The six IR(R) theory syllabus areas, explained

The IR(R) theory exam draws its 25 questions from across six broad areas. Knowing what lives inside each one turns a vague syllabus into a revision plan. Here is what each area actually asks of you.

Meteorology & instrument flying

The weather half covers the hazards that matter in IMC: airframe and engine icing, fog formation, frontal weather, and reading TAFs and METARs precisely. The instrument-flying half covers the instruments themselves — gyroscopic and pressure instruments, their errors (compass turning and acceleration errors are perennial favourites), and limited-panel flight after a failure.

Air law & ATC procedures

The rules that frame the rating: the IR(R)'s own privileges and minima, airspace classes and what you may do in each, altimeter setting procedures, transponder codes, light signals, radio failure procedures and the sources of operational information — the AIP and NOTAMs. Expect precise, detail-level questions here.

Navigation & flight planning

Radio navigation (VOR radials and CDI interpretation, ADF/NDB tracking and its errors, DME and its slant-range quirk, GNSS use and its limitations) plus the practical planning craft: tracks and headings with wind applied, safe altitudes, fuel planning and the chart-based flight-plan exercise that anchors several exam questions.

Human factors & emergencies

Why instrument flight catches out the untrained body: spatial disorientation and the vestibular illusions (the leans, the graveyard spiral, the Coriolis effect), hypoxia and carbon monoxide, workload management, and the discipline of trusting instruments over sensation. Emergencies cover instrument and vacuum failures and the priorities when things go wrong: aviate, navigate, communicate.

Instrument procedures & approaches

The geometry of getting down: precision versus non-precision approaches, the ILS and its sensitivities, RNP approaches, decision altitude versus minimum descent altitude, holding patterns and entries, procedure turns, missed approaches, and the stabilised-approach discipline that ties it together.

UK Flight Information Services

A small area with outsized exam weight: the four UK services — Basic, Traffic, Deconfliction and Procedural — and exactly what each does and does not provide, who is responsible for what, and how to request and change services. The distinctions are precise and the exam tests them precisely; this is the highest-value memorisation on the syllabus.

Every one of these areas is represented in the IR(R) Revision question bank with explanations on each question — so you can drill an area until it holds, then prove it with mixed mock exams.