First of all: happy 2008! I wish everyone a year filled with save flights (although 2007 was a good year for safety in aviation), lots of fun, sun and from time to time a good drink with friends!
After a week of holidays (to study), we continued with the courses and progress checks. January and february will be very busy, since it are our last months of theory, in march/april we'll have the official examinations. So it will be kind of ... hmmm ... quiet around here :-). But I'll try to post from time to time something short :p.
This friday, the 11th, we have a big test of Instrumentation (going from the working of a gyroscope to the use of a FMS ...) sooooo ... time to continue on that one.
Cheers!
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Thursday, December 27, 2007
last post of the year 2007 ...
Not a lot of time, due to a busy period (xmas, xmas ...) and a heavy study schedule ("let's talk about Instruments, Meteo, principles of flight, ..."), but at least I want to wish all the people who read this blog a happy new year !
and now back to the gyroscopes ...
and now back to the gyroscopes ...
Friday, December 14, 2007
it's christmas time ...
"Basic flight 1312, you are cleared for take off runway 29, climb straight ahead to 4000 feet, wind is 210 15 knots" ... Those were the words with which I started my 6th and final session of the Basic Flying course at approximatly 7.45h in the morning. Intensive and a bit stressful, but I passed the test with 7,5 out of 10, which is fair enough. We'll have one more technical briefing next week and normally, we'll start on the FNPTII simulator somewhere in january (http://www.frasca.com/web_pages/brochures/diamondFTDs.htm).
After a half an hour lunchbreak, we had the test of air law. I don't have the results yet, but I have the feeling it went OK. It was a long and exhausting day ... for that, I decided today it would be a good idea to sleep and rest a bit :-). Next week flight planning test.
Only a few months left for the theoretical part!
cheers
After a half an hour lunchbreak, we had the test of air law. I don't have the results yet, but I have the feeling it went OK. It was a long and exhausting day ... for that, I decided today it would be a good idea to sleep and rest a bit :-). Next week flight planning test.
Only a few months left for the theoretical part!
cheers
Friday, December 7, 2007
normal job vs. future pilot
One thing we heard on the first day at SFA was: "don't count on the weekends and holidays". And the were right !
Tomorrow (saturday) we'll have another BFC briefing, at 7.30AM, sunday afternoon BFC session 5. Next week "only" 2 days at SFA, but thursday BFC session 6 in the morning and a progress check of air law in the afternoon. Not easy at all ... .
Today we had a second progress check of physio, on the first one I only had 65%, but on the one of today 100%. "Great succes" would Borat say :p
anyway, some more big tests are scheduled for the next 2 weeks (air law and flight planning), before the holidayperiod (which I will use to study, of course :p)
Tomorrow (saturday) we'll have another BFC briefing, at 7.30AM, sunday afternoon BFC session 5. Next week "only" 2 days at SFA, but thursday BFC session 6 in the morning and a progress check of air law in the afternoon. Not easy at all ... .
Today we had a second progress check of physio, on the first one I only had 65%, but on the one of today 100%. "Great succes" would Borat say :p
anyway, some more big tests are scheduled for the next 2 weeks (air law and flight planning), before the holidayperiod (which I will use to study, of course :p)
Monday, November 26, 2007
busy ...
Time is ticking away, there are only a few weeks left before the "holiday" week between christmas and new year. In a few weeks, we'll be halfway the theoretical training (3 months). This week there are 2 progress checks on the schedule: electrics (the 3th and last part: Alternating Current) and communications (the theoretical part of it).
Today, we started with a new course: performance. This is given by a pilot who used to work for Sabena, didn't fly for a while after the bankruptcy of Sabena and who's now flying again on the Airbus A320 with Thomas Cook.
It's not an easy course, but there are a lot things we saw in other courses coming back (air law, principles of flight, ...) which makes most thing clear :-).
