• All of the theory is over and I am currently sitting my ATPL exams
• I finished with the Cessna 172 totalling up to 120 hours
• Last week I started flying the Piper 31-310 for my multi-engine rating

That was really short. Next is an expanded overview of what’s happened.

The last semester has been all about revising for the ATPL exams. Every lecturer had different approaches on how to revise for the exams and some of them worked better for me than the others. The best tool for studying for the exams is found on www.aviationexam.com, which has been a huge help for me and I’ll talk about the service in my next post.

So in the end of the semester we had to sit school exams for all of the 14 subjects. After passing the exams with a score larger than 75% we had to sit all of the exams all over again in the CAA (Civil Aviation Administration).  These will now be the “real” ATPL exams and also need a passing score of 75%.

Currently I have only 2 exams left to sit and I’m looking forward to the last exams. If using the right methods to study, they are not difficult and I have managed to pass most of my exams to date with a score over 90%.

I’m also glad I finished flying with the Cessna 172. It has been great fun throughout the summer and also wintermonths with lots of experience gained in various conditions. The Cessna is a great aircraft to learn to fly in and it’s really good for learning instrument flight as its slow enough to have time to grasp everything but fast enough to actually get somewhere. I especially enjoyed the Garmin 1000 equipped Cessnas, which were fun to fly and gives a pilot much better situational awareness and also gave me experience with flying GNSS approaches. Also there are lots of functions similar to those available in large aircraft FMS-s which are fun to explore while flying the longer route flights

Last week I started flying the Piper 31, which has fulfilled all of my expectations and I’ve been waiting for a while to upgrade to the Piper. I spent the last week flying VFR traffic circuits practicing landings, aircraft behaviour, emergency procedures, single-engine flying etc. Thankfully the weather has been supporting my cause, as there has been a stationary high in the region providing clear skies, but it’s rather cold (-20…-25C). I managed to finish the VFR flights and now continue flying in IFR, which means less worrying about the weather.

And here is a picture of me and my coursemates.

The coming summer months should bring as much if not even more flying and I’m really waiting for it! Maybe the only downside is that it’s almost 30 degrees Celsius outside and the sun is shining, so it’s not the best weather for IFR training However I hope the rainy days will be here soon. Until then, enjoy the summer!

Yesterday I had my first simulator session. We have a FNPT II simulator and use it for instrument flight and MCC training. The simulated aircraft are Piper Seneca V and Beechcraft King Air. It’s pretty neat and I will have another session tomorrow. Besides flying and simulator training I still have to keep learning for the exams.  Waiting for June now

First we did a flight with my instructor and he showed me how to fly NDB approaches and holdings. I got the hang of it pretty fast and can’t wait to fly in IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions). The rest of the day I was doing touch and go’s by myself. The circuits were uneventful, but spring is in action and the rough air along with a wind varying in direction made the training a bit more challenging.

The next few days should be as sunny and I hope to be up there again soon For those of you interested about the Cessna I fly, it’s a C172R and I have a photo for you, although it’s not the best quality.

Last Thursday and Friday were really nice and sunny, so I used them to fly solo touch-and-goes and become more familiar with the new Cessna. On Thursday I flew a bit with the instructor, but Friday I was “ridin’ solo”. The circuits were nothing unusual except for an incident, where a Cessna made 2 touch-and-goes on the opposite runway without stating anything or answering on the radio. Luckily my instructor was watching my flight from the ground and spotted the traffic on time, so we didn’t come too close. However the second time he came round I was on final, so a go-around had to be made. This woke me up a bit, but fortunately it all ended well as I’m here writing this blog

Since Friday it has been raining or the winds have been too strong to fly. At present we have a cyclon overhead us, so maybe I’ll get to fly on the weekend, we’ll see. I still have a bunch of solo traffic circuits to fly so I can’t wait for the nice weather to return, however I’ll be back writing if it keeps on raining

However in the last week I had to take the ICAO English proficiency test also known as Test of English for Aviation or TEA Test. I had taken the test 3 years ago, but I had only managed to score a level 4, which is the “Operational level” and means you have to retake the test after 3 years. Level 3 is considered a failure and level 6, which is the highest level, means you’ll never have to take the test again. The first time I took the test, it was a bit different in structure and there was little information regarding this test. Now I was better prepared and although I think my English has suffered a bit in the past few years because of the lack of communication in English, I managed to score a level 6! I felt confident during the test and the few hours I spent preparing for this made it count. To make it easier for you, I’ll share some of my thoughts about this particular test.

