First 7 ATPL exams results

Two weeks since we were in Gatwick seating our first seven ATPL exams. It goes by fairly quick when we go through the same routine everyday, having already started the lectures for the second half of ATPL subjects.
However, when it comes to waiting for exams results, this is just way too slow.
At last, we got them today!

Anyway, I'm really happy with the results, I've got 90% average, passed all seven of them, and can now fully concentrate on the next 7 subjects.

I got 86% in Principles of Flight, 100% in Mass&Balance, 89% in Aircraft Performance, 96% in Operational Procedures, 94% in Flight Planning, 85% in Meteorology and 82% in Human Performance and Limitations (which happens to be the most borring subject ever and has very little to do with aviation).
Keep looking ahead as they say. I should be flying again from next week onwards, plenty of good images in the head right now !

Here are some pictures I took this morning at Bournemouth Airport:

And some pictures I took last year onboard a 737-800 across Europe.
(take-off from Bournemouth EGHH)

First 7 exams in Gatwick

Happy New Year everyone !
I didn't get a chance to say it before as this is my first post since last year, actually all this went really fast! I'm just back from Gatwick where I took my first seven ATPL exams.
It's really hard to say whether I did well, I just hope so but overall I think I passed them all. Lets hope, at least.
We started with Principles of Flight last tuesday, not an easy one since the questions asked are wider than what the book covers. It's a mix with commun sence, theoretical knowledge and what we learn during the lectures. The exam is only 1 hour long but time isn't an issue, at least not for that one. The afternoon we had Mass & Balance followed by Aircraft Performance. Mass & Balance is fairly straightforward. You learn the formula, and that's pretty much it. Performance requires a bit more thinking and some stuff looks rather similar to what we do in PoF.
Wenesday was probably the toughest day, starting with Operational Procedures which really is learning by heart loads of figures, such as how many megaphones must your aircraft have with such number of seats and such layout, it also covers LVPs (Low Visibily Procedures), CAT I/II/III A B and C landings, circling approaches minima, ETOPS Operations (Extended Range Twin-Engine Operational Performance Standards), and flight hazards. Our instructor (ex Boeing 757 captain) made it all very interesting, but when it comes to passing an exam, it looks huge to learn all this by heart.

The afternoon we had Flight Planning, and we basically spent three hours opening huge charts on our small desks, looking for waypoints, airfield and navigation facilities ...
Not that it was really tough but three hours was just enough and I finished like 1 minute before the end.

Meteorology on thursday and, finally, Human Performance & Limitations (HP&L) on friday. It definitely was a busy week! I took the pictures from my room's window in the hotel we stayed at. At least, I had the view.

Airbus A319 flight deck

 Another chance to take a picture of an awesome aircraft, yesterday I flew back to the UK and had a chat with the flight crew at the end of the flight. Hence the pictures of the cockpit and the nice sunset over some building thunderstorms we had on our way to Bristol Lulsgate (EGGD).

Jumpseat ERJ-190

Back in France for the holidays, 3 flights in a row, one of which was in the flight deck. I also had a chance to take a picture of the nice Dash-8 cockpit (see below), and hopefully I'll take one of the Airbus A319 next week.

That was my very first flight onboard an ERJ-190. I wasn't allowed in for the take-off. Nevertheless, the flight crew called me once in cruise and I enjoyed every single minute till we stopped down on the apron. If there was any need for some more proofs of addiction, here they are ...

End of lectures, mock exams week

I must say, that went fast, really fast!
We are done with the lectures for the seven first subjects. Tomorrow is the first day of the mock exams week, which aims at getting an idea of how well we'll perform on the real exam, and whether we should go to Gatwick for that particular exam. We still have two weeks holidays starting this friday, and hopefully we'll be fully ready in three weeks time to pass the CAA exams in London Gatwick.

The sun dared to show up for the very first time in a month last thursday. Almost as good on friday, I took my camera with me and went on to the apron just before the first lecture, and how surprised was I to catch this superb Falcon 20 from FRAviation on his take-off run poping out of the fog a few yards before passing the sun! Kind of magic really!

