This briefing is created to help candidates understand the purpose of ATP exam.
The exam has 3 parts which shall be successfully validated in this order:
- Theoretical exam: complete successfully the ATP online test
- Practical exam part 1: assessment of aircraft theoretical knowledge and English test
- Practical exam part 2: IFR test flight (including decision making assessment and full briefing) under the guidance of a nominated examiner
Note: After your successful theoretical exam, you can apply for Part 1 of the ATP exam. In case of success of Part 1, you can apply for Part 2. These 2 parts will be conducted in sequence in 2 consecutive sessions.
Before applying for this exam, you shall meet the following requirements:
The theoretical and practical exam can be requested by directly accessing your exam status page. The exam has two parts which shall be successfully validated in this order:
Rule: Requests for practical exams are only possible for members of active divisions. Members of inactive divisions shall have to change to an active division in order to get higher ratings (R&R 4.6.2.1).
Once your exam has been registered, the examiner will contact you via your e-mail address given on your personal details page. Before requesting for the exam, check that this e-mail address is valid since it is the only way for the examiner to get in touch with you.
We recommend you to do a practical training in your division prior to applying for this exam.
Warning: This manual is dedicated only for IVAO Network activities. This document must not be used in real aviation or in other networks
All theoretical exams consist of 20 randomly selected multiple-choice questions (MCQ).
- Each question includes 4 proposed answers among which only one is correct.
- You have a maximum of 45 minutes to fill in the examination paper, and should you exceed this limit, the exam will be automatically recorded as failed (default failed score = 0/100).
- These MCQ exams are automatically corrected (each question will be marked 0 for a wrong answer or 5 for a right answer).
- The pass-mark for the exam is 75/100 (corresponding to at least 15 correct answers).
- The theoretical questions are mainly extracted from our training documentation and software manual.
- The questions are based on ICAO/EU-OPS Rules and Regulations if not stated otherwise in the question.
- The question may be extracted from real ATPL theoretical exam.
Note that you can submit your answers as often as you want during the 45 minutes of the exam. Only the last submission will be taken into account. We greatly recommend you submit your examination paper on a regular basis in order to avoid to be marked 0 if you are disconnected or if you exceed the 45 minutes limit.
After your successful theoretical exam, you can apply for the practical part of the exam without delay.
Warning: Our system does not allow the resetting of theoretical exams, as in this case the same exam will appear again. Consequently, the Training department will always refuse to reset unfilled or timed out exams. In order to shorten the time for applying again, members should save their answers on a regular basis so as to avoid the exam being marked 0 if a disconnection or a time out occurs.
The ATP practical 1 exam is a series of tasks to appreciate :
- your IVAO network knowledge
- your flight experience (real and/or virtual)
- your aircraft theoretical knowledge
- your english proficiency.
A short preliminary interview will review the following items:
Your examiner should log on to the IVAO network using his staff call sign and create a private channel on the TeamSpeak community server (cc.ts.ivao.aero).
Note that your answers/comments relative to these items will not be taken into account in the marking process and are only meant to evaluate your conversational English capabilities.
Your aviation and conversational English capabilities will be assessed based on proper English understanding and answering at the time of interview and aircraft knowledge questioning. Evaluation criteria will be inspired by the ICAO rating scale.
Note that any serious failing in English proficiency will automatically result in an exam failure.
The aircraft theoretical knowledge will only be related to one of the following aircraft:
- Boeing 737 series aircraft
- Airbus A320 series aircraft (A318/A319/A320/A321)
- Boeing 777/200-300 LR/ER series aircraft
- Bombardier Dash-8 Q400
Rule: The examiner will never choose the aircraft. It is your choice and under your responsibily.
Note: Make sure you choose an aircraft you know well and are comfortable with. You will also have to inform your examiner of the aircraft you will use for the exam beforehand.
The examiner may ask you a few questions and/or request you to perform some calculations regarding the following items:
At the time of the exam, your examiner may also pass you some graphs and/or tables for supporting the questions he will ask you.
The training material is available on the IVAO website following the links below:
Training Documentation
Rule: Examinee shall pay attention to the difference of regulations between local procedures for his examination and these documentations issued by a specific country.
Note: The Training department of your division may also publish some recommended material on its web site (either in English or in your own language) and will include the necessary links in the localized version of this document.
General aviation resources:
Weather resources:
Aircraft technical data:
Charts and flight plan resources:
The ATP exam is a series of tasks to appreciate your ability of using the pilot IVAO software, your advanced IFR theoretical knowledge and your advanced IFR flying skills.
