It's all about the weather

Long time no update but not much have been happening lately, my theory exam has been postponed to the 7th of April as I couldn’t get the day off due to the absence of a co-worker.


So I have more learning time, which is good, as I’m still not at 100% in the test exams. Yeah I know it sounds ambitious but I already explained in my last post the reasons for being like that. To That I’d like to add that I feel knowing the theory well is essential for the safety later on, I certainly wouldn’t want to risk life and limb of me and my eventual passenger because of my own ignorance.

Weather is still a weak spot and I decided to go deeper into it by buying an extra book. People who know my girlfriend might notice a pattern here ;-) My favourite French publisher Cépaduès also had a book on this subject so I bought, Le Meteo du Pilote VFR

I didn’t have the time yet to finish it, but the general impression I have is that the book is well written; well structured and weather phenomena are better explained. Another advantage is that it uses the practical view point so it starts with how to analyse weather charts, how to interpret clouds and cloud build-up, how to set up your flight plan (weather wise), how to interpret satellite and precipitation charts, how to analyse Met information like Metars etc. culminating into practical analysis of all weather data in your flight preparation. It also has a chapter on local weather phenomena like the Mistral, Tramontane and Autan winds, local winds in the mountains and dangerous weather situations for VFR flight. All in all, the book is a keeper, also for later reference.

Talking about the weather, I’m desperately waiting for it to become better, after all the snow the airfield is like a swamp and the grass strip cannot be used until at least mid-April. Yep I’m keen on starting my practical lessons as well.

In the meantime I’m already occupied by the big what if question for afterwards; if I manage to get my pilots’ licence, what airplane do I want to fly? I won’t have much of a budget so I’ll have to go to the bank to get a loan, which will, at least during the time I’m busy paying it off, limit my monthly budget a bit. After doing a bit of analysis on my personal financial situation I decided that about € 800 a month (£ 700, US$1100) is the max I want to spend on flying. It will be unrealistic that I’ll be able to buy the same kind of airplane I’ll do my lessons in all new. And even second hand they are deer enough. So I’ll have to look for a nice alternative fitting my circumstances. I think that this will be the subject of my next post here. For now I all wish you great flying weather and safe landings.

TTFN

Steph

And the new year starts...

First things first, I wish you all a very good new year, with many happy landings.


So what’s the status here at the moment? Well, last Christmas I crammed a bit on my theory, got spoiled again with goodies by my lovely girlfriend. She gave me a flightbag, classic 70’s blue with a big Aeroflot logo on the side. The headset I ordered has arrived and I’m quite surprised by the sound quality.

I finished reading all books and let it sink in a bit. Yesterday I did a test exam to see what the status was and pfew… that wasn’t easy.

The test exams I generated with a neat little tool called Aero QCM (QCM is a French abbreviation for Multiple Choice Questions) you can install an executable and this will generate several types of exams for you, among others a simulation of the DGAC ULM Theory exam. I didn’t score insufficiently but to say that it was good enough to go into an exam with confidence, and especially because I want my pass rate to be above 95%.

OK people will now call me “very ambitious” but there is a catch to the exam. If you score above 80% you pass for the normal license but above 95% you also pass for the instructors’ part of the theory. So now you know the reason of me being ambitious. If I like flying enough to decide to do more than just carry it out to others, I save valuable time on one exam and start directly on the special theory for instructors (on didactics etc, etc,)

Conclusion is that I need to work hard on especially the weather section. Clouds, wind, turbulence, special weather phenomena and especially the weather charts need my attention. I normally can read weather charts but apparently you are supposed to know the signs and legend used on TEMSI weather charts by heart.

On the other subjects I crossed the wrong answers due to things going lost in translation. French really can be a nasty language for even nastier questions. For example I got a question right but gave the wrong answer due to me giving the wrong definition to the French word “cap” (heading).

So action points for now…

Back to my books; study weather and get myself up to speed and to make sure I don’t f-up my questions due to language I’m going to pass by my favourite Pilotshop here in Luxembourg and pick up the following dictionary. And maybe browse on some books on weather.

Well that the status for now, my exam has finally been planned for the 10th of March but of course I’ll try to update before that.

TTFN

Steph