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)
.

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.

WEEK 8&9: COMMS & MOCKS #12

Airline Prep

so true!

Last week brought an end to module one with the beautiful subject that is VFR and IFR COMMS. There were just three days of teaching and more than one of those was spent finishing off instruments and going over a few areas of weakness from other topics. COMMS itself took just over a day to teach and after two nights spent doing it on question bank I felt fairly comfortable with it.

We also got a chance to go on the 737-300 simulator to physically experience some of the things we have learned in POF and INST which was great fun. Four of us spent about three hours in there going through various procedures such as being out of trim, auto-lands, programming the auto-pilot etc. It was awsome and definitely helped visualize a few things that were slightly unclear before, such as the effects of stick force stability. It made me feel like a pilot again! 

fixed base 737-300 sim

me flying the 737-300 sim

Captain DJ Patel & First Officer Harry Clark

the desk of the working man

the view from my window in the New Forrest

the house toys

the CRP-5 computer (or 'crap 5' as it's called)

So with all the lessons completed we had just four days to revise our seven subjects for the mocks. This time was spent solidly revising/question banking from 9 AM till 9 PM with the rare break to play a spot of tennis in the sunshine.

The mocks are structured like so:


Monday: MET & LAW
Tuesday: POF & INST
Wednesday: AGK, VFR COMMS, IFR COMMS

My goal was to pass five or more out of the seven so that I didn't have to retake any exams and felt like I was in a decent position. Because of the lack of time we had to revise I decided to sacrifice instruments and accept a fail in that so that I could focus on the other six subjects. I don't think I was the only one with that method as only two people passed the exam. I am glad to say though that I achieved my goal, with results of:

MET: 83%
LAW: 89%
POF: 73% (one mark short. bugger!)
INST: 65%
AGK: 84%
VFR COMMS: 96%
IFR COMMS: 92%

AVERAGE: 83%

(The pass mark is 75% for each paper)

I was very happy with these results considering the lack of time we had to revise. I was so annoyed that I failed POF because I was just ONE MARK SHORT and I made one stupid mistake where I worked the question out correctly but ticked the wrong box!! But never mind. They say that on average your marks go up by 10% for the real exams which suits me fine. The mocks are also apparently a little bit harder than the real thing because CTC write a few of the questions themselves. Generally the majority of the questions are from question bank though.

If you fail three or more mocks then you have to re-take the failed papers a few days later, which is a bit of a drag but CTC just want to make sure that you are ready to take the real exams.

I've come home for my revision period to take advantage of the cooking and get away from the horses and the cows (I'm not talking about my house mates there).

my revision time table

I'm going for a Chinese and a few beers with some friends tonight and I'm going to have a fairly relaxed day tomorrow by watching the England T20 match and revising a bit of LAW and COMMS. The hard work starts again on Friday.

Real exams start in eleven days on the 7th of April.

WEEK 7: AIR LAW #11

Airline Prep

This week was the dreaded topic of Air Law (or 'Air Bore' as I like to call it). I had heard a lot about Law
and it certainly lived up to reputation. I found it very difficult to show any interest or read into the subject in any depth. It is very much a data base topic and I have taken the advice of cadets ahead of me by simply question banking it a lot and learning the answers, with the odd exception. There are a few sub-topics which are reasonably relevant and interesting such as holding patterns and approach procedures, but why on earth we need to know how many pairs of lines are required either side of the center line according to the runway width is beyond me! Why anyone would care about that kind of stuff baffles me. But, sadly these kind of facts have to be learned to get the license and I imagine will be quickly forgotten once the exam is done.

A brief look at holding patterns (sorry about the orientation)

We didn't get a chance to go on the sims this week which was a bit disappointing but I'm not too fussed because it gave me more time to bank law and learn the answers.

My sim at home

Our instructor absolutely rattled through everything and at the end of each topic went through some past paper questions with us. We finished the whole subject before lunch on the final day so spent the afternoon doing a couple of practice exams. I did well in the first one, getting 84%, but then I got 70% in the second attempt which doesn't really make sense but everyone found the second paper harder than the first.

Rafa Patel

This weekend I traveled into London to play football for my school old boys which was great fun. We lost 3-0 but I personally had a decent game and it was great to get out in the sunshine and play some sport again. The journey however took just under 4 hours each way which made the day much longer than I anticipated but I managed to get lots of question banking done on the train and bus which was good. I completed a couple of past papers when I got home and passed them both reasonably comfortably so I feel relatively confident with Air Law now.

Our campus tennis court

Instruments is my challenge for tomorrow (Sunday), which I imagine will be a lot more stressful.

Amazing sunset over Southampton

I found I was really forcing myself to come home after football, the thought of returning to a dark room to work did not seem appealing in comparison to playing sport in the sun. The target of New Zealand is really pulling me through at the moment.

Final 3 days of teaching next week before revision starts!

WEEK 6: INSTRUMENTS #10

Airline Prep

This week we have been studying Instruments and I have to admit, it wasn't the most interesting of topics. All this stuff on magnetism, gyroscopes etc can really drain you and it is a real challenge to keep your concentration past 2:30, but you have to push on through and stay on it the whole time.

Didn't miss out on pancake day

The last day of instruments did improve slightly due to the fact we were learning about the glass cockpit, auto pilot and other various systems used on the modern jets that we are eventually going to be flying.

