How to get from A to B

Another week has ended and more knowledge has been consumed. This week we have been studying General Navigation, a topic based on calculations navigating us around the globe from A to B. So it's all pretty important stuff. Now that the topics are more practical, we have been given the Jeppesen Airway Manual. This hefty binder contains all the charts that we need to complete the exams. There is a range of charts in this manual including airway (motorways of the sky) charts and airport charts showing taxiways, terminals and gates.

Jeppesen airway manual and one of the included low level airway charts

The majority of what we have done so far has been learning about longitude and latitude, Great circles (the shortest distance across the globe) and rhumb lines (lines that cross each meridian at the same angle). This involves looking at different types of charts and the various properties of each one. This all becomes of use when working out where we are and where we need to go. In the picture above you can see some thick lines criss-crossing seemingly randomly across the page. These lines are in fact airways and follow great circle lines from radio-navigation aids. In light aircraft with basic equipment these lines and angles aren't the ones displayed on the instrument so we need to know how to convert them to useful headings and bearings for us to navigate accurately. The modern highly automated aircraft that I will be flying day to day will do all of this for me, but during training, in light aircraft, flight planning and when it all goes wrong this knowledge will probably come in quite handy.

The CRP-5

We have also started learning how to use the CRP-5 flight computer. It's affectionately know as the "crap 5", but in all honesty its a brilliant piece of equipment that saves time on numerous calculations such as fuel unit conversions and wind, velocity, track and heading calculations. At first it's quite a daunting thing to use but like most things once you get the hang of it, it becomes far easier and far more useful. It's also known as a whizz wheel because the centre of it rotates enabling the plethora of calculations that it is capable of. Admittedly its not as accurate as a calculator, but its much quicker and the value obtained is close enough to real answer for it to be used in flight.

We have another week of this before moving on, so until then Adios!

Exams are over, for now!

Exams are finished, beer has been consumed and everyone is feeling a lot happier than 12 hours ago. Three months have passed incredibly quickly, which I personally see as a good thing as it means we are three months closer to our rather exciting trip to New Zealand.  It's nice that the exams are now out the way for a few much needed days of relaxation. But a few days is just that, as we are back in the classroom on Tuesday to start the process all over again. According to instructors and previous cadets the next set of topics are much more practical and a little less daunting. We shall see!

Now for a little bit of what the exams entail for those of you that are interested. All of the exams are multiple choice with some exams as few as 24 questions in half an hour to some with as many as 80 in two hours. The timing for the exams is perfectly reasonable as after much practice on the question bank, we soon find ourselves getting through questions rather quickly. The CAA like to catch us out and you can soon find yourself making stupid mistakes, and with a pass mark of 75% there isn't much margin for error! The exams this week havn't been too bad. There were a couple of tricky questions here and there but for the most part, with effective preparation, there wasn't anything too troubling. I now want to forget those for the time being and focus on relaxing. Results should arrive in a couple of weeks and there isn't anything I can do about them now. It, however, is a strange feeling now having to deal with life without four possible options. Give any of us four possible answers and I'm sure we could pick out the correct one. For now though, I'm going to unwind properly and enjoy the time off.

As ever questions about the training, selection, CTC etc are more than welcome. I know a few of you are probably wanting to ask a few things prior to the British Airways FPP opening on Monday. I know I'm on the easyJet MPL but the skills required during selection are fairly common across airlines and the ground-school training is the same.

Please switch off any electronic devices and stow your tray-tables in the upright position!

This time last week we had finished our mock exams and were settling down for a week and a half of revision. Well that was the plan! Having done well in my mocks I find a week and a half a long time to sit about going through the question bank. For some people too much preparation can be a bad thing and I have found myself slotting into this category. So in my boredom (ok, a bit of an over-exaggeration) I try and keep my mind distracted now and then with aviation news and walks to the beach. Which brings me onto the point of this post. In recent months there has been a lot of talk about allowing the use of electronic devices throughout commercial flights, including take off and landing. A news article yesterday announced that US Airlines are finally going to introduce plans to allow such use of smartphones and tablets etc. You can read about it here. Fortunately the use of mobile phones remains banned, so poor cabin crew will still have to deal with that one (there's always one) passenger who hasn't switched off their phone!

Now this topic is very open to discussion and many will disagree with me, but I don't agree with this proposal for two main reasons. The first being that once everyone is sat in their seats the cabin crew give a rather important safety demonstration, as I'm sure you are all aware. Frequent fliers can probably recite this to you in their sleep, but for most, listening to it might actually save your life in the highly unlikely event of a crash. Allowing the use of electronic devices will inevitably distract many people from the safety demonstration, especially children immersed in computer games and I personally disagree with airlines and regulators even considering it.

The second reason, which will lead you to think I'm older than I actually am, is that I can't understand why people can't go without their gadgets for ten minutes during take-off and landing! For some people it might be a welcome distraction to their anxiety of flying during the most critical stages, but I hardly feel that is an acceptable reason to suddenly change the rules. I am also aware that being stuck in a metal (or composite) tube for a number of hours to most seems incredibly dull and tedious, but aircraft are designed with very modern in-flight entertainment systems with some airlines providing more films than you can watch in a lifetime. Conversely, you can always read a book.

I know that I am writing from a very biased point of view having loved air travel my entire life, and every time I'm on an aeroplane I like to enjoy the experience. I'm probably being overly cynical but I will be interested to see if this is a success.