Radio Navigation

Over the last ten days I have been quite lucky to fly in the gaps in bad weather and complete all of my solo circuit lessons in the Cessna. Many of the people on the course have not been so lucky as the rain and the wind has hampered any progress while making the grass significantly greener.

As I have been fortunate with the weather, I have now done the next three simulator sessions in which we start learning how to fly in IMC (instrument meteorological conditions, essentially bad weather) using radio navigation aids such VOR's (Very high frequency Omnidirectional radio Range), NDB's (Non Directional Beacons) and GPS. These simulator sessions have been great fun as they gave a chance to start using some of the more procedural aspects to flying and navigating using departure, approach and arrival plates. In my GPS lesson, the instructor had me set up an entire Instrument route between Auckland and Hamilton  which I subsequently flew, executed a missed approach at Hamilton due to fog, and returned to land at Auckland.

Plate for Standard Instrument Departure from runway 23L at Auckland Airport

It has been really good learning how to use navigation aids and procedural plates as it gives much more of a sense of what we will be doing day to day in the jet we will eventually be flying. As much as the basic flying up to solo standard has been enjoyable, its this next stage that really starts to build some excitement in us as we are here to be airline pilots, not just hobbyists flying light aircraft on weekends.

A few of us were also lucky to not be scheduled at all during the Easter weekend so a couple of us managed a touristy trip to Auckland for some sight seeing. It's a really laid back city with some fantastic views in the right places. We spent a day walking up the volcanic island of Rangitoto, the reward being a superb view across the city, the harbour and the Hauraki Gulf.

The view from Rangitoto Island

Having completed the simulator sessions the next thing coming up is navigation in the Cessna, with more emergency procedure training. Until then, or whenever I have something interesting to write about, cheerio.

Oh, and for those of you that are interested in the MPL program, easyJet and CTC will be opening their MPL course for applications in the near future, so make sure you keep an eye on the CTC website for updates. I can't believe that his been a year since I applied and went through the selection process. How time flies eh!