Private Pilot Licence Exam

PPL Exam Sittings

Failing an examination is indicative of knowledge deficiency, which is a safety-related issue. Therefore CASA requires the unsuccessful candidate to undergo re-training before re-attempting the examination. The re-training period for PPL examination is 7 days. If a candidate fails three consecutive PPL examinations, there can be no doubt that the candidate has not prepared sufficiently or even at all, and therefore requires a longer re-training period. The re-training period will be extended to ensure that the candidate re-trains to a satisfactory standard before re-attempting the examination.

CASA PPL Exams

The CASA aeroplane and helicopter PPL exams (PPLA and PPLH respectively) are each single-paper exam which tests all the seven subjects listed in the Day VFR Syllabus.

PPLA/PPLH exam details are:

Pass score – not less than 70%
Exam duration – 3.5 hours
Question style – ‘multi-choice’ & ‘supply answer’ (only of numerical value)
Number of questions – from 55 to 60
Marks per question – vary from 1 to 3

Exam availability

PPL examinations are available to authorised Supervisors through flying schools using the CyberExams system. Examinations may be accessed, in accordance with the procedures detailed in the CyberExams Supervisor Handbook, during normal business hours (0800 - 1800 local time), every day.

Sample questions

Sample questions are available for PPL exams.

Material required/permitted for exams

All CASA flight crew exams require material that may be provided by the supervisor or/and (required to be) supplied by the candidate him/herself.

Exam material 'provided' will be the responsibility of the approved supervisor. Material 'required' of the candidate shall be the responsibility of the candidate.

Practice exam

A CyberExams 'Practice Exam' facility is available to demonstrate the CASA screen-based flight crew exam. Candidates are advised to utilise this facility to familiarise themselves with a typical CyberExams examination.

(The practice examination requires Intenet Explorer 5.5 or later on Windows with full screen (800x600) mode. Use 'F11' to toggle between full screen and normal mode.)

KDR

The KDR for a PPL examination, that is issued with the result advice for a completed examination, lists the syllabus items the candidate has not answered correctly.

Re-training periods

Failing an examination is indicative of a candidate's knowledge deficiency. CASA requires the unsuccessful candidate to undergo adequate re-training before re-attempting the examination. The re-training periods required for the Private Pilot Licence Examination is 7 days. For more information see Re-training Requirements.

Conversion of overseas licences

Pilots seeking to convert an overseas private pilot licence to the Australian equivalent need to pass the relevant overseas conversion examination for aeroplanes or helicopters.

Results with the KDR are available virtually immediately after the completion of the exam.

Cost

CASAs fee for the PPL exam remains at $65. The overseas conversion exam is also $65. Flying School Testing Centres may charge their own conducting fees. Candidates should confirm these fees prior to booking exams.

Exam References

Apart from CASA (and Airservices) publications and exam support material, such as the CAR, CAO, AIP complete (including ERSA, charts, AIC), CAAP, Bell 206 Operations Handbook (for PPLH exam), aeroplane performance and loading handbook, CAA operational notes on radio aids, etc, the publications that may be useful references for studying to the Day VFR syllabus (Aeroplane and Helicopter) are listed to assist candidates and instructors source study material.

Candidates and instructors may select and use these publications at their own discretion. CASA shall not be responsible for any errors contained in these books. Exam references.

The Day VFR Workbook (including corrections to Loading System Alpha, Figure 7, page 11) is available for exam candidates and aeronautical knowledge training schools to download for their training.*

The Bell 206L-1 Long Ranger II Performance & Operations Handbook may be downloaded for training purposes.*

* CASA continues to retain copyrights of the documents. The download is cost-free. In this respect, a condition for Australian flying training schools and flight crew exam candidates to download these CASA documents is that the documents must not be sold on a commercial basis, and to be used only for training purposes. However, flying training schools downloading the documents for use by their students may cost-recover (without profit) for the printing and, where applicable, binding services.

Schools having access to CyberExams and providing the downloaded Day VFR Workbook for PPL exam candidates may also include cost-recovery charges in their supervision fees.

The Day VFR Workbook used in PPL-type exams must be properly bound to prevent the pages coming loose before, during and after the exam session; the minimum binding accepted for PPL exam use shall comprise not less than 3 strongly stapled position on the 'spine' of the document.

In a post-exam check of the retrieved Workbook, the supervisor shall ensure there is no missing leaf or leaves. Where a missing leaf cannot be accounted for, the case has to be reported to CASA Flight Crew Licensing Sect as a possible breach under CAR (1988) 298A. A recovered leaf, only when found to have manuscript notations, scribblings, working calculations or/and any information associated with exam questions, must be similarly reported.

Supervisors holding stocks of the VFR (DAY) Work Booklet - Version 2.2 September 1998 may continue using this version until the stock is completely used up, as there are only minor differences between the two Workbook versions, and which do not affect the correct answering of exam questions. However, supervisors should not print and hold stocks of the new Version 3.0 for use beyond 31 December 2011, as amendments to some of the loading systems are expected for the new year (2012).

Day VFR Work Booklet for Flight Crew Licence Examinations

Some earlier 'Australian standard' performance graphs may continue to be used for training in conjunction with the Day VFR (Aeroplane) syllabus. While in practice these 'Australian' type graphs are or have been being replaced by those published in the Manufacturer's Flight Manual/POH, their employment in training and examinations still represent useful training methodologies for extracting operational data from aeroplane performance graphs.

Therefore, CASA examinations for the Day VFR syllabus continue to be based on questions written to the earlier 'Australian' type performance graphs. CASA will introduce new sets of Manufacturers' type performance graphs when new questions have been written on them.