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VATSIM P3 Rating

PROCEDURE for CONDUCTING a P3 TEST

Test Structure and Format

  1. The P3 Rating test comprises a written test and a practical flight test.
  2. The written test must be passed before a flight test can be taken.
  3. If a student fails a written test, he may not retake the test for 24 hours.
  4. If the flight test cannot be completed in a single session for technical reasons, such as computer or network problems, the completed sections will be marked, and a new date arranged to fly the uncompleted sections.
  5. Unlike the P1 Rating, there is no exemption for experienced pilots from taking the P3 flight test.

Test Request

The student will request a P3 test by completing the test application form on the Club website Pilot Ratings section. The form will be received by the Club's Training Administrator, who will:

Written Test Content

The written test comprises a series of 24 multiple choice questions based on the knowledge required to conduct a flight from startup at the departure aerodrome to shut down at the arrival aerodrome. The questions are selected at random from a database of 128. It is very unlikely that any two students will receive the same set of questions.

There will be three questions on each of the eight following topics. These topics are displayed on the test web page in the STRS. : -

The student is allowed 30 minutes to complete the 24 questions. There are pop-up warnings given at 5, 2 and 1 minutes before time-out.

Written Test Result

When the student submits the written test, it is automatically marked against the correct answers, he is informed immediately if he has passed or failed, and the result is automatically recorded in the STRS.

The pass mark for the written test is 16 correct answers (66.7%).

If the student has passed, his record is marked as Ready for the Flight Test. The Training Administrator will arrange the Flight Test and appoint a QFI.
If he fails by just one wrong answer below the pass mark, this is treated as a border line result. His answers are then checked by the Training Administrator who will review the result and decide whether or not it can be upgraded to a pass.
If he fails by more than one wrong answer he will be advised that he can apply to take the test again after 24 hours.

Preparation for a Flight Test

The test flight will be one of the following:

The selected route will be given to the student in a written preflight briefing at least 48 hours in advance of the flight test. The student will prepare the flight plan, and carry out a weight and fuel calculation, plus any other "desktop" tasks required to conduct the flight competently, and email this information to the instructor, at least 24 hours in advance of the flight test.

The student will be connected to VATSIM throughout the test. Students will be expected to communicate with ATC stations throughout the flight.

The Flight Test will be carried out in shared Cockpit Mode, either using the inbuilt feature of FSX boxed version, or by means of JoinFS for FSX Steam Edition or Prepar3D. The Training Administrator will advise the student where to find the shared cockpit instructions, so that they may adequately prepare for the test. If requested by the student, prior to the test date, the Training Administrator will assist the student to set up shared cockpit, and provide information on how to log into the Club TeamSpeak server. The Student will also be told how to access the Student Training Record System to view the results of both the written and flight tests.

If FSX Shared Cockpit mode is to be used, the student must have the De Luxe version of FSX, including having both Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2 installed.

Flight Test

The flight test will be conducted in one of two ways: -

The flight will be conducted under Visual Flight Rules, and will normally be carried out in the default Cessna 172. An alternative aircraft in the "Light" category (less than 5,700Kg MAUW) may be used by prior agreement between the examiner and the student. The Flight is primarily designed to test the student's knowledge of pilotperformance and decision-making when flying VFR within the VATSIM environment.  It will concentrate on knowledge of VFR rules, in-flight decisions, procedures local to the airoport, visual navigation, airmanship and communications with ATC.

The test duration will be approximately 2 hours, including:

The student and Examiner will communicate with each other via the Club's TeamSpeak server.

If the student passes the flight test, the Examiner will normally update the VATSIM Member database as soon as the test is completed. If the student fails the flight test, he will be advised that the Club can offer training to assist in achieving a pass at a subsequent attempt.

As part of the debrief at the end of the test, the student will be asked to complete a short feedback questionnaire for quality control purposes.

There are 48 test elements of the flight test in 8 groups of 6 items each.

Some examples of the test elements are:

Each of the eight sections must be passed in its own right with a score of 4 or more.
  ADVANCED PASS: A score of 5 or 6 in each of the eight sections. Total 40 or more.
  PASS: A score of at least 4 in each of the eight sections. Total 32 to 39.
  FAIL: A score of 3 or less in any one section.

Certain actions will constitute an immediate fail.