the ATPL exams, it requires serious dedication and real love for aviation.
The profession of a commercial pilot is one of the most valued of all the economic sectors. It’s true that the preparation for this has a high level of complexity but with good training, passing these exams is much more attainable.
Today we want to talk to you about pilot exams, the most feared part of the training by any student who aspires to work in the one of the most prestigious professions.
To follow we will share some tips to help you prepare for your pilot exams, and we’ll show you the registration process along with all you need to know in order to successfully pass your exams.
Let’s start!
✓ Air Law and ATC Procedures: An exam that lasts one hour.
✓ General Aircraft Knowledge: Also referred by AESA as ‘Cell, Systems or Power plant’ and two hours are allowed to complete this exam.
✓ Instrumentation: The duration of this exam is one and a half hours.
✓ Mass and Balance: An exam that lasts one hour.
✓ Aircraft Performance: One hour to complete the exam.
✓ Flight Planning and Monitoring: A maximum time of two hours is given to complete this exam.
✓ Human Performance: One hour is allowed to complete this exam.
✓ Meteorology: This exam should be completed in a maximum of two hours.
✓ General Navigation: This exam should be completed in a maximum of two hours.
✓ Radio Navigation: In this exam you are given one and a half hours to complete.
✓ Operational Procedures: The exam of this subject is to be completed in one hour and fifteen minutes.
✓ Principles of Flight: One hour is allowed to complete this exam.
✓ VFR communications: To complete the exam of this subject you have 30 minutes.
✓ IFR communications: As the previous one, you have 30 minutes to complete.
✓ Area 100 KSA: the subject where critical thinking, teamwork and decision making under pressure are encouraged. This subject does not have an exam.
ONE AIR
Official Headquarters for AESA FCL Exams in Malaga
State Aviation Safety Agency
Additional to the time that you have to complete each of the ATPL exams you should be clear on the conditions and limitations imposed by the AESA (State Air Security Agency) to attend these exams and also the time frames we explain below.
Time limits for passing the ATPL exams
You have 18 months to attend and pass these exams on all the subjects for the ATPL licence. This timeframe starts at the end of the month in which you attend your first exam.
You will have a total of 4 chances for each subject. So, if you fail the same subject 4 times, you’ll have to start again.
In the case that you register to take several exams at once, there is a maximum timeframe of 10 working days between exams in which to sit them. This is what AESA calls ‘a session’; and you have 6 sessions in total to pass the pilot exams of all the subjects.
In the case you exceed the 6 permitted sessions, 4 tries per subject or the 18 months since the first exam, then a new cycle or period of 18 months starts where you would have to repeat all the exams, including the exams you’ve already passed.
Which subjects to sit and how to group them as per their difficulty
Which are the easiest subjects? Which are the most difficult? These questions has very subjective answers and it will always depend on your abilities or preferences.
From our experience, the majority of the students who have already been through the training, agree the best way to sit these exams is to sign up for 3 sessions of 5-4-5 subjects respectively.
When choosing these subject groups, you need to assess how to group them. That being said, to guide you, there are many students who group up the subjects while studying such as Flight Planning and Monitoring, Meteorology, General Navigation, and Principles of Flight so they can sit this group of subject exams together. The remaining 10 subjects are then divided into 2 groups of 5 as indicated beforehand.
You can rest assured that at One Air, you’ll always have the support and advice of our experienced instructors, such as revision weeks with your tutor to prepare for your exams, resolve any issues or widen your knowledge. This way, when you finally decide to sit the exams you’ll be prepared and confident to do so.
At the time of registering for the pilot exams, you should choose the headquarters where you would like to sit these and the dates you wish to do them.
Every year, AESA publish the locations where the electronic theory knowledge exams will take place along with the operating dates. Since 2020, One Air is an official centre for the ATPL exams so you won’t have to travel to sit these.
Also, on the AESA website, you will find important information such as maximum time limits for an exam session, or the bank holidays of each Autonomous Community. Also the capacity of the rooms where the exams will take place and a tutorial where you can see the dynamic in which the exams take place.
Bear in mind you will need to practise using the distance measuring tool in the annexes along and the calculator which will be available to you during the exam; so on D-Day, everything will be under control.
Lastly, management of the registration of each student is done by the exam manager of each ATO. The fees for this year 2023 are €77.79 for each block of subjects.
English is the official language of aviation
Fact. For this reason, our classes are given by bilingual instructors, so you can study your training for the ATPL licence in English. We’ve also included general English lessons, Aeronautical English lessons as well as OACI linguistic competence exams in our Commercial Pilot Course – Airline Pilot Programme.
The ATPL exams are integrally formulated in the official aeronautical language. Additionally, any employment selection process for a job as an Airline Pilot will be done in English.
For these reasons, we recommend you to take your English knowledge further than just what is needed to become a Commercial Airline Pilot. For example, a good method is to watch series and films in English, educate your ear by conversing with your colleagues in English or whatever method that works best for you.
The importance of the Class 1 medical exam
Although it’s not a part of the ATPL exams, we are under an obligation in order to be issued the licence, so it’s a pretty important exam. Don’t you think?
The tests involved in the Class 1 medical examination include various specialities which between them all take around 5 hours to complete.
These are the tests that will be carried out before issuing the certificate:
✓ Spirometry: An examination of your pulmonary functions and capacity.
✓ Posturometry: An examination to measure your static posture and balance both with eyes open and closed.
✓ Cardiology: An examination to check your heart is strong and healthy.
✓ Ophthalmology: Your vision will be rigorously checked for problems such as short-sightedness, long-sightedness, any other issues and colour blindness.
✓ Otorhinolaryngology, Odontology, Psychology, Psychiatry, X-rays, blood and urine tests: All routine tests to ensure all is normal.
✓ Psycho-technical test: This test shows your ability and capacity of reaction toward unexpected sounds and images.
Are you now ready to pass your pilot exams?
The preparation to lead you to obtaining your ATPL licence is a difficult one where you need to invest lots of time and effort to attend classes and above all study, study and study.
Determination and consistency are your best friends in these months of gruelling preparation. Remember the reward will be your dream come true.
Work hard, don’t ever get tired of doing exam simulations and you’ll see how at the end it will have all been worth it.