Downtime...and lots of it!

The IR is now in full swing and six lessons in the simulator have been completed out of a total of twenty.

They're coming along pretty well with little problems established so far. The ideology is something I'm really enjoying compared to visual flying where everything is so procedural and ordered that it almost makes navigating easy!

Over the past two lessons we've experienced an increase in the workload and an idea of what is to come. It is no easy task as a single pilot operating a commercial flight under instrument conditions and I think we're all starting to appreciate that.

Alongside the 'flying' in the simulator we seem to have a lot of downtime. It's very easy to say 'downtime' and associate very little with it but there is a significant amount of theory that we need to learn and in some cases seriously review before coming to the end of the training here with PTC.

Having said that the material is hardly something that gets the heart pumping and it has become quite difficult to just sit down and go through although slowly pieces are starting to come together.

This week the plan is to have another three simulator sessions before the weekend off and see what lies ahead next week. The first internal check ride tomorrow reviewing everything we have done so far including steep turns, stalls, unusual attitudes, NDB approaches and NDB/VOR holds.

I'll be sure to explain what all of that means in the coming weeks...

Two weeks down and a broken laptop

Well...we're now two weeks into the second module, in fact as I type starting week three! Of the eight weeks we spend on each group of subjects the time just seems to get shorter and shorter and Christmas nearer and nearer.

Sitting here thinking back to when we first started in May the time seems to have flown by (please excuse the pun) but the work must continue and the weekly tests this past week again reared their heads. In all three subjects I seem to be making steady ground. It is very clear that this module is highly theory and maths based which, for me, is far better than the previous.

This week in Radio Navigation we have covered the properties of different tools for aircraft to use when navigating using their instruments such as VORs and NDBs; focusing on the characteristics and properties associated with each.

General Navigation covered different conversions from a whole list of measuring terms such as US gallons, imperial gallons, metres, feet, nautical miles, litres etc. A lot of time spent on the calculator and the cool little old-school computer known as the CRP-5.

The CRP-5 is now outdated with the scientific calculators we can all now buy from our nearest WH Smith (or any other stationary store...) however the actual theory behind it and how it's put into practice is quite superb.

Although I would love to explain it's every function it's quite apparent that I'm hardly aware of half of them as I am much more at home with the Casio sat next to it however for wind calculations the CRP-5 seems very logical, easy to use and provides very quick and accurate answers. 

Flight Planning was mainly focused on map and graph reading as well as fuel calculations.

Outside of the classroom I haven't been back into the air yet although tomorrow I hope to fly an hour solo, a requirement before the FAA PPL check ride. 

On Friday evening as a class we went to TGI Fridays for something to eat to finish off the week. Earlier that afternoon my laptop broke which means I spent a good three hours on the bike on Saturday afternoon touring Melbourne to find another computer. Alas, I returned at 6pm with new machine in tow. One thing I have found over the years, whether you're getting a new laptop out of choice or because the previous was simply getting too old it's quite frustrating having to spend time moving things across and setting everything into place. Maybe it's just me...

Anyway, it's now less than six weeks before going home for Christmas. In between then and now is another eleven class tests, five consolidation exams and hopefully five IAA examinations. Sorry this week has been a bit of a boring update - not much to say! Back to the books and the CRP-5 I suppose!