Excellent!

Thanks to you both for the great advice.

OK, folks, an answer back from the CASA examiner and his authorisation for me to post the substance of it here.

[color=blue]Should a candidate find that the supervisor of their exam ask them surrender any of the “permitted materials” for a subject, then they should politely ask the supervisor to check with the Aspeq head office for clarification. I do not see any reason why a candidate would not be allowed to use something like a ruler or a protractor when these are clearly part of “Navigation equipment” as stated on the CASA web site on page[/color] [color=blue][i]Permitted material under Part 61 | Civil Aviation Safety Authority (casa.gov.au)[/i][/color] [color=blue]where it has:[/color]

[color=blue]Nav equipment

When permitted, the term 'Nav equipment' includes:

dividers
compass
protractor
ruler (or straight-edge)
non-electronic 'aviation wind triangle and circular slide rule' computer. eg Jeppesen Sanderson CR or other brands of similar type or a manual slide rule (if the candidate so prefers it).

(Only one of the manual pilot computers may be taken in) (Electronic flight planning device/computer is not permitted in place of Jeppesen CR or a manual slide rule) (Candidates should read the Exam Information Book, where available, for more detailed description of permissible nav equipment.)[/color]

[color=blue]Issues like this should be resolved between the candidate and the exam supervisor BEFORE the exam session commences to minimise distractions to other candidates.[/color]]

[i]Reference CASA Theory Examiner email to John Heddles 13Oct21 at 1050[/i]

Bob may like to promulgate this further for the benefit of his student cohorts.

[color=blue][i][b]I wish I knew how to use one[/b][/i][/color]

A tech slide rule is based on the two fundamental scales (C/D scales.). Every time you use the calculation side of the Dalton, or either side of the Jeppesen, you are using C/D slide rule scales. So, you are a fair way down the track to using a tech slide rule. Just have a few more specialist scales to get your head around ......

Thanks so much for following this up John.

I purchased a 0.3mm mechanical pencil and metal ruler with 1/2mm marks today, so If I'm using them correctly, it should help a lot.

I'll take along printouts of the previously mentioned CASA pages. If they challenge the pen and ruler, I'll politely ask if I can keep them and show the relevant pages, or ask if they could call someone higher up.

Cheers
Matthew

Let's see what transpires for your next run.

I think we shall all be very interested to see the sequence in the event of a challenge .... main thing to ensure is, should it come to that, you are extremely polite and courteous, etc. so that you are not likely to be subject to any criticism.

Hi Bosi.

With the taxi fuel and fixed reserves on the echo. The casa exam booklet does not specify those, so am I right in expecting to not have to remember these number and that they will be supplied in the question?

Cheers
Matthew

Correct. I remember searching for fuel policy, just in case, but it wasn't there:) All required information was provided in the questions and Casa workbook.

Awesome! Thanks

Regarding the potential concern raised at post 12 regarding the CASA site's reference to the Jepp, but not the Dalton style (ie the slide type) navigation computer - I double checked with the examiner and he confirmed that the website detail should be read only as example so there remains no problem with using whatever navigation computer you might choose.

Sounds good.

I had a discussion with the invigilator for my exam last Saturday. They said my metal ruler was totally fine, but the .03mm mechanical pencil I took was not allowed. In a conversation on the phone with their superior, they said that pens have been banned, since they found out that some people were taking pencils and pens into exams that had built in spy cameras.

Seriously? If some candidates took this in, then they need to have their heads examined.

Anyway, I passed the exam this time. 78%, although I could have gotten over 80 with one question I immediately knew Id done wrong after time was up. A forward limit problem, with only weight shift. I was going about subtracting moments and adding moments, when all I needed to do was use the formula to get the forward limit at the weight specified, then do a shift calculation. I actually did the latter method in the exam, but time was running out, I got flustered and doubted myself, so stuck with the original wrong answer.

I felt like the third attempt was a lot easier. Either I was better studied, it the luck of the question draw, or they just make it easier in order to get you passed. The 4 pointer question was a really easy PNR, that didn't ask for additional things like the ETP to B, etc and was multiple guess instead of a whole number answer.

Thanks for everyones help.

Hi Bob, i just went over the question and it doesn't mention if it's at take off or startup, do we just assume that it's at startup if the question doesn't mention it? Or is it because it states "the aircraft is being prepared" for a ferry flight?

Thanks