Well it has been ages since i wrote anything about pilot training. You will have noticed that i have been busy interviewing some amazing people, taking exams and having some fun. FEAR not, i have been working very hard studying Air Navigation for the past 2 weeks.
I made friends with Cristina and Mohammed of Oat Media who are based at Oxford Aviation flight training centre who have given me some very useful study aids – you can check their computer based training cd’s by clicking here
These cannnot be used to substitute the books as there is much more detailed content in books as always. They can help to summerise what is being learnt. For example at the end of each day, i will spend 30min to 1 hr watching various chapters on the cd rom in ref to what i read and studied that day. having used them now and not used them in the last 3 exams, i would suggest that if you doing self study, then these help – no need to get the one on Human performance.
some useful sites to bookmark
NAT
AIS
weatherjack
Met Office Aviation page
Metcheck
I read and studied the first 9 chapters which are about Basic Navigation Theory: –
The role of the pilot and navigator, speed, direction, the CRP computer – both the wind side and calculator side, vertical nagivation, time, The Earth and difference between maps and charts. To start with, it was fairly easy to comprehend but as with most things until you experience the theory it is very difficult to apply it and therefore make the brain put the content into its memory banks to refer to and use later. There is so much stuff that i just take for granted such as time, and maps, the earth. leraning about these areas from a nagivation angle has broadened my horizons shall we say.
the calculator side of the computer i found to be a little more taxing then the wind side – but i suppose the more i use them the more familiar i will become in how to operate them.
Finally, i have reached section two of this rather large book. this section is on flight planning, so thus the practical which i am sure we all like more then the academic. well i do..my brain as much as i do not get the concepts of certain things, somehow clicks things into place when i started this section. it was a joyful moment sitting in the library today when i kept saying to myself,”ahh, that is what that means” and so on. I am nearly at the end of Section two and just about to compile a flight log and look at the Flight plan form. I have a map which i can use to practice on but have ordered a new one from the web which is current. Next Monday i will be staying with my grandfather who is a Mathametician so i have many questions for him about the calculator side of the computer. He is very good at making concepts simple. There are times when i read these books and i understand the words but then perhaps not the meaning when put all together. I hope that from next week when the weather improves and i can get back in the air and do some flying and i know that as soon as i get up there all the ground school i have been doing will have been in good vain.
