Criticism Mounting over Transport Canada Drone Certification Exam Questions

This is bs. I have a commercial pilots license from Canada and can fly anywhere in the world. Never once been asked to show it. Maybe ICAO should be involved after all it is a world phenomenon

I'm not going to argue that it's not BS, but sadly they decide the benchmark and we have no choice but to meet it if we want the certification. I think you guys are in the same boat as we are which is simply put that lacking an effective representative body for the hobby we there for have no platform with which to lobby the government on our behalf.

As far as the exam goes, it seems that your advanced exam is almost lifted word for word from out RePL certification here. Without exception every single question you guys have posted an example of here is included in the RePL along with much more. There are however two levels of license below that, one that even gives limited scope for come light commercial activities (ERPA) and that one will only take about 30 minutes investment to pass. The basic RPA for hobbyists takes a total of 10 minutes and just covers basic safety, the Standard Operating Conditions and a little LiPo safety so I think it's pretty reasonable. Much better than what you are faced with.

The full RePL as I said has every question I have seen here and more, also includes a minimum of 5 hours practical instruction and an assessment of flight ability. You can pass the theory and still be denied to license.

It's an 80 question exam with a pass mark of 75% and are allowed 2 1/2 hours, and then you can add another 50 question exam with a passmark of 80% for the Aeronautical Radio Operators Certificate if you want to operate in controlled airspace.

I'm 54, I have a strong background in R/C flying and a strong radio background but I do not have a manned aviation background. I passed both exams in 26 minutes combined with 100% and 96.5% respecively (which the tell me is equal to the record pass). I'm not going to argue whether it's excessive or not, what I will say is this

The main difference between here and Canada is I knew EXACTLY what I was getting in for. They make it openly obvious that RPA are considered aircraft in every sense by C.A.S.A. and that the RePL is considered there for to be the lowest grade of pilots license. You are required to under go training courses at C.A.S.A. approved training organisations which for both of the above totals about $2000 (plus $160 per aiurcraft per year registration), you are given a full study guide, the option of class room style training is open to you, you're provided with Visual Terminal Charts and an A4 study booklet that is fully 2 inches thick and you are trained in every aspect from Aviation Law, through meteorology, NAvigation. flight mechanics, radio procedure, human factors and performance and formalised threat and error managment and risk mitigation and much much more. They don't hide any of this from you. It's considered to be a 3 month investment to prepare, I did it in less but I was retired so had all the time in the world at my disposal. I'm not the bluntest knife in the draw but I'm not young either and I'll admit I found it stressful. Still the passmark shows it's doable if you are properly prepared. In fact all six pilots in my course all passed.

As I said before however, it a well established totally open process, nothing hidden. No one holds a gun to your head. You are given the options of whether you want to go the lesser routes which require a much smaller time and financial cost and if you do choose to become a full commercial operator it's made clear well before you lay your money down what you are in for and what you'll need to be able to pass at the end. Without arguing over how suitable, relevant or justified the examination regime is, the area that is most unfair on Canadian operators is (currently) at least you are not prepared in any real way, your study requirements are nebulous and you're just told "You have to do these exams" and not much else. So as someone (I think it was Hendricks?) said, it's very hard to argue against the view that Canada Transport are using this as a barrier to keep the number of operators down rather than a genuine training regime.

Regards
Ari
 
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Gotta say, all these posts are music to my ears!
I think that we ALL agree(those of us Canadians) that this Advanced Exam is ridiculous in its present format.
That being questions that are not in any way relevant to the safe operation of drones.

I'm sure we all agree the exam needs to be redesigned. NOT to make it easier but to make it relevant to what it was originally designed to do.
 
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Here is a good one in the Basic test: They ask what your max alt allowed; out of the multi-choice there is "300''" there is "400''" and 2 other heights. Right now we are allowed 300' / after Jun 1st, between 250 grams and 35 Kilograms in unrestricted airspace allows you to 400'!!
Which one to pick for a test you are doing today? I went for the 400', got the ticket but don't know if I got that one right or not, my thinking was that I am writing this test for regs coming into effect June 1st (thus 400' made sense).
Hilarious! "Textbook speakum with heapum forked tongue!"
 
