It's getting colder!

Its true, its actually getting very cold here! But I also said that because this week was the "dreaded" week of weather. Lets just say that our class got more sleep than usual this week!!

Monday: We started with our block 3 exam, which was based on all the materials from last week (Charts, FARs, and Navigation). I scored 100% on the exam, and I was the only one to do so.

We covered two non-weather units today, the first of which was "Introduction to Emergencies." This lesson is literally as easy as it sounds. For example, what do you call it when an aircraft has a situation that requires immediate attention/assistance due to a situation on board? Aircraft in Distress. There was more to it than just the simple definitions, but this was one of our easier lessons.
The second lesson of the day was "Search and Rescue," which required a little more attention, only because the rules vary depending on the type of flight plan. The national search and rescue plan pools the resources of several different agencies, and we needed to learn how each agency contributes towards search and rescue of missing aircraft.
We finished both lessons early, and since we can't technically start weather until the weather service teacher got there, we spent the afternoon reviewing our first 3 blocks (At this point, we are less than 10 days away from the cumulative final, so we wanted to review stuff from the first couple weeks of class).

Tuesday-Friday: Welcome to the slowest days of class EVER. For every basics class, they have a teacher from the National Weather Service (Norman, OK) come teach us 3.5 days of weather fundamentals. Our teacher was an extremely knowledgeable and frinedly gentleman, however, he was the most boring teacher that we've had to date. Every day during weather, there were several people who dozed off at one point or another, and our Contract instructors seemed to even expect this lol. It was bad, however, at the end, we did learn quite a bit about weather.
The first unit was the fundamentals of weather (how the atmosphere works, winds, clouds etc.). Next we studied weather hazards (Thunderstorms, fog, IFR conditions, snow, volcanic ash etc.). The next 3 units were all aviation related: METARS, TAFs, FAs, Winds Aloft, SIGMETS, AIRMETS, Convective SIGMETS, CWAs, MISs,PIREPs and more!!! I'll cover a few of the basics.

METAR: this tells the current conditions at a weather observation facility. We had to learn how to decode the METARs, and also learn how to properly phrase them when required. For example, here is the current METAR for BWI:
METAR KBWI 122254Z 18004KT 10SM BKN200 02/M12 A3054 RMK AO2 SLP344 T00221122

What does it all mean?? Well, here is how I would read that to you as an ATC:
Baltimore, two-two-five-four observation: Wind one-eight-zero at four, visability one-zero, ceiling two-zero thousand broken, temperature two, dew point minus one-two, altimeter three-zero-five-four. Remarks: Sea Level pressure One zero three four point four.

Sounds like fun, right? :) SURE.
There are other weather reports that forecast the conditions within the next 24 hours, within 5 miles of an airport, and they are called TAFs or Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts. Here's an example of the current TAF for BWI:

KBWI 122328Z 1300/1406 18004KT P6SM BKN200 
     FM130400 15002KT P6SM SCT100 OVC150 
     FM131000 15002KT P6SM BKN035 OVC050 
     FM131300 14005KT 4SM -RA BR BKN015 OVC025 
     FM131600 16008KT 2SM -RA BR OVC008 
     FM132100 21006KT 3SM -RA BR OVC010 
     FM132300 18003KT 3SM BR OVC009 
     FM140500 30005KT P6SM BKN025

Who wants to try to translate? Basically, any time a significant change is forecasted within an hour, the next change is issued in a 'from' or FM statement. For example, if you look at the difference between the third and fourth line, the fourth line reads: From 1pm on the 13th day, wind 140 at 5 knots, visibility 4 statute miles, Light Rain showers and mist, ceiling at 1500 broken, overcast at 2500. note: how I just translated that was a loose translation, and not proper ATC phraseology!!

Anyways, thank goodness the weather week is over. We have a block test on all this material Monday, which should make for a fun weekend of studying.

Saturday: After our 'traditional' Saturday afternoon lunch with the class, I drove upto Stillwater OK to visit Adam Bates, a very close friend from College, who is now the Kappa Kappa Psi National Chapter Field Representative. Adam was nice enough to give me the tour of the Fraternity headquarters, give a small lesson in Stillwater/Frat history, and then treat me to dinner at the one and only Eskimo Joes. I highly recommend the Peppered-Bacon Cheese Fries. We finished the evening with some beers at a lounge while watching the Big-12 champhionship, and then continued the fun back at Adams house. I have had a great time in Oklahoma up to this point, but it was a nice touch of home to see another person from MD in Oklahoma. OF course, Adam has lived here for almost 2 years, so he's got some time on me, but it was still great nonetheless. I'm definitely looking forward to getting home to see everybody else next month!!

