Channel Z tonight (Kanaal Z, Canal Z):
Vanavond in het journaal o.a.:
Aantal studenten in pilotenopleiding stijgt explosief
Het aantal jongeren dat zich inschrijft om lijnpiloot te worden in ons land, is op een jaar tijd meer dan verdubbeld. De vliegscholen kunnen de aanvragen nauwelijks bijbenen. Deze zomer smeekte de Belgische luchtvaartsector nog om nieuwe piloten, en blijkbaar krijgt hun oproep ook gehoor.
http://www.kanaalz.be
Guess where they filmed? ...Good guess, @ SFA. And they did some interviews with students of our promotion. Maybe me, maybe not :p.
Update: SFA and 2 future pilots including a 25 year old one on the news ... .
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
day 12 - 02 okt 2007
The train.
Only 3 weeks ago I started with the ATPL program, hunting my dream. And when I make a comparison between my life before the start of the training and now, it's more than a day-and-night difference.
Take for example the daily trainride between Leuven and Brussels. I remember the feeling I had every time the train passed the lightning of the short final of runway 02, with a plane making his final corrections for a touchdown on that runway. Or the noise when a plane passed just over the train ... it was always with the feeling I belong up there, above the clouds or at least in that plane instead of in the train and later on at my desk, in front of a computer. I've always been motivated to do my work as a webdesigner, but now I realize every morning that this was the right decision I made. And even with the sometimes very difficult courses, almost all evenings filled with studying, no income anymore and a less secure future, I feel myself at ease at night, just before I go to sleep.
When I was a kid, I used to spent some time at my grandparents place, playing in the garden or watching tv. They live under the final route for that runway 02, which they use when there are northern/easterly winds. And every time I heard a plane arriving, I ran outside (when I was watching tv) and looked at it as it was gliding in the air, just as long as possible. Even now, if the weather is good and I hear a noise of a plane, I tend to have a quick look or step outside to see what kind of a big bird will touch down in a few moments. Realizing that one day I'll be sitting in front of that plane, maybe even seeing my grandparents house ... priceless.
There is something like human performance and limitations, we learn about that :-), but motivation realy can move the borders of the limitations.
Time for some basic navigation exercises, about great circle traks, rumb line tracks, convergency angles and earth convergency, HOORAY :-)
Only 3 weeks ago I started with the ATPL program, hunting my dream. And when I make a comparison between my life before the start of the training and now, it's more than a day-and-night difference.
Take for example the daily trainride between Leuven and Brussels. I remember the feeling I had every time the train passed the lightning of the short final of runway 02, with a plane making his final corrections for a touchdown on that runway. Or the noise when a plane passed just over the train ... it was always with the feeling I belong up there, above the clouds or at least in that plane instead of in the train and later on at my desk, in front of a computer. I've always been motivated to do my work as a webdesigner, but now I realize every morning that this was the right decision I made. And even with the sometimes very difficult courses, almost all evenings filled with studying, no income anymore and a less secure future, I feel myself at ease at night, just before I go to sleep.
When I was a kid, I used to spent some time at my grandparents place, playing in the garden or watching tv. They live under the final route for that runway 02, which they use when there are northern/easterly winds. And every time I heard a plane arriving, I ran outside (when I was watching tv) and looked at it as it was gliding in the air, just as long as possible. Even now, if the weather is good and I hear a noise of a plane, I tend to have a quick look or step outside to see what kind of a big bird will touch down in a few moments. Realizing that one day I'll be sitting in front of that plane, maybe even seeing my grandparents house ... priceless.
There is something like human performance and limitations, we learn about that :-), but motivation realy can move the borders of the limitations.
Time for some basic navigation exercises, about great circle traks, rumb line tracks, convergency angles and earth convergency, HOORAY :-)
Monday, October 1, 2007
day 11 - 01 okt 2007
Short message: after the weekend a cloudy (but not rainy) mondaymorning, basic navigation in the morning and instrumentation in the afternoon. Lots of changes in the runway-in-use configuration today: first 25L and 25R in use, then 07L and 07R in use (very rare, since planes have to land over the city of Brussels and without Instrument Landing System, only with heavy Easterly winds and/or works on the crossing runway 02-20) and in the evening (with rain and still wind comming from the east) landings again on 25L and 25R. Low clouds, we saw 3 planes making a go-around ... impressive, you hear the engines on full throttle just before they want to touch down (but are still too high or flying too fast). And landing with tailwind is actually a no-go, but since there is this stupid diversion plan to reduce noise, they HAVE to use both the 25L and 25R runways instead of the 07L and 07R runways (with landings over Brussels City).
We don't see the morning arriving heavies (the continental 777 ...) anymore, looks like their schedules have changed :(.
We don't see the morning arriving heavies (the continental 777 ...) anymore, looks like their schedules have changed :(.