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I passed the basic but only got 50% on the advanced. Like some of the others I had passed my private commercial ifr and flying instructors licensing exams. In addition to a multitude of exams for air traffic control

When someone with your level of aviation qualification (especially ATC) fails at a drone examination then I think the conclusion is obvious. I've seen too many in the same scenario as John to put it down to him being out of practice or not as young as he once was either. It's becoming a common theme. There are young currently employed manned aviation pilots failing the advanced test in Canada ... They are good enought to carry freight and passengers but not operate an R.P.A.?

The lack of a study guide and the easy availability of material makes it very difficult. I am not falling for the money grab the flight schools want either

Here the "approved Training Organisations" are mandatory for the high level licence and it's they who provide the study guide so no choice.

I'm 73 and studying is away in my past somewhere.

I found it hard enough at 53 John, it'd been 25 years more or less since I had done any formal study and sweated blood leading up to the exam.

The idea of an exam is good but the intent is not. An open book test where people will learn about the rules and safety should be the goal.

The idea is sound, you need to prove you can competently use anything that is potentially dangerous these days but it's got to be balanced in how it's implemented.

To be honest I think you are getting a raw deal. To be brutally honest to me it sounds more and more like a big business influenced government enacted sub 400FT airspace grab ... drone delivery anybody?

I know a lot of you are probably thinking "why is he so interested in Canada's situation when he's in Australia?" and it's simply that in most things sooner or later all the Commonwealth countries seem to end up with a similar set of laws so I like to know what's happening in Canada, the U.K. and South Africa etc because I figure sooner or later it could be us... OK, I have the RePL so I'm safe but a lot of people I know, friends and my kids would be badly done by if we were in your situation.

Regards
Ari
 
I just flunked the advanced @ 58% , did no study, no review of anything - ran out of time within question #41 - so 58% with 10 questions completely unanswered. It's difficult even with an engineering degree and two years of Uni physics. Two questions were Quebec specific and predominately worded in French (not happy about that little curveball!).
 
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The more I think about this Advanced Exam that Transport Canada has put together, it really doesn't provide you much more in the way of flight freedom than the Basic Certification does.
You can fly closer to people and fly inside controlled airspace(with permission), but that's essentially it.

I wanted to write and pass the exam because I wanted some options beyond what the Basic Certification gave me.

After 4 tries, I successfully passed the Advanced Exam with an 82%.
My scores were: 72%,76%, and 78% before passing it.
Over the four attempts, each exam version I saw contained at least 10 questions that were very difficult and were in no way related to responsible drone flight operations.
It is my opinion those questions are included to keep the number of successful outcomes on this exam to a minimum.

That's not what this exam is supposed to do.

Answering 50 multiple choice questions- across 8 subjects areas- and doing so inside a 1 hour time limit with a pass mark needed of 80% is challenging enough.......but to deliberately include questions that few people would know the answer to is ridiculous.

At this point I would suggest the failure rate for this exam is at least 85%, maybe more. :(
 
First attempt failures will be high due to the diversity/ratio in non-drone specific related subject and time budgeting per question ~ 72 seconds. The good news is that you don't have to repeat a 4 month course to redo the test. 24 hours, a tightened thinking cap, subject specific reviews, opened reference, and dexterous googling fingers are all that is needed. The really good news is that you will learn some new things, knowledge is power, and the long term odds of passing - well on your side!
 
I passed the basic but only got 50% on the advanced. Like some of the others I had passed my private commercial ifr and flying instructors licensing exams. In addition to a multitude of exams for air traffic control. The lack of a study guide and the easy availability of material makes it very difficult. I am not falling for the money grab the flight schools want either. I'm 73 and studying is away in my past somewhere. The idea of an exam is good but the intent is not. An open book test where people will learn about the rules and safety should be the goal.
Yes, notice all the helping hands offering to sell the course, surprising? Not.....
 
I'll be trying it again this Saturday Night during the first period of HNIC. I'll be pre-programed to get my behind in gear if I'm not around the 40 question mark when the Coaches Corner music cues up!
 
