About Exam Copilot
Meet the founding team and learn about the company that helps you ace your ATPL exams.
Our simple mission
Help ATPL students ace their exams.
The team behind Exam Copilot have a simple mission: help ATPL students ace their exams. And we know exactly how to do it. We make it possible to practise till you're perfect with a more intelligent, more accurate, more understandable question bank.
For too long, every ATPL question bank has been the same. We're bringing ATPL exam preparation into the modern age. Exam Copilot is the first question bank with:
- Randomisable questions that are different every time, enabling students to cultivate deep understanding instead of relying on rote memorization.
- Heavily customisable tests with varying difficulties — including questions where you have to type the answer directly, questions with multiple correct answers, and questions where you need to order the answers correctly.
- Virtual instruments and tools to help students truly understand the subject matter.
By combining our founders' deep expertise in flight, education, and software engineering, we can build something better.
Cofounder and Head of Education
Ged Shaw, APTL instructor and ex-RAF pilot
Ged is both a seasoned captain and a talented teacher. At Exam Copilot, he's responsible for everything related to education: devising the perfect questions to cover every aspect of the syllabus, producing easy-to-understand and enlightening explanations, and verifying the accuracy of the question bank. He's hard at work ensuring that Exam Copilot is the best resource for ATPL students and instructors alike.
Ged started his career in the RAF. After flying fixed wing aircraft, he moved on to operate and captain the CH-47 (a.k.a. the Chinook) for many years. He led multi-national, multi-type, multi-aircraft missions — and his own crew of four — during operations around the world.
When he wasn't flying, Ged was focused on his colleagues' education. He acted as the Simulator Liaison and Training Officer for 40 flight and 80 squadron colleagues. He was also an Instrument Ratings Examiner, examining peers and superiors on airborne proficiency and knowledge of regulations pertaining to instrument flying.
Since leaving the RAF, Ged has spent several years as an ATPL Training Manager and Theoretical Knowledge Instructor. He has been responsible for management of all aspects of the ground theory school at one of Europe's largest aviation training providers — looking after all aspects of cadet and instructor training, programming, administration, staff and trainee management and welfare.
Ged specialises in Meteorology, Mass and Balance, Radio Navigation (including PBN) and V/IFR Communications.
Cofounder and CTO
Ben Barbersmith, ex-Google software engineer
Ben is an experienced software developer who spent several years as a product manager, technical consultant and sales engineer at a software startup followed by 7 years working on YouTube at Google. At Exam Copilot, he is responsible for all things tech: building the site and apps, maintaining reliable infrastructure, and honing the intelligent randomisation at the core of the product. He's hard at work ensuring that Exam Copilot remains the most advanced ATPL question bank in the world for years to come.
Throughout his career, Ben has had a passion for building awesome software. His goal is to make something people want and to help people achieve their goals with empowering, easy-to-use, and accessible software that runs beautifully on any device.