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Day 10
After a chill-out evening with Pieter (other classmate from Aalst who is living in Leuven during the theoretical training at SFA) with some good beers in "De blauwe kater" (a pub in Leuven), I got up friday morning later than usual. Not that I didn't want to go to school, but the weather was typical Belgian: rainy. On those moments the only thing you wish is getting that ATPL as soon als possible, finding a job with an airliner and spending most part of the day ABOVE those rainy clouds.
courses of the day were: Communications (Don't use always "Roger") and principles of flight (what's lift, drag, ...). In the evening we (people from prom6) also received an e-mail from jetair with the schedule of the next 15 days (01/10 - 15/10) to arrange an observation flight if we want so. Only problem: we still didn't receive our uniform which is obligatory for those flights! Can't wait to enter a jetair cockpit with my newly fresh SFA uniform for my first observation flight. By the way: one of the destinations is Cancun (in Mexico), but I think I'll skip that destination in my choice: I don't want to spend the whole weekend on OO-TUC :-).
courses of the day were: Communications (Don't use always "Roger") and principles of flight (what's lift, drag, ...). In the evening we (people from prom6) also received an e-mail from jetair with the schedule of the next 15 days (01/10 - 15/10) to arrange an observation flight if we want so. Only problem: we still didn't receive our uniform which is obligatory for those flights! Can't wait to enter a jetair cockpit with my newly fresh SFA uniform for my first observation flight. By the way: one of the destinations is Cancun (in Mexico), but I think I'll skip that destination in my choice: I don't want to spend the whole weekend on OO-TUC :-).
Thursday, September 27, 2007
day 09
Yesterday no news, because I had to study the whole chapter about basic radio. Today it's the 9th day we had courses and so was there also our first internal examination about a chapter we finished. Not a very huge chapter, but still fast enough. I don't know the result yet, I'm always a bit scared when making predictions, but I think I'll have the 75% a man must have to pass.
Now it's time for a relaxed evening (unfortunatly not Kili time), tomorrow again the last day of the "workweek" and then a weekend to study. Yesterday and today we had "Mass and Balance" and we have to know quit a lot by hearth (what's included in the MTOW, MLW, DOM, DEM, TL, ..., the weight you use for a male / female / infant / cabin crew / ... on different kind of flights and conversions between meters, feet, yard, NM, SM, kg, lbs, N.kg, N.lb, ...) to make a loadplan. And you can be sure you don't want to make mistakes with that ;-).
PS: today we also had fysio; that's about human limitations etc. subject one: THE HEART !! Hmmm would that be on request from the people of medex? ;-)
Now it's time for a relaxed evening (unfortunatly not Kili time), tomorrow again the last day of the "workweek" and then a weekend to study. Yesterday and today we had "Mass and Balance" and we have to know quit a lot by hearth (what's included in the MTOW, MLW, DOM, DEM, TL, ..., the weight you use for a male / female / infant / cabin crew / ... on different kind of flights and conversions between meters, feet, yard, NM, SM, kg, lbs, N.kg, N.lb, ...) to make a loadplan. And you can be sure you don't want to make mistakes with that ;-).
PS: today we also had fysio; that's about human limitations etc. subject one: THE HEART !! Hmmm would that be on request from the people of medex? ;-)
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
day 07
Today, we saw in the morning an A330 (big one) of Brussels Airlines, ALMOST making a go-around because a smaller plane from Air France was still on the runway. But he cleared the runway just on time so that the big birdy could make a succesful touchdown.
Later, while in the classroom (electrics ... pfff ...) we heard a noice and felt it too: an airbus A300 of DHL was doing some engine tests next to our building ... kewl :-).
And last but not least: I received my BIAC badge !!! No strugling with the fax machine any more in the morning ;-)
Later, while in the classroom (electrics ... pfff ...) we heard a noice and felt it too: an airbus A300 of DHL was doing some engine tests next to our building ... kewl :-).
And last but not least: I received my BIAC badge !!! No strugling with the fax machine any more in the morning ;-)
Monday, September 24, 2007
day 06
After a nice but short weekend w/o enough hours of sleep, there was again a monday. I guess it will always be hard getting up on a monday, but it wasn't raining, we spotted again some nice (smaller) aircraft landing on RWY 25L (invasion of the germans, all lufthansa planes (CRJ, Airbus A319)), and the courses were again interesting.
This week thursday we have our first internal test (so that's not the official one from the goverment, but it's still important). It's about a chapter which is already finished (that shows that all classes are in fast forward mode ;-)): basic radio. Need sleep vs must study every evening, conclusion: the blogsite might be a bit outdated sometimes this week. But I'll update again at the end of the week or in the weekend, that's for sure!
And wish me luck for thursday, bcause I'm a bit nervous already!
This week thursday we have our first internal test (so that's not the official one from the goverment, but it's still important). It's about a chapter which is already finished (that shows that all classes are in fast forward mode ;-)): basic radio. Need sleep vs must study every evening, conclusion: the blogsite might be a bit outdated sometimes this week. But I'll update again at the end of the week or in the weekend, that's for sure!
And wish me luck for thursday, bcause I'm a bit nervous already!
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