ATP/CTP Courses at Regionals
#11
The guidance from the FAA when they started this says that if a company provides a CTP to new hires it has to be separate from the company indoc. The only allowance they give is if a new hire has gone through a company CTP, they can get some credit in indoc. As long there is a mix of pre Aug 14 writtens and people going through the CTP I don't see a reduced indoc.
#14
So I'm sitting here studying for my ATP written and I'm dumbfounded by how most of the aerodynamics questions are from the Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators book. I'm not saying the book doesn't cover every aspect of aerodynamics well, but I would use the word "overkill" on much of the knowledge presented. If you want to be an aviation engineer, sure most of it will be useful, but does an airline pilot really need to memorize and be tested on the specificity of a 7% induced drag increase in a 15 degree banked turn? While that 7% is great textbook material, it's fairly useless to a pilot. Certainly a pilot should know that drag increases in a bank, but knowing how to calculate it by using the formula 1/cos(bank angle)... I mean come on test writers, come up with things that apply to actual daily flying. Several questions about calculating distance to become airborne again after deciding to abort a takeoff... so when the captain touches down long and asks me if we should go around, i'll say hold on please, i need to calculate time for spoolup and acceleration, divide by 3600 to convert seconds to hours, then multiply that by our groundspeed and i'll let you know the distance for getting airborne again.
So many questions on this written that would be relevant if i was going to work in airplane design, but the info will be forgotten the day after the test when it comes to line pilots. Here is my favorite answer explanation for a question regarding high altitude turning performance... "The knowledge of this turning performance is particularly necessary for effective operation of fighter and interceptor type airplanes." Excellent... glad I'm being tested on things that don't apply to the operations I'm being tested for. I have a feeling all these FAA guys making the tests are former military pilots (all due respect, I'm former military too) and just pull these questions out of the books they learned from, not even correlating that airline and civilian pilots are not studying the same books. I would love to see many more questions about practical day to day operations and less high level engineering info that I can't apply in the cockpit without using a scientific calculator. It's so telling how irrelevant this stuff is when all the test study guides just tell you to memorize the answer because the math is too hard. Hey FAA test guys... make questions that are important to our normal operations, not just cool math formulas pulled from a PHD level aerodynamics book that only military pilots have read. Anyone else share my frustration with this?
So many questions on this written that would be relevant if i was going to work in airplane design, but the info will be forgotten the day after the test when it comes to line pilots. Here is my favorite answer explanation for a question regarding high altitude turning performance... "The knowledge of this turning performance is particularly necessary for effective operation of fighter and interceptor type airplanes." Excellent... glad I'm being tested on things that don't apply to the operations I'm being tested for. I have a feeling all these FAA guys making the tests are former military pilots (all due respect, I'm former military too) and just pull these questions out of the books they learned from, not even correlating that airline and civilian pilots are not studying the same books. I would love to see many more questions about practical day to day operations and less high level engineering info that I can't apply in the cockpit without using a scientific calculator. It's so telling how irrelevant this stuff is when all the test study guides just tell you to memorize the answer because the math is too hard. Hey FAA test guys... make questions that are important to our normal operations, not just cool math formulas pulled from a PHD level aerodynamics book that only military pilots have read. Anyone else share my frustration with this?
#15
That is why I used Sheppard Air. I studied a few weeks, used their memorization tools, and achieved a 98% score. As with most FAA writtens, there is little to be put into practicality from the ATP exam, hence why a practical exam/checkride is also needed to achieve the ATP rating. Don't overthink it, and don't overstudy, period.
#16
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2014
Posts: 310
So I'm sitting here studying for my ATP written and I'm dumbfounded by how most of the aerodynamics questions are from the Aerodynamics for Naval Aviators book. I'm not saying the book doesn't cover every aspect of aerodynamics well, but I would use the word "overkill" on much of the knowledge presented. If you want to be an aviation engineer, sure most of it will be useful, but does an airline pilot really need to memorize and be tested on the specificity of a 7% induced drag increase in a 15 degree banked turn? While that 7% is great textbook material, it's fairly useless to a pilot. Certainly a pilot should know that drag increases in a bank, but knowing how to calculate it by using the formula 1/cos(bank angle)... I mean come on test writers, come up with things that apply to actual daily flying. Several questions about calculating distance to become airborne again after deciding to abort a takeoff... so when the captain touches down long and asks me if we should go around, i'll say hold on please, i need to calculate time for spoolup and acceleration, divide by 3600 to convert seconds to hours, then multiply that by our groundspeed and i'll let you know the distance for getting airborne again.
So many questions on this written that would be relevant if i was going to work in airplane design, but the info will be forgotten the day after the test when it comes to line pilots. Here is my favorite answer explanation for a question regarding high altitude turning performance... "The knowledge of this turning performance is particularly necessary for effective operation of fighter and interceptor type airplanes." Excellent... glad I'm being tested on things that don't apply to the operations I'm being tested for. I have a feeling all these FAA guys making the tests are former military pilots (all due respect, I'm former military too) and just pull these questions out of the books they learned from, not even correlating that airline and civilian pilots are not studying the same books. I would love to see many more questions about practical day to day operations and less high level engineering info that I can't apply in the cockpit without using a scientific calculator. It's so telling how irrelevant this stuff is when all the test study guides just tell you to memorize the answer because the math is too hard. Hey FAA test guys... make questions that are important to our normal operations, not just cool math formulas pulled from a PHD level aerodynamics book that only military pilots have read. Anyone else share my frustration with this?
So many questions on this written that would be relevant if i was going to work in airplane design, but the info will be forgotten the day after the test when it comes to line pilots. Here is my favorite answer explanation for a question regarding high altitude turning performance... "The knowledge of this turning performance is particularly necessary for effective operation of fighter and interceptor type airplanes." Excellent... glad I'm being tested on things that don't apply to the operations I'm being tested for. I have a feeling all these FAA guys making the tests are former military pilots (all due respect, I'm former military too) and just pull these questions out of the books they learned from, not even correlating that airline and civilian pilots are not studying the same books. I would love to see many more questions about practical day to day operations and less high level engineering info that I can't apply in the cockpit without using a scientific calculator. It's so telling how irrelevant this stuff is when all the test study guides just tell you to memorize the answer because the math is too hard. Hey FAA test guys... make questions that are important to our normal operations, not just cool math formulas pulled from a PHD level aerodynamics book that only military pilots have read. Anyone else share my frustration with this?
If they wanted people to actually solve the problems and not just memorize test prep software they would shuffle the answers in the answers bank. That fact shaped my view of the FAAs stance on the test. They did a decent job of covering the 121 regs though in the test I thought.
#17
I took my written a few weeks ago after attending the Aerosim ATP/CTP. Heavy on weather, performance charts from the CRJ, and miscellaneous CRM questions. NOT one flight planning or weight & balance question. Didn't have to use a calculator(or E6B) at all....
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