Seems to be becoming a bit of a common refrain for me, but it's been a busy couple of weeks...
Test Ones are over! Even though the tests themselves are purely for our own benefit as a progress check, pre-exam nerves made a fair old appearance. In the end though, the tests went well and now we're back in to teaching mode again. The other aspect to this is that Monday coming is the start of teaching week 7 of 12, so we've broken the back of the phase 1 teaching as well. Some subjects it seems like we've still got three quarters of the book to do but the instructors know their stuff and from what the other students tell us, it'll all be covered before we know it...
This evening we're going for a whole course pub trip to celebrate the passing of the first hurdle and then tomorrow I'm off to Heathrow for the Flyer Show/Professional Flight Training Exhibition. For anyone who's interested in coming into this profession the exhibition is a must see as it's a chance to talk to the airlines, the pilots, the schools and the students. If you're interested in going, the link for the website is http://exhibitions.flyer.co.uk/
Friday 25 October 2013
Tuesday 15 October 2013
How time flies...
It's been a busy couple of weeks. Work continues apace and now the prospect of test ones looms large ahead of us. It's great to see how much of the course content is now under our belt and how the various concepts are starting to tie together, especially in met. It does also mean that even though these are purely internal tests, pre-exam nerves are starting to make an appearance in the class...
That said, it's not been entirely serious since last I posted. Last Thursday the school put on Happy Hour from half four until half five, apparently a monthly tradition to mark the day before the new course starts. Being our first happy hour we (almost inevitably and in accordance with our instructors' quasi-orders) crammed in as many beers as we could drink in an hour. Not feeling that we'd done the occasion justice we then scrubbed work for the evening, had dinner (and more beer) in the pub and then wandered back up the hill to our accommodation where we watched Top Gun. No cliches about students/pilots here at all then...
The final point for this evening then I suppose is that the aforementioned new course has now started, so we're no longer the babies of the school. Just hammers home how far along we now are...
That said, it's not been entirely serious since last I posted. Last Thursday the school put on Happy Hour from half four until half five, apparently a monthly tradition to mark the day before the new course starts. Being our first happy hour we (almost inevitably and in accordance with our instructors' quasi-orders) crammed in as many beers as we could drink in an hour. Not feeling that we'd done the occasion justice we then scrubbed work for the evening, had dinner (and more beer) in the pub and then wandered back up the hill to our accommodation where we watched Top Gun. No cliches about students/pilots here at all then...
The final point for this evening then I suppose is that the aforementioned new course has now started, so we're no longer the babies of the school. Just hammers home how far along we now are...
Wednesday 2 October 2013
Learning from experience...
Experience is a wonderful thing. Unfortunately we don't have any, so we have to learn from the experiences of others.
By far the most commonly mentioned example for us to learn from is the tragic fate of Air France flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean with the loss of all aboard. This is used as an example in most of our lectures as aspects of meteorology, aerodynamics, instrumentation, systems, human factors and crew resource management all factored into the eventual outcome. Further information and the final crash report can be found at the links below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AF_447
http://www.bea.aero/en/enquetes/flight.af.447/rapport.final.en.php
In a more subject specific example of learning from others' experiences, stories from flying training were used in the recent Principles of Flight lectures on ground effect. This is where the wing becomes more 'efficient' once close to the ground, leading in broad terms to greater lift generation and less drag. Our lecturer's first anecdote was from his days as an E-3D AWACS pilot for the RAF; while being taught how to land his instructor left the power on as he flared (lifted the nose) for landing and the aircraft, instead of losing speed and sinking as might be expected, maintained height and speed and happily flew along the runway about 10ft up until a go around was initiated.
The second anecdote was about the issues associated with ground effect when taking off. A friend of his in basic flying training was going solo in a Jet Provost trainer that was heavier than usual, using a shorter runway than usual. When he saw that he wasn't going to take off successfully he rotated early in the hope of clawing his way into the air. The aircraft lifted in the ground effect at a speed well below the climb speed; the result was that when it left ground effect the drag increased and the lift reduced, so the aircraft slowed, stalled and crashed back into the ground. Just before impact the pilot ejected and had the story ended there, we might all just have taken it as an example of what can happen. The instructor's next words, however, really brought home the fact that flying, while much safer statistically than for example driving, is unforgiving of even relatively minor mistakes. The end result of the incident was "As he descended under his parachute he went through a wall and was stabbed to death as his knees went through his chest."
Stunned silence descended on the classroom. We've all had emphasised to us the Swiss cheese safety model, where holes in layers are blocked by other layers unless all the holes line up and an accident occurs, but for me certainly this really rammed home the first rule of aviation safety: check, check and then check again that everything is in order because if you don't, at some point you'll pay for it.
By far the most commonly mentioned example for us to learn from is the tragic fate of Air France flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean with the loss of all aboard. This is used as an example in most of our lectures as aspects of meteorology, aerodynamics, instrumentation, systems, human factors and crew resource management all factored into the eventual outcome. Further information and the final crash report can be found at the links below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AF_447
http://www.bea.aero/en/enquetes/flight.af.447/rapport.final.en.php
In a more subject specific example of learning from others' experiences, stories from flying training were used in the recent Principles of Flight lectures on ground effect. This is where the wing becomes more 'efficient' once close to the ground, leading in broad terms to greater lift generation and less drag. Our lecturer's first anecdote was from his days as an E-3D AWACS pilot for the RAF; while being taught how to land his instructor left the power on as he flared (lifted the nose) for landing and the aircraft, instead of losing speed and sinking as might be expected, maintained height and speed and happily flew along the runway about 10ft up until a go around was initiated.
The second anecdote was about the issues associated with ground effect when taking off. A friend of his in basic flying training was going solo in a Jet Provost trainer that was heavier than usual, using a shorter runway than usual. When he saw that he wasn't going to take off successfully he rotated early in the hope of clawing his way into the air. The aircraft lifted in the ground effect at a speed well below the climb speed; the result was that when it left ground effect the drag increased and the lift reduced, so the aircraft slowed, stalled and crashed back into the ground. Just before impact the pilot ejected and had the story ended there, we might all just have taken it as an example of what can happen. The instructor's next words, however, really brought home the fact that flying, while much safer statistically than for example driving, is unforgiving of even relatively minor mistakes. The end result of the incident was "As he descended under his parachute he went through a wall and was stabbed to death as his knees went through his chest."
Stunned silence descended on the classroom. We've all had emphasised to us the Swiss cheese safety model, where holes in layers are blocked by other layers unless all the holes line up and an accident occurs, but for me certainly this really rammed home the first rule of aviation safety: check, check and then check again that everything is in order because if you don't, at some point you'll pay for it.
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