Week 5- General Navigation

Evening readers and welcome to this weeks blog post! This week has predominantly been about General Navigation but first Principles of Flight. Monday was the final day studying this monumental topic. We finished off talking about propellers and how they work as well as limitations of aircraft and the effects of a contaminated aerofoil i.e snow, ice, rain, dirt etc on the wing. Unfortunately, many accidents in history can be put down to contaminated wings such as Air Ontario Flight 1363 which crashed just after take off because the wings couldn't generate enough lift due to 0.6-1.3 cm of ice on the wing. Now we have finished POF it's time to hit the practice exams and revision to make sure we can get a decent score!

A phenomenon known as rime ice accumulating
 on the wing

The rest of the week has been spent learning about General Navigation. Topics covered this week include the different types of charts used in aviation, how to work out distances between points on the earth but the most fun by far (yes I used the word fun!) has been using the CRP-5 computer. One of these bad boys will set you back £80, and for that you don't get a screen, a keyboard or even a mouse! Despite being called a computer, it isn't really a computer at all but what it is is a student pilots best friend. It enables you to convert numbers into different units, find out what speeds you are flying at but best of all (and my favourite part of the CRP5) it allows you to work out wind velocity (wind speed and direction) relative to the aircraft. 

CRP 5 Navigation computer (it even looks cool)

I am hoping for a lot of questions using the CRP5 in the exam as at the moment it is one of the few things I understand! Unfortunately it was a hard week this week being in school for 5 days (our first 5 day week since we started!) 

This weekend has been spent revising GNAV and POF as well as revisiting Mass and Balance and HPL before the mock exams a week tomorrow! Just before I sign off for another week, here is Joe trying to spell easyjet after an afternoons revision...

Its good to know Joe can spell the name
 of the airline we are due to work for....

That's all for this week! 

Week 4- Principles of Flight and General Navigation starter

So this week marks a month since I started training with CTC and with a new course starting last Thursday, we are no longer the junior course; where has the time gone?! The work is really starting to ramp up. Our course has just started the last of the 4 topics that we need to learn for module 1 before the exams in just under a months time. 

Earlier this week we continued with POF and learnt about high speed supersonic flight and how an aircraft is affected when travelling at the speed of sound and above. This was quite interesting and it made me realise what a design achievement the Concorde was. Click here to watch a video showing a Concorde flying at 40,000ft +, yet you can still hear the sonic boom!

We have also learnt about how an aircraft stays stable in flight around its 3 axis's and how the forces acting on an aircraft balance out to stop the aircraft uncontrollably descending or climbing, rolling or yawing. 

We still have one day of POF to go before we finish the topic but Wednesday and Thursday this week were spent starting a new topic called General Navigation. As topics go, this is a fairly important one; you don't want to plan to fly to Italy and instead land in Switzerland so understanding navigation and how different factors affect it is key. It is a fairly interesting topic so far and definitely more practical than some of the other topics we study involving charts, maps and lots and lots of trigonometry (yay...). When the opening words of the instructor as he starts the topic are 'how many of you can do trigonometry well' you know it's going to play an important role! 

Unfortunately this weekend has been jam packed with revision trying to keep on top of the workload but with exams getting ever closer, it's not the time to take your foot of the gas! 

It's true what they say though, time does go quickly here. It's almost like CTC has its own time zone that goes double the pace of the outside world! The constant digestion of new information whilst rehearsing the old information to make sure you don't forget it means you don't really have time for much else but it's all in pursuit of a wider goal, flying for easyJet! 

Our easyJet mentor pilot came to visit us this week. It is really nice to have contact with easyJet throughout our training and the fact that easyJet are already putting plans in place expecting us to complete training by a certain deadline means failure is not an option! CTC are known for their outstanding grades both in groundschool and flying training so as the liason pilot said to me earlier in the week, it's not if you pass but how well you pass! 

And with that I shall sign off for another week, have a good one! 