First, this test is all about speaking and listening. There are no writing tasks! One thing to keep in mind while taking the test is to speak fluently and without long pauses. If you have some grammar mistakes, don’t worry, you just have to get your message through! Now we’ll look at different parts of the test. The part where you are asked questions about your life, career and general aviation-related topics or asked to describe a picture, you should show your vocabulary the most. You should bear in mind that this is not a test of your aviation-related knowledge so if you get your facts a bit wrong, again don’t worry, because this test is only about your knowledge of English. The other part of the test consists of listening exercises. First you have to tell your examiner what was the message you heard about and later on ask questions from and give advice to the people speaking. In the message understanding part, try to transmit the message with all the details. Every detail counts, but try to not read back the message, instead transmit it with all the details. When you are required to ask questions from the speakers or give advice, try to be meaningful and not give advice that wouldn’t help the person. The main point to keep in mind in all parts of the test is, that you have to keep talking until the examiner interrupts you. In that case you have said enough and your time’s up. It’s better to talk more, than less! To score at least a level 4 on this test, you should do the following:

1. Find someone to communicate with in English. Whether it be in the English class, with your colleagues or your friends. It’s also good to watch aviation-related movies or read some articles and blogs to widen your aviation-related vocabulary.
2. Try to get all the information you can about the test. A good overview of the test is at http://www.maycoll.co.uk/aviation-english/tea.html and pay special attention to the guide for TEA candidates! Try to answer all the questions by yourself at home as you would answer them in the test, because the questions in the sample recordings are very similar to those in the real test. So if you have thought your answers through the day before, it gives you an advantage and you will have more ideas what you can talk about in your test.
3. Take 2 similar aviation-related pictures. A good place for pictures is www.airliners.net. Now try to describe each of them and then compare them and do this all in 1 minute. Try to work through at least 5 pairs of pictures. In that way you’ll know how much time you can spend on the details of each picture and try to pick up some details from the pictures which would show off your aviation vocabulary.

I hope this brief overview of the test gave you an idea what focus on. I wish you all good luck with your test!

Some more paperwork and off to the class. I can really smell the spring outside and this means more and more flying. See you in the air!

The flight began as usual – in the briefing room. We checked the weather and went through what we were going to do in this lesson. The flight was supposed to cover low-speed flying and stalls in the training zone. Nice! Next we went to the hangar to get the aircraft out and prepare it for the flight. As I did the preflight inspection, it was all very familiar and the C172 seemed to be very similar to the C150 inside and outside. Aside from some differences in panel configuration, it was very easy to transfer from the C150. That was a relief..

I started up the engine, taxied to the active and took off heading for the training zone. Winds were calm and sky clear with just some haze on the horizon limiting the visibility, but not considerably. There was no traffic beside us in the Control Zone as it was Sunday evening. My instructor let me do some 360′s with different bank angles to get to know the aircraft. To compare the 172 to the 150, it needs more leg on the right rudder and more trim as the stick forces are a bit heavier. Next we moved on to low-speed exercises. I moved the throttle back, keeping the nose up, to get the airspeed down and when the stall horn sounded, I would recover the aircraft with full throttle and forward stick. Then we tried to stall the aircraft however, as expected, it wasn’t really possible with this popular trainer aircraft. The aircraft would just slowly sink at about 500 ft/min with full back elevator and that was about it. Again the same recovery procedure and then we did the same with full flaps. Next the instructor surprised me with a simulated engine failure, but fortunately the training zone was overhead an abandoned airfield which was perfect for the occasion. So I put the aircraft in a glide heading for the field, completed the emergency checklist and approached the abandoned airfield. As we approached minimum flight altitude, I made a go around and we proceeded to the other training zone to get to know the area.

Lastly I made an approach and a rough landing, however we were on ground. This week promises good weather so I hope to get a bit of flying done. I’ll keep you posted!

As you can read from my story, I currently have a PPL with a SEP rating, which makes my flight training schedule a bit different from the others. For information, none of my course mates have any previous flight experience, so they will be starting from the basics. So my flight training will start from a bit further off.

Weather permitting, I should be getting off the ground some time next week. The first flights should bring some minimum airspeed and abnormal situation training, so I’m going to keep you up to date and cover all the details next week. Keep checking for updates!