It's difficult to believe we are now well over halfway through the second module of subjects. We have only three remaining subjects to study: Operational Procedures (only three days of classes), Radio Navigation and Human Performance (both more extensive).
This second module is significantly more practical than the first, with far less to memorise and far fewer questions to tackle in the question bank. That said, they tend to take longer to do so, though the work load seems a little less, there is still plenty to do. However, it has been nice to have a bit more time to socialise at the weekend etc.
This week has all been about Flight Planning and Monitoring (FPM). This brings together much of the material we have covered both in module one and the more recent subjects, particularly with regard to aircraft performance and navigation.
For example, we use these charts to determine certain performance characteristics such as maximum landing weight and endurance figures:
Then there are tables which we can use (with significant interpolation) to determine other figures such as the fuel burn for a given distance under certain conditions:
The culmination of the Flight Planning course is exactly that, where you are given a route to plan with all the various considerations such as wind direction and speed, flight levels to use, fuel burn expected etc. This involves taking the figures from the above data and using charts such as this one below (which harks back to some of our work in the General Navigation syllabus) to plan the details of the route. This is the low-level chart showing just how busy the airspace over London is (though this is an exam chart rather than an operational one and therefore several years out of date).
In amongst the work came the New Zealand Visa application. A very straightforward form to fill in as CTC send people out there so frequently that most of it is done for you. Still, it brings it home that we we actually be flying out there in around two months and will get to go near a real aircraft for the first time!
Finally, I managed to get a few days at the weekend to visit some old friends and was reminded on Saturday morning by the clear skies (significantly clearer than my head) of what all this work is for:
Some very elegant contrails!
