At some point in life of every ATPL student comes that delicate moment when it is time to sit the “externals”. The flavour of the process and your success chance depends not only on the time you spend revising subjects, but crucially on the rules and practices set-up by the local civil aviation authority.

The aim of this article is to explain the process of sitting official ATPL exams in Spain under supervision of SENASA and provide some guidance and tips on the tools you will be provided with.

What is SENASA?

This is a legitimate question for people who are not familiar with the subject. SENASA is an organisation and its name is an abbreviation which stands for:

“Servicios y Estudios para la Navegación Aérea y la Seguridad Aeronáutica”

which is translated directly (by Google) as

“Services and Studies for Air Navigation and Aeronautical Safety”

In simple terms and for the purpose of this article SENASA is the organisation contracted by AESA (Spanish Aviation Safety Agency) to be responsible for preparing, conducting and supervising ATPL examinations in Spain.

Booking an exam

ATPL exams can only be booked by an approved flying school directly with SENASA using a dedicated portal. Rules among flying schools might vary somewhat, but generally you won’t be allowed to book an official exam with SENASA until your school is reasonably sure that chances of your success are high.

A whole section can be dedicated to the art of booking ATPL exams, what subjects go to which group, associated fees, etc. Maybe at one point I’ll get this article updated to include all of this information, but for now the only tip which should be mentioned is – try to book VFR/IFR communications as your first exams. They are relatively easy subjects and you will not feel too much under pressure sitting them which will allow you to familiarise yourself with the whole process better.

Typically waiting times are around 1+ months until the first available slot.

Getting there

The main SENASA headquarters are located in Madird near the Barajas Airport. The complex is huge with lots of buildings and can be not at all trivial to navigate around if you are not familiar with the layout.

Couple of main points:

• • • It is possible to drive there and free parking is available
    • Walking time from the nearest public transport station is ~10 minutes
    • The examination building is on the south side of the complex

Below is the map which shows the main points of interest at SENASA as well as directions:

Locating the exam room

Once you have finally located and entered the building it might not be that unreasonable to expect a receptionist, a sign with directions or anything at all really which would at least indicate that you are at the right place and how to find the examination room. Unfortunately, you do not get any of that. It is just a typical and rather grim looking office.

The exam room is located on the second floor. Use lifts/stairs which can be found to the right of the entrance through what looks like double emergency exit doors with push bars- do not worry it is safe to open them. Once on the second floor the exam room is the last room on the left down the corridor.

Before the exam

You are allowed to enter the examination room in a 20 minute window starting from 10 minutes before the scheduled examination time. You are not allowed to be even a single minute late in which case you most likely won’t be admitted by the invigilators. So make sure to arrive well before your examination appointment and spend time getting used to the place, relax and read. There is a quiet room which is located opposite and slightly prior to the examination room. Use it! The calmer you are at the exam the better your will perform.

Coffee/Drinks/Snacks

Vending machines can be found on the ground floor slightly further down the corridor on the right. Both cash and cards are accepted.

At the exam

Exams are conducted in what can be best described as a small lecture hall. The floor is pitched with the invigilators desk located at the bottom and examination stations spread out on higher tiers. Overall there are several dozen exam stations each uniquely labeled. Once you enter the room, you have to:

• • remove your watch
  • place all of your belongings into the lockers by the entrance
  • take your ID document to the invigilators desk

An invigilator will check your ID and give you a piece of paper which will have your exam station number and login details printed on it. You will also most likely be instructed to place your ID back into the locker.

If you require pen and paper – ask an invigilator before the exam or raise your hand during the exam and wait to be attended to.

Allowed personal items

• • Flight Computer (CRP-1/5, E6B, CR-3)

Yes, that is it. No other items are allowed. No plotters. No own pencils. No own paper. No own calculator. Nothing at all. Also be prepared to have every nook and cranny of your flight computer to be vigorously examined. They will want to make sure the flight computer does not have any formulas printed on it. Once you are ready, head over to your examination station.

