Getting Your Private Pilot License – The Written Test
20 March 2019 | Updated on February 05, 2024
This post is part of the story series Getting Your Private Pilot License.
As a glider pilot with about 220 flying hours, I finally decided to take the jump and start my Private Pilot training in June 2018. In this series, I share my experiences of getting my Private Pilot License in Belgium. From preparing for my first lesson, to my first solo flights and ultimately my checkride.
I hope these articles will be able to help you get the most out of your own flight training!
After all the studying, it was finally time to take the PPL(A) written test.
As I explained in a previous story, I followed the PPL ground school at BAFA, a flight school at Antwerp Airport. The main reason I I went with them is that they offered a distance-learning course, with just 3 Saturdays of classroom-sessions and the rest study at home.
After taking the course, answering almost 1000 multiple-choice database questions and taking a progress check, I was signed off to take the written exam in Brussels. I emailed them the documents and scheduled my exam for March 19th, 2019.
Because I hold an EASA SPL (Sailplane Pilot License), I received credits for about half the PPL subjects. This means, I only had to take 5 subjects instead of 9.
My exam was scheduled for 8h30 on Tuesday morning. I knew from friends who went recently that the exam itself would be a lot easier than the question database we had from BAFA. If I would be able to answer those questions correctly and pass the internal progress test, the exam would be a piece of cake.. But still, I was nervous.
Depending on the subject, weĀ had 30 – 60min to finish each subject.Ā Once we finished a subject we could click through to the next ones. There was no minimum time, so as soon as you finished a subject you could go on to the next until all of them were finished.
Except for a few longer questions requiring some extra math, all in all, the questions were doable and I had quite a good feeling after finishing the exam.
I head over to the lady at the desk who checked my results…Ā AND I PASSED! I was so happy all the studying had finally paid off š
All that’s left now is the remaining few dual hours I need to meet the requirements for my checkride.
Well, nothing much more to say than that I’m extremely happy, proud and eager to take my checkride and become a private pilot!
Fly safe and talk soon,
Senne
This post is part of the story series Getting Your Private Pilot License.
As a glider pilot with about 220 flying hours, I finally decided to take the jump and start my Private Pilot training in June 2018. In this series, I share my experiences of getting my Private Pilot License in Belgium. From preparing for my first lesson, to my first solo flights and ultimately my checkride.
I hope these articles will be able to help you get the most out of your own flight training!
