Embassy Trip

Another week down, 3 more weeks of classes to go! The exams on Monday and Tuesday went reasonably well, I don’t have all my results with me but I know the average was 89%. Although I am happy with this I know it could have been more but I only got 74% in Aircraft Performance which brought the average down. However, I know this was just a blip, and celebrations still ensued on Tuesday evening. The whole class plus quite a few more people had a barbecue outside the halls of residence at the airport. It was a great evening, only spoiled by the fact we were straight back in to classrooms on Wednesday morning as we  began our stretch of Ground School. We also picked up the last of our subjects, Mass & Balance with one of our favourite teachers, Ed Waddon.

It was only a 2 day week, as Friday was our trip to the US Embassy to apply/beg for our Visas. After driving home to Norfolk on Thursday evening, I was up at 3.30am to catch the train in to London on Friday morning. The Embassy is an enormous building, and security was tight; we were made to queue outside before passing through airport style security. Inside we were given a number and called up to give our fingerprints and process our forms, and also again for a brief interview. We were all a bit nervous about how thorough they would be, however I was basically just asked to confirm why I was  travelling and how long my course lasts for before being told my Visa was approved. We spent the rest of the day doing the tourist thing around London, visiting the Palace and having dinner by the London Eye. It was a beautiful day and I managed to catch a bit of sunburn as well, something I guess I’ll need to get used to when I head out to Phoenix!

Test 2s

I almost can’t believe I’m saying it but Test 2 exams have arrived, which means I’ve hit the half way point of Phase 2. The time really seems to be going quickly now, and we are fully immersed in work. The workload is as heavy as it has ever been, and over the next couple of days I’ll find out if my hard work is paying off. So, the exams we have on Monday and Tuesday are:

• General Navigation
• Operational Procedures
• Flight Planning
• Radio Navigation
• Air Law
• Aircraft Performance

Whereas most of the exams from Phase 1 seemed to last about 30 minutes before everyone was handing in their papers and leaving, a few of these promise to be quite long affairs. General Navigation is a 2 hour exam and we’ve been told to expect to be in there for the whole time, and Flight Planning is pretty much the same. The reason being that each question will probably require a good deal of working out, and praying that the answer you get appears as one of the options!

After that, it’s back to lessons from Tuesday afternoon. We also have our visit to the US Embassy booked for Friday, so it will be quite a short week of classes. I’ll be travelling home on Thursday evening and then catching the train to London from Norwich on Friday at 5.10am! I expect to be sleeping through most of that journey! And assuming everything goes okay, it’s three more weeks of classes, followed by exams, and Ground School will be over. I’m not counting down the days already, honestly…

Sunshine in Oxford

As the days get warmer and exams get nearer and nearer, thoughts are already starting to turn to Phoenix! We had a presentation today from the Head of Flying Training, preparing us for the adventure that awaits us. He basically just gave us a brief about where we will be staying and the facilities, a bit about the area and a little bit about the flying too. It really does feel that it’s just around the corner now, although in reality of course there is still a long way to go.

It will be a week on Monday that we will be sitting our Test 2 exams, and we are racing through the subjects, in fact we have already completed the Flight Planning material. There is a very different feel to the subjects in this phase; it was very easy just to remember correct answers for  Phase 1 as each question was very black and white. However, there is a large amount of calculation and chart plotting required for these questions, which means if you don’t know the material and the methods, you are in trouble. There is also a real sense that what we are learning now isn’t just to pass exams, a lot of it is stuff that we will be using day to day in Arizona and beyond.

We also had a presentation from EasyJet, though I wasn’t too impressed  with them. They offer a scheme for new pilots called ‘flexi-crew’, which basically means they can work you as little or often as they like, with no job security whatsoever, plus you have to pay for the training. Although this scheme is the only option for some guys leaving Oxford at the moment, predictions are showing more and more that there will be a much healthier job market at the end for us, and we might be able to land something a bit better. To be honest, I have heard a lot more positives about Ryanair than EasyJet. Still, it’s a long way off yet!

Phase 2

I can’t believe we’ve already been back for a week and a half, and what is worse is that we are already counting down to the next set of exams! This phase is much shorter, as has been demonstrated by the pace at which we having been going from the start. Although it

was great to get back to classes after a couple of weeks of rest, the novelty soon wore off and I am reminded of the hard work that is involved in getting through Ground School.

The subjects range from the actually quite interesting, such as Flight Planning and Operational Procedures, to the tediously boring, such as Aircraft Performance and Air Law. Performance actually just feels like an extension of Principles of Flight, which was probably my least favourite subject from Phase 1, so it’s a bit frustrating to be seeing it all over again! Most subjects are a lot more practical, and we have been able to get our heads out of text books an in to maps, charts and performance graphs etc. We already seem to be making healthy progress through the books, and will be half way through when we sit our Test 2s on the 19th and 20th of April.

