By the numbers
Most pilots didn't clear every paper on the first try. Here's what's actually normal.
We counted how many sittings it really takes to clear DGCA CPL papers. Failing one along the way is the standard route, and the people in the orange bars are flying today.
Aryan · Founder, Ready Aviator·12 June 2026·4 min read
Somewhere right now a student is staring at a FAIL on the portal, deciding they’re not pilot material. The data disagrees. We counted how many sittings clearing these papers actually takes, and the people who cleared everything in one go are not the majority. They never were.
Failing a paper is the standard route
Count everyone who has written at least one DGCA CPL paper since 2024, and 71 in 100 of them have failed a paper somewhere along the way. The route to a clean scorecard almost always runs through at least one bad result day.
7 in 10
Even the people who cleared Air Navigation often needed two tries
Take everyone who has passed Air Navigation, and count the sittings it took them.
Everyone who cleared Air Navigation: how many sittings it took
Per 100 students who have passed the paper, 2024 – April 2026
The orange bars are people who are flying their dream today after failing this paper at least once.
Nearly 4 in 10 needed more than one sitting, and about 1 in 6 needed three or more. The average across everyone who attempts the paper is about two sittings. If you’ve failed it once, you’re standing exactly where thousands of current pilots once stood.
The long tail is real too: 824 students have sat the paper five or more times, and the record is 14. Persistence is clearly not the missing ingredient.
What separates a second attempt from a fifth
Right now 16,121 students are carrying at least one failed paper. A retake with the same prep walks in at the same odds, and Air Navigation passes 30 of every 100 papers written. The thing worth changing between attempts is the method, not the effort: learn the solution, step by step, instead of rereading the same notes harder.
Next in this series: inside Air Navigation itself, the paper behind most of these retakes, and the data on why it’s completely learnable. Whatever your next attempt costs you in prep, it’s cheaper than the three months another repeat costs you in time.