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Commercial Pilot Licence · Subject 20, AC61-5

CPL Meteorology practice 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.

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

Questions50
Time120min
Pass mark70%
Question bank253
Sit a CPL Meteorology paper · $9.99 CPL bundles from $6.67 an exam
What the paper covers

Subject 20 topic by topic.

The syllabus areas below are the ones the CAA lists for Meteorology, and every question in the bank carries the code of the item it tests.

  • 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
Where the marks go

What catches people in Meteorology.

  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.
From the bank

Sample Meteorology questions.

Four questions as they appear in a paper, with the answer and the reasoning you get in the de-brief. Options are shuffled in the real thing.

CPL · Syllabus 20.6.4Sample 1 / 4

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

  1. AA warm column has a higher tropopause and a cold column (polar air, or behind a cold front) has a lower one
  2. BSurface pressure and temperature have no effect; the tropopause is always found at 36 090 ft in every air mass
  3. CA warm column has a lower tropopause because warm air expands sideways rather than upward through the layer
  4. DA cold column has a higher tropopause because cold air is denser and pushes the boundary layer upward
Show the answer and why
A warm column has a higher tropopause and a cold column (polar air, or behind a cold front) has a lower one

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.

CPL · Syllabus 20.26.6Sample 2 / 4

The difference between fog, mist and haze is that:

  1. AFog: droplets reducing visibility below 1000 m; mist: droplets with visibility 1000-5000 m and high humidity; haze: dry particles at lower humidity
  2. BFog: dry particles; mist: water droplets reducing visibility below 1000 m; haze: ice crystals suspended in very cold air
  3. CFog occurs only over the sea, mist occurs only over land, and haze occurs only in cities and industrial areas
  4. DThey are all the same phenomenon, given different names according to the time of day at which they are observed
Show the answer and why
Fog: droplets reducing visibility below 1000 m; mist: droplets with visibility 1000-5000 m and high humidity; haze: dry particles at lower humidity

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.

CPL · Syllabus 20.22.6Sample 3 / 4

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

  1. AThe tropopause rises during the afternoon and draws the whole cloud layer upward with it
  2. BThe dew point rises faster than the temperature during the afternoon, so the air becomes drier at cloud level
  3. CThe surface temperature rises while the dew point stays similar or falls, widening the spread and raising the convective condensation level
  4. DThe air becomes progressively more humid as the day goes on, which lifts the base of the cumulus clouds
Show the answer and why
The surface temperature rises while the dew point stays similar or falls, widening the spread and raising the convective condensation level

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.

CPL · Syllabus 20.18.4Sample 4 / 4

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

  1. ASuper-adiabatic: temperature constant with height; inversion: temperature falling with height at exactly the dry adiabatic rate
  2. BBoth appear as identical vertical lines on the graph, because in each case the temperature does not change with height
  3. CSuper-adiabatic: temperature increasing with height above a cold surface; inversion: temperature falling faster than the DALR
  4. DSuper-adiabatic: temperature falling faster than 3 degrees C/1000 ft, typical just above hot ground; inversion: temperature rising with height
Show the answer and why
Super-adiabatic: temperature falling faster than 3 degrees C/1000 ft, typical just above hot ground; inversion: temperature rising with height

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 turbulence. An inversion (temperature rising with height) or an isothermal layer (constant temperature) is very stable: rising parcels are quickly colder than their surroundings, so convection, cloud tops and pollution are capped beneath it, and wind shear and haze layers are common at its base. Reference: syllabus 20.18.4; WMO; ICAO Doc 8896.

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Meteorology questions

Asked about this exam.

Straight answers. If yours is not here, email support and a person replies.

Our paper 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.

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