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Commercial Pilot Licence · Subject 20, AC61-5

NZ CPL Meteorology exam.

CPL Met is 50 questions in two hours and the syllabus deepens every PPL topic while adding the general circulation, tropical meteorology, satellite and radar imagery, and a much closer reading of New Zealand forecast products. Our bank of 253 questions covers all 20 sub-topics of Subject 20 of AC61-5, and the numerical questions state the conventions they use so the working is checkable.

50questions120minutes70%pass mark253in the bank
140syllabus items tested · the questions in the background are from the bank
Sit a CPL Meteorology exam · $9.99The CPL exams, explained
Try three

Stability, cloud base, and the reason why.

CPL Met deepens everything and adds calculation. These three are the tropopause, the fog, mist and haze definitions, and afternoon cloud base; the de-brief below reads a lapse-rate graph.

Answer each one and you see what the de-brief shows after a paid exam: the correct option, the reasoning and the syllabus item it came from.

0 of 3 answered

CPL · Syllabus 20.6.4Question 1 / 3

The height of the tropopause responds to the tropospheric column such that:

Why

Warm air is less dense and the column expands vertically, so the level at which the temperature stops falling is reached higher up: over the tropics and in warm air masses the tropopause is high (and cold), while in cold polar air it is low (and relatively warm). Across a front the tropopause height changes sharply, and this break in the tropopause is where jet streams are found. Above a cold, low tropopause the air at a given flight level may actually be warmer than above a high tropopause. Reference: syllabus 20.6.4; ICAO Doc 8896; WMO.

Choose an answerSyllabus 20.6.4
CPL · Syllabus 20.26.6Question 2 / 3

The difference between fog, mist and haze is that:

Why

By international definition fog is a suspension of water droplets (or ice crystals) reducing visibility to less than 1000 m; mist is the same phenomenon with visibility of 1000 m or more (reported when 1000-5000 m and relative humidity roughly 95% or above); haze is a suspension of dry particles (dust, salt, smoke) that reduces visibility to 5000 m or less, typically with lower relative humidity, and gives distant objects a bluish or brownish tinge. In METARs these are FG, BR and HZ respectively. Reference: syllabus 20.26.6; WMO; ICAO Annex 3.

Choose an answerSyllabus 20.26.6
CPL · Syllabus 20.22.6Question 3 / 3

The convective cloud base over land typically rises during the afternoon because:

Why

Cloud base height is governed by the spread between temperature and dew point at the surface (about 400 ft per degree); as insolation raises the temperature through the day and convective mixing brings drier air down from aloft (holding or lowering the dew point), the spread widens and the base of the cumulus rises, typically from 2000-3000 ft in the morning to 4000-6000 ft by mid-afternoon in summer. It falls again in the evening as the temperature drops. Reference: syllabus 20.22.6, 20.22.8; WMO; ICAO Doc 8896.

Choose an answerSyllabus 20.22.6
The de-brief

From the number back to the physics.

A numerical question you got wrong comes back with the calculation laid out and the convention it used, so you can see whether it was the method or the arithmetic. A conceptual one comes back with the mechanism, from the air's point of view.

After a paid exam it is emailed to you as well, so it is still there the night before the real sitting.

The Flying Kiwi · Knowledge deficiency reportCPL Meteorology
Result
84%42 of 50 correct · pass mark 70%
What you missed

Q23  On a plotted temperature-height graph, a super-adiabatic lapse rate and an inversion appear as:

What you picked
Your answerSuper-adiabatic: temperature constant with height; inversion: temperature falling with height at exactly the dry adiabatic rate
CorrectSuper-adiabatic: temperature falling faster than 3 degrees C/1000 ft, typical just above hot ground; inversion: temperature rising with height
Why

A super-adiabatic layer (ELR greater than 3 degrees C per 1000 ft) is absolutely unstable and is found in the lowest few hundred feet over sun-baked ground on a hot afternoon, giving strong thermals, dust devils and low-level…

Revise

Syllabus 20.18.4 · Meteorology · AC61-5

What the exam covers

Subject 20, the ISA to the tropics.