Next week is our last week of basics!!

Thanksgiving week!

Sorry its taken me so long to get everyone updates...I've been a little busier, and I've also just been slacking on the blogging!

This week is a short week, since we get Thursday off for Thanksgiving, which is nice!
Monday & Tuesday: We Continued our lessons on VFR/IFR charts, which is essentially re-learning how to read a map, designed for aviation. Under VFR (Visual Flight Rules) and IFR (Instrument Flight Rules), there are several different types of charts that a pilot can use. There are the Terminal or area charts, which show the most detail. These are for use in populated/congested area with lots of traffic. This would be analogous to the map of New York City within the state map of NY. Then there are VFR Sectional charts & VFR World Charts, which have a larger scale, so they have less detail. These are for use by slightly faster aircraft, but still in VFR conditionsl. For IFR (beyond the terminal Area), there are Low & High En Route charts. Under IFR conditions, a pilot doesn't need to look out the window for navigation, so these charts don't have as many details (ie. obstructions, landmarks etc.). Instead, they display the proverbial "Highways in the sky". Below are examples of a VFR Sectional Chart and an En Route IFR Chart:


Wednesday: Our lessons on charts continued, however we moved to different types of Charts: STARs, SIDs, and Approaches. A STAR (Standard Termainal Arrival) is a published procedure that allows the standardized approach into the vicinity of an airport from high altitudes (en route). For example, those of you who live near Annapolis or Eastern Shore, you may always notice that the planes fly over your house at almost the exact same place and same altitude, one after another. This is because they are established on a published STAR, that is designed for the Baltimore area (if you really want to look it up, this is a link to the procedure: http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/0912/00804RAVNN.PDF).

The next type of chart is the SID (Standard Instrument Departure), and SIDs serve a similar purpose as STARs, except they are deisgned for departures from an airport. For example, since we have 3-4 major airports in the DC area, you obviously can't have flights just flying wherever they want to! So instead, there are published procedures that guide you from the Terminal Environment (Airport) to the en route Environment (Cruising altitude). For any of you who fly out of Baltimore --If you are flying South or Southwest of Baltimore, then I can almost guarentee that your flight will take you: Over Columbia, North of DC/Gaithersburg, turn and then take a turn towards Dulles Airport before establishing on your flight. Here's a map of that procedure: http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/0912/00804TERPZ.PDF. These procedures allow for more safety, efficiency, and can also reduce the workload for pilots/controllers.

The final type of chart we learned is an Instrument Approach Procedure (IAP): These are designed to allow the pilot to navigate directly to the runway in IFR conditions. The most commonly used for Commerical Airliners is called the ILS Approach (Instrument Landing System). An IAP will allow a pilot to tune into a navigational aid (ie. Radio beacon), and use that to fly directly to the airport, and there are two types: Precision and Non-Precision. Precision means that the Nav-Aid provides lateral and vertical guidance, and I'll explain: The instrument display shows the pilot exactly how far above/below the course he is, and it also shows how far left/right of course. So if you've ever heard a pilot tell you that the airplane can "land itself", that's really true, and its because of the precision approach. Non Precision approaches provide only lateral guidance, and because they aren't as precise (hence the name), you cannot fly as low in IFR conditions. Ask me if you want to learn more about this --I don't want to type out how everything works!! Its very interesting stuff though!

Thursday: Day off!! Happy Thanksgiving! We hosted a huge feast at my house, and it was a great success. I cooked almost everything, but my roomates were clutch with cooking the big meat (that's what she said?). We had Turkey, Ham, Stuffing, Carrots, Mashed Potatos/Gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Sweet Potatos, Chess Pie, Pecan Pie, and rolls. Mmm...delicious. Too bad we didn't have Friday off.

Friday: Today was a pretty big waste anyway --All non-ATC personnel took the day off, so the Academy was pretty empty...We were way ahead of schedule, so we had breaks almost every 30 minutes, which was nice. We had one lesson left in the block, which was "Pilots Environment." This lesson taught the basics of airplane systems and navigation. We finished the day with a review (our next block test is on Monday), and then went home for the weekend!!

Updates coming soon...

Sorry -I've been a slacker for the past few weeks...I promise more updates are coming very soon! Stay tuned...

Goin' Gambling!!

