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.

Shape of the Earth, poles and equator, latitude/longitude, d-lat and d-long, true/magnetic/compass direction and position expression. Study notes with practice Q&A.

Great circle and rhumb line properties, vertices, track direction changes and when each is used for navigation. Study notes.

The Earth's magnetic field, variation and isogonals, dip, deviation, and compass-to-true conversions. Study notes with practice Q&A.

The 1 in 60 rule — track error angle, closing angle and distance off track, with fully worked examples. Study notes.

Applying the 1 in 60 rule in flight — regaining track, heading corrections and revised ETAs, with worked problems. Study notes.

Glide-path heights, rates of descent, base-of-cloud calculations and other practical 1 in 60 applications. Study notes.

Topographical chart features, relief, scale, map-reading technique and visual fix selection. Study notes with practice Q&A.

Convergency between meridians, conversion angle between great circle and rhumb line tracks, with worked examples. Study notes.

East-west distance along a parallel: the departure formula and all its rearrangements, dual-latitude ratio problems, the box pattern trap — with fully solved DGCA-style questions.

Chart scale — representative fraction, statement in words and graduated scale line; scale conversions and typical DGCA scale calculations.

Perspective and mathematical projections, orthomorphism and conformality conditions, and how charts are classified by projection surface.

Mercator projection properties — meridians and parallels, scale expansion with latitude, rhumb lines and great circles, plotting and measurement.

Lambert conformal conic chart — standard parallels, parallel of origin, constant of the cone, chart convergence, great circles and rhumb lines.

Polar stereographic projection — properties, scale variation, grid navigation and plotting in polar regions.

The solar system, Earth's orbit and rotation, apparent and mean solar time, and LMT/UTC fundamentals.

Time conversions — LMT, UTC, standard and zone time; arc-to-time; and the international date line.

Sunrise, sunset and twilight — definitions, almanac tables, and how they vary with latitude and season.

Direct indicating compass — construction, horizontality, sensitivity and aperiodicity, serviceability checks, turning and acceleration errors.

Hard iron and soft iron magnetism, deviation and its correction, and compass swing fundamentals.

Mixed general navigation problems bringing together departure, charts, time and compass topics — exam-style practice with solutions.

Full revision question set for General Navigation — test yourself chapter by chapter before the exam.