A ray of sunshine between the clouds

The weather over the past couple of days has been nothing short of terrible. Being in the Sunshine State we are susceptible to some of the world's worst thunderstorm weather throughout the summer and autumn periods.

The weather here in Florida has seemed to follow a regular pattern since our arrival. Very clear and cool (well, below 25 degrees) in the early morning and throughout the day the weather gets more unstable and naturally the air much more humid. Therefore it's quite obvious that flying in the morning is not only better but at the moment it's almost a certainty that post 3pm you'll be sat on the ground with no chance of getting into the aircraft.

A classic afternoon in summer Florida

To keep things simple there are two types of flying. Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and Instrument Flight Rules (IFR).

VFR is what I am currently learning to fly. It is very much focusing on navigating outside of the aircraft. By that I mean focusing on reference points. Buildings, lakes, land masses etc. These can all be used to plan flights and therefore used as navigational aides. It's quite obvious that to fly a VFR flight you need to have reasonable visibility both on the ground and in the air. There are specific distances between the aircraft and relevant points that constitute whether the conditions are VFR or IFR.

Clearly not VFR conditions

IFR is what you will experience when flying commercially. Whenever you're off on holiday or a business trip on airlines such as easyJet, BA and Ryanair you're flight crew will be operating the flight under IFR conditions. Although we don't cover this subject specifically until later in the course the basic idea is that the pilots fly the aircraft based solely on the instruments within the aircraft and under air traffic control supervision. In modern jets it's almost standard for the aeroplane to be able to take off into a cloud and see nothing until touching down at the destination airport due to the advanced technology on board. Therefore a flight can operate under IFR conditions in far worse weather.

As I said, I'm currently working under VFR rules therefore I need acceptable weather to fly. The minimums for an inexperienced/student pilot would be 5 nautical miles visibility and scattered/broken cloud at 1000 feet. My instructor is very keen on early morning flying and I must say it is paying off! I've been able to get in many hours where as others have been less fortunate due to weather cancellations.

I have been able to get in enough hours to today take my first solo flight and therefore earn my first bars on my epaulettes. I am under the impression that the European (JAA) and American (FAA) first solo flights follow a similar procedure.

Firstly it involves two hours of ground school conducted by the flight instructor. This includes a twenty question multiple choice paper followed by any problems that need to be covered by the student either from the test or anything else. Following this it's time to get into the plane and get into the air. Firstly 30 minutes is spent with the instructor who will have one final look at the pattern work by the student (as discussed in the previous post). Then, if he/she is suitably happy it's time to drop him/her off at the end of the active runway and prepare for what most consider to be the most important flight in any aviators career - their first solo.

Mine today consisted of three take-offs and landings. Believe it or not I was not as nervous as I thought I would be; mainly due to the fact that I'd done it for over three hours over the previous three days and felt comfortable. Albeit it this time it would be without that safety buffer of a fully qualified and experienced flight instructor in the right seat. The biggest surprise was the performance of the aircraft due to it being lighter. The benefit of this was the increase in engine to weight performance but the drawback was that during landing the winds were more effective on the lighter aeroplane.

All three landings went very well with minor hick-ups and I can now look forward to my second solo which will hopefully be tomorrow afternoon - weather permitting!

They arrive...

It's Thursday evening and another week is nearly complete. This week again has involved JAA (European) Ground School over four days, concluding tomorrow.  As mentioned before, the Ground School consists of a number of classroom lessons lead by Ground Instructors who run through everything that we could possibly need to know. This week we have covered Communication, Operational Procedures, Human Performance and Limitations, General Flying Safety and today/tomorrow we're studying the dreaded Air Law.

The week has actually gone by extremely quickly. On Monday we took our first of two JAA internal Ground School exams. The pass rate is set at 75% (also the pass rate for both the FAA PPL and ATPL exams - more later). The test consisted of fifty multiple choice questions covering everything we had learnt the previous week. What has been great is the atmosphere amongst the group and discussions were held quite regularly which significantly helped the learning process. I got a pass rate of 80%. To me the mark was not the important thing, it was now knowing how the questions are to be presented and how to actually answer them. After receiving my paper back it was obvious where I had not read some of the questions correctly and by just taking that little bit of extra time and thought the mark could have been much higher.

Tuesday through to tomorrow sees the final phase of our JAA Ground School culminating in the second test being taken at the same time on this coming Monday.

Having first arrived in America (a place I have once visited before but only when much younger), it was all very surreal and taking everything in all at once was impossible. It was simply about going with the flow. Now that I've been here almost three weeks (a friend of mine only emailed me yesterday to remind me of that fact!) my surroundings are starting to become more of a reality. I suppose Florida is not the worst place in the world to spend the last months of my teenage years. The facilities and activities that are available to us all are fantastic. There are sports facilities in abundance, a sandy beach only ten minutes down the road by taxi, dozens of places to eat and drink and temperatures surpassing the 30 degrees mark everyday. For example - who can say their revision breaks are taken in the pool?! However this afternoon brought a blow that really brings me back down to earth with a bang - the 'ATPLs.'

The 'ATPLs' or Air Transport Pilot License exams to be exact are considered to be the most challenging exams of any commercial aviators career. The 14 tests consist of a number of subjects going into extreme detail regarding the entire world that is the air transport industry. It can cover anything from the nuts and bolts in a pressure valve to the navigation of a commercial airliner. Over the past few weeks I've spoken to a significant number of students already here training who are at various stages along their respective courses. Every one that I have spoken to has said that they are "a pain in the arse." [the extremely clean version!]

Today we received all of our folders and relevant paperwork with regards to these exams which will take six months to complete, divided into three modules. As far as I am aware these will begin in August/September. Having had a short look through one of the sealed packs the work seems extremely detailed and time consuming. I must say these for me will certainly be the hardest part of the course. The pass rate for these is again, similar to the internal exams, 75%. However due to the Flybe scheme I currently fall under an average pass mark of 90% or above (over the 14 exams) is only acceptable. Added pressure for sure.

This weekend will again involve a lot of time in the books to again try to attain a pass mark in this coming internal exam. I'm sure there will also be time for the beach and a bit of downtime in there also...

Following successful completion of the JAA Ground School brings one week (or evenings) of FAA Ground School study. More on this next week.