So after a relaxing couple of weeks off results day finally arrived. I will admit I was rather nervous as phoned up to find out how they had gone, these are probably some of the most important exams I'll take in my life, along with the other 7 due in April. I was very pleased to find out I'd averaged 97%, meaning all the hours of revision I put in over Christmas and New Years were not wasted! It's also a great relief as I can put these subjects behind me and concentrate on the next 7.
So then it was on to Phase 2 on Monday and by Tuesday afternoon we were already introduced to all 7 subjects that we would be sitting in this phase. It's obvious from the outset that there's going to be no let up in the pace of work in this phase, but at the same time it does seem that most of the subjects in this phase are a lot more practical than the first one. A lot of the modules in this phase concentrate with getting an aircraft from A to B in a safe and efficient manner, a brief breakdown of what I'll be learning is given below.
Air Law: All the legal and regulation details that revolve around flying and operating both private and commercial aircraft. Very much a fact based module and I will admit not one of the more interesting ones.
Operational Procedures: Similar to Air Law but look at the regulations and laws that operators must comply with in order to operate commercial aircraft. It also looks into various operational scenarios and emergency situations that have to be planned for.
Flight Planning: A lot of this looks around calculating the fuel required to get an aircraft from A to B with the need to account for the reserve and diversion fuel that an aircraft is required to carry. It will also go into route planning using navigation charts and planning approaches and departures from airports.
Mass & Balance: Looking at how to safely load an aircraft so that it is within its weight limit and the weight is safely distributed around the aircraft.
Aircraft Performance: Looking at aircraft performance during take-off, climb, cruise, decent and landing.
General Navigation: How to plan the navigation for a flight under visual conditions.
Radio Navigation: Introduces the theory behind how radio navigation aids work and how to use and understand them (all commercial aeroplanes navigate around the world primarily using radio navigation aids).
Flight Planning, Mass & Balance and Aircraft Performance are all based around calculating the performance and limitations for 3 theoretical aircraft the SEP (Single Engine Piston based on something similar to a Beechcraft Bonanza or Piper PA28), the MEP (Multi Engine Piston based on something similar to the Piper Seneca) and the MRJT (Medium Range Transport Jet based on the Boeing 737-400). The calculations and considerations required get more complex as you move from the SEP to the MEP and the MRJT.
So now it's just 6 more weeks of teaching left (with Test 2's in 19 days time!) then more school finals, study leave and the final set of EASA exams scheduled for the start of April. After that it should hopefully not be too long before I go out to Phoenix to start the actual flying training and I can't wait!
Friday, 31 January 2014
Friday, 17 January 2014
End of Phase 1
Time flies when you're having fun, I can't believe that 15 weeks have passed and Phase 1 of ground school is over already! First apologies to anyone who been looking at this for the last few months waiting for an update. If I'm honest ground school isn't the most interesting of things to blog about. Basically we turn up, have 6 or 7 lessons in a day, then go back to the accommodation and work through until late at night in the hope that we'll understand at least some of it! I'll try to briefly summarise what has happened since week 3 and what will be happening in the next phase of training.
Test 1s
These were a mini set of tests held at the beginning of week 6 designed to see how much of the information that we had been taught so far had sunk in. It comprised of 5 exams spread over 2 days which after not doing exams for the best part of 3 years came as a bit of a shock. Thankfully these went well for me and everyone else on the course and we could all happily get on with the rest of the Phase 1 ground school training.
The rest of Phase 1 completed the topics that we had already started as well as introducing new ones such as Warnings & Recordings, Autoflight and Communications. What this really meant that there was even more information to learn and at times it really was starting to feel like my brain was going to melt out of my ears!
School Finals 1 & EASA ATPL Exams
Week 13 of Phase 1 brought school finals 1. These exams are designed to emulate the EASA exams as closely as possible and are designed by the school to show that you are ready to sit the full EASA examinations. The exam timetable was pretty intense with 7 exams in just over a day and a half which I will admit was one of the most exhausting things I've ever done. Thankfully they all went very well which meant the next thing I had to look forward to was the main EASA exams in week 15.
