Module 2, one week down as Australia comes to a stand still

It seems only days ago that we travelled to the Annex on the bus to our very first ATPL lesson however I now sit here nine weeks on having completed our first week of the second module. The five subjects before Christmas cover General Navigation, Flight Planning, Radio Navigation, IFR Communications and VFR Communications respectively.

This module involves ground school over three days of the week and self study for the remaining four. The classes start at 9am and on certain days run through until 6.30pm in the evening. 

So far we have had General Navigation, Flight Planning and Radio Navigation as the two communication courses are much shorter in length than the other three and will come into the module in the coming weeks. The set up is exactly the same as previous. We have five weeks of ground school with weekly tests in each subject followed by one week of Consolidation exams, a revision week and then the real IAA exams. 

With a three day week we didn't begin proceedings until Wednesday which meant we had Monday and Tuesday off. Having seen Manchester United fall to the hands of the noisy neighbours quite emphatically on the Sunday morning I was very much looking forward to the flight on the Sunday evening.

Having arrived at the Flightline my instructor told me that he was to run out of hours before we would land back in Melbourne later in the evening. Therefore it was decided we would plan a shorter route north to Sanford, an airport north west of Orlando International and is mainly used by low cost and European charter airlines. 

The sun started to fall below the horizon as we departed waited for taxi clearance from Melbourne Tower.

"FIT 42, taxi Runway 5 via victor. Hold short Runway 5 at victor."

Pre take-off checks complete.

"Melbourne Tower, FIT 42 is holding short of Runway 5 at victor, ready for departure."

"FIT 42, cleared for take-off Runway 5, proceed on course to the north west."

We lined up with the smallest runway here in Melbourne. Part of the line up checks are to check that the heading indicator (HDI) is corresponding with the small compass placed midway up the cockpit window directly between the two pilots. With the Avadine glass cockpit that a number of FIT's aircraft are fitted with this isn't necessary as there simply isn't a manual HDI thanks to the many computers taking care of figures and representations we see on the screens in front of us.

"Ts & Ps are in the green (temperature and pressure gauges); airspeed is alive...55 knots, rotate."

The little Warrior lifted into the autumn sky as I pitched for the most efficient climb speed of 79 knots. She had recently been fitted with a new engine and the effects were quite noticeable as she climbed quite impressively, turning on course to our destination.

We soon left Melbourne's airspace as we powered on through 1900ft, aiming our sights on our cruising altitude for the thirty five minute flight of 4500ft. 

We made contact with Orlando Approach who guided us through to Sanford where we completed one touch and go before departing back to Melbourne. With a small amount of time remaining we asked to enter the pattern at the home airport and completed a few more touch and go's before calling it a night.

The flight to and from Sanford was my first flight in over a month but it was good to get it under my belt and get back into the swing of things. I wouldn't say the landings were anywhere near textbook but I was satisfied all the same.

The glass cockpit on board the Piper Warrior

Monday and Tuesday were spent relaxing and not having to think about anything to do with theory work however come Wednesday morning we were well and truly back into the swing of things.

General Navigation is very much focused on maths theory and we have been working this week on calculating changes in coordinates based on different factors such as speed and varying latitudes/longitudes - something I am finding quite interesting.

Flight Planning is pretty much exactly how it's named. We have so far covered basic map reading and different fuel requirements for different trips - something very relevant for future commercial piloting. 

Finally Radio Navigation, something I have yet to see the joys of. For me it is like picking the worst areas of high school physics and putting them into an intense course. This week has been very theory based however looking further into the course areas such as instrument approaches and navigation are covered which will hopefully ease the boredom that has started to creep in.

All in all a very good week in the classroom which I be matched with good results in the coming week's tests. We shall see I'm sure...

On another note, I started writing this at lunchtime yesterday (Saturday) and after reading the news it was quite shocking to see what is happening out in Australia, in fact unprecedented. 

For the national airline, a well known iconic airline to make such a move is outstanding and I'm sure it will do only damage to the name of company. Not good for the industry...

Taking flight

This week started with the final of the JAA (European) internal flight exams. Last weekend was mainly spent revising with a little bit of downtime. Following the test on Monday we then started our week long FAA (US) ground school which is running all this week during the evening culminating in the FAA written exam (external) on Monday or Tuesday.

The FAA written exam is completed on computer. They are sixty randomly generated questions from a bank of 800. They are all multiple choice questions with three possible answers. It covers pretty much every subject we have studied over the past three weeks.

The evening lessons have been great in freeing the day up however this week we have also started the practical part of our course. I had my first flight on Tuesday.

The below picture is an example of the aircraft I will be learning to fly in until early next year before starting twin engined flights. The Piper Warrior is a single engined aircraft capable of flying for around four hours carrying up to four people including crew. It's usual cruising speed is around 100kts (115mph). At this flying school there are a mixture of GPS and glass cockpits. GPS cockpits are very much the old style systems with analogue dials and controls. Glass cockpits are similar to what you'd see today on the modern commercial airliners. They're basically a number of glass screens displaying all the relevant information a pilot could possibly need. The handy addition with the glass cockpit is the auto pilot which I have heard can become very handy during approaches into larger airports.

The actual flight lesson consisted of my instructor and I running through preflight paperwork and procedures followed by a pre-flight inspection which involves checking various parts, areas and surfaces around the aircraft to make sure they're in full working order. After this we were then able to get into the air and go through a number of basic manoeuvres such as banking, pitching and yawing. As we're now in the hurricane season, the weather over here runs like clockwork. The worst of the weather is always expected in the afternoon. As we took off around lunchtime we started to experience some of the bad weather approaching. It made it impossible to establish a horizon to work with and the winds started to pick up quite considerably. After completing this we then returned to Melbourne International Airport for a debrief and finish off the paperwork. Although the flight was only just over an hour it provided a fantastic insight into how it is going to work over the next nine months or so. What surprised me most was the amount of paperwork involved for such a small flight. It mainly consists of hold the relevant documents during flight as well as load and weight balances before departure. Also, the temperatures it can get to inside such a small cockpit are extreme. Being dressed in a full uniform doesn't help either. Although once airborne the heat did start to subside. All in all a fantastic experience which I again hoped to do yesterday but due to visibility we were unable to go up.

As well as the lessons there is also something called 'backseating' which is pretty much as it sounds. I am able to jump in the back seat of another student's lesson which would allow me to focus on learning procedures and technicalities without having to worry about actually flying the aircraft. I was due to 'backseat' this morning but due again to visibility and also this time winds it wasn't possible.

I'm next due up in the air tomorrow morning around 8am which will hopefully be a bit cooler and calmer. With flying now being a 24/7 operation I can also look forward to a 6am start on Sunday.

Roll on the weekend...