Flight Performance and Planning (Planejamento e Performance de Voo)
Performance and planning questions ask you to use the aircraft's POH/AFM data and weight-and-balance concepts to predict takeoff, climb, cruise, and landing performance. Know the factors that increase takeoff and landing distance: higher density altitude (high elevation, high temperature, high humidity), tailwind, uphill slope, and higher gross weight. Understand the center of gravity (CG) and its limits - forward CG increases stability but lengthens takeoff and reduces climb performance; aft CG reduces stability and can make stall recovery difficult. Master the relationship between indicated, calibrated, true, and ground speed, and how fuel planning uses endurance, consumption, and reserve.
Traps in this domain usually involve density altitude and the direction of its effects. Candidates often forget that humidity lowers air density and thus increases density altitude, or they misread performance charts by using pressure altitude instead of density altitude. Weight-and-balance questions may give moments and arms and ask whether the CG falls inside the envelope - always convert to a common unit and check both weight and CG limits. Fuel questions often hinge on the fixed reserve, so read whether the reserve is already included in the total.
Rule of thumb: "Hot, high, humid, heavy, and tailwind all hurt performance." Worked example: an aircraft with a 40-gal usable capacity burning 10 gal/h has 4 h endurance; with a 45-min reserve, usable flight-planning fuel is 3 h 15 min, giving a still-air range of about 3.25 × cruise TAS.