Week 3- Principles of Flight

Evening Everyone,

It has been a bit full-on this week but as always, we don't forget the fun on our course. On Monday we finished off Human Performance. We were treated to a presentation by a world leading Aviation Medical Examiner who specialises in the study of disorientation and how it affects pilots. It was an interesting talk confirming much of what we had learnt during the topic. He also bought these special glasses along which crossed over our vision. Below are a few videos showing the effects of these glasses; somehow I think I failed walking in a straight line miserably.

Myself

Vicky

Kieran

Joe

Mark

In the evening some of us met up for a BBQ but we couldn't afford to have a late night this time as Tuesday was a CBT day.

Kieran taking charge of the situation!

Leo cooking his steak to perfection!

Throughout the rest of the week we have been studying Principles of Flight (POF) which is probably one of the most important topics for us to get to grips with. It covers how an aircraft actually flies and involves a fair amount of physics with a little maths chucked in for good measure (my favourite...not!) POF was the subject I was always most afraid of studying and the one I knew I would struggle with most (it has definitely lived up to my expectations.) This weekend has been filled with 10 hrs of revision on Saturday and a few more today!

In other news, there was amazing cloud formation above our house a few days ago (picture below) although I can't tell you what the cloud is called because I haven't studied meteorology yet! Earlier in the week it was Jon's Birthday. Because he loves surprises (not) a cake was given to him with a card and he got the best present anyone could wish for, an introduction to POF!

Maybe it's just me that gets excited about
 these clouds...!

Jon looking very happy with
 his chocolate cake!

Anyway, that's all for now as I need to get my head back into the world of POF! Feel free to comment or email me with any questions and I will get back to you when I can!

Week 2- Human Performance Limitations

Afternoon Readers,

So this week I have been learning about human performance and the limitations is poses to commercial aviation. Human performance limitations (HPL) is, at its core, a topic to try and help us improve the safety of air travel in various ways. As technology has increased in its capabilities over the years, it has come to light that humans are becoming the cause of more and more accidents as opposed to the technology in which they control- around 70%-80% of all accidents are now down to human error. That's not to say that technology doesn't have a part to play in an accident however generally accidents occur because of a failure in the interaction between the pilots and the aircraft or the procedures they abide by. It has now become more important than ever to teach not only pilots but also other aviation personnel:

1. How to recognise safety factors and limits (which they shouldn't push)
2. How to recognise illusions
3. How to interact professionally and synergistically with your crew members when on duty
4. How to recognise the signs of various illnesses such as hypoxia, decompression sickness and various barotraumas. 

Aviation is still the safest type of air 
travel despite public perception

This topic is very science and PE based. It involves learning in a fair amount of detail how they eyes, ears, cardiovascular system, respiratory system and nervous system works. The reasoning for this is that if we know how these systems work then we can better combat any failure of these in flight by recognising the symptoms earlier. 

It has been interesting but still hard work. What has been good this week is that as part of this topic, it makes sense to look at various air crash investigation videos where human error has been a reason for an aircraft accident. We have learnt about Helios flight 522 where as a result of the pilots not realising the aircraft pressurisation switch was turned to manual, everyone on board succumbed to hypoxia and eventually the plane ran out of fuel and crashed. We have also learnt about Air France flight 447 which crashed into the Atlantic as a result of the pilots on board not trusting or understanding the information the plane was telling them. Finally, we looked at the Tenerife disaster which is still considered the biggest aviation crash in history. Two Boeing 747 aircraft crashed into each other on the runway in Tenerife as a result of a misunderstanding on the radio; 583 people were killed.

On top of this I am still revising Mass and Balance so that I don't forget it all for the exams in a few weeks time!

This weekend I managed to pop home which was really nice. I was able to catch up with some old work colleagues for a BBQ and various friends and family for a picnic in the park on Sunday. Of course, there is only so much socialising you can do when you have revision and work to get on with but it was a nice (if not brief) change of scenery!

What a nice afternoon for a picnic!

That's all for now. Next week I will be finishing off HPL before starting Principles of Flight; a very physics and maths based topic!