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Old December 11th 07, 07:53 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting,rec.aviation.student
S Green
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Posts: 74
Default One chapter down in CP written test prep.


Jack,
It's a coincidence that I am also studying for the commercial
written test. I started the study last spring finishing all but one
chapter then got interrupted with a dive trip following with heavy
workload! We started the commercial flight training last August


Think of the poor European pilot doing the commercial licence.

9 exams to take all totalling about 20 hours of exam time. $140 an exam and
the exam only available to be taken at a few centres every two months. To
be followed by the IR exams all 7 of those too.

Most do the ATPL exams - there is only 14 of them to do, and covers both
the commercial and the IR but to a higher level.

Before one is allowed to enter the exams one needs to be signed off by an
approved flight school that at least 650 hours of study has been completed
of which 60 must be done in the classroom.

The questions are all multiple choice like the FAA ones except with a choice
of 4, but the biggest drawback is that the question bank of between
15-20,000 questions is not publicly available. People try and remember the
questions and give feedback but its not perfect. So no substitute for
knowing the stuff.
All in all - $6500 before you even get into the aircraft.

The FAA Commercial took about 3 weeks of study around a Christmas holiday
and cost me about $150 for the books and the test which I did while on
vacation in Florida and then I knocked off the flying and checkride in a
couple of weeks on another trip. That had extra costs like the student visa.

In between sorties I managed to knock out the ground instructor knowledge
tests. The FOI is a bit of an insult to the intelligence and the AGI and
Instrument instructor were like doing the prep for the oral part of the
checkride. (It was 20 months before that I had done the commercial written).

So its been a bit of a doddle doing the FAA stuff and a bit grim (an
expensive) doing the European stuff.

At least the FAA COM/IR will give some exemptions when I do the flying bit.
The instrument rating training drops from 50 hours to 15 hours with the IR.
(The checkride fee for that is $1500).