ATPL 040 Human Performance

It is a computer-based multiple-choice examination at an approved examination centre, with one correct answer per question and no partial credit. Questions are short, factual and often numerical or comparative: which symptom appears first at a given altitude, which illusion follows a particular acceleration, which memory system is in use. Read every option before answering, because distractors are usually true statements applied to the wrong situation.

These are set by the examining authority and are revised from time to time, so no figure given here would be reliable. Your national CAA publishes the current question count, time allowed, pass mark and sitting fee on its website and in its examination guidance for candidates. Check that guidance before you book, and check it again if you are sitting some months after you first looked.

The content is not mathematically hard, but the volume of terminology is large and many topics are easy to half-learn. Hypoxia versus hyperventilation, the various barotraumas, and the different spatial disorientation illusions are classic sources of lost marks because they feel familiar but differ in detail. Candidates who memorise without understanding tend to plateau in the mid-range and struggle to push higher.

Start with basic concepts and the SHELL model so the vocabulary is in place, then do physiology in full, including the ear, eye and spatial orientation, because these underpin the advanced physiology later. Move to psychology and information processing, then stress, fatigue and circadian rhythms, then advanced physiology, then crew coordination and operational HF. Finish with mixed question practice across all domains.

Confusing hypoxia with hyperventilation, forgetting that symptoms worsen with altitude and that time of useful consciousness falls sharply above about 35,000 feet, muddling the somatogravic and somatogyral illusions, and misreading questions about the semicircular canals. In psychology, candidates mix up short-term and long-term memory limits and the stages of the decision-making models. In operational questions, they choose the answer that sounds safest rather than the one the procedure specifies.

Retake rules, waiting periods and any limit on the number of attempts are set by the examining authority and by the Part-FCL requirements in force, so confirm them with your national CAA and your flight training organisation. In practice, book the retake only after you have identified why you failed: a weak domain, misreading of questions, or running out of time. A retake without that diagnosis usually reproduces the same result.

Use them as a diagnostic, not as the syllabus. Answer a block of questions, then for every wrong answer write one line on why the correct option is correct and why yours was not. Revisit the underlying learning objective rather than memorising the question. If you can explain a topic to another candidate without notes, you are ready for it; if you can only recognise the answer, you are not.

Yes, and deliberately. Principles of flight overlaps with spatial disorientation and the vestibular system, flight planning and performance with hypoxia and decompression, communications with crew coordination, and air law with just culture and safety reporting. Studying these overlaps once, properly, saves time across several examinations and makes the operational questions in Human Performance much easier to reason through.

No. This is independent study material written for candidates preparing for the ATPL Human Performance examination. It is not produced, endorsed or approved by EASA, any national civil aviation authority, or any examination centre. Always treat the current official syllabus, the current Part-FCL requirements and your national CAA's examination guidance as authoritative over anything you read here.