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ATPL subject 033

ATPL Flight Planning: what it covers and how to study it

Flight Planning (subject 033) puts the earlier subjects to work: planning a flight from start to finish, working out the route and the fuel, and monitoring the flight as it progresses.

By Matthew Dowell, airline training captain and Chief Flight Instructor. A revision guide, not approved by any regulator. Your training organisation sets the syllabus and exam rules, and regulations always take precedence.

What the Flight Planning paper covers

• Navigation logs and route planning
• Charts and flight plan forms
• The fuel scheme: what you must carry and why
• Flight monitoring and in-flight replanning
• Using the information the other subjects provide

Where students find it hard

The paper combines many small calculations, and an early slip carries through the whole answer. Students often struggle with the fuel scheme because each component has its own rule, and with reading charts accurately under time pressure.

How to study Flight Planning

• Learn the fuel scheme one component at a time, then put the parts together.
• Work full planning exercises from start to finish, not only isolated calculations.
• Keep a tidy layout so you can find and check an earlier step.

The Mastering ATPL book for this subject

The Mastering ATPL Flight Planning book is available on Amazon and through the Other stores links.

Mastering ATPL · Subject 033

Flight Planning

Navigation logs, charts, the fuel scheme and in-flight monitoring.

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Also on Amazon in Europe: Amazon.de · Amazon.fr · Amazon.es · Amazon.it · Amazon.nl

How this book is organised

The book follows the topics listed above, in turn, starting with navigation logs and route planning; charts and flight plan forms; the fuel scheme, so you can see which part of the paper you are covering at any point. It is a complete revision guide and question bank built on the full published learning objectives for the subject, and it ends with a mock examination weighted as the real one. Work through a section, test yourself on it, and keep the mock examination for the end, under timed conditions.

Related subjects

• ATPL Mass and Balance
• ATPL Performance
• ATPL General Navigation
• ATPL Human Performance and Limitations

See also: all 13 ATPL subjects and 14 study guides · how the EASA ATPL exams work · what order to study and sit the papers · Flight Planning in the airline technical interview.