... and then we're off. After about 2 months, we're going home again to celebrate the holidays. I guess this might actually be my last blog before leaving here, as I still have some things to do in a rather short time limit.
But unlike my intro suggests, I'm not that busy thinking about going home (yet). I intentionally try not to, in order to keep focus of what's happening in class. Sometimes it's easier than a moment later, but overall I can't complain.
In my Thursday-blog last week (20150525 note: now deleted, due to lost picture), I put a picture online and I got some questions as to what it means exactly, so here's a quick run-through for people not familiar with ATC:
SVA56 = symbol for aircraft using "Saudia 56" as callsign
MAU712 = same as SVA56, but then for "Air Mauritius 712"
334 and 336 (below the callsign) = their altitudes in hundreds of feet (here 33,400 and 33,600 feet)
AOSTA = a navigational waypoint, to which both aircraft are flying and are estimated to fly over at approximately the same time.
054/9.5 [1] = Direction to fly/distance in nautical miles [designator of which distance and measuring tool used]
Then what does separation have to do with this? In aviation, there are certain minima to apply. Either at least 1000 feet (300 meter) vertically or 5 nautical miles (8 kilometer) horizontally. In this case, the separation is still present horizontally (>5NM) but there's only a 200ft difference between these two aircraft (obviously <1000ft). They are flying towards each other, so soon the 9.5NM they have now will become less than 5NM => loss of separation. This is then seen as an unsafe situation and that's generally not what you want with aircraft buzzing through the sky at 500 knots (approximately 900 km/h), carrying at least a few dozen people on board.
That being said, there were a few things in the past days that were very pleasant. I passed both my AN1 and ADY exam and we have now started a new sort of simulator training, called LSAT (designator of the fictitious airspace we train in) instead of BRG (Basic Radio Groups). In this new sim-training, we're learning more and more how to work without the instructor's guidance during the exercise. Of course, he's still sitting behind us and might whisper things in our ear from time to time, but the general idea is that by the end of the coming 7 lessons, we should be able to work this simulator alone. To get to that point, we now receive written feedback as to what went good or bad during the exercise, instead of a quick verbal word about the performance.
To do the LSAT, we had Gregor (hope I wrote it correctly?) joining us yesterday (maybe today as well) who's an instructor at the IANS in Luxembourg, where we'll be going to after Zurich. He also gave us our EUROCONTROL-badges, of which I might add a picture here later on, as I did with the Skyguide-badge.
Today, it's my turn to start as a controller in the sim and I'm actually quite nervous just thinking about that, though I can't come up with a reason why. All previous runs I had in the sim went super, so I shouldn't really worry, yet I do somehow. Tomorrow and the day after, we have our last 2 exams before the holidays (yes, still two to go, which is also one of the reasons why I try not to think about home too often yet) being BRT 2 and AN2.
Talk to you later, everyone. :)
Wednesday 15 December 2010
Wednesday 8 December 2010
Another week flew by
Hey,
It's all in the title. Last week literally flew by. I didn't even notice it's been a week. Seemed more like only a couple of days to me. But as you all know, Switzerland isn't in a time capsule, so we must have done something to fill that time.
As mentioned before, I still had 2 exams to learn for while writing last week. Both went well, so I passed with more than enough margin to be on the safe side of the 80%. But that's only minor news of the past days. The big news is of course our new "operational" environment: the simulator.
The Piloting Course took a while, but was very instructive as we have to assume the role of pilot in command of multiple aircraft while others are working at the controller-position. "The better we do, the less trouble they have." is the main slogan actually.
Thursday was the first time we got to do the actual controlling bit. Started of slowly by just identifying aircraft upon entering the airspace, but gradually building up the pace and difficulty. Right now, in lesson 4, we started climbing and descending aircraft.
At first, we were all a bit of anxious, as you can imagine, which was quite noticeable in the air around the simulators we were working at. First of all, it's a completely new environment we find ourselves in all of a sudden. Second, nobody knew the layout of the airspace yet. We were supposed to be given charts etc. as soon as we started, but apparently someone forgot about that, so it was all pretty much last-minute learning. That's one of the reasons why I haven't written yet this week.
At first, it created some hick-ups but now, one week later, we start to get the hang of it and you can feel the air starting to grow a bit less dense, with some more time for chatting and laughter. The fact that we sometimes get complaints about disturbing other persons working in the simulator, might in fact be an indicator we're having too much fun already...
