I've been working my way through Air Law for a month or two now (it has been hard to get time with work and other commitments lately). I decided to commit a few weeks ago and booked in the exam for the end of this week as I had been progressing reasonably well lately and figured I could knuckle down for three weeks between work sending me overseas to get this done. I had been feeling confident in what I'd been learning, until I got the question set on Page 110. Of the first 30 questions, I had zero clue on the answer let alone where to find the answer for 10 of them.

This has left me feeling dejected and I went back through the book trying to identify what I had missed. Surely I must have missed an entire document or something. Right now I'm feeling like delaying my exam and trying to do a course, as I feel severely lacking in ability and if this is an indicator of where I'm at I think I may need some guidance (similar to how I felt after failing performance as my first ever exam). Also, since the answers do not give references to point me in the right direction for where to look, I can't identify where I've gone wrong.

Items I had zero clue for:

Lane of entry Q3
I guessed that following the general give way rules was correct here - but I don't remember reading a section covering lane of entry - this one I"m sure is on my as it is probably in the materials somewhere but in my frustration I couldn't find it.

Mercy Flights Q4 + 26..
I can't find anything about these in my literature. Google search seems to hint that the AIP used to have something, or the pre CASR pages had something. I guessed the Pilot In Command as ultimate responsible for the safety of a flight.

Retaining of load sheet record for RPT operators. Q9
I found a reference (CASR 137.255 (1) ) where it mentions manuals, logs and records must be kept for 90 days after an aircraft is no longer in a flyable condition (this is clearly the wrong reference in hindsight).

Dropping - Q10+18.
Part 91 was the only mention I found at first in the "permitted material documents". And this just said "not permitted" (Part 91 91.190 (1)) . After probably an hour scouring further, I found a reference in Part 138 and still got the question wrong (I based my selection on Part 64 MOS 16.03(5), but it seems I should have been looking elsewhere? I'm now guessing CASR 137.095. Did I miss the coverage of dropping somehow?

Display of symbols next to the wind sock. Q13.
I scoured my books for this one, but only found references to the symbols that are shown, not which aerodromes they are shown at. This one is probably on me also (I guessed it is used to communicate when there is no controller).

Dangerous Goods - Q14.
I felt confident I would find this, as I was certain I'd read something about dangerous goods. But my flick through in my documents came up empty (I was probably feeling somewhat desperate by then). I managed to find Part 92 covered dangerous goods and found something that worked in there.

Passenger Lists - Q30.
I found passenger lists in Part 135, but I couldn't see any mention of what to do with them, except for flights outside Australia (which in my frustration by this point, I miss-read as inside Australia).

Have things seriously moved that much, or am I just that lacking at the moment?
I'm feeling like I need to read, understand and recall items from Parts of the CASR which are not permitted materials in the exam.
Any help greatly appreciated.

Mercy Flight:
During situations like these, pilots can declare a 'mercy flight'. A mercy flight commonly involves an urgent need to:

transport someone who needs lifesaving medical help
evacuate someone from an emergency such as a flood or fire.

Basically, if a passenger is dying and needs urgent transport - PIC can declare a mercy flight to transport the passenger. Im not sure what the question was, but if its who is responsible for declaring a mercy flight, its the PIC.

Dropping:
CAO 29.5.3 says you need explicit CASA permission if you are dropping anything "within a control zone, within an aircraft lane of entry, or within 5 miles of a Government or licensed aerodrome". So permission, "Yes" if you are in the control zone or want to drop flour bombs within 5 nm of a licensed aerodrome. Need CASA approval - if not anywhere near an airport, then no, you dont need casa approval.

Windsock symbols -
Not correct, controllers display lights at aircraft in the event of a radio faulure in flight, but this question is not asking that, its referering to the Runway in use and if for example there is Gliding operations in progress amongst other things, see the link below:
www.vfrg.net.au/resources/quick-referenc...f-aerodrome-traffic/

Dangerous Goods:
www.casa.gov.au/operations-safety-and-tr...plesofdangerousgoods

Passenger List:
The pilot in command of each passenger carrying flight must complete a passenger list using the Operational Flight Planning Form

Air law is my fav subject because its open book, I suggest tagging and hughlighting the permittable documents, its quite easy if you understand the question, if you need some help, shoot us a message, happy to

Thanks for the clarification Rob.

I guess I was just trying to understand if I need to go reading the banks of NON permitted materials. For example: you mention dropping is covered by CAO 29.5.3, but I can’t take CAO 29 into the 3xam and I’ve not read it as it is not covered by the theory books, so I have not considered reading it all..

Other example would be the practice exam question I just got:
Refuelling of aircraft must not commence unless the fuel tank filler cap or vents are at least 6 metres away from -
Select one:
any sealed building Incorrect
members of the public
any other parked aircraft
any unsealed building

The answer points me to CASR 91.475. I looked that up, and that only covers fire extinguishers and needing one no less than 6m and no more than 15m. No mention of any of the available choices.
Incidentally, I knew I had seen this before, as it was covered in my flight schools theory manuals. I dug through my wardrobe to find it in their student pilot handbook for the RPL syllabus, but I did that 2 years ago and there was no way I would recall the specifics (I can barely remember one of them after 5 minutes… I’m terrible at wrote learn). They point me towards CAO 20.9-4.1.1, which again I won’t remember and cannot take with me (however if I WAS permitted to take that CAO I’m sure I would have zero problems answering the question). An bit of research further points me to ac 91-25v1.1 paragraph 12.4.1, again non permitted..

Should I expect questions that are outside the scope of the permitted materials and outside of what is mentioned in the bob taite law book, or is this just a case of some of the sample questions are still behind since the great law rewrite of 2021?

I have decided to press on with my exam on Sat morning and pray I don’t get a batch of these off-syllabus questions that have not been covered. Either that, or I need to try to work out how to take in the other law documents, the ones that are “not permitted” but are required knowledge. This will be an even more interesting area once eaip and the like are implemented (though a great saving to my annual pocket)

Thanks for you book BOB TAIT..

I passed the exam yesterday with 93%.
I can confirm I did not get any questions that were not in the permitted documents, but I did get some questions on sections of the permitted materials I had not read as they were not explicitly mentioned in the theory book. So, best I can say is to read through all the sections of CASR part 91 and at least get familiar with all the headings even if not all the technical contents because there was a question on a section that I spent probably 20 minutes looking for (as I flagged it and then came back at the end as I didn’t think I had done well enough to give away any questions). In the end, I didn’t find the appropriate section and applied my logic to determine a response. When I got out, I did a search in ozrwy documents and was almost surprised to see an entire section on that particular topic in part 91. Like how did I miss that.. oh well..

Thanks again for a good baseline to what we need to learn.

Hello Darkmaize,
Out of curiousity and in complete acknowledgement that you can't reproduce a CASA question, what was the 'ozrwy' topic that answered the question that had you perplexed (and I'm guessing perhaps cost you the 7%) [incidentally, congrats and well done on the high pass mark].
Cheers, Tim

Well, I can't quite remember the question anyway, but I did get the answer correct using logic to eliminate 2 of the options and then had a decision to make between the remaining two, and I selected correctly.

However, had I have taken the time to review Division 91.D.12, I would have identified the answer.