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CASA PPL (aeroplane) theory

The exam, as CASA runs it.

Australia examines the whole private-pilot syllabus in one sitting, the PPLA. This page sets out what it is, how it is booked and marked, what you may take in, and what the Knowledge Deficiency Report means for your flight test. Then three questions to try.

3 h 30 on the clock70% to pass$217.24 a sitting62 to 67 per cent pass rate, 2020 to 2025Open book
Try three questionsSit a full mock
The sitting

One paper, three and a half hours.

The PPLA is booked through PEXO and sat at an Aspeq exam centre. Aspeq collects the fee, runs the session and issues your result and KDR; CASA writes and marks the exam. CASA does not publish the number of questions; candidates consistently report 55 to 60, a mix of multiple-choice items and ones where you type a number.

It is open book. You sit it with CAR 1988, CASR Parts 61 and 91 with the Part 91 MOS, the AIP Book, ERSA, the AUS PCA, the Sydney, Townsville and Bourke WACs (or the Jeppesen equivalents), the VFRG, navigation equipment and a basic calculator. Fuel questions use the reserves in the Part 91 MOS, and CASA names its own list of weak areas: take-off and landing charts, time and distance revisions, density and pressure height, the ALPHA, BRAVO and CHARLIE loading systems, and reading forecasts.

A mock here asks you to own none of that. Every figure a question depends on is printed with the question, and the standing data — the VMC table, VFR cruising levels, final reserve fuel, the altimetry and loading constants — opens in a reference panel inside the exam, taken from those same documents.

Pass mark70 per cent. Score 50 to 100 per cent and you receive a KDR; 50 per cent or less and you are referred to the whole syllabus.
SyllabusSchedule 3 of the Part 61 Manual of Standards: 14 units and 338 numbered knowledge items. The KDR cites them by number.
After the examYour flight-test examiner works through every item on the KDR with you, so each one has to be learned before the test.
What it costs
One sitting of the PPLA $217.24 $65.00 CASA fee plus $152.24 to the exam provider — payable again for every re-sit.
versus
One full-length mock here $14.99 Three for $34.99, six for $54.99. Six of them still come to a quarter of one sitting.

Fees as published by CASA and its exam provider, September 2026. The pass rate has been 62 to 67 per cent in each year from 2020 to 2025, so a re-sit is a realistic cost to plan for.

The syllabus

Eight areas, fourteen MOS units.

The mock is drawn to the same balance every time, so the weight you meet here is the weight you meet on the day. The unit codes are the ones your KDR will use.

Flight rules and air law12 of 60
RFRC, PFRA

The rules of the air, airspace and its classes, VMC, altimetry rules, cruising levels, the Part 91 operating rules, licence privileges and recency, documents, alcohol and drugs, ELTs and the AIP structure.
Loading, performance and planning10 of 60
POPC, POPA

Weight and balance with the loading systems, take-off and landing charts, pressure and density height, fuel planning with the Part 91 MOS reserves, and the flight-planning arithmetic that most of the type-a-number questions come from.
Navigation9 of 60
PNVC, GNSSC

Chart reading, track and heading, time and distance revisions, the 1-in-60 rule, wind triangles, position lines, the flight computer, GNSS principles and RAIM, and how a diversion is planned in the air.
Meteorology8 of 60
RMTC, PMTC

The atmosphere, stability and cloud, fronts and pressure systems, wind at the surface and aloft in the Southern Hemisphere, icing, thunderstorms, fog, and reading the TAF, METAR, GAF and GPWT.
Engines, systems and instruments8 of 60
BAKC, PAKC, PAKA

The piston engine, mixture and detonation, carburettor icing, fuel and oil systems, electrics, the pitot-static and gyroscopic instruments and their errors, the magnetic compass, and ELT and transponder use.
Human factors6 of 60
PHFC

Hypoxia and the altitude limits, vision and the illusions, hearing and the vestibular system, fatigue, stress, decision-making, alcohol and medication, and the I'M SAFE checks.
Aerodynamics5 of 60
RBKA, BAKC

Lift and drag, the stall and its warning, the spin, load factor in the turn, stability, flap effects, ground effect, and the relationships between speed, weight and angle of attack.
Radiotelephony2 of 60
RARO, PAKC

Call signs and abbreviated call signs, standard phraseology, the CTAF and broadcast requirements, transponder codes, and the distress and urgency procedures.
Try three

Questions from the bank.

Pick an answer, or type the number, and you see what the de-brief shows after a mock: the correct answer, the reasoning and the Part 61 MOS item it came from. The middle one is a type-a-number question, the format that catches people out on the day.

Sit twelve for free
Part 61 MOS · RFRC 2.3.1Question 1 / 3

In Class G airspace at 6,500 ft the VMC criteria for an aeroplane are:

Why

Table 2.07 (3) of the Part 91 MOS: below 10,000 ft AMSL in Classes A, B, C, E and G the criteria are 5,000 m flight visibility with 1,500 m horizontal and 1,000 ft vertical separation from cloud; at or above 10,000 ft the visibility rises to 8,000 m. The reduced criteria of 5,000 m, clear of cloud and in sight of the ground apply only in Class G at or below 3,000 ft AMSL or 1,000 ft AGL, whichever is higher, and then a radio is required. Class D uses 600 m horizontally, 1,000 ft above and 500 ft below cloud. At 6,500 ft the standard criteria apply. (PFRA 2.6.2.)

