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Saturday 27 July 2013

Exams: take 2


Well the mocks are over. I am now on study leave for my module 2 exams, which I take in a few weeks time. This time around I will be doing:


  • General Navigation
  • Radio Navigation
  • Mass and Balance
  • Human Performance and Limitations
  • Performance
  • Operations
  • Flight Planning
These subjects are a lot more "hands on" and "piloty" than those in module 1 as they are a lot more practical. 

GNav is one of the subjects I have found the hardest in this module, I think mainly due to the formulas (I am not a lover of maths...). However it is very practical and includes charts as well as working out various times and dates in different time zones etc just by using coordinates.

RNav is mainly to do with radio aids and equipment such as radar and GPS. There are a few formulas you need to know, but apart from that it is just a case of learning all of the necessary information. 

Mass and Balance can be particularly tricky, as there are very few questions in the exam and each one can be worth a fair few marks, meaning there is very, very little room for error. 

HPL is one of my favourite subjects in this module, as I find it highly interesting (and we watched plenty of case study videos!). Learning about how our senses work, our minds and just exactly how flying is going to be affecting our bodies. 

Performance, 'lovingly' known as "POF 2" is actually not as bad as POF for me. I consider it as POF with fewer numbers. There are graphs to read lots of the answers off of and there are a lot more wordy questions.

Operations is another of my favourites. It is a bit like Air Law in module 1, although more orientated around airline work.

Flight Planning is a bit like GNav in the sense that there are some questions which can take a fair while to get an answer. There is a lot of chart work, SIDS and STARS (departure/arrival procedures at various airports) as well as fuel, time and distance calculations. 

All in all I am in a strange way looking forward to taking these exams, as I know that New Zealand is just on the other side of them. 

The CRP5 flight computer has been a key piece of equipment in module 2

An example of one of the flight planning tables we need to use

A bit more flight planning! 

Monday 15 July 2013

Leeds Flyer Show


This weekend I was lucky enough to have gone along to help CTC with their stand at the Leeds Professional Flight Training Exhibition. This took place at the Hilton in the city centre of Leeds on Saturday from 10am until 5pm and was open to all those considering a career as a commercial pilot.

As well as other flight schools, there were also some airlines, such as Jet2 and British Airways there and so it was nice to have a chat to some of the guys on these stands as well. The day was particularly busy - a lot busier than I had expected which is always a good thing! We had lots of questions - primarily revolving around employment opportunities, finance, CTC's fleet of aircraft and of course New Zealand!

I hope that we managed to answer all the questions we were asked well - I know for a fact I was chatting to various people from before opening to gone half past five, so needless to say I didn't have a quiet moment all day!

Would just like to thank CTC for letting me come along and sorting out the various arrangements and hope that the day was considered a success by all!

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