This would usually mean 1 week of study leave before sitting the exams, for my course however it meant we had 3 weeks due to our exams being scheduled for the first week of January. This proved to be a bit of a blessing and a curse, whilst it was nice to have 3 weeks to complete additional revision we were all running pretty close to maximum anyway and trying to keep the momentum of revision up over Christmas and New Years was pretty tough. After taking a little bit of time off over the festive period to relax and recharge it was back into the swing of it on the 2nd Jan frequently pulling 10+ hours of revision per day and generally just wanting the exams to be over.
Soon enough the week of the 6th Jan came around and it was time to sit the proper ATPL exams. There are 14 of these exams in total that have to be passed with at least a score of 75% in each exam. At the end of Phase 1 we had 7 exams to sit over a 4 day period with pretty much every waking minute not in exams being spent revising for the next ones. Below is a quick look at what the 7 exams were and the rough content of each exam
Principles of Flight: This is basically the first couple of years of the theoretical flight mechanics of an aeronautical engineering degree compressed into one module. It looks at lift, drag, stalling, high speed (tans-sonic and supersonic flight), flight mechanics and limitations and propeller theory.
Aircraft General Knowledge (Airframes, Systems and Powerplant): This is basically half the content taken from an engineering apprenticeship as an airframes engineer. This basically covers structures, pnuematics, hydraulics, pressurisation, fire protection, de-icing, safety equipment, AC & DC electrics, propeller engines and gas turbine engines. I liked this module though given my previous experience was as an aircraft technical engineer that's a bit unsurprising. A lot of facts to remember but most of it was common sense which helps.
Aircraft General Knowledge (Instruments): The other one of the AGK exams this concentrates on the instrumentation side of things. This exam covered pressure instruments, magnetic compasses, gyroscopic instruments (including Inertial Reference Systems and Inertial Navigation Systems which are basically the magic boxes on board that means the aircraft knows where it is at any time even in places where it can't use ground based navigation aids like the middle of the Atlantic), basic computers, Autoflight, Warning and Recording systems and engine instrumentation. This probably had the most amount of information to learn for any single exam and with the subject being so broad it meant there was an awful lot of topics that you could be asked questions on.
Meteorology: The weather, clouds, pressure systems, icing, precipitation, and weather reports amongst other things. Probably my least favourite exam of Phase 1 for no other reason than I didn't particularly like it and it had a tendency to produce questions that had more than one correct answer and required a bit of luck and judgement to pick the more correct of them. As a module though it's probably one of the more useful ones that we do since the weather will influence decisions we make on almost any flight we happen to be on. Whether that deciding if there is a need to divert or re-route due to weather in the way, or change the altitude to fly at due to what the jet streams are doing on any particular day.
Human Performance & Limitations: Basically physiology and psychology relevant to commercial flight. One half looking at topics such as blood circulation, sight, hearing and general health and well being. The other half looking at stress, learning processes, leadership, motivation and sleep. This topic grew on me the more I did it, at lot of it happens to be common sense which helps a great deal.
VFR & IFR Communications: VFR & IFR comms are 2 separate exams but are so similar it almost feels like the same exam twice. It's basically around what to say on the radio, who has priority over who and when you do and don't need to speak. It one of the easier modules, especially if you've done some flying before and being exposed to having to do some proper comms work.
So the exams are over now and I think they went well. I've got to wait until next Friday before I can find out the results but until then I'm just relaxing and enjoying a bit of time off.
What next?
Next comes Phase 2 of ground school which introduces another 7 modules to learn but this time in about 8 weeks instead of around 11. It does mean that it's a step closer to Phoenix however and the start of flight training and personally I can't wait for it. So roll on the next 3 month of ground school and after that the fun can really start!
Test 1s
These were a mini set of tests held at the beginning of week 6 designed to see how much of the information that we had been taught so far had sunk in. It comprised of 5 exams spread over 2 days which after not doing exams for the best part of 3 years came as a bit of a shock. Thankfully these went well for me and everyone else on the course and we could all happily get on with the rest of the Phase 1 ground school training.
The rest of Phase 1 completed the topics that we had already started as well as introducing new ones such as Warnings & Recordings, Autoflight and Communications. What this really meant that there was even more information to learn and at times it really was starting to feel like my brain was going to melt out of my ears!