Yesterday, we also had TRM again. Subject of the morning: decision making. Erik was right ... If I had known we would be standing in the corridor for over an hour, I would have chosen to be late instead of on time. But little joke aside, we learned a lot about what types of decision you make, how you make them, what influences them and how they effect your duty as a controller.
That's actually the main news from last week's life here, course-related. In the weekend, 4 of us went ice skating again (we'll probably go for it every week now). Only, this time, we didn't go to Dübendorf but Zürich, to the largest ice skating rink in Europe. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a disappointment on arrival as we noticed that only 1/3 of the rink was available to regular skaters, meaning it wasn't really bigger than any other ice rink, but we had our fun nonetheless.
Today, we have the morning off - we don't have to follow TTX or LAW anymore, as it isn't of importance for MASUAC-students anymore - so we start at 1200Z (13h local) with 2 hours of simulator, then 2 hours of AN2 (last lesson before the exam, I think) and end the day with a video-conference with Maastricht.
Next exams coming up: AN1 (Friday) and ADY (Monday).
See you, everyone.
It's all in the title. Last week literally flew by. I didn't even notice it's been a week. Seemed more like only a couple of days to me. But as you all know, Switzerland isn't in a time capsule, so we must have done something to fill that time.
As mentioned before, I still had 2 exams to learn for while writing last week. Both went well, so I passed with more than enough margin to be on the safe side of the 80%. But that's only minor news of the past days. The big news is of course our new "operational" environment: the simulator.
The Piloting Course took a while, but was very instructive as we have to assume the role of pilot in command of multiple aircraft while others are working at the controller-position. "The better we do, the less trouble they have." is the main slogan actually.
Thursday was the first time we got to do the actual controlling bit. Started of slowly by just identifying aircraft upon entering the airspace, but gradually building up the pace and difficulty. Right now, in lesson 4, we started climbing and descending aircraft.
At first, we were all a bit of anxious, as you can imagine, which was quite noticeable in the air around the simulators we were working at. First of all, it's a completely new environment we find ourselves in all of a sudden. Second, nobody knew the layout of the airspace yet. We were supposed to be given charts etc. as soon as we started, but apparently someone forgot about that, so it was all pretty much last-minute learning. That's one of the reasons why I haven't written yet this week.
At first, it created some hick-ups but now, one week later, we start to get the hang of it and you can feel the air starting to grow a bit less dense, with some more time for chatting and laughter. The fact that we sometimes get complaints about disturbing other persons working in the simulator, might in fact be an indicator we're having too much fun already...
Yesterday, we also had TRM again. Subject of the morning: decision making. Erik was right ... If I had known we would be standing in the corridor for over an hour, I would have chosen to be late instead of on time. But little joke aside, we learned a lot about what types of decision you make, how you make them, what influences them and how they effect your duty as a controller.
That's actually the main news from last week's life here, course-related. In the weekend, 4 of us went ice skating again (we'll probably go for it every week now). Only, this time, we didn't go to Dübendorf but Zürich, to the largest ice skating rink in Europe. Unfortunately, we had a bit of a disappointment on arrival as we noticed that only 1/3 of the rink was available to regular skaters, meaning it wasn't really bigger than any other ice rink, but we had our fun nonetheless.
Today, we have the morning off - we don't have to follow TTX or LAW anymore, as it isn't of importance for MASUAC-students anymore - so we start at 1200Z (13h local) with 2 hours of simulator, then 2 hours of AN2 (last lesson before the exam, I think) and end the day with a video-conference with Maastricht.
Next exams coming up: AN1 (Friday) and ADY (Monday).
See you, everyone.
Wednesday 1 December 2010
A new month
Hey everyone,
Gaps are getting bigger between my blogs, and I'm afraid I don't really have a valid reason for that. Only thing I can say is I'm sorry. I often have the time to leave a (small) note, but I just don't start writing.
But on a positive note: I survived the RADAR-visit, without chemical castration as far as I'm aware.
But what happened here in Switzerland in the past week?
Well, I had two exams last week (BRT, NAV) and I was quite afraid for the latter as it just seemed like a lot of hard stuff to learn, as I said in my previous blog. Luckily, when I read the exam questions, there wasn't really much I didn't know. Maybe I just studied that much that the exam became a walk in the park, or the exam was just a lot easier than expected.
Had a good eye on BRT from the start, so not a lot of fear for that one, but still a lot to learn precisely.
Got my results last Thursday, both passed, with my highest score yet: 96 (BRT) and 97% (NAV). *proud*
To make things even better, my girlfriend arrived for another weekend here on that same day. We had a great time in Zurich after school on Friday, and in the weekend we joined the group in going to Liechtenstein's capital village Vaduz.
