Pilots licence exam set to get tougher

New Delhi: Students taking the Commercial Pilots Licence (CPL) exam had better gird themselves for a tougher time ahead. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the top regulatory body for civil aviation in India, is planning to change the syllabus and the number of papers.
Presently, students have to give five papers for five subjects. This will be increased to nine subjects, though the papers will be decreased to three, says a senior DGCA official. Each paper will cover three subjects. “The syllabus will be in accordance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) norms. In fact, even the FAA of US and JAA of Europe have some nine papers,” he says.
How soon would these changes take place? About a year, says the official, as formalities will have to be completed. Presently, students have to write five papers — navigation, meteorology, regulation, technical and specific. To these, four more papers will be added — human factor, operational procedure, radio telephony and one more. The radio telephony paper is now conducted by the ministry of communication, but DGCA proposes it be brought within its ambit.
The human factor paper has been taken from a bulletin issued by Airbus Industrie and deals with psychological and human error. “Almost 70% of air accidents occur due to human error. We want future pilots to analyse their own psychology, so that these would be reduced,” says the official.
The operational procedure paper will deal with landing a plane using instruments on the ground and will have charts and route navigation questions, including those related to various navigational systems such as ILS (Instrument Landing System) and VOR (VHF Omnidirectional Range).
However, it’s yet to be decided how many papers students with foreign licences will need to take. Presently, they have to write two papers — regulations and composite (navigation and meteorology).
11/11/07 Shobha John/Times of India