Air Navigation

Solar system, seasonal/apparent sun movements, the earth, great circles, rhumb lines, convergency, conversion angle, latitude, longitude, time conversions (UTC/LMT/standard), international dateline, directions, terrestrial magnetism, units of distance.

Terrestrial magnetism, earth's total magnetic force (vertical/horizontal components), directive force, magnetic dip, variation, aircraft magnetism (hard iron/vertical soft iron), turning & acceleration errors, direct reading & remote reading compasses, serviceability tests, compass adjustment.

Mercator, Lambert conformal conic, polar stereographic, transverse Mercator, oblique Mercator — properties, representation of meridians/parallels/great circles/rhumb lines. Use of aeronautical charts: plotting positions, scale, conventional signs, measuring tracks & distances, plotting bearings.

Track, heading (compass/magnetic/true/grid), wind velocity, airspeed (IAS/CAS/TAS/Mach), groundspeed, ETA, drift, wind correction angle, DR position, navigational computer (speed/time/distance/fuel/conversions), triangle of velocities, DR position determination, max range, radius of action, PSR, PET.

Use of visual observations, navigation in climb & descent (average airspeed, average wind velocity, ground speed during climb/descent), navigation in cruising flight (groundspeed revision, off-track corrections, wind calculation, ETA revisions), flight log.

Centre of gravity definition, importance for aircraft stability, mass and balance terminology (empty mass, dry operating mass, zero fuel mass, standard masses, useful load), effects of overloading, datum, moment arm, moment, CG calculation, expression in % MAC, effect of load-shift.

Definitions of terms and speeds, take-off and landing performance, effect of aeroplane mass/wind/density altitude/runway slope/runway conditions, use of AFM data, climb & cruise performance, effect of density altitude and mass, endurance, still air range with various power settings.

New terms for multi-engine performance, take-off and landing distances, obstacle clearance at take-off, rate of climb/descent, effects of power settings/speeds/configuration, cruise altitudes and ceiling, en-route requirements, payload/range and speed/economy trade-offs, performance graphs and flight manual.

Navigation plan (route, terrain/obstacle clearance, wind forecast, heading/groundspeed/ETA computation), fuel plan (fuel log, holding/diversion/reserve fuel), in-flight re-planning, ICAO ATC flight plan (format, completing, filing, adherence), practical chart preparation and flight plan completion.

Ground D/F, ADF & NDB (principles, presentation, range, errors), VOR & Doppler VOR (principles, coverage, errors), DME, ILS (principles, presentation, coverage, errors), SSR & transponder (modes/codes including Mode S), GPS/GLONASS (principle, advantages, disadvantages).

Air data instruments: pitot-static system, altimeter, ASI (IAS, coloured sectors, VMO/MMO), VSI (aneroid & IVSI). Gyroscopic instruments: gyro fundamentals (stability, precession, types, ring laser gyro), directional gyro, slaved gyro compass, attitude indicator, turn & bank indicator, turn coordinator. Magnetic compass: construction, errors.

Pressure gauge, temperature gauge (ram rise, recovery factor), RPM indicator, fuel flowmeter, fuel gauge (volume/mass, measuring sensors), torque meter. EFIS, EICAS, ECAM, FMS basics. Radio propagation: EM waves, wavelength/amplitude/phase/frequency, frequency bands, carrier/modulation/demodulation, antennas, ground/space wave, MUF, fading.