Free lessons, tools and tests

One topic per page, straight from the chapters, all free: the rules, the weather, live tools and practice tests.

Air Regulations

• The Chicago Convention and the freedoms of the air The 1944 treaty every other air law sits on: the Articles worth knowing by number, and the freedoms that decide where an airline may fly.
• ICAO, its Annexes and its Docs How ICAO is built, what a State must do with its Standards, and a memory trick for every Annex and the Docs examiners like.
• Tokyo, Hague, Montreal and Warsaw: which treaty is which Case files land on your desk. Stamp the treaty that deals with each, then see what each convention protects and how long it takes to leave one.
• Who runs Indian civil aviation One new aircraft, VT-ONE, from the factory to the sky: at every stop, which body is in charge, and which laws sit behind them.
• Documents an aircraft and its crew must carry Two views of the same question: what the Chicago Convention asks of every aircraft and crew, and what an operator must keep on board.
• VT registration marks Every Indian aircraft wears VT. Where the marks go, which letters can never be used, and what each part of a registration means.
• Right of way, in the air and on the ground Two aircraft, one piece of sky. Work out who gives way in the air, then on the taxiway.
• The aerodrome circuit The circuit drawn out: how you operate at an aerodrome, and where every leg of the pattern sits.
• Aircraft navigation lights At night an aircraft is three lights. Learn what they show, then tell which way each one is going.
• VFR weather minima and VFR limits How much weather you need to fly VFR, where and when you may, and the right move when the weather closes in on a controlled VFR flight.
• Semicircular cruising levels East is odd, west is even. Climb through each band and see which level is yours, IFR or VFR.
• Flight plans and Air Defence Clearance Do you need a plan? How do you change it? And when does your Air Defence Clearance run out?
• Radio failure, unlawful interference and distress calls Three bad days, step by step: the radio dies in cloud, the aircraft is under unlawful interference, and you hear someone else's distress call.
• Tower light signals and ground signals No radio, just a light from the tower or a sign on the ground. Read each one.
• Marshalling signals What the marshaller's arms are telling you. Pick a group, or hide the names and test yourself.
• Interception of civil aircraft A military aircraft pulls up alongside. What each of its signals means, what you reply, and how you are warned off.
• Airspace classes A to G Seven letters of airspace. What each one gives you, and the air traffic services behind them.
• Runway markings Paint, lights, signs and markers. Start with the paint: what every marking on a runway is telling you.
• Pilot licences in India, from SPL to ATPL The gates and the ladder: what you need before each licence, from your first student licence to the ATPL.
• Accident, serious incident or incident? Something has gone wrong. Follow what happens next, then classify the occurrence yourself.
• Hypoxia and altitude The air is 21% oxygen all the way up, yet it runs out. Why, and how high you can safely go.

Meteorology

• What the air is made of Every dot is a molecule. The gases, the particles, and the few trace gases that matter more than their size.
• The layers of the atmosphere Climb from the runway to space: the layers wrapped round the Earth in 3D, and the same layers photographed from orbit.
• The tropopause The lid on the weather: how high it sits, why it is higher over the equator, and why it is not one smooth surface.
• QFE, QNH, QFF and QNE Turn the subscale, move the aircraft, change today's pressure and watch the needles: every altimeter setting, flown.
• Transition altitude and transition level Why every aircraft sets 1013 at the same point, and the sums that go with it.
• Highs, lows, troughs, ridges and cols A weather chart as a landscape: the five pressure patterns in 3D, and what the spacing of the isobars says.
• Pressure and height The weight of the sky, and how fast it falls as you climb: in warm air, in cold air and on the standard charts.
• How the air is heated The sun heats the ground, the ground heats the air. Follow 100 units of sunlight and every way the heat moves.
• A day's temperature Play the day, then change the surface, the sky and the wind, and watch the day–night range shrink or grow.
• Hot, high and humid: air density Why a hot day at a high airfield makes the runway feel shorter, and why moist air is lighter than dry.
• Rising air and adiabatic cooling Rise or sink? Why a parcel of air cools as it rises, and why that decides the whole day's weather.
• How ice grows on an aircraft Liquid water below freezing, waiting for a wing. How ice grows, and why it comes in different kinds.
• How a thunderstorm is born Three ingredients and a trigger. What the air must be like before a thunderstorm can grow.
• Air masses A whole sky's worth of air with one character. Where it was made, what its name means, and what it brings.
• Jet streams Rivers of wind near the tropopause: what makes one, and the parts pilots talk about.
• Clear air turbulence No cloud, no warning, a hard jolt. Why clear air can be rough, and where to expect it round a jet.
• Mountain waves Air flowing over a ridge can bounce for miles downwind. When it happens, and how you can see it.
• The ITCZ and tropical weather No fronts in the tropics, yet plenty of weather. Turn the globe and watch where the trade winds meet through the year.
• Why India has a monsoon One country, four seasons. Why the winds over India turn round every year, and why that brings the monsoon.
• Who makes India's aviation weather From the world forecast centres to the met office at your airport: a map of who makes the weather you fly on.
• Reading a station model One circle on a weather chart holds a whole report. Where each piece goes, and a full example decoded.
• A METAR, group by group A METAR looks like noise until you know the order. Every group, in the order it is written.

Tools you can play with

• ISA calculator Is it warmer or colder than standard today? Set the altitude and the temperature; the deviation works itself out.
• Altimeter simulator The red aircraft is where you are; the dotted one is where the altimeter says you are. Make them disagree.
• Celsius, Fahrenheit and Kelvin One thermometer, three scales. Drag it, or tap a landmark like the ISA tropopause.
• TAF reader Pick a TAF, tap any group, then slide through the hours and watch the forecast change.
• RAREP reader A RAREP is a drawing sent as numbers. Pick a report and watch the screen draw it.
• Met T-3 reader A table of numbers, drawn as the weather it describes. Then read a real-format T-3 yourself.

Free practice tests

• Air Regulations practice test Three short tests, one per chapter, each answer explained. No sign-in needed.
• Meteorology practice test Three chapter tests and one mixed paper across the whole syllabus, each answer explained. No sign-in needed.