A Students Guide to the Aviation Documents

A lot of new students find that when they first look at the aviation documents,
they are very confusing and don’t know where to start. I have written this to
give an overall understanding and assist you to know where to look.

Civil Aviation Regulations

This is the document that contains the laws that are passed by parliament for
aviation. They are usually contained in two large folders. Folder 1 contains the
Aviation Act (not normally examined) and the 1988 CARs. The year tells when
the document was first written and is divided into 5 volumes, each with its
own contents page. The volumes contain the information listed below:
Volume 1 – Maintenance section for CPL Law and higher exams, except for CAR
2, which is definitions and contains info on Class A & B maintenance.
Volume 2 – Until September 2014, this was the licencing section. This has
since been rewritten and moved to the CASRs. The section still exists because
balloon licences are still in this section, which of course are of no interest to
the fixed wing pilot.
Volume 3 – This section contains almost all of the regulations that you would
be interested in at all licence levels.
Volume 4 – There is one regulation in this volume that gets examined and this
is referred to as schedule 8. Provided that you have been instructed and
signed off by an appropriate person, a private pilot is permitted to carry out
limited maintenance to certain aircraft. Schedule 8 tells you what these things
are.
Volume 5 - This section contains notes and is not usually used.

The second folder contains the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations 1998, once
again the date referring to when the document was published. CASA wish to
replace the 1988 CARs and the CAOs with this document. They are
progressively rewriting and updating the 1988 CARs and publishing them as a
CASR. The CASRs are not permitted in CASA exams with the exception of part

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61 (the pilot licencing section) which can be removed and taken with you for
CASA exams.
This document is also divided into 5 volumes with Part 61 being contained in
volume 3. Two other bits of information that are used by the CPL & ATPL pilot
are both the medical section and dangerous goods section. In particular, the
information to be remembered for the professional pilot is when you need to
advise CASA of any medical incapacity and dangerolus good recurrency training
(i.e. every 2 years)
The CARs/CASRs do not have any dividers separating the volumes however
students are permitted to install a set. This can turn a very large document
into something very manageable and is highly recommended.

Civil Aviation Orders

This document is an expansion of the CARs. The CARs as the law are usually
brief, however if CASA wish to expand on something (CASA may give direction)
it is usually in the form of a Civil Aviation Order. This document contains no
index or contents pages so initially may seem difficult to use. The pilot CAOs
are Part 20 to Part 95 with each different numbered section being separated
by a tab. The ATPL pilot will use Part 20, Part 29 and Part 82, which covers the
requirements for the issue of AOC. Below is a list and the subject covered by
each CAO:
CAO 20.2 – Safety precautions before flight including fuel checks.
CAO 20.3 – Marshalling and Parking of Aircraft
CAO 20.4 – Carriage and use of oxygen
CAO20.7.0 – Performance General including Declared Density Charts
CAO 20.7.1/2 – Performance for Aircraft with a MTOW >5700
CAO 20.9 – Fuelling requirements/Engine start requirements
CAO 20.11 – Emergency Requirements (use of lifejackets/passenger briefing)
CAO 20.16.2 – Carriage of Cargo
CAO 20.16.3 – Carriage of Persons (sitting in seats/wearing seatbelts ect.)
CAO 20.18 - Flight Instruments for IFR including Appendix 2-6

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CAO 29.5 – Dropping of Articles
CAO 48.1 – Flight & Duty Times, plus Instrument 48.1
CAO 82.1/2 Conditions on an AOC

Under current exam rules, you are not permitted to put any tags into either
the CARs or CAOs but you are permitted to highlight as you wish.
Civil Aviation Advisory Publication
This document was written by CASA some time ago to offer advice on methods
of how to meet the requirements of the CARs. In particular there are two that
are required for the PPL exam. CAAP 92-1 gives you guidance on how to
ensure that an ALA is safe to use and CAAP 234-1 guidance on how much fuel
will be required for your flight. Both numbers mentioned are also the numbers
of the relevant CAR that refer to this topic.

Aeronautical Information Publications

This is probably the document that you would refer to the most both in
practice and in the exam. This document, published by Airservices Australia is
a basic “How too” document e.g. how to operate in controlled airspace. Unlike
the other CASA documents that I have mentioned, this document not only has
contents pages for each section but also a very good index at the back of the
document. It is divided into three major sections and multiple other
subsections. The major sections are General, Enroute and Aerodromes.
The General section is the section you might refer to with before flight issues
and contain the following:
GEN 1.5 – Radio/Navigation Aids/GNSS requirements
GEN 2.2 – Definitions and abbreviations
GEN 2.7 – Beginning and End of Daylight charts
GEN 3.3 – Information available prior to and during flight
GEN 3.4 – Radio phraseologies

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GEN 3.5 – Meteorological Services

The Enroute section as the name suggests is the doing part of the document
and contains the following:
ENR 1.1 – General rules and procedures for all classes of airspace
ENR 1.2 – Visual Flight Rules
ENR 1.4 – Types and description of the different airspaces
ENR 1.5 – IFR operations
ENR 1.6 – Radar (ATC) procedures
ENR 1.7 – Altimetry
ENR 1.10 – Flight Planning
ENR 1.12 – Air Defence Identification Zone
ENR 1.14 – Accidents & Incidents (IRM/RRM)

The Aerodrome section contains marking that are of some interest to the
private pilot such as displaced thresholds however you will find that this
section tends not to be heavily examined whereas the previously mentioned
GEN and ENR are.
You are permitted to highlight in this document as much as you like and are
also allowed to have 10 additional tags to assist in your finding things that you
consider important. These tags must contain only the name of the item and
can’t offer any explanation of what something means. Your documents will be
checked by the exam supervisor prior to your commencement of the exam and
if something is found that is outside of the rules, you will be asked to remove
it, or if this is not possible, the document will be taken away from you.
An important note to mention at this time. If you are caught doing things that
are outside of the exam rules, you can be banned from all CASA exams for a
period of 1 year.

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 Enroute Suppliment Australia
This document forms part of the AIPs and contains information on all licensed
and some unlicensed airports in Australia as well as specific information about
Prohibited, Restricted and Danger areas, special procedures at aerodromes
and when overflying cultural or tourist significant places. It also contains a lot
of very useful information on how to access flight planning material plus a very
useful and usually heavily examined emergency section. This document should
always accompany the pilot when navigating away from home base. It is
replaced every three months. It is the students’ responsibility to ensure that
you have a current version for both your exam and navigation exercises.

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