BIR posts moved to BIR thread
Please don’t rename threads prematurely/unnecessarily.
The new name steers the conversation in a different direction than intended.
Yes, there is an element of comparison, but the main focus is the CBIR in general.
Would you be kind enough to change it back please?
I changed it to the question you posted
How do each of the exams compare to a) the PPL / IR(R) exams that I have already completed and b) the full ATPL ones?
That question actually comes up quite often.
We have so many threads on these topics, and most people never use Search before posting. We try to keep EuroGA informative, while all other forums run to optimise advert clicks and so encourage as many threads as possible regardless of anything.
I don’t always get it right, for sure.
When authoring the subject line, I had hoped that this thread could have a wider scope than just comparisons between the different options. I have a few questions relating to the CBIR TK exams and rather hoped I could ask them all in one conversation rather than spawning a bunch of new threads unnecessarily. This is inline with your thinking above. Narrowing the subject in this way has exactly the opposite to the desired effect. Please consider reversing the name change to cover the subject more broadly. I’m okay with starting up new threads for different questions; however other forums that I visit tend to frown on it.
Can you suggest a title?
I’m doing the UK CAA ATPL theory now with Bristol Ground School. It is significantly more than the CBIR theory – at least twice as much.
I decided to do it that way as I plan to (eventually) take the FI course, which requires CPL theory, and CPL theory is not a superset of CBIR.
If you have no commercial/FI aspirations, and little/no interest in learning things for the sake of it, I would just do the CBIR theory. The only gotcha is that if you send up in a shiny expensive turbine, there will be more exams to do, but I suspect a drop in the ocean in terms of overall time and cost.
Can you suggest a title?
I thought the original title was adequate: “Competency Based Instrument Rating (CBIR) Theoretical Exams”
Thanks Peter.
Thanks Winston. Considering my present aspirations, I think the ATPL exams would be a step too far.
Why not use an existing CBIR thread? A search on CBIR finds this lot.
In particular this one.
I am on holiday right now.
The so-called “ATPL” exams is a set of 13 exams (used to be 14) which constituted the 1990s JAA CPL/IR question bank, later became the EASA CPL/IR, and are now used by both the UK and EASA-land. They are a composite set for PPL + CPL + IR and then if you get a PPL + CPL + IR + ME and get a job in a Part 25 (multi pilot) aircraft, after 500hrs in the RHS you can have the CPL/IR (called “frozen ATPL”) converted to an ATPL, with some version of an LPC.
So nobody should do the “ATPL” exams unless they want a commercial transport job, in a multi pilot TP or jet.
If you are a private pilot, this is pointless. Just get PPL + NQ + CBIR and you are done.
Or the FAA PPL/IR (which nowadays needs a fair bit of US stay) and then clock up 50hrs IFR PIC and convert via the ICAO IR to CBIR conversion route.
This writeup describes the JAA IR but the CBIR is almost the same, in training and exams. And country-specific procedure in the UK. The main difference is the ICAO IR to CBIR conversion route (zero exams) and one can do more with a freelance IRI (but they are very rare).
If one has PPL + NQ + CBIR, is there a nice upgrade to become a FI or would you have to complete another bunch of TK exams?