It's been over a month now since I began my pilot training and we are near the halfway point for Module 1,
although it feels a lot longer given the steep learning we've all been on in
this early stage! Our first subject,
Aircraft General Knowledge (AGK) was finished in seven days, followed by
Principles of Flight (POF) in five, and we are currently studying Instruments
(no acronym for this one, sadly) which will be six days. There certainly isn't much time for rest, and
we are all working hard to keep up with the sheer volume and pace of the
course.
The first week of AGK meant a few late nights while I adjusted to
the course, and I felt fairly swamped with the onslaught of information - we
went straight into learning about hydraulic valves and various electronics
which I hadn't had much experience of before.
Thankfully we soon started talking about jet engines and air flow and I
was back in familiar territory...
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| Our Flight Computer - CRP-5, not quite got the hang of it yet |
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| Pitot tube (left) measures pressure, and various other bits of plane! |
Settling in!
Life has settled into somewhat of a routine now, we tend to spend
around 4 days each week in class, and one day working from home on CBT days
(Computer Based Training), although we occasionally go into CTC for this one
anyway and work in a classroom. The CBT
is essentially an online textbook, with all the content that used to be given
to cadets in the form of hefty books in a more interactive form. We usually have five or more chapters to do
on the CBT to follow up on what we did in class that day. As you can expect, the CBT has a lot of
information in, so we try and balance learning the detail with making sure we
give ourselves enough time to get through all the content. Each chapter has a quiz at the end, along
with a larger 'Progress Test' at regular intervals which are monitored to
ensure we are tracking well with the course in our own time. Alongside that, there is an online question
bank which have thousands of questions akin to what we can expect in the exams,
so I try and complete the CBT then see how I fare on the question bank and
revisit weaker areas.
Of course, there has been time to catch up with some friends, and
I took a trip to Bath to see my girlfriend so I've managed to get some time
away from CBT which is important to maintain sanity I feel! It's been brilliant living with the whole of
CP118 in the same block of flats - there is always someone about to talk to or
bounce questions off, and it's a lot of fun! We had a brief trip to the funfair across the road last night - had a huge result in winning a banana on 'hook the duck' and went on a few rides, although my whole body felt it was still spinning even as we got home... all good fun!
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| The banana. |
BA Liason
Myself and the other BA FPP chaps met up with our course liason
pilot last week for drinks in the city centre.
Having a liason pilot is a real benefit of the FPP, as it provides a
link between us and the company, and someone who we can call upon should we
need for any help or advice. In my case,
having been focused on studying since we started it also provided more
excitement for the end goal! This week
we also met up with the other BA FPPers for a curry to send off CP113 who have
just finished groundschool and are off to New Zealand in the next couple of
weeks - I look forward to being at that stage 5 months or so down the line.
Thanks for reading - Happy Easter!
