INRAT Prep for iPhone, iPad and Mac

Support

Help with INRAT Prep, the study app for Transport Canada's instrument rating written exam (INRAT, aeroplane): chart readers, a simulated IFR flight in every mock exam, holding, navaid and approach plate trainers, explained questions and a study plan.

What you need

An iPhone or iPad on iOS 26 or iPadOS 26 or newer, or a Mac on macOS 26 or newer. Studying never needs a connection. The App Store is reached only when you buy, restore or redeem Full Access, and iCloud only when sync is on.

Free sample and Full Access

Without paying you get 50 practice answers (topic practice, Smart Review, the weather folder and the calculation drills all draw on them), 2 complete mock exams with their flight package, one run of the Holding Trainer, one chart run (any chart reader or the Flight Package) and every card in the Library, including the reference tables. Full Access, bought once inside the app, lifts those limits and opens the Navaid and Approach Plate trainers. It belongs to your Apple Account, so an iPhone, iPad or Mac signed in to the same account picks it up. If one does not, tap Restore purchases, either on the purchase sheet or in the Full Access block at the foot of the Library tab.

Offer codes

Codes are entered inside the app, not in the App Store. Redeem a code on the purchase sheet, or Redeem code in the Library's Full Access block, opens Apple's own redemption sheet; Full Access switches on once Apple accepts the code.

Practice, mock exams and the weather folder

In topic practice, pick an option and tap Confirm answer: the explanation says why, with its reference. A mock exam is 50 questions against a 3-hour clock, marked against 70%; flag questions, move around with the question map, and see no marks until you submit. Anything you miss is rescheduled in Smart Review, and Home estimates your readiness by subject and by topic. The Weather Folder Trainer writes METARs and TAFs for a destination and an alternate, plus FB winds, asks whether that alternate can be filed under the TC AIM RAC 3.13.1 minima, then has you decode the groups. The Calculation Drills set cold-temperature corrections, IFR fuel, altimetry, crosswind, climb gradient, descent and time problems, each with its working shown. With a keyboard on iPad or Mac, keys A to D (or 1 to 4) pick the option and Return locks it in.

The chart readers

They sit in the Charts section of the Practice tab: En-route Chart Reader (Low) and (High), Approach Plate Reader, Reference Table Reader, GFA Reader and Weather Map Reader. Each run draws a new fictional chart and asks ten questions about it; the chart opens beside the question on iPad and Mac and above it on iPhone. Pinch or drag to zoom and pan, use the plus and minus buttons, re-centre, go full screen or open the legend. A large chart can take a moment to draw. New chart at the end draws another. Nothing in them is a real chart: the routes, fixes, aerodromes and frequencies are invented, so never use one for navigation.

The flight package

Each mock exam builds one fictional IFR flight before the paper starts ("Preparing the flight…"). Six of its questions open an appendix with six tabs: flight plan, weather, en-route chart, GFA, approach plate and tables. The documents agree with each other, so you can cross-check the plan against the chart, the forecast and the plate. The Flight Package tile above the chart readers runs one on its own for practice, and a mock exam's review keeps its appendix.

The simulator trainers

They sit in the Simulators section of the Practice tab, and every run draws new scenes. The Holding Trainer shows the fix, the racetrack and your aircraft; the Navaid Trainer shows a VOR indicator, an HSI, an ADF or an RMI; the Approach Plate Trainer opens a plate for an invented aerodrome from the plate button at the top right, never real aerodrome data. Before you answer, a drawing shows only what the question gives you; entry sectors and path, a plan view of your position or a turn arrow appear once you confirm. Explanations give a TC AIM, CARs or TP 691E reference, and VoiceOver reads a description of each drawing. One Holding run is free; more Holding runs and the other two trainers come with Full Access. They prepare you for the written exam and are neither flight training nor a flight simulator. If a drawing and its answer ever disagree, Report a problem includes the run's seed and the question id, so that exact run can be regenerated.

Exam date and daily target

Tap Set exam date on the Study plan card on Home. From then on Home counts the days and sets a target for each day: the questions you have not yet learned, shared out over the days that remain, where "learned" means answered correctly twice running. The card also says whether you are ahead of plan, on track or catching up, and there are no streaks to keep. The optional reminder asks for notification permission only when you switch it on, and links to Settings if permission was refused. After the date has passed, Home offers to clear it or set a new one.

Your progress and iCloud Sync

Your progress is kept on the device you study on. With iCloud Sync on (Library tab, Sync; it starts on), your answers and review schedule, mock exam history and exam date are also kept in your own iCloud account and merged on your other iPhone, iPad or Mac signed in to the same Apple Account. If two devices were used offline, each question keeps the history of whichever device answered it last, and the mock exams from both are kept. Purchases, the reminder time and the appearance setting stay per device. If the Library says iCloud is off, sign in to iCloud in Settings; the app works the same without it. Reset all progress in the Library tab starts you from zero, on every synced device while sync is on.

Is sync private?

Yes. The synced copy goes to iCloud storage that belongs to your Apple Account, through Apple's own key-value store. The developer runs no server and cannot see it. Switching sync off keeps your progress on each device as it is.

Reporting a wrong answer

Report a problem sits under each explanation: in practice, Smart Review, the simulator trainers, the chart readers, the flight package and a mock exam's review. It prepares a message in your own mail app, addressed to the address above, with the question id and topic, the app version, and your device model and system version already filled in, plus a line for what looks wrong. Sending it is up to you. With no mail account set up, Copy details puts the same text on the clipboard. Corrections that hold up against the source ship in the next update, and the current official publications always outrank the app.