Skill
Instrument comprehension practice
The most teachable test in any aircrew battery, and the one where familiarity is worth the most. Once the instrument stops needing a moment of thought, the questions become easy. The whole difficulty is that moment of thought, multiplied by however many questions you face.
What the test looks like
- You are shown an attitude indicator, and often a heading indicator beside it, then asked which of four aircraft pictures matches. Sometimes it runs the other way: an aircraft is shown and you pick the instrument.
- The instrument is the same one in every cockpit. Brown or amber is the earth, blue is the sky, and the small fixed symbol in the middle is your own aircraft.
- The aircraft symbol never moves. The horizon moves around it, which is why the display feels backwards on first sight and why practice matters more here than almost anywhere else.
How each battery asks for it
UNITED KINGDOM
In the CBAT
The RAF battery splits this across two parts. The first works from a single attitude indicator; the second adds a full panel, so you are eliminating options on heading as well as attitude. Both are strictly timed and neither is difficult without the clock.
AUSTRALIA
In the ADF testing and MACTS
The ADF aviation testing includes an instruments test at the Additional Testing stage, and interpreting aircraft instruments under timed conditions is one of the two capabilities MACTS is publicly described as measuring. Same skill, asked in the assessment centre rather than at a recruiting office.
Neither is reproduced here. CBATONE practises the skill, using original material written to the published format. How the two batteries differ.
What it actually measures
- Whether you can convert a display into a mental picture without translating it step by step.
- How fast that conversion is, since every one of these tests is easy given unlimited time.
- Whether you hold up when the panel gets busier and a second instrument has to agree with the first.
How to practise it
- 1
Read pitch first
Climbing, descending or level. More blue below the aircraft symbol means nose up. More brown above it means nose down. This alone usually eliminates two of the four options.
- 2
Read bank off the pointer, not the horizon
The horizon tilts the opposite way to the aircraft, which is where the confusion comes from. The bank pointer at the top of the instrument shows the angle directly, with no mental flipping required.
- 3
Take heading last
The number at the top of the heading indicator is the direction you are pointing. North is 360, east 090, south 180, west 270. The reciprocal, exactly 180 degrees out, is always one of the options.
- 4
Practise in short sessions
This is a recognition skill, and recognition is built by seeing many instruments quickly rather than studying a few carefully. Twenty minutes across four days beats two hours in one sitting.
Common mistakes
Reading the bottom of the compass
Taking the number nearest the bottom of the heading indicator gives you the reciprocal. Test writers include it as an option every single time, because it catches people reliably.
Matching the whole picture as a shape
Trying to recognise the answer at a glance is slower than working pitch then bank then heading, and it is what gets caught by options that are close but mirrored.
Practising untimed
Every question here is easy at your own pace. If you are comfortable, you are not practising the thing being tested.
Practise it, timed
Reading about it does nothing on its own. These run live in the browser, on the clock, and score you against a measured benchmark when they stop.
Free version with an account and no card. Premium for fresh questions every run, practice levels and the breakdown of where you lose marks.
Common questions
- What is instrument comprehension?
- A test of whether you can read an aircraft instrument panel and say, instantly, what the aircraft is doing. You are shown an attitude indicator, and usually a heading indicator, then asked to match it to one of four aircraft pictures.
- Why does the artificial horizon look backwards?
- Because the aircraft symbol is fixed and the horizon moves around it. A horizon tilted down to the right means the aircraft is banked left. Reading the bank pointer at the top of the instrument avoids the flip entirely.
- Is instrument comprehension in both the CBAT and the ADF testing?
- Yes. The RAF CBAT has two instrument comprehension parts, and the ADF aviation Additional Testing includes an instruments test. The format differs, the skill does not.
- Can you practise instrument comprehension online?
- Yes, and it is one of the few aptitude skills that genuinely improves with practice, because most of what you gain is recognition speed rather than reasoning.
- How long should I spend on it?
- Short sessions spread over several days beat one long one. You are ready when you stop translating and simply see the attitude.