1.2 How to Use This Guide & Build a Study Plan

How Much Time You Need

Plan for roughly 14 hours of theory plus the practical flight training with your provider. Most candidates complete a RePL course over several days to a few weeks, attending theory sessions (in person or online) and logging flight time on their training aircraft. The 14-hour figure is a guide — some providers compress it into an intensive long weekend, others spread it across evening sessions. Budget additional time for the 120-question practice bank that accompanies this guide, and for the AROC if you bundle it into your course.

Study Order — Work the MOS Knowledge Units

CASA does not publish a percentage weighting for the RePL theory exam, so build your plan around the Part 101 MOS Schedule 2 knowledge units and the A/B/C priority codes in Schedule 4 instead. A sensible order runs foundations first, then rules, then the applied units:

1. RORA — Operational rules and air law for RPAS. Only two Schedule 4 topics, but in practice this unit reaches across the whole Part 101 operating framework: the standard operating conditions, the excluded categories, licence and certificate conditions, and where to find current legislation. Everything else is framed by it, so study it first.
2. RBAK — Basic aviation knowledge. Direction and wind, time and UTC, units of measurement, aerodynamics, weight and balance, propellers and rotors, flight controls, and the remote pilot station. Nine topics, five of them priority A.
3. RBKM — Multirotor knowledge and operating principles (or RBKA/RBKH/RBKP for your category). Ten topics covering airframe layout, rotor aerodynamics, hovering, control, climb, turn, descent and vortex ring state.
4. REES — Electrical and electronic systems. Nine topics: electrical terms, components, motors, batteries, charging, battery limits, radio-wave propagation, GPS, and electromagnetic interference. This is the second-largest unit and the one candidates most often under-study.
5. RACP — Airspace, charts and aeronautical publications. Four topics, but each is broad: airspace classification and depiction, AIP/ERSA/NOTAM, obtaining and decoding NOTAMs, and chart fundamentals.
6. RBMO — Basic meteorology. Three topics: weather phenomena, weather observations, and aeronautical forecasts.
7. RKOP — Operations and procedures. Nine topics, seven of them priority A: general operations and logs, risk assessment, airworthiness, payload, accident and incident reporting, abnormal operations, fail-safes, operations near aerodromes, and operations above 400 ft AGL.
8. RHPF — Human performance. Six topics: airmanship and decision making, basic health, vision and illusions, stress, threat and error management, and crew coordination.

Radio procedure is not a separate MOS unit. It appears inside RACP (when a radio qualification is required) and is examined in full in the separate AROC assessment, so treat it as an adjacent syllabus you study alongside the RePL rather than a RePL unit in its own right.

Memorise the Standard Operating Conditions Cold

The SOC numbers are the most frequently examined factual recall items. Learn them verbatim — the exam will test exact figures, not approximations:

• 120 m (≈400 ft) above ground level (AGL) maximum height
• Day-only operations
• Visual line of sight (VLOS) at all times
• ≥30 m from uninvolved people
• ≥5.5 km (3 NM) from the movement area of a controlled aerodrome — measured from the aerodrome's published measurement point
• One RPA per remote pilot
• No populous areas

Any operation outside these conditions needs additional approvals or a higher credential — a ReOC, an area approval, or BVLOS authorisation via the ReB1 exam. If you can only memorise one list from this guide, make it this one.

RePL vs ReOC and the Weight Categories

Keep the two authorisations distinct:

• The RePL is the person licence — it qualifies you as a remote pilot.
• The ReOC is the operator's certificate — it authorises an organisation to conduct commercial RPA operations beyond the excluded category.

For light RPA (≤2 kg) commercial operations within the SOC you may operate in the excluded category — no RePL and no ReOC required. You do still need a free RPA operator accreditation, you must register the drone because it is flown for business, and you must stay inside the SOC. Heavier RPA, any BVLOS, night flying, populous-area work, or operations near controlled aerodromes push you out of the excluded category and require a RePL flown under a ReOC. Knowing exactly where the excluded-category boundary sits is itself an exam point under RORA.

A Suggested Session Plan

Use this phase breakdown to allocate your hours. Adjust the hours per phase to your background — candidates with an existing pilot licence or radio background move faster through Navigation and Radio, while those new to aviation often need a second pass on Air Law.

If you are studying over two weeks, phases 1–3 fit into week one and phases 4–5 into week two, leaving the final session for a full 120-question practice run. If you are studying over a single intensive week, one phase per day with drills in the evenings is realistic.

Using the 120-Question Practice Bank

This guide is paired with a 120-question practice bank. Use it actively, not passively:

• Drill C2 failsafes — what happens when the control link is lost — until the sequence is automatic.
• Drill LiPo battery safety — storage voltage, charging discipline, cell swelling, and fire risk.
• Drill chart reading — decode airspace classes, identify CTAF/CTR, and measure bearings and distances.
• Drill radio phraseology — standard calls, readback requirements, and the AROC format.

After each practice set, review the explanations for every question you missed and re-read the relevant section here. The goal is not to memorise the answers but to close the knowledge gap behind each wrong response.

Theory Guide vs Practical Competency

This guide teaches the theory you need for the provider theory exam. The practical flight competency is assessed separately by your provider's chief flying instructor and is not covered in these pages. Book the practical assessment only after you have passed the theory exam and completed enough flight training to meet the MOS competency standards.

That separation matters for planning: the theory hours and the flight hours run on different clocks. Many candidates begin flight training in parallel with theory so that both finish around the same date. If you delay flight training until after theory is done, expect the practical phase to add days or weeks of additional preparation before your RePL is issued.

A Note on Currency After the Licence

Passing the theory exam and the practical assessment earns the RePL, but it does not freeze your obligations. To stay safe and legal you must keep current on the MOS (which CASA revises periodically), re-read any amendments to Part 101, and — if you operate under a ReOC — follow the operator's procedures manual. Treat this guide as your first read of the syllabus, not your last. The best remote pilots revisit Air Law and the SOC every few months, because the rules that govern commercial drone work in Australia do change.