Pilot Aptitude Battery Test by IAF | Preparation Tips for SSB Interview - CDS PDF Download

When I was preparing for SSB, I could not get any information about PABT from anywhere on the net. Now, having been recommended as an F(P), I wish to explain people what PABT is all about.

Pilot Aptitude Battery Test:  This test aims at judging the basic skills needed by a person to qualify as a pilot. In this test, the most important things judged are

• How attentively you listen to a session and how you answer the simple questions that follow?
• What amount of focus you have in attempting questions correctly while keeping the wrong ones as low as possible?
• Do you have a keen interest in knowing about a aircraft?

This test is conducted in 2 parts: 

Written Test : 

• This test itself consists of 2 parts –
  • Apparatus Reading Test: In this test the 6 basic measuring instruments of an aero plane are shown and explained to the candidates. These are:
• Magnetic compass
• Artificial Horizon
• Altimeter
• Turn or Bank Indicator
• Climb and Descent indicator
• Air Speed Indicator

These instruments are explained in complete detail containing each and every point needed for successfully qualifying the test. Hence, the candidates should listen to the officer with very receptive mind and make sincere efforts to understand every detail that is being imparted to them. Also they should keep away from silly questions and also try their level best to clarify whatever doubt they have, whenever the Officer asks them.

• Plane position test: In this test, the candidate is explained various positions that the plane travels and the regions of the plane that are visible from the front when the its travelling in these positions. These are:
  • East, West, North, South, NW, NE, SW, SE.
  • Climbing up(elevating), Descending(moving down)

The different parts of the plane that help in identification are:

Now, once he has explained to you the various portions of the plane, he’d show you   the different positions that the plane travels (the different directions mentioned earlier).  
Remember some points very well:

• If you see the nose of the plane, the plane is coming towards you and it is taken as moving towards south.
• If you see the black dot of the plane, the plane is going away from you and it is taken as moving towards north.
• If you see the plane moving in such a way that the nose is to your right and tail to your left, than the direction is taken as moving towards east.
• If you see the plane moving in such a way that the nose is to your left and tail to your right, than the direction is taken as moving towards west.

Now, when the direction has been identified, the next observation is ascent/descent.
For East-West movement –

• If the nose is at a lower horizontal level than the tail, than the plane is surely losing height or descending.
• If the nose is at a higher horizontal level than the tail, than the plane is surely gaining height or ascending.

For North-South movement –
North (you see the black dot or the tail):

• If you see the belly of the plane, than the plane is losing height.
• If you see the entire top portion of the plane than the plane is gaining height.

South (you see the nose):

• If you see the belly of the plane, than the plane is gaining height or ascending.
• If you see the top of the plane, than its losing height or descending.

The same information can be extended to identify movement in NW, NW, NE, SE, SW directions. The candidates that come out as successful in the written test are taken for machine testing.  

Machine Test

• Light Control Test: This test judges the reflexive capabilities of a candidate. In this test, a spot of light (ball) is to be maintained in the centre of 2 concentric squares. The spot of light, if left, moves across randomly all over the screen. Also, there are 2 lights, yellow and red which come up in the top left and top right corners of the screen intermittently.
  Now, the devices needed to control the spot are:
  • A hand operated stick: This stick controls the movement of the stick in up and down direction. It is of the shape of the gear-changer in cars. Moving the stick back moves the ball up and moving it in forward direction moves it towards the bottom of the screen.
  • Foot pedals: The operation of the pedals moves the spot of light (ball) to right or left.
  • Light lever: A hand lever is provided which when moved forward puts off red light and when backward puts off yellow light.
  • Beep button: A button on the top of the stick is used for putting off the beep sound in the headphones.

Here is a sample window for this test. Its exactly what you see at the screen at some random instant of time.

• Control Velocity Test: In this test, a spot of light (red) is to be superimposed on a series of yellow lights running on the screen from top to bottom. Whenever there is a successful superimposition, there is a small blip in the headphone. The more times you succeed in superimposing the red ball on the yellow balls, the more points you get. A sample screen is shown as: