First Exams Down!

That’s right, the exams are over and the results are in…

• Aircraft Systems – 93%
• Instruments – 95%
• Human Performance – 98%
• Meteorology – 92%
• Principles of Flight – 90%

That’s an average of 94%! Needless to say I’m very pleased with those results, some of which were a lot more than I thought I was capable of! We’ve reviewed all the papers in class as well and I have a good idea of where I went wrong. The key thing in this whole process has been learning the art of studying for exams. We have huge question banks online, and although it may be painful, it was enormously helpful to sit and trawl through those.

So now we move onto the second half of Phase 1. Some subjects continue, though we will be starting Gas Turbines and AC Electrics now, and a few other different ones later on. And in 4 and a bit weeks we’ll be sitting down for our School Finals, followed by a week of revision and then our first 7 JAA exams! The time seems to have flown so quickly already, and this next month is going to be very intense indeed. However, I do feel my learning processes have improved and I seem to be able to absorb the information we’re being given a lot better now. The key will be in maintaining the same level of work, and hopefully the same kind of grades next time around!

Finally, just as the thick snow surrounding Heyford began to clear, we were treated to a nice new layer this morning! Needless to say getting into the airport was a bit of an adventure, and we were actually sent home after a couple of lessons anyway. Has been pretty nice to have a day off though where I’ve just been able to relax, haven’t said that for a while! Keeping my fingers crossed that things are back to normal tomorrow though and we can have a full day of classes. Bring it on!

Test 1s Tomorrow!

That’s right, it seems like the last 2 months have absolutely flown by, but it’s already time for those dreaded Test 1 exams. I have been revising absolutely solidly for the past 5 days, to the point where my brain is actually aching! :-) We had a LOT of snow this week which means I’ve pretty much been confined to the flat anyway, so in a way I’m actually looking forward to a reason for getting out tomorrow. And also, it’ll be good to get these exams out the way so we can get back to the classroom and get the rest of Phase 1 done. Although tomorrow’s exams don’t count for anything, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed that I do well, else all this hard work was in vain! Not sure when we’ll be finding out the results but hopefully I’ll post them up here if they’re not too bad.

The exams we have on Monday are:

• Principles of Flight
• Aircraft Systems (Airframes, Piston Engines, DC Electrics)
• Instruments

and on Tuesday:

• Human Performance
• Meteorology

These are the same exams we’ll be sitting in March, plus we’ll be picking up 2 extra subjects, VFR comms and IFR comms. I’m already looking forward to a break after those exams just to relax!

Back to school

Have arrived back in Heyford after a nice Christmas at home. Have tried to do as much work as possible, though I couldn’t help installing Flight Sim on my laptop and taking it for a spin a few times! Never mind, have managed to revise 4 out of the 7 books. Plus, we only have half a week of lectures, and the rest of the week is pre-exam study so I’ll be able to finish the other 3 books plus run through plenty of questions. Then it’s exams Monday and Tuesday next week! Very scary stuff, am pretty nervous about it all but will hopefully feel much better when they’re out of the way. Although they are just progress checks and don’t count for anything, it would still be reassuring to know it’s going well! Plus it all may well end up on my report at the end!

Snowball Fight!

Like most of the country now we’re pretty much snowed in here in Heyford. It’s been pretty mild and intermittent for a few days now but it really started coming down hard this evening, as we were driving back from the airport. Naturally this resulted in a huge snowball fight; you really wouldn’t have believed we were all future pilots as we reverted to childhood for a few hours! It was awesome fun, though not sure what we’re going to wake up to in the morning. They don’t seem to be gritting most of the roads around here so could be an ‘awfully exciting’ journey in to the airport!

As you can see from the previous post we were at the airport on Saturday to watch the inaugural Fly Baboo flight from Geneva land at London Oxford, and depart. Was interesting to see a plane of that size land next to the rows of Warriors and Senecas parked on the apron! Got some great photos too.

School raps up at midday on Wednesday and I’ll be attempting the drive home then, hoping for some sunshine to clear the snow before then! Looking forward to a few days of relaxing before doing some serious revision – our first round of exams are on our second week back :-S

Fly Baboo

 

The new Fly Baboo service from Oxford to Geneva took off for the first time today.

"Highlight!"

Only one week of classes left before the Christmas holidays! Should be travelling home on the 23rd, though at what time does depend on how nice our teachers are that day. The European students are leaving midday as they have flights to catch, which only leaves a few of us there, so hopefully we should get a half day too! Not feeling too well at the moment, have a bit of a sore throat that's probably developing into a cold, so the break will be appreciated! It's very hard to concentrate in the evenings when you feel so rough!


I was lucky enough to take a ride in the back of one of Oxford's 737 sims today. A friend of a Damien's has a check ride for Ryanair coming up and so was doing some practice in one of the sims with Damien as his partner, and I got to fly jump seat! Was great fun seeing one of those amazing pieces of kit in action (and being handled by 'pro's'!), though it just makes me want to skip ahead the year I have to wait before I can get in one again!


Ground school is going okay, the volume of work is constant, and with our first exams coming up after Christmas the pressure is really on to do well. Looks like that week off is going to turn into a working week, but never mind...

Principles of Fright

Time certainly does fly (excuse the pun), it's nearly the end of my third week of Ground School, and those first tests are getting nearer and nearer already! Basically, they split the 14 exams in to two halves, so we are studying for the first 7 at the moment. We have a set of progress exams called Test 1s halfway through, then another set called School Finals just before we take our JAA exams, and then the same with the second 7 subjects. Our test 1s are scheduled for 11th and 12th January, and we have a week and a half of Xmas in between so they really aren't that far away! Plus AP309, the new course, start this Friday so already we won't be the newbies any more!


As I mentioned before, the work load really is quite solid. As well as a full day at school, we do a few hours recapping in the evening depending on where we got to in classes, and then tend to use the weekend to review the whole weeks work. I seem to be doing okay on the questions Oxford set, which will be the questions used in the school exams, it's just that there is an overwhelming amount of details to remember, and I worry that some new information will start to push the old stuff out of my mind. Just need to make it to the JAAs and then I won't need to know half this stuff again!


I was also lucky enough to do a bit of flying this weekend just gone. One of the guys here at Heyford had a single engine piston rating to renew by flying a few circuits so I sat in the back seat and was able to take a few photos. Was nice to be able to see the area and was very good to be sitting in an aeroplane again! Reminded me why I was here!