Time seems to be flying, and it also feels like we can start to count down to Phoenix a bit more now. Our plane tickets have been booked  on BA289 for the 21st June, and we have started our Visa applications. We have to make a formal visit to the US Embassy next month for them to be processed. All of which are good signs that the date is getting closer, however I must try my best to keep my eyes firmly fixed on Ground School for now!

Upper Heyford

Here it is, the place I’ve been living since November! My flat is on the  second floor and is the one on the end on the left. Doesn’t look too bad in the sunlight, though it’s a bit more gloomy in the middle of winter!

Also, here’s a photo of the old ‘Skyking’ cinema from the US military days. It’s just one of the many old buildings that give Upper Heyford it’s unique charm! There’s a memorial website with a lot of information and many more photos at this address http://www.raf-upper-heyford.org/.

Back to Oxford

After an enjoyable couple of weeks away from text books and online question banks, I arrived back at Upper Heyford today to prepare myself for Phase 2 of Ground School! It feels strange saying that I will be going in to Phase 2 when it only feels like yesterday that I got here, though it is in reality 4 months ago. Another new class starts tomorrow, they will be the fourth to have started since we arrived. It’s a great feeling as the next big milestone for us is Arizona now, and I’m already counting down the days, 95 by my reckoning!

I also popped in to the school today to collect my results for our Phase 1 JAAs, and here they are:

• Principles of Flight – 95%
• Airframes/Systems/Powerplant – 93%
• Instruments/Electronics – 94%
• Meteorology – 97%
• Human Performance & Limitations – 97%
• VFR Communications – 100%
• IFR Communications – 91%

That means I have an average of 95% for Phase 1 which I’m very pleased with. My only slight disappointment would be IFR Comms, as it was a relatively easy exam and I was aiming for 100%, but at the same time 97% in Met is a surprise, and so I guess these things just balance each other out. Anyway, the overall result is a good one; the task now is to keep the momentum going into Phase 2 and keep that average where it is.

We pick up seven new subjects going in to Phase 2 which are as follows:

• Mass & Balance
• Performance
• Operational Procedures
• Flight Planning & Monitoring
• General Navigation
• Radio Navigation
• Air Law & ATC Procedures

It looks like there’s going to be a lot more maths involved with some of these subjects as they tend to revolve around flight planning, and performance calculations. However, everything should be a lot more practical and relevant to what we’re going to be doing in the cockpit so fingers crossed it may be a bit more interesting! I’ve attached a couple of photos of the books that we’re going to be using, including a close up of some charts from the Jeppesen  Student Pilot Airway Manual. Can’t wait to decipher those!

Finally, it has been really nice to have a break from the hard work of Ground School. Most of my time has been spent relaxing with the simple pleasures of the TV or even my XBox which has been in storage since I moved to Oxford. I also got down to Swansea last weekend and saw a few friends which was great, and then got back on Monday which was my birthday. Although I spent most of the day driving, we went for a nice family meal in the evening, and it was nice to see everyone, especially people I haven’t seen for a long while.

London, Carrow Road & Duxford

It’s been a busy few days since we finished our exams, though for once it’s been because I’m having fun rather than doing work. Thursday night was party night as a few of the boys headed off to London for a night of celebrations. Thomas and I caught the megabus which was about an hour and a half’s journey, but was cheap and took us straight to the centre of town. Without saying too much, we visited a few bars and a few clubs and a great night was had by all! Although I did completely forget  the tubes stop running at midnight so me and Thomas had to walk to Victoria (going past a deserted Buckingham Palace). We managed to just about find the bus and run for it, and arrived back in Heyford at around 4 in the morning. Out of bed then at 8 for the journey back home, and a nice dinner at my sister’s in Norwich.

I then made my first trip in a good few years to Carrow Road on Saturday to watch Norwich take on Yeovil, and absolutely hammer them on the pitch! Honestly, I’ve never seen such a one sided game of  football, our keeper only had one shot to save the whole game and we managed to stroll to a 3-0 victory. Not only that, but Dee, my sister’s fiancée, bumped straight in to Delia Smith and her husband as soon as we entered the ground! It was a great day altogether, finished off with a meal at Chiquito and a Sunday of Playstation 3 at Holly and Dee’s house.

Then today, me and a few of the guys from AP308 headed out to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford to have a look at the huge selection of historic aircraft they have on display. As well as sights of the de Havilland Comet, the Vulcan, the Viscount, the Shackleton and the flying Fortress, we were able to climb on board Concorde 101. It was amazing to see such an important and captivating piece of aviation history, and having a look around inside was something I never thought I would be able to do. We also got a  great view of the cockpit. It was a great day, and we were even able to relate some of our newly discovered aviation knowledge to what we saw!

Perhaps a few quiet days now before I head off to Swansea on Friday for a week of fun!