Delay.light / Delay.flex

Today was the day of our last theoretical course (Airframes & systems 1), so from now one, I'll be spending time reviewing all the books again and preparing for the final exams. Somehow it's a pitty that those courses come to an and, Although it was sometimes a hard time, getting up at those early mornings, all day long courses and studying in the evening ... . But now it will be quit boring, sitting at home studying. God thanks it's only a few months ... ! But afterwards, we'll have a nice time in Arizona :-)

One may be wondering when we are then actually leaving for the states. Well, just before the courses started, we got a small but useful briefing about the delays. The main reason? A change in our program. Since we're now obliged to do 20 sim sessions before doing the theoretical exams, it'll take some more time ... . New dates for group B of our prom (might still change):

• block A1 26/06
• block A2 30/06
• block B1 22/07
• block B2 24/07
• departure to Arizona: around the 30th of july

To be continued ...

Delayed

yesterday in our mailbox ...

This mail is to inform you about the following change in the planning of your promotion program.
It contains a revision in

• BCAA ATPL exam dates
• FNPT II training in Brussels
• Departure to the USA.

Reasons for these revisions are the program requirements described in the new SFA Training manual, which has just been approved by the BCAA and will be distributed to you later this week. As no derogation from this manual is possible all of your FNPTII missions have to be completed before starting the BCAA ATPL theoretical examinations.

the exams of group A as well of group B are delayed with about 1 month ... one might think "now you have some more time to study, and be more prepared for the sim sessions". True. But on the other hand, all of us were looking forward to leave for Arizona asap. We'll see how it goes ... . The exams of group B will start in the week of the 23th of june instead of the 3th of june, and end in the week of the 12th of july. To be confirmed. I'm wondering when that will be ... .

When the wind comes from the east ...

... we normally have some nice & dry weather, landings are performed on runway 02 & take offs on runway 07R here in Brussels. A good moment to take my camera once again to school and take some pictures before start of the courses (1PM, Airframes and systems).







The one from Brussels Airlines is the newest addition to their A319 fleet!
Tomorrow my flight mate Olivier has session 4 and 5 in the simulator, I'll have session 5 (about the same as session 4: the basic flying skills, steep turns, configuration changes, and an introduction to the precision approach, thus an ILS approach, but now with the correct call-outs during the whole procedure). Those sessions are quit intensive and certainly not easy, but a good concentration during those sessions and some more "deskflying" after the sessions give me a satisfactory result.

Next week we'll have our last theoretical course, so I'm about to start studying for the final examens in june. It's a lot, and in the meantime we also have those sim sessions ... but once again, the payback afterwards is it worth!

cheers

the offical exams: the official dates.

Today, we received a mail from our beloved student administrator Klaartje with the dates of the official theoretical ATPL exams (which we have to pass before we can go to the states for the practical part, of course). Since I'm in group B, I'll do them in june (group A will do them in may). So, the dates:

• 03/06: AM: Flight planning, PM: Mass & Balance and Performance


• 09/06: AM: General navigation and radio navigation, PM: Principles of flight and Human performance & limitations


• 23/06: AM: Airframes & systems, power plant, instruments and electronics, PM: air law


• 26/06: AM: Meteorology, PM: Operational procedures and communications

Quit a lot for a short period of time, there is also a strict time limitation for every test (it's computer based) and you have to pass with 75% for every test.

Today we finished the course of Piston engines (part of power plant), in a few weeks we'll have a final progress check about that one. Now there's only principles of flight and aiframes and systems 1 left to finish. Meanwhile, I also did my 2nd and 3th mission on the FNPT II and now I have again some time to study for the last theoretical courses and to prepare everything for the 4th mission. But that won't be for soon, since group A has priority and some people of prom 3 are also having some missions.

Still some months to go before the official exams, but time goes fast ...

cheers!

FNPT II - session 1

Hi fellows

As they say that everything goes fast in aviation, we spent again some time studying and preparing our first missions on the FNPT II simulator. For those of you who don't know what the FNPT II simulator is: it's a fixed simulator of the Diamond DA-42, on which we'll fly after the VFR flights with the Archer in the States. But first of all, we are finally closing the theory chapter, there are only a few courses and some progress checks left, which will be done in april and besides that we'll have a lot of FNPT II. I'll have probably the official exams for the administration in june and departure to Arizona will be somewhere in July (around the 15th). I'm afraid to say that until then, there won't be a lot of time for other things besides SFA.

So, today my first FNPT II mission. Of course there 's some homework to do (it's not only just happy sitting and flying the way you like it, like in a try and error system, so you have to study flows, checklists, speeds that are related to a combination of engine power and body attitude, ...), so I studied the whole evening the QRM (Quick Reference Manual). The mission started at 8AM, so I had to be there at 7:15h, which is early :-). Neverthless I was quit tired this morning, it was a great experience and my first session was good!

time for a nap now ...

cheers!

A pilot's life ...

En nu terug aan het ECHTE werk ... Performance ...
en hoe het er ECHT aan toe gaat: type rating Ives Belmans, toekomstig piloot bij Ryanair.

gegroet!

visit to the control tower (EBBR)

Monday (11 february), we visited the control tower in the afternoon. Very nice ...