Study Preparation & Attitude

The budding private licence holder sees Australia as his oyster, and far flung trips are being mentally planned even before he or she has won the basic GFPT.

The person wanting a commercial pilot’s licence comes into the school moist eyed about flying something sharp that burns aviation turbine fuel.

All these ambitions are very good, but to get the licence the student has to put in the hard yards, the study and the work needed to get that pass mark. It makes no difference if it is a ground school theory pass, an aircraft check-out or a flight test.

Now winning that coveted ticket is not just a case of eating the corn flakes and expecting to find the licence at the bottom of the packet.

It requires a certain amount of work and study, a certain amount of discipline and dedication, and just a touch of that killer instinct that says, ‘I can see the goal and I will get there’.

Not all students will achieve the goal. The throttle pushing part of flying is fun and comparatively easy, but STUDY PREPARATION & ATTITUDE the theory or paperwork side can sometimes be a mountain too high to climb, and not always from not understanding and absorbing the material required.

Many an instructor will recall seeing a keen flight student fade away when the issue of having studied and passed the paperwork examination side arises. And this is disappointing. In a lot of cases it is just an issue of not putting in the study time.

So the question arises, what can a student do to study and absorb the needed information? A quiet study place is a must. One that has few distractions or interruptions.

Some flying schools have study areas for a student to study in.

Being organised helps so that there is not the constant need to move around to get something else. Having all the needed study materials at hand is a must.

Extending the time between breaks is something that needs to be developed. It should be recognised that age and study have a connection.

The longer one is away from the school room the harder it is to put in real dedicated continuous study, but it can be reacquired with perseverance.

Good lighting and a flat working area can help as does a comfortable seat.

Be prepared to burn the midnight oil and study long and late. Some find that early morning is the best study time for them.

Another tip for studying is to write things out. They have a tendency to stick and stay in one’s mind. Q & A cards can be a good way to assist quizzing the mind.

Writing out questions or information on one side of a postcard sized card will assist and on the reverse side of the card the answer is written. The student can self-quiz and then check the answer. At the end of a session the cards are then shuffled into a different order to give variety or for another person to quiz the flight student. It does work.

A lot of study books these days have question pages at the end of a chapter with the answers at the end of the book. There are also commercial question pages available with answers in the back of them. These are available for the GFPT, PPL, CPL and ATPL examination subjects.

Contrary to some coffee room discussions, few if any aviation examinations are meant to be unpassable.

The same applies to aircraft technical examinations. It just requires the student, regardless if a new student to aviation or a pilot moving up the ladder, to apply themselves and put in the swat needed to know the subject and bring that knowledge out at examination time.

It can be done.

To quote the words of the actor, the late John Wayne, you just need true grit! o Contact Dave at flyer02@