Even though it was a Saturday, the main shopping street of Vaduz was near to empty, as were all other streets actually. Weird to imagine that village is actually THE center (political, economical, ...) in Liechtenstein. At first, we thought Liechtenstein was just an abandoned country, but we soon found out where they were hanging out. The local McDonalds was PACKED !!
In the afternoon, we decided to walk up to the Royal Castle (Schloss Vaduz) before going home. A nice climb, with improving weather as we went up. A bit dull at the castle itself, as it isn't open to visits, but we had good fun on the way up and down.
Now, a new month is starting in which a lot is about to happen. Of course, we still have exams (6 in total), but from now on, we can also go into the simulator for bringing our theory into practice. FINALLY !!
Today, we have our introductory course to the piloting side of the simulator (from 17h until 21h), and tomorrow we start with BRG. I'm really excited about finally getting some action, instead of just sitting and listening.
Aside school, December is also the month of our Christmas leave, so after 2 months in Switzerland, I can go home again for the holidays. I just hope the prospect of that leave isn't going to interfere too much with paying attention in class and during exams.
And of course, winter's approaching rapidly as well. We had our first snow last week, much like the rest of Europe, as I read and hear. In fact, it's snowing lightly now as well, if you look outside through a magnifying glass.
But now I'm off again. We start at 14h20 today, but I still need to have lunch and do some revising for our exams this week (RTB tomorrow, RAT on Friday).
See you later, most probably somewhere this weekend, though I can't promise anything yet.
Gaps are getting bigger between my blogs, and I'm afraid I don't really have a valid reason for that. Only thing I can say is I'm sorry. I often have the time to leave a (small) note, but I just don't start writing.
But on a positive note: I survived the RADAR-visit, without chemical castration as far as I'm aware.
But what happened here in Switzerland in the past week?
Well, I had two exams last week (BRT, NAV) and I was quite afraid for the latter as it just seemed like a lot of hard stuff to learn, as I said in my previous blog. Luckily, when I read the exam questions, there wasn't really much I didn't know. Maybe I just studied that much that the exam became a walk in the park, or the exam was just a lot easier than expected.
Had a good eye on BRT from the start, so not a lot of fear for that one, but still a lot to learn precisely.
Got my results last Thursday, both passed, with my highest score yet: 96 (BRT) and 97% (NAV). *proud*
To make things even better, my girlfriend arrived for another weekend here on that same day. We had a great time in Zurich after school on Friday, and in the weekend we joined the group in going to Liechtenstein's capital village Vaduz.
Even though it was a Saturday, the main shopping street of Vaduz was near to empty, as were all other streets actually. Weird to imagine that village is actually THE center (political, economical, ...) in Liechtenstein. At first, we thought Liechtenstein was just an abandoned country, but we soon found out where they were hanging out. The local McDonalds was PACKED !!
In the afternoon, we decided to walk up to the Royal Castle (Schloss Vaduz) before going home. A nice climb, with improving weather as we went up. A bit dull at the castle itself, as it isn't open to visits, but we had good fun on the way up and down.
Now, a new month is starting in which a lot is about to happen. Of course, we still have exams (6 in total), but from now on, we can also go into the simulator for bringing our theory into practice. FINALLY !!
Today, we have our introductory course to the piloting side of the simulator (from 17h until 21h), and tomorrow we start with BRG. I'm really excited about finally getting some action, instead of just sitting and listening.
Aside school, December is also the month of our Christmas leave, so after 2 months in Switzerland, I can go home again for the holidays. I just hope the prospect of that leave isn't going to interfere too much with paying attention in class and during exams.
And of course, winter's approaching rapidly as well. We had our first snow last week, much like the rest of Europe, as I read and hear. In fact, it's snowing lightly now as well, if you look outside through a magnifying glass.
But now I'm off again. We start at 14h20 today, but I still need to have lunch and do some revising for our exams this week (RTB tomorrow, RAT on Friday).
See you later, most probably somewhere this weekend, though I can't promise anything yet.
Monday 22 November 2010
Finally, some time
Hey again,
I suppose most of you were already thinking I quit writing this blog. I must admit I feel like a lousy blog-writer actually. My initial intentions were to keep everyone up-to-date at least every two days, even if it was just a short note, but today I realised it has almost been a week since I last wrote one. Time again for some catching up.
I won't go into a very lot of detail here, or I'd make it too lengthy again (which I heard some people dislike), so I'll just say the main activities of last week and today.
