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!