Im having the same problems with the exam, highest mark I've managed is 74%. Can anyone recommend how I can get some proper training for this? I'm already $2000 in and I feel like it was a waste of money
 
To be honest I think you are getting a raw deal. To be brutally honest to me it sounds more and more like a big business influenced government enacted sub 400FT airspace grab ... drone delivery anybody?


Ari

The 400 foot rule is to give a 100 foot buffer for VFR traffic limitations at 500 feet.
 
The 400 foot rule is to give a 100 foot buffer for VFR traffic limitations at 500 feet.

Hi Horsepowerphoto

Yes the same is the case here and it has been for at least 70 years as far as the manned aviation vs aero modeling community went. No one wanted sub 500Ft until the arrival of "off the shelf" R.P.A. technology which was when it all really started to go awry.

R.P.A. are much easier to fly than traditional R/C models so it opened up a large interest sphere for the masses while at the same time it opened up a huge new earning possibility for big business and now I feel we have a tussel for resource (sub 400 ft airspace) rearing it's head behind the scenes with big business doing a lot of government lobbying.

Also I will point out for the other readers that while manned aviation is supposedly 500Ft and above that there are many instances where they can and do fly well below that. The beach is always fraught here in Queensland with all the surf rescue helicopters operating at 150Ft and the only time I had an issue with airspace conflict was where I was on a survey job and two water bombing aircraft came over the same facility which we surveyed every Monday at 200Ft without radio announcement or transponder operation (I monitor for that). They were obviously saving fuel by not climbing to 500Ft for the short run from the aerodrome to the drop zone and they are entitled to do that. it just reinforces that you just can't be complacent or afford to take anything for granted. It scared the hell out of me I can tell you!

I ended up completing that job with one person flying the aircraft, one spotter and one operating the airband radio giving 15 minute location and activity broadcasts.

Regards
Ari
 
I'm not sure the people at Transport Canada who draft these exams are pilots themselves. I say that because I have had experienced pilots with thousands of hours of jet time review the questions on both the Basic and Advanced Drone Operator's Exam and they agree that quite a few of the questions have zero to do with determining if you have the knowledge to be a responsible drone pilot.
Also, there are about a dozen questions on the Advanced Exam that are so obscure that not even highly experienced pilots would know the answer.

And, if they don't know the answer, what's the point of having those questions on the exam?

Answer?

Those 7 or 8 questions are there to tip the balance against a successful outcome.
Transport Canada doesn't want many people to get an Advanced Certificate.
 
Got this from Omniview Tech last week:


Relevant part:
Transport Canada announced its new regulatory framework for certain types of advanced civilian drone operations in January, requiring the use of drones whose manufacturer has declared compliance with reliability and operational characteristics under a safety assurance framework. DJI’s compliant drones are the M600 Series, M200 Series, M200 V2 Series, Inspire 2, Mavic 2 series, Mavic Pro, Mavic Air, Phantom 4 series and Spark.

So it looks like our smaller consumer drones are going to be OK for advanced work — assuming we can pass the exam.
 
I heard of a guy with nearly 100 drones, that's $500.00 just to register them.

Come on down to Australia where you can register your aircraft for a mere $20 once off or if you are flying your R.P.A. commercially and paying tax on your earning you are rewarded with the privilege of paying $160 per year per aircraftI.

DJI’s compliant drones are the M600 Series, M200 Series, M200 V2 Series, Inspire 2, Mavic 2 series, Mavic Pro, Mavic Air, Phantom 4 series and Spark.

Hope none of you bought an Inspire 1 one on runout ......

Regards
Ari
 
Got this from Omniview Tech last week:


Relevant part:
Transport Canada announced its new regulatory framework for certain types of advanced civilian drone operations in January, requiring the use of drones whose manufacturer has declared compliance with reliability and operational characteristics under a safety assurance framework. DJI’s compliant drones are the M600 Series, M200 Series, M200 V2 Series, Inspire 2, Mavic 2 series, Mavic Pro, Mavic Air, Phantom 4 series and Spark.

So it looks like our smaller consumer drones are going to be OK for advanced work — assuming we can pass the exam.

Yes, but only for use in controlled airspace. They’re not certified for closer in work like flying over people or within 5 meters of people.
 