As said in my previous blog, I had three exams last week (ACT, RAD and FPL). Glad to say I passed all exams last week, but I can't remember my exact marks anymore. Had some harder times last week - home sickness is unfortunately a part of being away from family - so they weren't as good as could have been. But the most important fact is that I passed all exams nonetheless, I guess. And a memorable note to my girlfriend, for cheering me up and keeping me going, is not at all out of place.
In the weekend, we did two things, instead of the regular one.
On Friday evening, some of us went to see the last Harry Potter-movie. My opinion: if you liked the previous movies, even if it was just a bit, you'll love this one. But you have to keep a few things in mind before watching it.
First of all, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was completely messed up story-wise, so I suggest you read that book before seeing The Deathly Hallows Part I. And the last 2 words of last sentence bring me to the next item.
This is just part I, so it is more a build-up to the big finale (even though it can manage on itself just fine as well). Therefor, don't expect this movie to end as a normal movie ending. The ending is perfect for this movie, but not what you'd expect.
And if you go watching, keep a bit of popcorn for the already famous animation coming near the end of the movie. ;-)
Saturday afternoon, I got myself a new haircut (note to self: haircuts are expensive in Switzerland. Wait until you are out of the country next time, even if it's very necessary !!) and in the evening, three of us went ice skating in Dübendorf. The place was dead, so we bounced pretty early (inside joke present, if you don't understand it), but it was good fun. Bad part of that evening was we had to run to get our bus back home, but we just made it.
Sunday, I dived into my books for my exams this week: BRT (which I had today) and NAV (which I have on Thursday). BRT was not really a problem for me, since most of the course material was something I've been occupying myself with for the past 4 years, but I'm a bit afraid for NAV. I can't get my head around some of those calculator-things. Somehow, it suddenly seems very abstract to me again. I hope I get it right again by Thursday. :-/
Tomorrow, we have an afternoon RAD-visit planned to the RADAR-site in Hollberg (near Zürich, apparently?). Better not stand in front of those bad boys, because according to what Otto said, they can make you infertile for many years in less than 8 micro-seconds. °_°
That was it for today. Auf wiedersehen.
I suppose most of you were already thinking I quit writing this blog. I must admit I feel like a lousy blog-writer actually. My initial intentions were to keep everyone up-to-date at least every two days, even if it was just a short note, but today I realised it has almost been a week since I last wrote one. Time again for some catching up.
I won't go into a very lot of detail here, or I'd make it too lengthy again (which I heard some people dislike), so I'll just say the main activities of last week and today.
As said in my previous blog, I had three exams last week (ACT, RAD and FPL). Glad to say I passed all exams last week, but I can't remember my exact marks anymore. Had some harder times last week - home sickness is unfortunately a part of being away from family - so they weren't as good as could have been. But the most important fact is that I passed all exams nonetheless, I guess. And a memorable note to my girlfriend, for cheering me up and keeping me going, is not at all out of place.
In the weekend, we did two things, instead of the regular one.
On Friday evening, some of us went to see the last Harry Potter-movie. My opinion: if you liked the previous movies, even if it was just a bit, you'll love this one. But you have to keep a few things in mind before watching it.
First of all, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was completely messed up story-wise, so I suggest you read that book before seeing The Deathly Hallows Part I. And the last 2 words of last sentence bring me to the next item.
This is just part I, so it is more a build-up to the big finale (even though it can manage on itself just fine as well). Therefor, don't expect this movie to end as a normal movie ending. The ending is perfect for this movie, but not what you'd expect.
And if you go watching, keep a bit of popcorn for the already famous animation coming near the end of the movie. ;-)
Saturday afternoon, I got myself a new haircut (note to self: haircuts are expensive in Switzerland. Wait until you are out of the country next time, even if it's very necessary !!) and in the evening, three of us went ice skating in Dübendorf. The place was dead, so we bounced pretty early (inside joke present, if you don't understand it), but it was good fun. Bad part of that evening was we had to run to get our bus back home, but we just made it.
Sunday, I dived into my books for my exams this week: BRT (which I had today) and NAV (which I have on Thursday). BRT was not really a problem for me, since most of the course material was something I've been occupying myself with for the past 4 years, but I'm a bit afraid for NAV. I can't get my head around some of those calculator-things. Somehow, it suddenly seems very abstract to me again. I hope I get it right again by Thursday. :-/
Tomorrow, we have an afternoon RAD-visit planned to the RADAR-site in Hollberg (near Zürich, apparently?). Better not stand in front of those bad boys, because according to what Otto said, they can make you infertile for many years in less than 8 micro-seconds. °_°
That was it for today. Auf wiedersehen.
