Air Law - GCAA Framework and Rules of the Air
The regulatory framework
The GCAA is the UAE's civil aviation regulator, and its Civil Aviation Regulations (CARs) give effect to the ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices adopted under the Chicago Convention. For a PPL candidate the examinable core is the privileges and limitations of the licence - act as pilot-in-command of aircraft in non-commercial operations and carry passengers, but not accept remuneration - together with the Class 2 medical requirement, recency, logbook keeping and the documents that must be on board: certificate of registration, certificate of airworthiness, crew licences, radio station licence and the journey log or equivalent.
Rules of the air
Know the right-of-way order - balloon, glider, airship, aeroplane, helicopter, with the less manoeuvrable giving way - the converging-heading rule (give way to the right), landing precedence for the lower aircraft, and the fact that you must not cut in ahead of an aircraft on final approach. Learn the light signals for both ground and airborne situations and what a steady or flashing red, green and white mean.
Common traps
Questions blur QNH, QFE and standard pressure; they confuse elevation with height above the aerodrome; and they offer an expired medical or lapsed recency as if it were valid. Read the words 'magnetic track' carefully - the cruising-level table uses magnetic track, never true.
Rule of thumb
Above 3,000 ft in VFR cruise, magnetic tracks 000–179° take odd thousands plus 500 ft (3,500; 5,500; 7,500), and tracks 180–359° take even thousands plus 500 ft (4,500; 6,500). A track of 275° therefore gives 4,500 ft or 6,500 ft.