EASA provides regular European Central Question Bank (ECQB) updates to the National Competent Authorities (NCAs) for use in their theory exams. The latest amendment, Amendment 4, to ECQB 2022 is a major content change and marks the first step in aligning the ECQB to the new provisions on fuel management.
EASA has to balance the needs of keeping the syllabus up to date while avoiding the uncertainty of constant change. During the review of the ECQB questions, it was seen that the basis for the calculations aligned to the previous fuel provisions could continue to be applied as per the basic fuel scheme, requiring simple edits to existing questions.
Other aspects of the fuel scheme with variations and the individual fuel scheme are not accommodated in the current syllabus, and for this a future amendment to the syllabus as Acceptable Means of Compliance (AMC) to Flight Crew Licensing (Part-FCL) is required in order to establish what pilots need to cover in their initial training.
It is up to each NCA to determine how and when to implement Amendment 4 to ECQB 2022 – there is no specific timeframe from EASA for this.
For further information, including sample questions illustrating the changes associated with the fuel scheme, please see the ECQB page.