Thursday we're gonna have a technical briefing of BFC (basic flying course), starting at 7.30AM and after that, in the afternoon, we have the progress check of communications. Looks like it's gonna be a loooong day. I'm already looking forward to the weekend :-).
Well, time to cook with current, inductance and impedance; Electrics !
cheers!
Pieter
Today, we started with a new course: performance. This is given by a pilot who used to work for Sabena, didn't fly for a while after the bankruptcy of Sabena and who's now flying again on the Airbus A320 with Thomas Cook.
It's not an easy course, but there are a lot things we saw in other courses coming back (air law, principles of flight, ...) which makes most thing clear :-).
Thursday we're gonna have a technical briefing of BFC (basic flying course), starting at 7.30AM and after that, in the afternoon, we have the progress check of communications. Looks like it's gonna be a loooong day. I'm already looking forward to the weekend :-).
Well, time to cook with current, inductance and impedance; Electrics !
cheers!
Pieter
Sunday, November 18, 2007
observationflight #02: LTBA
destination: LTBA, Istanbul Ataturk, Turkey
date: 17/11/2007
type of aircraft & registration: Airbus A320-200, OO-TCK
same procedure as my previous flight: arrive nicely on time (2h before schedulded departure), review the flight plan and other documents (load sheet, weather docs, ...) and of course, greet the flight attendants, captain and first officer :-).
Stefaan, the captain and Christ'l, the first officer, were both very good pilots ! They explained me a lot about the FMC, the differences between a boeing 737 and an Airbus A320, the fuel calculations, ... .
Departure was from RWY 25R, with the SOPOK SID (standard instrumental departure), ILS landing on RWY 06 at LTBA. Afterwards departure on 36R and finally a STAR (standard arrival) via FLORA on RWY25L.
and now the most interesting part: the pics :-) enjoy !
date: 17/11/2007
type of aircraft & registration: Airbus A320-200, OO-TCK
same procedure as my previous flight: arrive nicely on time (2h before schedulded departure), review the flight plan and other documents (load sheet, weather docs, ...) and of course, greet the flight attendants, captain and first officer :-).
Stefaan, the captain and Christ'l, the first officer, were both very good pilots ! They explained me a lot about the FMC, the differences between a boeing 737 and an Airbus A320, the fuel calculations, ... .
Departure was from RWY 25R, with the SOPOK SID (standard instrumental departure), ILS landing on RWY 06 at LTBA. Afterwards departure on 36R and finally a STAR (standard arrival) via FLORA on RWY25L.
and now the most interesting part: the pics :-) enjoy !
Friday, November 16, 2007
Brussels Airlines: new callsign
from the NOTAM's (notice to airmen) of Belgocontrol:
That reminds me about a remark of our instructor of Flight Planning (Tim, pilot at Brussels Airlines): some people sugested "beatle" (say: bé-tail) ... what a pitty they didn't took that one !
Tomorrow I'll have my second observation flight, this time with Thomas Cook, to Istanbul (Ataturk, LTBA), their callsign ... THOMAS COOK. How original :-). But of course, I'm still looking forward to my first observation flight with them, the first one in an airbus A320!
A1592/2007
Valid from : 14/11/2007 00:00 Until : PERM
Text : BRUSSELS AIRLINES ACFT OPERATOR WILL USE NEW RADIO TELEPHONY DESIGNATOR ''BEE-LINE'' IN THEIR COMMUNICATION WITH ATC UNITS INFO WILL BE INCLUDED IN NEXT EDITION OF ICAO DOC 8585
That reminds me about a remark of our instructor of Flight Planning (Tim, pilot at Brussels Airlines): some people sugested "beatle" (say: bé-tail) ... what a pitty they didn't took that one !
Tomorrow I'll have my second observation flight, this time with Thomas Cook, to Istanbul (Ataturk, LTBA), their callsign ... THOMAS COOK. How original :-). But of course, I'm still looking forward to my first observation flight with them, the first one in an airbus A320!
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