ATPL 070 Operational Procedures

Those numbers are set and revised by the competent authority, so no fixed figure can be quoted here. Check the current examination timetable and candidate information published by the official aviation safety body for your state, or ask your approved training organisation, which works to those published arrangements.

The passing standard is published by the competent authority and applies across the ATPL theoretical subjects, so it is not something this page should quote from memory. Confirm the current figure on the authority's website before you book, since the requirement applies per sitting and across the whole set of papers.

Air Law asks what the rules are and who enforces them. Operational Procedures asks how an operator turns those rules into a working flight: which minima apply, how fuel is planned, who may be carried, what the MEL allows. Expect scenario-style questions that give you a situation and ask for the correct operational decision, not a definition.

It is less mathematical than Performance or General Navigation, but it is broad and unforgiving on detail. Candidates who lose marks usually do so on minima, fuel figures and duty limits rather than on concepts. Treat it as a memory-and-application subject and start early enough to revisit the numbers more than once.

Retake rules, waiting periods and any limit on the number of attempts are set by the competent authority and vary between states. They are published, not negotiated, so read the current candidate guidance on the authority's site and speak to your training organisation before assuming a date for a second attempt.

Start with documentation and operator responsibilities, because they frame everything else. Then take crew duty limits and aerodrome operating minima, which are the highest-weighted and most examined. Follow with mass and balance, fuel and the operational flight plan as one block, then dangerous goods, emergencies and MEL. Leave pure recall topics for short, frequent review sessions.

Mixing up take-off, landing and alternate minima; forgetting that a contingency fuel is not the same as a final reserve; applying duty limits without the local time conversions; and treating an MEL deferral as permission to ignore the associated operating procedure. All four are avoidable with timed practice on worked examples rather than rereading notes.

You need to know what the requirement says and when it applies. Examiners test the operational consequence, not the citation. Knowing that a rule exists, who it binds and what it permits is enough; quoting part numbers from memory is not a productive use of revision time and rarely appears in the questions.

Use them as diagnostics, not as a substitute for study. Attempt a block without notes, mark every wrong answer with the reason it was wrong, then reread only that topic. Repeat until your errors are arithmetic slips rather than misunderstandings. Timed sets in the final weeks train the pace you need on the day.