Lesson 7 - 2nd and 3rd Novemberl
Unfortunately my last lesson, scheduled for the 25th October, was cancelled due to the weather. It was horrible and pretty much rained most of the day. I had booked the day off work and ended up taking myself out to lunch to the AV8 restaurant at Cotswold Airport (Kemble), just to try and get some element of aviation in. However, there was no flying going on, but at least I got out.
Cancellation for the weather may be a recurring theme during the winter months, but we will have to see. Perhaps it will be a good time to do some study and get some of the theory exams out of the way. They have to be done anyway, but I have to be careful not to do them too early or I may have to re-sit them. I think you have up to 24 months from the date you pass the last exam to apply for your licence. I have 5 exams to do, and the General Skills Test, so I could do 4 of them over winter and then leave the last one to allow for the qualifying period to be elongated. I perhaps need to talk to one of the instructors about that. I also have to take and pass a Radio Telephony exam to allow me to fly once I have my licence. Most aircraft have a radio and a transponder in them and you need to hold an operators licence to use them and you can't fly without using them!
Radio Telephony Course
As I have mentioned before, I am learning to fly out of Clench Common, in Wiltshire, and I have covered the reason for this is previous posts. Other than the distance to the airfield (about 1 hour away) the main drawback is the limited use of RT. Had I learned out of Staverton or Kemble, then RT would have been pretty normal from the get go. To offset this, GS Aviation run a 2 day workshop to go through the theory and principals of RT.
Full details of what is included in the course can be found here: radio
Day 1 - Theory
Day one is a theory day. Dave Slater was in charge and he went through the different type of radio stations:
ATC - Air Traffic Control - such as Gatwick, Heathrow, Bristol and even Staverton
AFIS - Aerodrome Flight Information Service - such as Kemble or Manchester Barton
AGCS - Air Ground Communication Service - such as Popham or Clench
We discussed in more detail what services they can each provide, who can tell you what to do and who can just advise and so on. It is a massive subject and I am not going to go in to any depth here as the post would end up absolutely massive. The most informative document relevant to Radio Telephony is from the CAA and is titled CAP413. This is the official 'Bible' for all things RT, including the text of example calls.
Day 2 - Practical
The idea today was to try and put the theory in to practice and it was Martin in charge today. First step was to have a bit of a recap on the theory day and, as there were 6 of us, we were separated in to 3 pairs and all given the same set of questions and situations to answer. We were able to use the notebooks we had been given to work out the answers and also what we would say to the various personnel we were talking to. Once, worked through, we reconvened to discuss the answers. This took most of the morning.
The next stage was to use the RANT training system to simulate a flight from Popham, going through a combined MATZ, 3 danger areas, Class D airspace and finally in to Cardiff. The idea was to make practice call to the correct people, asking the correct questions, responding to directions and dealing with any situations on route. Martin played the part of the different ATC/AFIS/AGCS personnel and we each took it in turns to have a go from the aircraft end. Again we split the route in to 3 and were given time to plan our parts, which is no different to what you would do when planning any cross country flight. We noted who we needed to call for what, the frequencies we needed and also any additional frequencies that may be useful for emergencies. Then one by one, we took turns to try our hands on the radio. After each turn, we reviewed the calls and discussed any errors or omissions so we could improve going forward.
Conclusion
There is a lot to take on board but, in reality, it is all very logical and with the right amount of planning, should not prove to be too difficult to master. It is not something you can learn over a 2 day course, it is something that could take months or even years of practice to master properly and to be confident with.
I still need to do a theory exam and a practical test which I think I should try and do sooner rather than later, it is just that I am lacking any spare days off work to do it! It would be good to get it out of the way.
Purchases this post
Lesson £220 - Radio Telephony Course
Totals
Total Costs = £2752.55
Total Hours PA-28 = 1.05
Total Hours Icarus C42 = 7 hours 40 minutes
Cancellation for the weather may be a recurring theme during the winter months, but we will have to see. Perhaps it will be a good time to do some study and get some of the theory exams out of the way. They have to be done anyway, but I have to be careful not to do them too early or I may have to re-sit them. I think you have up to 24 months from the date you pass the last exam to apply for your licence. I have 5 exams to do, and the General Skills Test, so I could do 4 of them over winter and then leave the last one to allow for the qualifying period to be elongated. I perhaps need to talk to one of the instructors about that. I also have to take and pass a Radio Telephony exam to allow me to fly once I have my licence. Most aircraft have a radio and a transponder in them and you need to hold an operators licence to use them and you can't fly without using them!
Radio Telephony Course
As I have mentioned before, I am learning to fly out of Clench Common, in Wiltshire, and I have covered the reason for this is previous posts. Other than the distance to the airfield (about 1 hour away) the main drawback is the limited use of RT. Had I learned out of Staverton or Kemble, then RT would have been pretty normal from the get go. To offset this, GS Aviation run a 2 day workshop to go through the theory and principals of RT.
Full details of what is included in the course can be found here: radio
Day 1 - Theory
Day one is a theory day. Dave Slater was in charge and he went through the different type of radio stations:
ATC - Air Traffic Control - such as Gatwick, Heathrow, Bristol and even Staverton
AFIS - Aerodrome Flight Information Service - such as Kemble or Manchester Barton
AGCS - Air Ground Communication Service - such as Popham or Clench
We discussed in more detail what services they can each provide, who can tell you what to do and who can just advise and so on. It is a massive subject and I am not going to go in to any depth here as the post would end up absolutely massive. The most informative document relevant to Radio Telephony is from the CAA and is titled CAP413. This is the official 'Bible' for all things RT, including the text of example calls.
Day 2 - Practical
The idea today was to try and put the theory in to practice and it was Martin in charge today. First step was to have a bit of a recap on the theory day and, as there were 6 of us, we were separated in to 3 pairs and all given the same set of questions and situations to answer. We were able to use the notebooks we had been given to work out the answers and also what we would say to the various personnel we were talking to. Once, worked through, we reconvened to discuss the answers. This took most of the morning.
The next stage was to use the RANT training system to simulate a flight from Popham, going through a combined MATZ, 3 danger areas, Class D airspace and finally in to Cardiff. The idea was to make practice call to the correct people, asking the correct questions, responding to directions and dealing with any situations on route. Martin played the part of the different ATC/AFIS/AGCS personnel and we each took it in turns to have a go from the aircraft end. Again we split the route in to 3 and were given time to plan our parts, which is no different to what you would do when planning any cross country flight. We noted who we needed to call for what, the frequencies we needed and also any additional frequencies that may be useful for emergencies. Then one by one, we took turns to try our hands on the radio. After each turn, we reviewed the calls and discussed any errors or omissions so we could improve going forward.
Conclusion
There is a lot to take on board but, in reality, it is all very logical and with the right amount of planning, should not prove to be too difficult to master. It is not something you can learn over a 2 day course, it is something that could take months or even years of practice to master properly and to be confident with.
I still need to do a theory exam and a practical test which I think I should try and do sooner rather than later, it is just that I am lacking any spare days off work to do it! It would be good to get it out of the way.
Purchases this post
Lesson £220 - Radio Telephony Course
Totals
Total Costs = £2752.55
Total Hours PA-28 = 1.05
Total Hours Icarus C42 = 7 hours 40 minutes
Comments
Post a Comment