STARs Briefing Notes are now available. Check the support page for the notes on the Instrument Rating and Airline Transport Rating support pages.

Airline Transport Pilot - Support

Below we provide solutions, errata, omissions, exam hints & solutions. We do not provide solutions to every question - only those that students find consistently challenging.

If you have a question or concern please let us know on our contact page.

Exam Hints & Info
2024

Standard Terminal Arrival Procedures (STAR) Briefing Notes

STARs provide arriving aircraft with a transition from the enroute airway system to the terminal environment. They have been around for a while and have grown in importance with the integration of GPS into our air-navigation system.

Transport Canada is now testing your knowledge of STARs in the written exams. Please review the STARs Briefing Notes that are linked below. Note that these notes have been incorporated into the books beginning with the 2025 edition:

STARs Briefing Notes (PDF, 2,272 kB)

Exam Hints & Info
2024

ADS-B Out Briefing Notes

ADS-B Out is now required in Class A airspace (as of Aug 10, 2023) and will be required in Class B airspace from May 16, 2024. Transport Canada is now testing your knowledge of the ADS-B system in the written exams. Please review the ADS-B Out Briefing Notes that are linked below. Note that these notes have been incorporated into the books beginning with the 2025 edition:

ADS-B Out Briefing Notes (PDF, 120 KB)

Exam Hints & Info
2023 - 2024

VHF Line-of-sight Calculations

Calculating the maximum line-of-sight reception range for VOR or VHF radio can be tricky. Review the PDF linked below for the three most common types of questions and and explanation of how to solve each one.

VOR Reception Exam Hints (PDF, 210 KB)

Errata / Omissions
2023

Section 6.2, Question 10 (eBook quiz C06-010)

Answer b) should be updated to say:

b) Mercator projection

Errata / Omissions
2023

Rhumb Lines and Great Circle Lines on Transverse Mercator Projections:

The following changes are made to the description of Rhumb and Great Circle lines on the Transverse Mercator projection, which is used on the VTA charts.

Rhumb Lines: Arc - bulged towards the nearest pole

Great Circle Lines: Approximates a straight line

These details are updated on: Navigation section 6.1.2 “Chart Properties”, page 263, which is reproduced below:

Chart Properties (PDF, 86 KB)

Errata /Omissions
2023

Wake Turbulence Separation

Transport Canada has updated the wake turbulence categories in AIM RAC 4.1.1 to show in kilograms (kg), not in pounds (lb). Make sure you know the categories in kilograms for the exams.

The Super Heavy wake turbulence category was added, and separation distances between Super Heavy and other categories are updated.

Refer to AIM RAC 4.1.1, Table 4.1 - Separation per Aircraft Category for Wake Turbulence Purposes

Errata / Omissions
2023

WAC Charts No Longer Available:

Both Canada and the United States of America have stopped production of the 1:1,000,000 scale World Aeronautical Charts (WAC). You no longer need to know the details of WAC charts for your TC exams!

The details of WAC charts have been removed from: Navigation section 6.1.2 “Chart Properties”, page 263

Errata / Omissions
2022

Section 3.2, Question 35 (eBook quiz C03-035)

The list of possible answers to Question 35 should be replaced as follows:
a. 25.00, will
b. 25.40, will
c. 26.50, will not
d. 25.00, will not

Solutions
2022 - 2024

Section 3 - Flight Operations

Pressurization Problems

Flight Operations Pressurization Questions 19 & 29 Solutions (PDF, 10 KB)

Weight and Balance Problems

Refer to the following files for solutions to the weight and balance exercise from questions 30 to 36.

Flight Operations Weight & Balance Questions 30 to 33 Solutions (PDF, 66 KB)
Flight Operations Weight & Balance Question 34 Solution (PDF, 103 KB)
Flight Operations Weight & Balance Questions 35 Solution (PDF, 33 KB)
Flight Operations Weight & Balance Questions 36 Solution (PDF, 67 KB)

Instruments Question 4 Solution (PDF, 40 KB)

Errata / Omissions
2022

Air Law - Section 1.1.7 - VFR Weather Minima

VFR Weather Minima in uncontrolled airspace - The section for above 1,000 ft AGL should say "At or above 1,000 ft AGL", as follows:

Solutions
2019 - 2024

Section 3 - Meteorology

Meteorology Question 1 Solution (PDF, 29 KB)

Exam Hints & Info
2017 - 2024

General Exam Information

The Transport Canada Study and Reference Guide for the ATPL exams lists Human Factors for the SARON exam and not for the SAMRA exam, but the feedback that we received from students who have written the ATPL exams is that Human Factors questions do come up in the SAMRA exam quite often.

Human Factors is considered such an important topic that you should know the material anyway and be prepared for Human Factors questions on every exam.

A similar situation occurs where the SARON lists "General Navigation", while the SAMRA lists "Radio Aids to Navigation". In reality there is a lot of common information between General Navigation and Radio Aids to Navigation, so you can expect both types of questions in the SARON as well as the SAMRA exams.