Some pics

In response to popular demand, I have some pics. Nothing to fancy.

All pics shamelessly stolen from our Facebook group

View from our classroom mainly














































And there is me, all hard at work (at the back that is)

FSX for revision??

It takes some guts to admit that you have dabbled a lot into Flight Sim X, prior and during you flight training. It does sound rather nerdy especially to outsiders that you consider yourself a trans world explorer without even leaving your house.

Well anyway, may people may have this question on their minds, but are too afraid to ask it to avoid the "You are a nerd" look, does Flight Sim X (or other Sims) help you in flight training.

Well after going through the Instruments syllabus I must admit, the answer is yes. If you purchase one of these custom made addons that have been made by people in the know, you could find yourself visualising all those complicated instruments. You could also place yourself at a certain altitude, and see the relation ship between your Indicated air speed, True Airspeed and Mach number. Want to see the effect of temperature changes for "real"? Simply change the temp. Pressure changes? Is it really "High to Low, down you go"?

However, I must stress the need for custom addons. It seems that the default Flight sim x aircraft have a lack of detail when it comes to the more complicated instruments, like the INS and FMS. It seems that the makes think that everyone will be using the GPS these days, when in reality we don't. So avoid. Also do bare in mind that there are no 100% accurate models, but something that shouldn't trouble you in the ATPL ground exams, Type ratings maybe, but that is something that we don't have to worry about just yet.

So hold you geeky chin up high simmers, you are almost "as real as it gets"

Half-way into Block 2

Well we have survived without too many serious incidents into week 5 of our 8 week block 2. Subjects to ram into our little brains include Meterology, General Navigation, Instruments and Human Performance and Limitations.

In comparision with the other 3 blocks of subjects, this is the biggy! Just a lot of info to take in.

Met- Well put it this way, in AGK we were all looking at the planes taking off, just reminding ourselves of what the end-game is, now were spend out breaks outside looking at the clouds and guessing the cloud names! Yup, we be geeks.

G-Nav, in the begining our CRP-5 (wizzwheel) seems like a very clever piece of kit, not as much now, a bane for some!

Instuments- Just info info info info. After getting our heads around altimetry (oooh that's fun!) we be learning all about how the various instruments actually obtain the info they're displaying. However, it ain't type specific, I guess that is the reason why today we had to endure the facts about the inertial nav system (INS), a bit of kit that was made obsolete 20 years ago! Go CAA!

HP&L- Coming from a strong biology background, I was initially given a gagging order by our intructor, cos lets face it, the CAA lock themselves into a room and convince each other that they are right. CAA facts and reality don't mix well. So we have to learn all about how the CAA view the limitations of your average pilot. Did you know that humans can function as pilots with a body temperature of 40C!!!?? No me neither........