School Finals 1 & EASA ATPL Exams
Week 13 of Phase 1 brought school finals 1. These exams are designed to emulate the EASA exams as closely as possible and are designed by the school to show that you are ready to sit the full EASA examinations. The exam timetable was pretty intense with 7 exams in just over a day and a half which I will admit was one of the most exhausting things I've ever done. Thankfully they all went very well which meant the next thing I had to look forward to was the main EASA exams in week 15.
This would usually mean 1 week of study leave before sitting the exams, for my course however it meant we had 3 weeks due to our exams being scheduled for the first week of January. This proved to be a bit of a blessing and a curse, whilst it was nice to have 3 weeks to complete additional revision we were all running pretty close to maximum anyway and trying to keep the momentum of revision up over Christmas and New Years was pretty tough. After taking a little bit of time off over the festive period to relax and recharge it was back into the swing of it on the 2nd Jan frequently pulling 10+ hours of revision per day and generally just wanting the exams to be over.
Soon enough the week of the 6th Jan came around and it was time to sit the proper ATPL exams. There are 14 of these exams in total that have to be passed with at least a score of 75% in each exam. At the end of Phase 1 we had 7 exams to sit over a 4 day period with pretty much every waking minute not in exams being spent revising for the next ones. Below is a quick look at what the 7 exams were and the rough content of each exam
Principles of Flight: This is basically the first couple of years of the theoretical flight mechanics of an aeronautical engineering degree compressed into one module. It looks at lift, drag, stalling, high speed (tans-sonic and supersonic flight), flight mechanics and limitations and propeller theory.
Aircraft General Knowledge (Airframes, Systems and Powerplant): This is basically half the content taken from an engineering apprenticeship as an airframes engineer. This basically covers structures, pnuematics, hydraulics, pressurisation, fire protection, de-icing, safety equipment, AC & DC electrics, propeller engines and gas turbine engines. I liked this module though given my previous experience was as an aircraft technical engineer that's a bit unsurprising. A lot of facts to remember but most of it was common sense which helps.
Aircraft General Knowledge (Instruments): The other one of the AGK exams this concentrates on the instrumentation side of things. This exam covered pressure instruments, magnetic compasses, gyroscopic instruments (including Inertial Reference Systems and Inertial Navigation Systems which are basically the magic boxes on board that means the aircraft knows where it is at any time even in places where it can't use ground based navigation aids like the middle of the Atlantic), basic computers, Autoflight, Warning and Recording systems and engine instrumentation. This probably had the most amount of information to learn for any single exam and with the subject being so broad it meant there was an awful lot of topics that you could be asked questions on.
Meteorology: The weather, clouds, pressure systems, icing, precipitation, and weather reports amongst other things. Probably my least favourite exam of Phase 1 for no other reason than I didn't particularly like it and it had a tendency to produce questions that had more than one correct answer and required a bit of luck and judgement to pick the more correct of them. As a module though it's probably one of the more useful ones that we do since the weather will influence decisions we make on almost any flight we happen to be on. Whether that deciding if there is a need to divert or re-route due to weather in the way, or change the altitude to fly at due to what the jet streams are doing on any particular day.
Human Performance & Limitations: Basically physiology and psychology relevant to commercial flight. One half looking at topics such as blood circulation, sight, hearing and general health and well being. The other half looking at stress, learning processes, leadership, motivation and sleep. This topic grew on me the more I did it, at lot of it happens to be common sense which helps a great deal.
VFR & IFR Communications: VFR & IFR comms are 2 separate exams but are so similar it almost feels like the same exam twice. It's basically around what to say on the radio, who has priority over who and when you do and don't need to speak. It one of the easier modules, especially if you've done some flying before and being exposed to having to do some proper comms work.
So the exams are over now and I think they went well. I've got to wait until next Friday before I can find out the results but until then I'm just relaxing and enjoying a bit of time off.
What next?
Next comes Phase 2 of ground school which introduces another 7 modules to learn but this time in about 8 weeks instead of around 11. It does mean that it's a step closer to Phoenix however and the start of flight training and personally I can't wait for it. So roll on the next 3 month of ground school and after that the fun can really start!
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