What a show!

I'm just back from a fantastic day at the Farnborough Air Show, and with plenty of pictures of planes it seemed an appropriate time to do an update (I'll spare you most of the photos, though).  Now we've got the end of ground school almost in sight, it was a great opportunity to spend a (rare) day away from studying, although it felt like revision anyway, right?

The Red Arrows in full flow.

The DA42 - we'll be flying this aircraft out of Bournemouth after the NZ phase

First and last time to see a Vulcan!

As a first timer at an air show, I was suitably impressed with the range of stands and aircraft on offer to see and interact with  - we managed to drop in on the CTC stand as well as hop on board BA's all business class A318 which flies between London City Airport and JFK, New York for a quick nose around.  The good news for us is that we could see up close some of the things we'd learnt about in school  (I said it was revision!) and chat to some of the BA staff.  The actual display was rather awe-inspiring as well, and we were treated to a steady stream of aircraft from WWI tri-planes to more modern military jets and transporters (The Airbus A400M was very impressive).  For me it was a real highlight to see the Vulcan on it's last display season, as well as seeing the A380 which still gets the crowd off their feet even though it flies regularly around the world.  Not forgetting the Red Arrows of course - they were outstanding!  Anyway, I thoroughly recommend heading to an air show even if you aren't an avid plane spotter!

BA's all business A318

Getting through it...

Away from the excitement of fast jets and new aircraft, ground school is still very much in full swing and we have just finished 4/7 subjects of Module 2, starting Ops tomorrow.  I've enjoyed Module 2 thus far, it's been fairly practical although there are still numerous facts and figures to learn.  We started with General Navigation which looks at the different types of maps and charts, and how to read them and plot positions using a combination of bearings and distances from a given point.  Pilots can use a series of beacons, either NDBs (non-directional beacons) VORs (VHF beacons) and DMEs (distance measuring) to plot their position, or fix, which will have varying levels of accuracy depending on the equipment used.  In general, NDBs are less accurate as your instruments will just point towards them, while a VOR will give you a radial (i.e. 180 degrees) and a DME will give you a distance. The most accurate fix you will get is by using two DMEs, but depending on how well covered an area is that may not be an option and VORs and NDBs will be used to navigate with.  Of course, many aircraft also have GPS, which makes things a little easier still.

A rare uncluttered corner of the Jeppesen charts used in GNav - on the right the Berry Head VOR beacon shows a few different radials used to help navigation.

After GNav we had Performance which looks at aircraft performance with regard to things like the MTOM (Maximum Take-Off Mass) and how this is limited with regard to atmospheric conditions, runway length, obstacle clearance heights and more.  We make calculations on take-off performance using graphs in the CAP, which is a manual that contains specimen data for a variety of aircraft.  Next up was RNav (Radio Navigation) and that took us deeper into how things like the NDB, VOR, DME beacons work as well as looking at the communications systems that pilots use.  For example, over the Atlantic HF (high frequency) radio is used as it can travel a lot further, but at the expense of more radio noise, while closer to home we use VHF (very high frequency) for communications giving a much clearer sound.  Lastly, we just finished Mass & Balance which is a very important consideration for the safety of any flight.  If the aircraft is out of balance, it can be difficult to control so a lot of effort is put into loading the aircraft correctly and making sure that the centre of gravity (CG) of the aircraft stays within limits during the flight.  The CG can move considerably during flight, mainly due to fuel burn, so it is important that all stages of flight are considered in these calculations.

An example of the CAP, showing graphs and tables for the specimen aircraft used in flight training.

2 Months until the next adventure begins.

Our New Zealand visa application forms also came through last week, and it looks like we'll be heading out there in approximately two months.  Very exciting!  We've just got to get these exams out of the way now, and these should be happening in the first week of September so it'll be hard work until then!