Hi all,
Thanks to BT for the text, assistance on the forum. Much appreciated!
I sat the IREX on Friday, this is my feedback.
The exam on the whole is straight forward and having been through the BT home study text was more or less ready after 2 weeks of specific prep following study for CPL Air Law. Most of the questions were very similar to those in the text but there were about 8 questions that force you into a bit of a corner. In other words if you know everything in the book you will pass no issues despite some mystery challenge questions.
Question breakdown:
Majority were operational Met type questions, alternate type questions and fuel planning questions (requiring you to enter a specific figure - not multiple choice). There were very few orientation, NDB tracking type questions and the rest of the split was similar to the practice exams. When can you descend on a visual approach, lighting alternate requirements, nav aid requirements for navigation and approaches, those type of questions were all as per the book.
Things I found I didn't have much exposure to but found in the exam:
TCU mentioned in TAFs without TS PROB or INTER endorsement which doesn't seem to sync with AIP GEN 3.5 (12.12.6). Do you need to treat the mentioning of TCU as TS?
Calculation of LSALT type questions ask either for the 'Area to be considered' meaning the total area including 5nm buffer or they will ask for example, the area will 'include an area' centred on B with radius of x nm meaning just the area without the 5nm buffer. I wish I was clearer on that and it seems that is the trick with those questions. The actual question I got was for the whole area to be considered where your departure point (A) didn't have an aid but the destination (
did but had a 40nm range (so didn't come in range to reduce the area around
. The wording is straight out of AIP GEN 3.3 (4.6).
DME/GNSS arrival recency - These are an approach 'procedure' and all recency in part 61 references approach operations or in the 61.875 include at least one instrument 'approach'. What's the recency requirement for SP IFR DME/GNSS arrival? You need to be very specific and choose between 'an NDB approach in the last 90 days' or a '2D approach in the last 90 days' for example.
I had a question relating to having a 129 GPS and ADF and needing to select an appropriate alternate none of which had an NDB in range of the destination or at all. AIP says 'should' be navigated to the alternate via ground based aids but I'm not sure this was considered in the answer AIP GEN 1.5 (2.1).
DME limit question. Given a certain flight level at a particular hold with a DME limit specified what is the maximum extent of the outbound leg (or similar). Is it time or DME or just the DME limit? The AIP says it's time based or where a DME limit exists, time or the DME limit specified on the chart AIP ENR 1.5 (3.3.1 (c)). I read this to mean 1.5 min or the DME limit, whichever comes first but this isn't the case it appears. Can someone clarify?
Use the ERSA GEN - FIS - 1 info for choosing an AERIS frequency not the ERC.
I ended up with 10% less on the actual exam than my average for the practice tests for interest. I hope this helps, basically these were the things I was not totally clear on and found ambiguous in the AIP or text and of course, they came up in the exam.
Updates needed in the book (print), maybe:
Set 3 Q7 - New fuel rules
Set 4 Q3 - T-VASIS replaced with PAPI at YCOM.
Set 4 Q6 - Update reference in answer to AIP ENR 1.1 (4.1.4.3)
Set 6 Q5 - New fuel rules
Set 7 Q5 - Mag track change from Mudgee to Dubbo (280 not 281 so not in sector A anymore?)
Operational Met
Q13 - potentially needs updating to newer release cycle numbers
Q19 - AIRMET - A/c at or below 10000ft not FL200. AIP GEN 3.5 (5.3.2)?
Can you add questions that have TCU but no TS forecast?
Exam 3 Q7 - Could you not use the LOC approach (RWY has HIAL so met minima would be 412 -2.0)?
Cheers
