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!!!