Note that English phraseology shall be used during the skills test and optionally for the briefing and debriefing.
Note that these are our minimum standards. Your local division may have set additional requirements that should be published on its web site.
Voice communication is an unconditional requirement for the interview, assessments of theoretical knowledge and spoken English proficiency (Part 1) and flight briefing (Part 2). Therefore, we cannot accept a “text-text” or “text-voice” method due to the incompatibilities with these tasks.
Rule: You shall only use one IVAO Pilot client approved by the HQ training department for the exam. A list of such approved software can be found here.
We strongly recommend voice communication for the exam. We do not recommend a “text-text” or “text-voice” communication method due to the increased level of difficulty and incompatibilities with certain tasks.
Rule: When you are unable to use voice method due to a medical disability or a poor network connection, you shall contact the HQ Training Department before requesting the exam in order to establish an individual procedure.
Rule: You shall use real weather condition enabled. External weather sources are allowed but they shall generate weather as closed as possible of the IVAO METAR.
You should be aware of the following general requirements:
During the flight briefing, your examiner will review and check the necessary information you will have retrieved for preparing your flight.
He may also ask you some questions related to the departing, arrival and/or en-route procedures relevant to the intended flight.
As part of the flight briefing, you will also have to explain in detail the decision you will take in some simulated special situations.
These situations could be unexpected meteorological conditions (e.g. weather conditions at destination airport getting below minima), ground based radio-equipment failures, in particular temporary airport limitations, emergency situations (e.g. flaps or single engine disfunctions, low fuel condition at a certain point of the flight, instrument systems malfunction, electrical issues, medical emergencies, etc).
The test flight will mainly assess the following:
- IFR departure procedure (as published or prescribed by examiner),
- En-route IFR navigation (accuracy of navigation),
- Capability to properly divert to a prescribed airport, complying with all known restrictions,
- Standard IFR arrival procedure via a prescribed or published route,
- Hold over a fix (using the adequate entry procedure for a published or unpublished holding pattern),
- VOR, NDB or localizer-only non-precision approaches,
- Missed approach.
After the exam has ended, you will be requested to make a full analysis of the sequence of events, of the mistakes you identified and the way you managed them.
Certain minimum requirements are expected for some tasks:
The examiner will score separately all required tasks (including both theoretical questions and practical exercises) on a dedicated marking sheet:
- The maximum score is 100 points.
- The pass mark is 75/100.
- The score will reflect the exactness and range of your knowledge (for theoretical data) and your ability to accurately execute the exercises (and your performance in doing so).
In all cases, your examiner will give you the detailed results during the debriefing, so as you can identify your errors and correct them in case the exam is failed.
Note : Should a PC crash occur which is out of the examinee control, the exam will have to start again or will be delayed to take place on another day, the decision being up to the examiner.
Some special situations may result in an automatic exam failure (maximum score of 49/100 or 51/100):
An exam is considered as failed and the practical part will stop immediately or will not be performed if:
Rule: If the examinee fails to arrive for the exam at the time organised, the examiner should wait for 15 minutes. After that period, the examiner can log off the network. The examinee then has 48 hours to provide a valid reason for the failure to attend by e-mail. If no e-mail is received in time the exam will be marked as failed.
After evaluation, your examiner will send his evaluation to the training directors who will assign a validator.
The validator will verify the marking based on the comments and marking sheet of the examiner.
If your exam is validated as a success your rating will be updated at 1200z the following day.
The validation process needs a validation delay estimated from one day minimum to an average maximum of one week.
Rule: In case of failure (any part), a 6-month delay should be recommended by the examiner before being in a position to apply for a new exam.
Consequently, we strongly advise candidates to train and prepare carefully before going for it.
Note that this delay may be revised by the TD/TAD and exceptions can be granted in specific cases.
As an ATP rating holder, people are looking at you as an example of what to aim for.
Therefore, we expect you to be a good representative of your ATP rating at all times on the network.
Continue flying on the network with the same degree of accuracy, mastering your aircraft, complying with regulations and participating to events, trainings and exams.
Rule: Failure to maintain high standards when conducting a flight on the network may lead to the removal of your ATP rating.
Rule: The TD/TAD reserve the right to downgrade the user to CP rating.
¶ AUTHOR
VID 150259 TDAM - Update 03 January 2020 - New Wiki integration and rewording.
2023 - Final Wiki.js integration and corrections (514786 - TDM)
¶ COPYRIGHT and DISCLAIMER
This documentation is copyrighted as part of the intellectual property of the International Virtual Aviation Organisation.
The content of this documentation is intended for aviation simulation only and must not be used for real aviation operation