WEEK 12 &13: GNAV #14

Airline Prep

Over the last two weeks I have been studying the first subject of module 2; GNAV (General Navigation)
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Before I got started on that though I had four whole days off without any obligation to question bank or do CBT, a very strange feeling indeed. I took the opportunity to catch up with friends and family. I spent one evening with my old mates from school where more than one beer was drunk and I can't remember a moment when we weren't laughing. It was great to spend time with them again. The next day I went to the London Marathon to support my uncle who was running. It was an amazing experience, the weather was perfect and the atmosphere was absolutely incredible! We also celebrated by cousins 4th birthday which was good fun. I managed to get a round of golf in with my dad too before I trekked back to Southampton. It couldn't have been a better weekend.

The boys back together

 

Family at the Marathon

The Marathon

Uncle Jim in surprisingly good shape having just run 26 miles

Golf at Singing Hills

Dad aiming for the green

Right, onto business! We had 9 teaching days of GNAV over the last two weeks and it was completely different to any of the module one subjects. It is a very practical subject with quite a lot of maths (mainly trigonometry). There is less information to absorb and there is more time spent during the day doing example questions and practicing it yourself. There are quite a few different components to it and some of the questions can be tricky to work out for someone like myself who has never been a mathematical genius. I find it helps to draw diagrams which allows me to visualise the situation. Questions consist of working out true and magnetic tracks on various types of charts from the latitude, longitude, distance given etc, time differences between different places on the Earth, plotting positions on maps, working out drift angles, wind velocities etc on the CRP-5. These are just some of the type of questions that come up so I'm sure you appreciate how much there is to do. I think the way to crack this subject is simply by practicing and figuring out a method to solving each question. No longer can you just question bank for hours and learn the answers, the method is actually required for this topic. I personally prefer it though because you're more involved during the day. There's not much room for boredom to creep in.

The Jeppesen Airway Manual

One of the many charts from the Jeppesen

My Cousins' 4th Birthday

Cow in the garden

This weekend has been spent solving equation after equation but it seems to getting easier and it's making more sense so that must be a good thing!

We are still waiting for our module one results to come through and I'm very anxious to find out how I've done.

CP Football

CP Football

WEEK 10 & 11: EXAMS AND MOD 1 SUMMARY #13

Airline Prep

Well that's it, half way through ground school and all seven module one exams are finished. That was one of the most stressful weeks ever, I've never worked so hard in my life before. I can't believe how much I have learned in such a short period of time.

After the mocks I went home to start my revision. It was great being at home for 10 days. I worked from about 9am till 8pm every day, focusing most of my attention towards MET, INSTRUMENTS & POF, whilst doing a little bit of LAW & COMMS each evening just to keep it fresh in my mind. Surprisingly, that magic click that people speak of happened and my results started getting up to decent pass marks on the question bank. I didn't think the time we had to revise would be enough but by the end of the week I was losing the will to live with spending all day every day doing questions on the bank and felt ready to take the real exams.

My baby that's been keeping me sane

The time table was as follows:

Monday: POF 9:30 - 10:30 (44 questions), AGK 10:45-12:45 (80 questions)
Tuesday: INST 9 - 10:30 (60 questions)
Wednesday: MET 13:45 - 15:45 (84 questions)
Thursday: LAW 9 - 10 (44 questions) , VFR COMMS 11:30 - 12 , IFR COMMS 12:10 - 12:40 (24 questions each)

During the exam week I would work solidly for the next exam until about 9 pm which is when my brain packed in for the day and I would wake up at about 6 am to get a bit of revision in to make it fresh in my mind. The earliest I got up was 5:30 am!!!

This is a fairly accurate picture of me during the last couple of weeks

To my surprise a vast majority of the questions in all the papers were identical to the question bank, which was a huge relief. However, there was the odd new question or a few that had been changed around subtly. I think I was caught out by a couple of those in MET and POF but hopefully I would have done enough to pass. I generally feel good about the exams with the exception of POF which I am a bit anxious about but we will see in a couple of weeks time when the results come out. Fingers crossed!

DJ and his top quality T-shirt

To summarise MOD 1;
there is a lot of information to take on in a very short space of time. The only option is to work non-stop. I personally think spending lots of time reading through the CBT is a bit of a waste of time. Getting the CBT out the way as soon as possible is a good idea and I found that AVIATION EXAM was excellent whilst learning the subjects as it has a big amount of questions with very good explanations. If you understand a topic then you answer the question right and move on. If not then you spend more time on those areas, reading the explanations and practicing difficult questions. So you're learning exam technique as well as what you're doing wrong as you go along. Then when it came to revision I started using ATPL ONLINE which seemed to be pretty accurate and reliable.
My favorite subject so far has been MET, even though it was probably the hardest paper. LAW and INSTRUMENTS was deeply boring but it's just a matter of learning the questions on the bank for those, COMMS is nice and easy, just learn the bank and POF is quite hard to get your head round but you just need to keep chipping away at it until you understand it reasonably well, and AGK requires a bit of knowledge in certain areas but again is mainly just facts learned from doing questions. Topics such as electrics and engines is probably where you need a decent understanding.

After the final exam myself, Luke and DJ had a barbeque with CP113, who just finished their MOD2's and are off to New Zealand soon. I get on really well with the guys on that CP and will miss them but look forward to being reunited with them in a few months time. I wish them the best of luck for their results.

I now have 4 whole days off where no work is required before returning on Tuesday to start MOD 2. Not a huge amount of time so I intend to make the most of this long weekend.