COURSE STRUCTURE & INSIDE TIPS #6

Airline Prep

COURSE STRUCTURE & INSIDE TIPS:

On day one there was little time spent on introductions and we were flung straight into the deep end. I could immediately sense how high the work load was going to be. In one day we covered airframe structure, material, stresses and hydraulics. There was so much information given to us and it was difficult trying to take it all in. This is a sign of what’s to come! The work is so intense. We come back every day and can feel our heads spinning and eyes closing. Sadly, this doesn’t mean get changed and put your feet up. 

Massive A380 Model in class

Trying to go out for Sunday Lunch

A typical ground school class room

Getting ahead of the CBT is advised as it will help understanding when it is covered in lessons and prevent you falling behind. After each section of the CBT there is a small test which you must complete. Every few lessons there is a slightly larger test called a ‘progress test’ which must also be completed successfully. These tests are monitored by CTC and influence your reports, so it is best not to take the tests until you are confident on the content. Simply taking the test, logging the correct answers at the end and retaking the test to get a 100% pass second time is NOT the way to go about things as it will be obvious to the instructors that see it that you aren’t ingesting the information properly and are trying to cheat the system (not a wise move).

The best option is to read the information, take notes from the lesson, question bank the topic and re-read areas of uncertainty and once you are confident with that, attempt the CBT tests. However, there just isn't time to take ages on each lesson, making lots of notes, taking the test and doing enough question bank to make sure you understand everything well enough. So the method we seem to have adopted in our house is to come back after lessons and get the CBT tests out the way in the evening together which then frees up time on CBT days and weekends to question bank and highlight weak areas. You can then go back to research the specific areas you are weak at, as opposed to trudging your way through each individual slide.

 When I first started reading through the CBT, I was taking up to 2 hours to complete a single section, taking tons of detailed notes. As effective as this is, there simply isn’t enough time during ground school. It is much more practical to read through the section (usually takes 15-30 minutes) and take a few brief/important notes, take more notes in class that you think are important, then hit the question bank, referring back to the CBT information if required. We’ve been told that purely learning the answers of the question bank is no longer good enough, as the CAA are slightly altering the questions. This means that we need to understand the questions rather than just know the answer. This is highly important information for cadets starting the course.

TEACHING DAY STRUCTURE:

7 am – wake up, make lunch, shower, change, eat breakfast.

8:15 am – leave for training centre

9 am –  4/5 pm – lessons

5:15 pm – arrive home, relax, cup of tea.

6 – 7 pm – question bank & recap on days lessons

7 – 7:45 pm – dinner

7:45 – 10/10:30 pm – question bank, recap on days lessons, read ahead for next days lessons

Basically “eat, sleep, rave, repeat!”

A standard week will contain roughly 4 teaching days where you go into CTC for class room lessons, with a CBT day, which is where you have a day at home to re-cap on everything covered so far and get ahead for the next teaching day. This is generally how weekends are spent too. Obviously you can’t work solidly 24/7 so taking occasional breaks to do the washing or ironing, cook a proper meal, go for a walk in the woods, stocking up on petrol and food helps clear the mind whilst still being productive. There simply isn’t enough time to be lounging around watching TV!

A look at the online question bank

CTC are very strict on appearance and attitude. On my first day, I was stood up in front of the class by our instructor and inspected. He proceeded to criticize my ironing skills for my shirt, the state of my trousers and hair and called me a “sad excuse for a human being”. At least he was impressed by my belt. I spent about 10 minutes trying to iron my shirt the previous night and had hung it neatly with my trousers. I spent far too much time doing my hair in the morning so I was fairly happy with my appearance. I guess I will have to try harder next time! He didn’t mention anything the next day so hopefully I have corrected any errors now. We are also told off every time we start a sentence with “errm”, which is very hard but as pilots I guess you need to be short, sharp and to the point most the time. 

DJ inspecting the A320 sim softwear

Over all, there are 14 exams to take in about 5 months spent at Ground school. Module 1 consists of 7 exams and are all taken half way (approximately 10 weeks in), and then module 2 starts with the remaining 7 subjects.

Module 1 covers: Aircraft General Knowledge, Principles of Flight, Instruments, Meteorology, Air Law, VFR Communications & IFR Communications. 

Module 2 covers: Aircraft Performance, Mass & Balance, Human Performance, Flight Planning, General Navigation, Radio Navigation and Aircraft Operational Procedures. 

A lot of information to learn in a short period of time!