CPL Ground classes

1. Air Navigation (General Navigation):

• Basics of Aviation: You learn about Basics of navigation in this part such as about our solar system, you learn time conversions where you learn how to know the present time of a location in different time zones. You get to see which units of measurement of distance and height and several factors are used in aviation and how to convert from one unit to another one.

• Magnetism and Compasses: In this part you learn about Earth magnetism as well as about Aircraft magnetism. You also learn about several errors that occur during the use of magnetic compass for navigation and learn how to fix them.

• Charts: In this part you learn about general properties of various projection (types of charts) and learn about different uses of each projection.

• Dead Reckoning Navigation (DR): This is one of the most interesting topics in the subject. This part contains most numerical questions. In this you learn various terms such as Track, Heading, Airspeed (IAS, CAS, EAS, TAS, Mach number), Ground Speed, Air correction and much more. Here you also learn to use a Navigation Computer such as CX3 which you use to calculate various aspects. You learn to calculate position of aircraft with help of track and headings. You calculate the maximum range of aircraft and much more.

• In-flight Navigation: You learn about navigation in all phases of your flight by calculating airspeed, wind speed and learn how to correct and revise your groundspeed, ETA.

        2.  Mass and Balance – Aeroplanes:

• Introduction to Mass and Balance: You learn about basic terms used for calculation of mass and balance such as Centre of gravity (CG). You also learn about limits under which your aircraft should be for safe T/O and Landings. We learn about various factors that determine maximum permissible mass of aircraft such as runway length, weather conditions, etc. We also learn about pitching moments of aircraft and stability of aircraft.

• Loading: We get to know about various terminologies such as Empty mass, Dry Operating Mass (DOM), Zero fuel mass, Payload and much more. We also learn about the effects of overloading an aircraft of its take off and landing distance and performance.

• Centre of gravity: We learn about cg calculations, movement of cg during the duration of flight and position at which cg is located. We also learn about terminology known as Datum and Moment Arm.

• Performance: We learn about performance of both multi and single engine aircrafts such as effects of mass, wind, density, altitude which effects take-off and landing performance of an aircraft. We also learn about cruise performance of the aircraft in this section.

• Flight Planning and Monitoring – Aeroplanes: We learn about flight planning and the requirements for a specific route. We learn to calculate fuel required, our ground speed in accordance to wind speed and TAS, calculation of actual fuel consumption and more. We also see and learn about the ICAO ATC flight plan and its components. 

• Radio Navigation: In this part we learn about various radio aids available for us as pilots and how to use them. You will learn about radio aids such as Ground D/F, ADF(NDB), VOR, DME, ILS, SSR and GPS/GLONASS. 

• Instrument Navigation: In this part we learn about Instruments available for us on flight and their principal of operation. We learn about a pilot’s six pack ( ASI, Altimeter, VSI, Artificial horizon, Turn and slip indicator and RMI/Heading Indicator). We also see properties of gyro and which instruments work on them. We also learn the principle of operation of various gauges available on aircraft and how to read them. This part mostly consists of theory.

This exam is of 100 marks and contains 50 questions carrying 2 marks each. You have to score 70 marks to pass this exam i.e., you need to have at least 35 questions right out of 50 questions to pass. This exam contains theory-based questions with very few NIL numericals. The syllabus for the Air Regulation exam is as follows:

• Air Regulations: You’ll learn about conventions and international agreements used in aviation. In this we’ll mostly learn about annexures by DGCA and Air navigation rules. You also learn about Air Traffic Services and Aeronautical information Service. You will see a few sections of CARs and national laws.

• Human Performance and Limitations: We see limitations of humans in this and learn how to become competent pilot. We also see what proficiency and professionalism is. Flight safety concepts are covered here. We see composition, gas laws, oxygen requirements of tissues and pressure difference effects on our body. We also learn about spatial disorientation, illusions, approach and landing problems. This topic also focuses on personal hygiene, common minor ailments such as common cold. We also learn about rules related to alcohol consumption and rules related to flying after scuba diving. We see different types of personalities being taught here and advantages/disadvantages of cockpit automation.

• Operational Procedures: We learn about operational procedures in Special and emergency situations in flight. We see procedures to carry persons with reduced mobility, ashes of cremated ones and many special cases. We learn about FDTL and minimum crew that should be available on board. Equipment required for low visibility operations is also taught here. We learn what is Minimum equipment list (MEL). Actions to take if fire/smoke occurs, depressurization, windshear occurs as well as if any hijack occurs on flight. Transportation of dangerous goods is also taught here. We also learn about VFR and IFR communications and procedures in different situations of communication failure.