Choose an answerRFRC 2.3.1
Part 61 MOS · POPA 2.2.3Type a numberQuestion 2 / 3

An aerodrome has an elevation of 1,540 ft and the QNH is 998 hPa. Using 30 ft per hectopascal, what is the aerodrome pressure height? Enter a whole number of feet.

ft

Why

The QNH of 998 hPa is 15 hPa below the standard 1013 hPa. A lower pressure means the standard-atmosphere level with the same pressure is higher, so the pressure height is elevation plus 15 × 30 = 450 ft: 1,540 + 450 = 1,990 ft. If the QNH were above 1013 the correction would be subtracted. This is the figure to enter on the airfield pressure height axis of the take-off and landing charts; the same result is obtained by setting 1013 on the subscale and reading the altimeter on the ground. (POPA 2.2.3.)

Type your answerPOPA 2.2.3
Part 61 MOS · PMTC 2.5.3Question 3 / 3

The GPWT gives the 2,000 ft wind over flat terrain as 300° at 30 kt. In the Southern Hemisphere, the surface wind is most likely to be about:

Why

Surface friction slows the wind and weakens the Coriolis force, so the surface wind blows more directly towards low pressure than the gradient wind. In the Southern Hemisphere low pressure is on the right of the gradient flow, so the turn towards it is clockwise: the surface wind is veered relative to the gradient wind, by about 30° over land by day (less over the sea and at night), and reduced to roughly half to two-thirds of the gradient speed. A 300° gradient wind therefore gives a surface wind near 330° at 15 to 20 kt; 270° would be the Northern Hemisphere answer. Climbing out, the wind backs and strengthens. (PMTC 2.5.3.)

Choose an answerPMTC 2.5.3
How to prepare

What passing it usually takes.

  1. Know where things are, not just what they sayOpen book means the AIP, ERSA and the MOS are on the desk on the day. Time is what runs out: practise finding the paragraph, not memorising it.
  2. Get quick at the arithmeticPressure height, density height, the loading system, fuel with the Part 91 MOS reserves, time and distance revisions. These are the type-a-number items, and they are CASA's own list of weak areas.
  3. Sit a full-length mock before you bookThree and a half hours is its own skill. A mock shows whether the pace holds, and the de-brief tells you which MOS items still need work while there is still time to do it.
  4. Treat the de-brief as the KDREvery missed item is one your examiner would have gone through with you. Clear them before the real sitting and the KDR you do get is short.
Common questions

About the PPLA.

If yours is not here, email support.

CASA does not publish the count. Candidates consistently report 55 to 60 questions in a 3 hour 30 minute sitting, so the mock here is 60 questions on a 210-minute clock. Some questions are multiple choice and some ask you to type a number.

70 per cent. Score between 50 and 100 per cent and you receive a Knowledge Deficiency Report listing the Part 61 MOS items you got wrong; score 50 per cent or less and CASA refers you to the whole syllabus.

$217.24 a sitting: a $152.24 exam-provider fee and a $65 CASA fee. A re-sit costs the same again.

Yes. You sit it with CASA's permitted materials: CAR 1988, CASR Parts 61 and 91 with the Part 91 MOS, the AIP Book, ERSA, the AUS PCA, the Sydney, Townsville and Bourke WACs, the VFRG, navigation equipment and a basic calculator. Knowing where things are in those documents is a large part of passing. A mock exam here needs none of them: every figure is given with the question and the standing data is built into the exam.

A Knowledge Deficiency Report: the list of syllabus items you answered incorrectly, by Part 61 MOS unit and item number. Your flight-test examiner goes through it with you, so every item on it has to be learned before the test.

CASA reports a pass rate between 62 and 67 per cent in each year from 2020 to 2025: roughly one candidate in three does not pass at the first sitting.

No. It is an independent study aid. The questions are written to Schedule 3 of the Part 61 Manual of Standards and are our own; the official exam is sat through CASA's exam provider.

Before the real one

The closest thing to the real paper.

Nobody outside CASA has the questions. What can be matched is everything else, and here all of it is: the full sixty on the real 3 hours 30, the same eight-area split, the type-a-number items, and 669 questions written item by item against the fourteen Part 61 MOS units the exam is set from.

  • Drawn fresh every time, so you learn the syllabus and not the paper
  • Every wrong answer explained in full, with the MOS item your KDR would cite
  • Nothing to buy: every figure is given, with the standing data built into the exam
  • Walk in knowing what a pass feels like, instead of finding out at $217.24 a go

60 questions · 210 minutes · 70% to pass

$14.99one full-length mockAUD · one sitting of the real exam is $217.24

Or 3 for $34.99 and 6 for $54.99: each code is a different exam.

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