PSTAR

The Pre Solo Test of Air Regulations is a fifty-question written test that Canadian flight students must pass with a mark of ninety percent or higher, before they can fly solo.

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"Are you Bob?"

Sounds innocent enough; but if your name was Bob, and you were currently sitting at your flight school having already completed walk around, technical logs, weather brief, and weight/balance and were patiently sitting around reviewing emergency procedures out of your POH when the some guy answers the phone, speaks with someone for a few minutes, looks around all dazed and confused before focusing on your and asking that question - phone and hand. Now imagine if you were at that very moment waiting for your first flight in the circuit in the next 20 minutes.

"Yep - that's me". The dispatch dude handed me the phone. "Hello?". "Hi Bob, it's I4. I just wanted to call and give you a heads up that I'm going to be about 15 minutes late as I'm stuck down in High River with another student picking up his PTR and it has been taking way longer than it should have. We're about to hop back in the aircraft now".

OK, this isn't so bad - so he's going to be a bit late - no big deal (plus I love the fact he was considerate enough to call - I will need to get this guy my cell phone). "Also - the winds have been pretty crazy this afternoon and the turbulence is out of control. We probably won't be working the circuit this afternoon. If you can just hang tight until I get back we can talk about it". Great - no flight. A bit of turbulence? I'm a man - I can hack it, can't I? He asked to be passed back to dispatch dude and I slumped back into the couch. The little boy inside of me saying that it wasn't fair while the cold calculated master of logic inside told me that if I4 didn't want me to be flying there was a reason for it.

Some other instructor (minor role so he doesn't yet receive an "I" designator) showed up a few minutes and confirmed that it probably didn't look good for the first flight in the circuit. Then he told me there was a possibility of another air exercise and I should read up on "Exercise 20: Illusions created by drift". Only a 3-4 page reference in the FTM that discusses how winds cause some illusions that may lead to a pilot reacting incorrectly while turning upwind or downwind, especially while close to the ground. To be honest it did not seem that exciting - however how bad could it actually be performing an exercise like that (or any exercise) WHILE sitting in a small aircraft?

I4 arrived shortly after and told me based on his flight back the turbulence was so bad that I would gain nothing out of this flight in the circuit. Instead of focusing on the circuit itself, I'd instead be fighting the aircraft the entire time. I asked about Exercise 20 (or any other useful air exercise) and he said that while Ex. 20 was valuable, it was not the type of thing you specifically get into the aircraft to learn. Sounded more like one of those things you do on the way back from doing something else. In the end, I4 told me that it was "my money" and he was all mine for the next few hours, so if I really wanted to fly he would take me up. I decided that it was best if I did not fly.

Then I4 started working me over. "Why don't you write your PSTAR exam then? You sounded like you were almost ready the other day". I really did not feel prepared for the exam. I had considered trying to write it either today or the past Friday but didn't have enough time to review the few sections I was struggling with. I4 kept it up however "It doesn't cost you anything, if you don't pass we don't submit it to Transport Canada, no scores go on your permanent record until you pass the exam, and you can write it as many times as you like".

I decided to go for it, but only after spending 45 minutes reviewing one last time. I4 was amused that I felt I needed to review but seemed to be happy I would try the exam. I ran out to the car, grabbed my laptop and ran to the upstairs "lounge" area of the club. I flipped on my laptop, picked up the club's free public wireless and connected. Then started to load my favorite PSTAR web sites. Whoops - nothing is loading? After 20 minutes of playing around with the connection and all sorts of other IP related stuff I came to the conclusion that the wireless network was totally hooped because it wasn't allowing any traffic outside of the club itself. Oh well.

I headed back down to tell I4 that I had trouble and wouldn't be writing it. He greeted me with a smile and handed me the exam while saying "I knew you didn't need 45 minutes to review! You took less than 20!". I decided to just keep my mouth shut and write the stupid exam. I headed back upstairs to the exam room.

The exam is 50 questions. I need to get a minimum of 90% so that means I'm allowed to miss 5 answers and will still pass. The first thought that pops into my mind is my brother telling me just a few days earlier that he scored 100% on his PSTAR. Then again - he was working at an airport and getting trained by his boss. He was living and breathing this stuff, how in the world could he NOT score 100?

They are all multiple choice with 4 potential answers presented. Everyone has their own (or should have one) strategy for dealing with multiple choice tests and I am no exception. I read each question, and where applicable blurt the answer out in my head before reading the choices. Most of the time I have the answer before reading the choices - this is usually a good thing. For ones that can't be answered without looking at the choices it's usually a simple and obvious selection. Anything that I am unable to answer immediately gets a little "tick" mark next to it and I move on. When I've reached the end of the exam I go back and review the ones I was unable to answer. I may continue this process 4-5 times before completing all my answers. Once this is complete I review the entire examination to make sure I answered what I wanted to answer the way I wanted to answer them!

After the first pass I had marked 13 questions for review. That is 3 times higher than I had hoped. There were definitely a few questions that I was struggling with, and they were all from the sections that I had hoped to review. After my 3rd pass I was left with the following two questions that I was struggling with:

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Question: A 45 knot blast area can be expected ............. behind the propellers of a large turbo-prop aeroplane during taxi.

(1) 60 feet.
(2) 80 feet.
(3) 100 feet.
(4) 120 feet.

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Question: Which statement concerning wing tip vortices is false?

(1) Vortices normally settle below and behind the aircraft.

(2) With a light cross-wind, one vortex can remain stationary over the ground for some time.

(3) Lateral movement of vortices, even in a no wind condition, may place a vortex core over a parallel runway.

(4) Vortices are caused directly by "jet wash."

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I'm generally not a doom and gloom guy. When I came back down about 30 minutes later I handed the exam to I4 who asked how I think I did. "To be honest I'm quite certain I missed 6-7 questions and thus failed, most likely on the subject." I4 took the exam and held it up to some key for about 30 seconds before asking me "What score would make you happy?". It took me less than a second to respond with "100% was my goal but I'd be happy to pass". Turns out that I did. I only got a single question wrong for a score of 49/50 = 98%. Looks like the PSTAR is now a thing of the past for me as well. The only thing holding me back from the solo at this point is some circuit training and the sign off/blessing of I4.

Reviewing the question that I got wrong, it turns out that I aced the sections on Wake Turbulence, Controlled Airspace, and Regulations - General Airspace. These were the areas where at times I felt clueless. I screwed up on a question about visual signals. I knew I had been struggling with a few of them but had expected to do some flash cards to help nail the memorization process. Here's the one I got wrong:

Question: A series of red flashes directed at an aircraft means respectively:

In Flight || On the Ground

(1) airport unsafe, no not land; || taxi clear of landing area in use.

(2) give way to other aircraft and continue circling; || stop.

(3) do not land for the time being || return to starting point on airport.

(4) you are in a prohibited area, alter course; || stop

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The afternoon started off as if it would be a total loss. It was one thing after another not going my way, but it certainly did not end that way. Having that PSTAR out of the way allows me to focus on the air exercises, some POH reading, and finally some time to really focus on my next ground school topic - Meteorology.