Weekends are always a good time here. Everyone here is in the same position: we're out of towners, and we want to find something new to do in town, or at the very least, enjoy our weekends while we're away from home. This weekend was no different.

Friday evening was not too eventful. I watched some Family Guy and a movie with some classmates, and then we just relaxed for the evening. Saturday, however, a small group of us decided to visit the local Casino. Riverwind Casino is about 35 minutes from my house, and although you'd never know it from looking at the building, it is located on an indian reservation in Norman, OK (home of the Oklahoma Sooners).

Out of the 5 of us, I was the only person who left the casino making money. I spent about 5 hours at the Texas Hold'em tables, and thats all I needed to do! I haven't played legimate poker since a trip to Atlantic City last year, so this was a very good time. Now...what to do wish my extra $$$? :)

Sunday our class met up for breakfast at the local "Runway Cafe" (see the older post with pictures). As usual, the food was delicous, and the airport view was great...In fact, we were even able to go up to the Control Tower again! I could get used to going to Air Traffic Control Facilities regularly....oh, wait, I am!!

Back to work tomorrow, but its a short week with Thanksgiving!! Have a great week!

Week #3

This past week was our first full week of class, uninterrupted by holidays. Fortunately, next week we get a break for Thanksgiving, and the 4 day work week is just so much better than the 5 day work week :)

Monday:
We finished our lesson on the principles of flight, and began my favorite lesson so far: Charicteristics of Aircraft and Aircraft Recognition. Basically, we are given a long list of airplanes (50+) with pictures and are told to be able to recognize the aircraft type, manufacturer, weight class, and category. The idea is that one day, we might be working in a tower, and will need to know which aircraft are which, without having to think about it. The challenging part of the lesson was learning the small (General Aviation) aircraft and the business jets, as a lot of them look alike. I'm still not sure I can identify a Challenger vs. a Beechjet without taking sometime to think, but I know enough to get through the course! Can you tell which one is which?


Tuesday: Since we were ahead of schedule, we had all of Tuesday for review and study, which included our "Aircraft Recognition Tournament" (my team won!), followed by the entire block review, since our next block test is on Wednesday. This block included Airspace, FARs, Principles of Flight, and Aircraft Recognition. Overall, this was slightly more difficult than the first block, but the most difficult material is still yet to come.

Tuesday Evening, most of us went to a pre-test/study dinner at a local steakhouse. Although you can order an entire steak dinner for under $8, most of us elected to get the larger cut of meat (24 ounce Cowboy steak anyone?). The meal was good, although I think people go to this place for the experience just as much as anything else.... just look at the outside:
...Can you say we're in the Southwest?

Wednesday (and Thursday):
Time for Block Test #2. I passed the test with a 97%, but more importantly, our entire class passed with an average of 93%. Despite some of my classmates nervousness, we are all doing very well overall.

The next few blocks are where it starts to get a little more difficult, and the material gets a little more dry as well. Block 3 focuses on Navigation, Charts, and communication. Block 4 looks like its almost entirely weather, which could be tough. Today & Thursday we focused on Navigation, for example, what types of Radio Navigational Aids exist (ie. VOR, NDB, ILS etc.). There was a flashback to Middle School Geography, where they taught us how to identify locations using Latitude/Longitude Coordinates. We learned (or reviewed for me) how pilots can navigate VFR simply by identifying landmarks around them (ie. a river, a highway etc.). Also included was information about GPS, LORAN, RNAV, and all sorts of other fun types of navigation. Although this unit could easily apply to pilots more than air traffic controllers, its still important that we know and understand the information, since we'll eventually be issuing clearances for these types of Navigation & Approaches.

Friday:
We started the lesson on VFR (Visual Flight Rules) Charts today. These are the equivalent of an Atlas for pilots, depicting all the information you could possibly need to know as a pilot when flying under VFR. If you would like to see an example of these charts, go to this address: http://skyvector.com/. If you type in the location of an airport (ie. KBWI = Baltimore Washington International), and click on the little button at the top of map that says "Washington" or "Baltimore-Washington TAC", you can see examples of the VFR charts for the MD/VA/DC area. If you look at the map, you can see that there is just a ton of information on there, and while some of it may seem self explanitory, there is a lot that needs to be learned (ie. types of Airspace, different types of airports etc.).

