Advanced Flight Review: Thoughts

Owned by Sahil Kale
2021-12-03
2 min read

Background

  • @Sahil Kale took the test on Dec 3, 2021

  • Used a DJI Spark

Raw Commentary & Thoughts

The test wasn’t hard, though it took about 45 min start to end. What saved me was 2 things:

  • The fact that I had a PPL & GPL

  • Overpreparing my documentation such as checklists etc

The test was broken down into 3 phases:

  • Documentation

  • Verbal Briefing

  • Flying portion

Honestly, the only thing that really seemed to matter was the verbal briefing. Everything else was quite trivial

Documentation

The following docs need to be with you:

  • Drone pilot licence (Basic Ops)

  • Some form of ID

  • Drone Registration

  • Advanced Written Test results

Should be pretty speedy.

Verbal Briefing

I’ll be honest, had I not had a previous flying background, I would’ve failed this test instantly.

This went down as a “show me the docs for mission planning” and slowly spiralled down to specific points.

Some questions asked:

  • What is class F airspace?

  • What privileges do you have as an advanced drone pilot?

  • What airspace are we in?

  • Difference between accident & incident?

  • Map reading skills (airspace & restricted area identification)

  • What kinds of things do you need to brief a visual observer

  • Max altitude permissible in a drone

  • Emergency procedures

  • What is return-to-home?

  • What runway is in use? What is the traffic pattern at CYKF?

  • Difference between METAR & TAF

  • What can and can you not fly over/around given the testing site?

  • What would you do differently if you needed to fly at CYKF?

These questions were seemingly trivial to me, but what caught me off guard was the fact that I only know the answer to most of these questions as a result of my previous flying experience and not as a result of my exactly 30 min of googling “drone flying regulations”.

I would HIGHLY recommend memorizing basically all of airlaw & flight operations modules as they will be verbally assessed. The tester commented on the fact that my previous aviation background made this part of the test quite easy and usually the verbal is what gets people as you can be tested on the most minute of things.

Flying Portion

Legit the easiest part. Took off, flew around an obstacle, fly a box without yawing (i.e. only horizontal translation permitted), and land. Use a drone that’s simple and OTS, and the flying is insanely hard to mess up.

  • The only thing to note is you will be asked to visually estimate the altitude of your drone