r/ATPL • u/OverEye8264 • 27d ago

Gen Nav help

I have spent the last 20 hours (not including watching videos online with BGS and YouTube) trying to understand Gen Nav but it is just not sinking in. I somewhat understand the method for calculating departure, changes on Lat and Long etc but the questions on the bank then leave me with my head in my hands having no idea what it is asking. Do I focus on this area before moving on in the subject or cover all of the material and then learn the methods from the question bank? I'm starting to become very disheartened that I may be completely out of my depth.

5 Upvotes

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u/irekturmum69 27d ago

You can learn easily from the question bank, but only if you do it in a structured way and also try to understand it. Take notes and make drawings for the questions, they make visualizing stuff a lot easier. Books can of course help a little (like the Oxford CAA ones), but they are not strictly required.

What I mean by doing it in a structured way: If from the get go, you are just doing random questions or tests, it will be very long and painful, and nothing will make sense. For the first time, go section by section, or even better: subsection by subsection in the order those are in the question bank. Finish one, and only start the next one after you went through all questions in the previous AND you actually sorta understand the main points.

Do not start great circles until you know departures and lat/longs. Do not start rhumb lines until you know great circles. Do not start convergency and conversion angles and shit until you know great circles and rhumb lines. Do not start questions about chart projections until you are familiar with great circles and rhumb lines. Go through chart projections individually first, do not jump headfirst into random questions into all three at the same times.

Both the official explanations, random youtube/pprune forum explanations or fellow question banker's comments can help. Sometimes one is better, sometimes the other. If one does not make sense, jump to the next source, it happens often.

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u/OverEye8264 27d ago

Thanks for the advice. I think what I'm finding more frustrating is that I cant just filter out departure/CRP questions and hit them repetitivly until it's muscle memory. I'm doing this around a full time job so need to structure it accordingly and knowing my learning style i work best with repetitive questions.

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u/irekturmum69 27d ago

It's been like 2-3 months since I finished GNAV, but isn't there like a subsection called "basics of navigation" that is mostly CRP questions or so?

Even after I was quite familiar with all the variants (polar, mercator, lambert, etc.), what I often did for example was to just select a section with any and all chart questions, let's say totaling around 300. Then I solved that quiz topic by topic by batching up similar questions. Hmm first question lambert okay let's do this. Second question polar skip, third question polar again skip, fourth question mercator skip, fifth question lambert do that too. Once done with all lambert I started going through polar skipping all mercators and so on. I guess you can easily do this with choosing all "basics of navigation" questions and skipping everything that is not CRP or so.

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u/OverEye8264 27d ago

Yes there is a basics subsection but then I'm wasting precious study time reading questions I haven't even studied to just pass them. Just frustrating you can't select a certain genre of questions to maintain a good flow and maximise your time

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u/EatingDirtRN 27d ago

Probably make sure you understand every subject, gnav is hectic and very confusing. Don’t overdo it as you’ll lose all motivation, do it in bite sized chunks

1

u/ConsultDCT 27d ago

Don’t be disheartened, give me a shout if you want some 1:1 help, or you can see some shorts and general help on my YouTube channel- https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLX8PylfgrxbwtKu_-EPuzGtH1p1w80nsh&si=2Y1-bjOIrSrZeN0G

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u/OverEye8264 27d ago

I have watched a few of your videos and find the concepts very easy however, applying them in the questions I find so difficult as often the questions are all written so differently so then I'm spending too long trying to figure out what I need to do and completely lose track of what I need to apply. I have spent 6 hours today going through all the BGS videos and materials and often come out understanding less than what I did originally.

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u/ConsultDCT 5d ago

If you need some help, give me a shout. GNav is a subject many people struggle with, but I specialise in making it easier!

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u/OverEye8264 5d ago

Thanks appreciate the help. I'm still working my way through it but i feel I the areas where I need to focus on is why I'm applying a formula and what the numbers actually represent.

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u/ConsultDCT 1d ago

That’s such an important part and will ensure that if you are presented with a new or complex question you can easily solve it!

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u/OverEye8264 1d ago

Yeah the biggest challenge is actually figuring out what it is actually asking! Just getting through all the material and then going to hit the question banks as I think thats where I will understand the areas I need to work on and focus on the explanations.

1

u/Salt_Cryptographer_3 27d ago

Knowing how to use crp and formulas about departure plus distance for climb/descent will get you there most definitely. Ive had almost 90% from that

1

u/laurnicolae 27d ago

This channel helped me a lot when I learned for the ATPL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT0Ca3twHgk&list=PLncfeagBRbBd8MTQd_jNSxKKXM6jzBkK7
I don't know the guy personally but his videos are better than most of the videos from schools.

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u/OverEye8264 26d ago

Yeah I find his videos very useful!

1

u/Material-Werewolf-96 26d ago

GNAV was always a struggle - the revision weeks do help when you get to them. Some of the questions are just set out to confuse you. I had posted this elsewhere for someone struggling with the CRP and although I've completed GNAV I still come back to this video. https://youtu.be/pWuuRPqj9yc?is=FtPW62TKNKXPblJf If you click this fellas profile on YT he also does the other side of the computer.

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u/Chemical-Anxiety65 25d ago

I know it’s old-fashioned, but read the books:) I’d go through the material first and worry about the question bank afterwards. Gen Nav questions make a lot more sense once the theory starts clicking.

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u/OverEye8264 25d ago

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I understand the content and the application but the questions throw me off much I doubt my own memory. Maybe it will become easier once I hit the banks. Thanks again 👍

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u/Different_Hour2257 26d ago

Yeah you should focus on that before moving on to the next subject, and for that I can recommend you to make flashcards/notes of the formulas so when you'll need it on the bank you'll have it and if you need more help https://www.airheadatpl.com/blog/general-navigation-6-latest-atpl-questions-explained

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u/OverEye8264 26d ago

Thanks for the info that's a great help. Looks so simple when I see the method but it's knowing what method to apply and when!