During the AM portion of class, we had to attend a presentation/lecture by the ATO (Air Traffic Organization), which is the portion of the FAA that ATC falls under. Essentially, the talk was about safety and education in our field, and how as controllers, we can always learn something new. The speakers all had very great things to say, and it was good to get their perspective, as they were all former controllers who had moved on to managment/retirement etc.

During the afternoon, we continued with VFR charts, which is where we will pick up Monday morning. 13 days left of Basics before we start Radar Training!!! In the mean time, its Friday night!!!

Bull Riding!!!

HELLOOO Weekend #2 in Oklahoma!!!

Friday night, a few of us from class decided to go to a popular bar called "Club Rodeo." This bar is HUGE, with a giant line dancing floor in the middle, and a Bull Riding ring in the back. Also, Friday nights are $.25 bottles, so needless to say, it was a good time. I definitely felt out of place here, as almost every guy at the bar had a cowboy hat on. I guess us East Coasters just stick out like a sore thumb there. It was a very cool experience though, getting to see a completely different culture at the bar, not to mention great drink specials. Our table was setup about 15 ft from the bull riding ring, so we had great seats for the riding. They had 3 rounds of riding, on the hour from 10:30-12:30pm. We stayed through the first two rounds, and it was very cool stuff. I certainly wouldn't wanna be one of the guys riding the bulls. A couple of guys almost got trampled!
So Friday night was a resounding success!

Saturday, after sleeping off the late night and beers, a group of us went downtown to see the Oklahoma City Bombing Museum/Memorial. The experience was very interesting and disturbing/moving at the same time. I was in 5th grade at the time of the bombing, so I knew that it had happened, but I don't really remember most of the details, as I didn't pay attention to the news then. The museum is located in the Journal Records building, accross the street from where the Murrah Federal Building once stood (now the site of the memorial). The museum is full of pictures, videos, artifacts, and tons of information about the bombing. I highly reccomend this museum to anybody who travels through Oklahoma City. It really gives a great perspective on how this act of terrorism affected the local community, and how the entire region came together to the rescue after the bombing had occurred. The actual memorial site occupies the footprint of where the Building used to be, and it includes a reflection pool that used to be 5th Street (the street where Timothy McVeigh parked the infamous Ryder truck). Like I said, the entire experience is very moving and upsetting, but its definitely worth the time. http://www.oklahomacitynationalmemorial.org/

To give an idea, below is a picture of the Federal Building after the bombing, and next to it is a picture of the memorial.

If you look at the right picture, the field of lit chairs sits on the exact footprint of the building, and the reflecting pool sits on the location of the street in front of where the building was at one time.

Sunday has just been another day of studying and watching football....Back to class tomorrow! I'm excited because tomorrow is when it gets really interesting: we begin the aircraft recognition unit (ie. look at a picture, and tell me what type of aircraft it is.).

Have a great evening...

Thursday & Friday, Week #2

Thursday:

Today is our first major test of the class. The way the tests here work is we have a certain number of lessons (Chapters) per block, and then at the end of each block, we have the block test (go figure). Block 1 has information from lessons 1 through 8, so there's definitely a lot of information to be covered. Like I said before, our instructors do not administer our tests, in fact, they never even see the tests(because they are contractors). The FAA has a representative come to our class and give everyone the test, and then they are taken away for grading. So far, I have averaged about 99.5% on my lesson tests, so I was not too worried about the test. I ended up scoring 28/30, or 93.33%. One of the questions I missed was because of a silly mistake (reversing red/white in the question), and the other was me just not knowing the answer. Not too shabby for the first week of class. What's crazy, though, is that our next block test is on Wednesday, so the material really flies by quickly!

After we got our tests back (class average= 91%), we were into lessons 9 & 10: Airspace and Intro to the FARs (Federal Aviation Regulations). These lessons had a lot of information, but not exactly a lot of interesting stuff to learn. Needless to say, Thursday was a little painful to stay awake through. Some examples of the FAR's include defining the responsibilities of the Pilot in Command of an Aircraft (PIC), what are the basic weather minimums for certain types of flight, and many other regulations.

Friday:
We continued into another lesson about the FARs, followed by the lesson about flight characteristics ("How Things Fly"). Although this unit was a little more interesting, it was all a review for me, as these lessons mirrored exactly the same stuff that I learned in Ground School 2 years ago. Its never a bad thing to relearn information, but lets just say that Friday was the closest I've come to falling asleep in class :) As usual for our class, we are progressing faster than the schedule indicuates, so we were able to "self-study" aka relax, for the last hour of Friday. Fun weekend coming up!