Exam computer

The setup is extremely minimal – just a display and a mouse. Keyboards are stowed away and are not allowed to be used. The software is in Spanish, but it is totally straightforward to figure out what needs to be done.

1. 1. .

The first screen states Terms and Conditions which must be accepted in order to proceed.

1. 2. .

Enter the credentials received from invigilators using the on-screen keyboard.

1. 3. .

Confirm that your name, examination subject and language are as expected. Exam timer will start as soon as you confirm the session details by clicking “Aceptar”.

1. 4. .

The exam will start and the first question will be displayed.

Calculator

Since physical calculators are forbidden SENASA provides candidates with an on-screen version. When you click on the calculator symbol at the top of the screen a popup will appear and a calculator will be displayed. The calculator provided at the exam is exactly the same as available at the following page:

http://www.senasa.es/demosfcl/calc/calculadora.htm

Hence it is highly advisable to familiarise yourself with it thoroughly and practice solving problems from question banks using only the calculator which will be provided at the exam. Automating common motions in advance will save you valuable time later.

Annex Viewer/Charting

While provided calculator might be OK, Annex Viewer is nowhere near the level which can be deemed acceptable. Both the quality of attached documents as well as functionality is extremely poor. Students who have been practicing chart work using tools provided by well-known ATPL question bank databases might be in for a major shock as the gap is truly humongous. There are only three basic chart utilities available.

Distance

Allows to measure the distance between two arbitrary points. The gotcha is that it is not possible to measure multiple distances at the same time! This might be OK, but for example in FPM there are questions which ask you to pinpoint a location given distances from two DMEs. Suddenly what can be seen as a trivial task becomes a tricky one when you are forced to clear the screen after each measurement.

Be careful! The distance displayed is supposed to be in NM already, but I have found that sometimes measurement was not precise, so always double-check against a meridian and scale appropriately if required.

Lines

Allows to draw a line with an unlimited number of intermediate vertices. Again, the trick is that while it is possible to draw an arbitrary long line only a single line is allowed to be drawn at a time! That means you cannot end one line and start drawing another – the previous line will be cleared. This makes certain chart problems requiring two or more entry points rather cumbersome. A simple trick is to just use a single continuous line going around the edges towards the next entry point/intersection.

Wind-rose

Very primitive rotating wind rose with a single vector emerging from the center. Might be quite difficult to get a precise angle read-out mainly due to poor quality of annexes but also because wind-rose numbers are quite small and its radius quite big making it hard to align precisely.  Also as with other tools only a single angle is allowed to be measured at a time.

Try it out!

Nothing beats first-hand experience, therefore in order to get the best understanding of what awaits you at the exam try using Annex Viewer yourself. I have managed to extract the official Annex Viewer application from SENASA website and enhance it by including a few practice charts. Download SenasaAnnexViewer, double-click the downloaded file (requires Java to be installed) and enjoy. Just keep in mind that annexes which I have included are of a better quality than those you will get during the exam.

In case after double-clicking on the file you get a warning similar to the one below:

Open a command-line terminal, navigate to the folder where the SenasaAnnexViewer.jar file has been downloaded and type:

java -jar SenasaAnnexViewer.jar

After the exam

Once you are done with all of the questions, click “FINALIZAR” in the upper-right corner of the screen. A popup will be displayed where you must click “Aceptar”.

Do not get up yet! Wait at your station for an invigilator to attend. You will be given a print-out of your chosen answers for each question. Cross-check it with the information you have on the screen and then sign it. Bring the signed paper to invigilators desk at which point you will be given another print-out containing your results.

Thus you will know your mark immediately after your sitting.

Final thoughts

Practice, practice, practice. The more familiar you are with the process, layout, environment and available tools the better you will perform at the exam. Meanwhile I will be updating this page periodically with more information and tips.

Best of luck!

(+26 rating, 16 votes)
Loading...