So it’s been a long time since I last updated my blog, and a lot has happened since then! As I sit typing this, I’m in my room in Arizona after just going for a swim - hard life eh? Since I last posted, we’ve finished ground school (and passed), moved out to the US and had our first 2 weeks of flying. We’ve been up to quite a lot so far, but I’ve been having IT issues so unfortunately I haven't been able to post for a while!
In my last post I left off talking about module 2, and what subjects we had and what they involved, It was a difficult couple of months, but we made it through and were then confronted with the beast that is module 3. It contained 6 subjects;
Meteorology: The study of weather, both local and global, and how different weather phenomena affect us as pilots. Incredibly interesting and useful, but a large topic, and quite difficult.
Aircraft general knowledge: A very broad subject, covering systems such as air conditioning, emergency systems, airframe construction, engines and also electrics. Again, fairly interesting but very large and difficult.
Air law: A subject with lots of substance that wasn’t particularly interesting, but necessary all the same. A lot of numbers and facts to remember, but not overly taxing.
Operational procedures: Similar to law, lots of numbers and facts relating to things like how many fire extinguishers we need with X amount of seats on board, how oxygen systems are used, North Atlantic Track system (if you've flown to America from Europe you’ll have used a north atlantic track).
VFR comms: Learning how to talk to air traffic control under visual flight rules (i.e. you’re navigating with reference to the terrain). Fairly easy, although some tricky questions.
IFR comms: The same as VFR comms, apart from it relates to communications and procedures when navigating with reference to the aircraft instruments.
Im glad to say that I passed all of module 2 and 3, although it took a lot of hard work and late nights. I was incredibly happy with my marks, but that being said it is most certainly not the end of the hard work! My marks in each subject when we finally finished were:
Human performance - 96%
General Navigation - 96%
Mass and Balance - 97%
Principles of Flight - 95%
Instruments - 99%
Radio Navigation - 99%
Performance - 93%
Flight Planning - 94%
Aircraft General Knowledge - 95%
Operational procedures - 94%
Air Law - 98%
Meteorology - 98%
VFR comms - 100%
IFR comms - 100%
This left me with an average of 97%, which I was incredibly happy about. Ground school was an incredibly tough 6 months, and I completely underestimated it when I arrived, but putting in the hard work and time certainly paid off for me. My next post will be about our first couple of weeks of flying and life out here in the states, so stay tuned and hopefully my IT issues will be resolved quickly!
Adam