We also got a chance to fly the FNPT2 simulator used for MCC training, and see how tricky can ILS approaches be. It certainly helps keeping an eye on the final goal, which has a boosting effect in these tough days ..

Well, I think it's time to get back to studies, a fair amount of work has already been done, but we are not on holidays, yet.

Familiarisation flight and Night Rating

This is getting quite hard with 35h of lectures per week, and the night rating at the same time, and the exams coming up in just over a month. But hey, I'm really loving it, it is just so great to fly again !

So yesterday, we went for a familiarisation flight on the Piper PA28-161, under the callsign Blackadder 26. Fourteen months seen my last flight as a pilot in command, what a feeling to be in control of a plane again ! I did pretty well, but my R/T in english was terrible. Not easy when you've been doing this in another language for several years. New aircraft, new airport (I didn't know until yesterday the airport layout, the taxiways, procedures and such), and new way of flying. And that might be in fact the most surprising bit, flying with a flying club, and flying with a flight school is just totally different. You've got to be accurate, precise, ahead of your aircraft at all times, and the checklists are 3 or 4 times larger.


"Blackadder 26, Bournemouth Approach, Standard Sandbanks departure VFR, 1800 feet". I really have to work on my R/T in order to fly solo in a couple of days (could be wenesday if things go well).
We did some engine failures yesterday, went over the 4 VRPs around the airfield, the landing was ok, and I was very very happy.

I just really have to remember that Pre-Landing Check :

B - Brakes off
U - U/C down and locked (fixed on the PA28-161)
M - Mixture, Master, Mags - Full rich, On, Both
P - Pitch Prop (fixed on the PA28-161)
F - Flaps (0-25° on the base leg here)
F - Fuel - On and sufficient
A - Alternate Air - A/R (as required)
I - Instruments, Engine Ts + Ps, Altimeters set
H - Harnesses
H - Hatches
L - Landing lights - On
A - Air Conditioning - Off

And the frequencies (tower : 125.6 , app/rad 119.475 , Atis 133.725, ILS/DME 110.50, NDB 339, ...).



Tonight was my very first flight at night, and it also was my very first time flying in clouds ! We took off on runway 26, standard special VFR (we are sVFR within the controlled airspace, IFR outside) departure via Sandbanks (track on the South-West). We did some general handling over the sea, and went into clouds (not really on purpose, but there were clouds everywhere). 180° turns in clouds, climbing and descending turns on instruments (all Rate 1 turns at night), etc ...
That was just awesome, this is such a feeling to fly at night, in clouds, on instruments !!!!

1h flying, and then back to Bournemouth EGHH, missed approach on rwy 26 to get an idea of the low and high glide slopes, right hand circuit and a full stop landing.

Trip to the Air Traffic Control Tower

With the Progress Tests taking place this week, I haven't much time to update my blog.
We already had 3 mock exams last thursday, and I'm rather happy with my results. I got 75% in HP&L (Human Performance and Limitations, probably the most boring subject), 81% in PoF (Principles of Flight) and 95% in Performances. Still four to go, with Meteoroly and Ops being quite tough, I'm not gonna sleep much in the next few days.

Anyway, BCFT organised a trip to the control tower this morning, and although I don't really like getting up early on a sunday morning, I was quite excited about it. We had to walk from the Terminal building to the ATC through a very heavy pouring rain, arrived all wet and finally made it into the control tower.

We had a chat with the controlers, the "pilots' eyes". Usually we don't talk much about them but they really do an amazing job. It's great to see the other side of the radio equipment we talk through. They now have a touchscreen equipment that came with the lighting system, where they can easily select for example runway edge lights only. Runway 26 has been fitted with a CALVERT approach lighting system, it appears on the touchscreen map and in a click you can turn it on.

And what an awesome view despite the tower being quite short. A Monarch B757 took off just 200 yards away and we were sitting at one of the best places to watch those birds flying ...

We then went down to the approach room which was just beneath us.
They also have an impressive piece of equipment there.

They receive instant meteorological information, METARs and TAFs, they can display all the SID and STAR procedures for each runway, instant wind, max wind, average 10 minutes wind and all kinds of relevant stuff for controlers and pilots, along with of course several radar screens where you can follow the pattern of any aircraft over the UK.