Most the concepts are easier to grasp than the likes of POF and MET but I'm still not confident with a few areas and it's quite difficult trying to remember the various inputs and outputs of certain systems such as the FMS and IRS. It is more of a data base subject though so hopefully if I keep chipping away at it it'll come together and I'll remember more and more each time. I think I have a sim session with our instructor coming up this week where he will demonstrate a few things so I'm sure that will help visualize and understand a few more things.

I'm still waiting for this 'big click' that everyone keeps telling me will happen!!

Mum showing me how it's done

We've had four days off this weekend which is very nice and a great opportunity to catch up and go over everything we've done so far. Time very much needed! I've also taken this opportunity to go back home to sunny Sussex to see the family and get a change of scenery. I stopped off to see two of my best mates for dinner on the way back which was really great.

Dinner with my old friends

The next day I was back on the work and I tested my memory of AGK, which I hadn't done for a while. My highly experienced, ex RAF Grandad and I went to Brooklands museum to have a look at some cut away engines, propellers, aircraft components and instruments to try and take a bit of a more practical approach. It was really nice getting outside and it did clear a few things up for me, especially engines and I feel more confident on propellers too. The afternoon and evening was spent question banking though. There's still more to be done but I'm feeling reasonably ok with AGK at the moment, so I'll keep working and improving and hopefully it'll be "alright on the night" as they say.

Grandad & I by Concorde at Brooklands

VC-10 with slats deployed and high T-tail

Gutted I missed the era of this magnificent beast

Old fashioned cockpit and instruments (definitely prefer the glass cockpit)

Great cut away engine

Wing structure (ribs, spars, stringers)

Amazing moving model of a piston cylinder

Concorde's undercarriage (oleo strut, side stay, scissor link, boggie axle)

I'm dedicating a day to each subject covered so far which is extremely helpful. Do not be fooled by the term 'day off'!

Air law to look forward to next week.

WEEK 4&5: METEOROLOGY #9

Airline Prep

The new logo

The last week and a half has been spent on MET (meteorology), which to me has been the most interesting subject by far! And I think it will remain so until human performance down the line in module 2.

Although it is a lot to take in and some aspects are relatively tricky, it's so applicable to the real world which is probably why I find it so interesting. It's great being able to look out the window and try to predict what type of cloud is present, why it's there, is there a high pressure or low pressure, warm front or cold front, stable or non-stable air, what weather's coming next etc. It's also quite cool being able to read and understand those complicated weather charts that the reports sometimes show that make you think "what the hell is that!". That all seems to make sense now and I find it fun trying to understand what kind of weather is going to be occurring in the next few days by looking at these now. Of course, I'm most likely going to be wrong, which should make me more than qualified to be a professional weather man!

This makes reasonable sense now

The best day so far in my opinion was the one spent on clouds. It's something that absolutely fascinates me and I had already done some previous research on that particular area, purely out of interest. I love being able to understand our climate a lot better now (still lots to learn though!) 

Caught off guard at the end of a long day

I think MET seemed to sink in reasonably well with the exception of fronts, which I'm struggling with a little bit at the moment but some more time spent on it over the weekend should clear up most loose ends.

Our instructor for MET has been absolutely incredible! He goes through things at a lovely pace, making everything as clear as possible and not moving on until he's comfortable the class are up to speed with it, and if there is any uncertainty after that, he is more than happy to give up his own time to help you - absolutely top class! I'm extremely happy that we have him for instruments and comms too. We just have a little bit more to do tomorrow (Thursday) before moving onto instruments, which should finish a week later. 

Class in full flow, learning about Hadley, Ferrel & Polar cells

Using the break to get a bit of extra reading in. Luke probably playing flappy birds in the background

On Friday some guys on a few CP's ahead of us invited us to the local pub with them which was really nice. It was good having an evening away from the laptop and just relaxing for a few hours, having a couple of bevi's and playing a bit of darts. It was also interesting hearing about how they got on with the course at our stage and getting as much inside knowledge as possible. A night very much needed.

A night at the pub

Last Sunday my dad came down to visit which was really nice. He brought a shed load of supplies with him which would be sufficient to feed a small army, including a large amount of toilet paper. I hope I don't get through all of it before my time is done here, otherwise a trip to the local doctors surgery is in order! We went out for lunch in a nice pub in Beaulieu where I had been as a small child before. It was really weird going back and recognizing it. When he left I was straight back to revising and managed to get a solid 4/5 hours done that night (the work never stops).

Back at the place visited a long time ago

Today we had a CBT day and most of our CP went into the center for an arranged extra lesson on turbine engines, which everyone seemed to have a below average understanding of. Another excellent instructor kindly gave up his free day to come in and teach us and he did an extremely good job. It turned out to be a full day purely on turbine engines, which makes me wonder how on earth we got through the entire topic of piston and turbine engines plus a little extra before 3 o'clock in one day during our scheduled lessons for it..... Maybe it wasn't my incompetence proving the problem there after all!

Anyway, I feel much better with it now and reckon after a few hours of question banking and re-reading of notes I'll feel relatively confident with it. 

DJ having a go on the flight sim (not quite the A320 full motion)

 Back into school tomorrow and Friday to finish off MET and make a start on instruments.