Stability, cloud base and icing questions come back with the calculation laid out in the de-brief, not just the answer.

  • Regional meteorological services, reports and forecasts
  • Weather maps and the surface analysis
  • The atmosphere, temperature and heat exchange
  • Pressure, density and altimetry
  • Wind at the surface and aloft, including the Southern Hemisphere rules
  • Water vapour, stability and cloud
  • Precipitation, visibility and fog
  • Aircraft icing and thunderstorms
  • Anticyclones, fronts and depressions
  • Turbulence and other hazardous conditions, including mountain waves and volcanic ash
  • The general circulation and tropical meteorology
  • Satellite and radar imagery
Watch for

Where the marks go in CPL Met.

  1. Cloud base from temperature and dew point spread, and lifting condensation versus convective condensation level.
  2. Icing type by cloud and temperature band, and where the worst clear ice sits in a cumulonimbus.
  3. Wind change with height in the Southern Hemisphere: on descent the wind backs or veers depending on the hemisphere and the exam expects the right one.
  4. Product validity periods and the difference between a TAF, a TREND and a SIGMET amendment.
Preparation

How to prepare for CPL Meteorology.

Fifty questions in two hours, with the calculations mixed through the theory. Fix the conventions first; most numerical mistakes are a convention half-remembered.

  1. Write the conventions on your working sheet before you start: 2 °C per 1000 ft in the ISA, 3 and 1.5 for the dry and saturated adiabatic rates, 400 ft per degree of spread for cloud base, 30 ft per hectopascal.
  2. Icing by cloud type and temperature band is a table. So is turbulence by cause. Build both.
  3. Southern Hemisphere, always: the wind veers and slows as you descend to the surface, lows rotate clockwise. Many of the trap options are Northern Hemisphere answers.
  4. Read the forecast products as a pilot would: TAF validity, TREND, the SIGMET types. Product questions are free marks for someone who reads them weekly.
Meteorology questions

Questions about this exam.

If yours is not here, email support.

Our exam is 50 questions in 120 minutes, matched to the Aspeq CPL sitting. Pass mark 70%.

Yes. Subject 20 of AC61-5 includes the general circulation, tropical meteorology and satellite and radar imagery, and the bank covers each of those sub-topics.

The stem states them: 2 °C per 1000 ft for the environmental lapse rate where needed, 3 and 1.5 °C per 1000 ft for the dry and saturated adiabatic rates, 30 ft per hPa, and 400 ft per degree of spread for cloud base.

How it works

Sit CPL Meteorology here, timed like the real exam.

Fifty questions in two hours, with the calculations mixed in. Sit it here to find out which conventions you have not actually memorised.

01Buy a code

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02Sit the exam

50 questions on a 120-minute clock, drawn fresh from the Meteorology bank. Bookmark, skip, come back, submit when you are done. Progress survives a dropped connection.

03Read the de-brief

Score and pass or fail on screen straight away, then the full de-brief by email: every question you got wrong, what you chose, the correct answer, the reasoning and the syllabus reference to revise.

Before the real one

Sit CPL Meteorology here first. Then sit it for real.

Fifty questions, two hours, every wrong answer worked from the physics up, for $9.99. The mistakes are far cheaper to make here than in the exam that costs a resit.

  • The same format as the Aspeq sitting: 50 questions, 120 minutes, 70% to pass.
  • Drawn fresh from 253 Meteorology questions each time, options shuffled. Never the same exam twice.
  • Every wrong answer explained, with the syllabus reference to revise, on screen and by email.
  • Code emailed instantly. Sit it tonight or in three months; unused codes never expire.

50 questions · 120 minutes · 70% to pass

$9.99CPL Meteorology examNZD · one full-length exam · Other NZ practice exams typically charge about $12.00

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