The more I think about this Advanced Exam that Transport Canada has put together, it really doesn't provide you much more in the way of flight freedom than the Basic Certification does.
You can fly closer to people and fly inside controlled airspace(with permission), but that's essentially it.

I wanted to write and pass the exam because I wanted some options beyond what the Basic Certification gave me.

After 4 tries, I successfully passed the Advanced Exam with an 82%.
My scores were: 72%,76%, and 78% before passing it.
Over the four attempts, each exam version I saw contained at least 10 questions that were very difficult and were in no way related to responsible drone flight operations.
It is my opinion those questions are included to keep the number of successful outcomes on this exam to a minimum.

That's not what this exam is supposed to do.

Answering 50 multiple choice questions- across 8 subjects areas- and doing so inside a 1 hour time limit with a pass mark needed of 80% is challenging enough.......but to deliberately include questions that few people would know the answer to is ridiculous.

At this point I would suggest the failure rate for this exam is at least 85%, maybe more. :(

I took it as well and flunked with 76% trying it “cold turkey”. Many of the question were similar to ones I had to answer when I took the course for getting an SFOC from Harvs air a couple of years ago.

Many of the questions are completely irrelevant and do nothing to promote safety. They just make the process into a joke. People just roll their eyes and promptly forget everyone once they’re done - even the few things that ARE relevant

TC, I don’t need to know the mechanism for fog burning off. I just need to know not to fly in fog. I don’t need to know how to read a METAR. I’ll check the weather network. I don’t need to know what a planes Load Factor is. I’m not flying a plane. I don’t need to know what “squawk standby” means. I don’t have a transponder. I have an 850 gram drone.

Personally I think they just want to make money on failed tests. Why make $10 when you can make $40 or $50 by flunking people a few times?
 
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That would be consistent with how the RePL (Remote Pilot) exam works here in Australia. For example last year C.A.S.A. removed totally the hard set rules for operations around a "non controlled" aerodrome and now just leaves you to operate under the "shall not endanger life, property and other aircraft" stipulations..... BUT they still have a "recommended" set of operating rules and when you do the test it's the recommended rules you are expected to answer with.

That's all well and good of course but here the syllabus is well known, fully published and you must go through an approved training provider at the cost of around $1500 without any add on certifications to be certified fit to hold the licence. Yes, the exam includes some fairly advanced aeronautical theory, aviation law, meteorology, human factors, risk management, threat and error mitigation, navigation, reading aviation charts blah blah blah ad nauseam (but nothing about hypoxia! =-| )and then there is practical training and a minimum hours of flying assessment on top. It is considered a low grade pilots licence so I suppose fair enough.

If however you decide to pony up that price it's to operate commercially and you're pretty well committing yourself to some serious study for 3 months or so, you know what you're signing up for and you WILL get the training in a well defined syllabus, you're not left in limbo like you guys seem to be. The course study guide is fully 2 inches thick.

It's an 80 question exam with a 75% pass mark and you get 2 and a half hours. I passed it and the Aeronautical Radio Operators certificate as an extra (so I can fly in controlled airspace and right up to aerodrome boundaries) in 26 minutes with 100% but I sweated blood during the study process and I knew exactly what to expect. I wasn't doing it to fly as a hobbyist.

I may be misunderstanding the situation but if this is what you are required to pass to fly your R.P.A. as a hobbyist then someone has seriously slipped a gear in the government there IMO.

Best of luck for improved clarity in February!

Regards
Ari

"someone has seriously slipped a gear in the government there IMO."

That pretty much explains it in Canada.
 
Come on down to Australia where you can register your aircraft for a mere $20 once off or if you are flying your R.P.A. commercially and paying tax on your earning you are rewarded with the privilege of paying $160 per year per aircraftI.



Hope none of you bought an Inspire 1 one on runout ......

Regards
Ari
I have two Inspire1's I'm not sure what you referring to?
 
Hi all! I'm new to this forum but recognize many names from other venues. There is a lot of frustration surrounding the certification exams. I have an extensive series of free Study Videos to help get ready for the exams and understand the new regulations. People are happy to find them because the government has provided nothing for them to work from. Many people have failed many times. Even with study guides, it can take several tries because the questions appear to have little or nothing to do with operating an RPAS.
 

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