Tuesday 16 November 2010
Something a bit different today
Hello everyone,
Today I wanted to give you a bit of a different blog. Skyguide made it possible for us to go visit the airport of Zurich Kloten, which is the main airport in (the Swiss-German part of) Switzerland.
I could just tell you how it was, but since one picture can say more than a thousand words: here they are.
First time I see the A388 (Singapore Airlines).
American Airlines B767 approaching the holding point of runway 16.
There the metal rolls, washing the localizer of runway 34.
Germanwings A319 reversing the thrust on runway 14.
Air Berlin A320 only a few miliseconds before greeting the ground again.
Main gear on ground, activate thrust reversers.
Swiss Airlines A330 hitting the asphalt of runway 14.
Swiss Airlines A340 showing what "light on wheels" means.
There the beast waits, lurking in the distance until it is called into action.
Air Berlin A320 choosing the way up from runway 28.
Ehr, positive rate, gear up?
United Airlines B767 being pulled away.
There it comes, rushing towards us on runway 16: the Whale.
V1, rotate.
V2.
Positive rate.
Gear up, heading towards sunnier destinations.
That was it for today. Now back to studying for my 3 upcoming exams this week (ACT, RAD and FPL).
See you later.
Friday 12 November 2010
"One of the few"
"I have also to announce to the House that during the night and the early hours of this morning the first of the series of landings in force upon the European Continent has taken place. In this case the liberating assault fell upon the coast of France. An immense armada of upwards of 4,000 ships, together with several thousand smaller craft, crossed the Channel. Massed airborne landings have been successfully effected behind the enemy lines, and landings on the beaches are proceeding at various points at the present time. The fire of the shore batteries has been largely quelled. The obstacles that were constructed in the sea have not proved so difficult as was apprehended. The Anglo-American Allies are sustained by about 11,000 firstline aircraft, which can be drawn upon as may be needed for the purposes of the battle. I cannot, of course, commit myself to any particular details. Reports are coming in in rapid succession. So far the Commanders who are engaged report that everything is proceeding according to plan. And what a plan! This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has ever taken place. It involves tides, wind, waves, visibility, both from the air and the sea standpoint, and the combined employment of land, air and sea forces in the highest degree of intimacy and in contact with conditions which could not and cannot be fully foreseen."
With these words, Winston Churchill informed the House of the initial success of D-Day, on June 6th 1944. Not only is the Second World War one of my other big interests, though mainly because of its aviation-related history, this quote and the one in the title (also by Winston Churcill) both reflect my past two days in some ways. Though I didn't experience combat on a foreign beach, I did have to put up some fight to get to where I am now. With my first big obstacle in the actual training behind me now, I'm proud to say I've reached initial success, much like the men landing on the French coastline more than 66 years ago.
Lots of words to tell I passed and I'm guessing that by now, you already got that message, but as you can imagine, I'm really thrilled to have overcome the first exam. It's been almost 18 months since my last exam, so studying, making an exam and everything that came with it ... It all felt new again to me. As if I had never experienced it before. But now I've tasted it again, and I want more.
Skyguide must have heard my wish, but somehow I can not shake the feeling they've overdone it with giving us 3 exams in a row (4 actually, if you don't take the weekend into account) ... But I'm eager enough to do my best and make it to the end. Not that I wasn't before, I only have more will to actually do it now.
And actually, my exam yesterday was the only real interesting thing I could write about today, as it has also filled my thoughts constantly for the past days. Therefore, I'm ending this blog here now.
I might, however, still write another blog this weekend, about how the rest of these last two days went. Depends a bit on how I'll be able to fill my weekend.
See you around.
With these words, Winston Churchill informed the House of the initial success of D-Day, on June 6th 1944. Not only is the Second World War one of my other big interests, though mainly because of its aviation-related history, this quote and the one in the title (also by Winston Churcill) both reflect my past two days in some ways. Though I didn't experience combat on a foreign beach, I did have to put up some fight to get to where I am now. With my first big obstacle in the actual training behind me now, I'm proud to say I've reached initial success, much like the men landing on the French coastline more than 66 years ago.
Lots of words to tell I passed and I'm guessing that by now, you already got that message, but as you can imagine, I'm really thrilled to have overcome the first exam. It's been almost 18 months since my last exam, so studying, making an exam and everything that came with it ... It all felt new again to me. As if I had never experienced it before. But now I've tasted it again, and I want more.
Skyguide must have heard my wish, but somehow I can not shake the feeling they've overdone it with giving us 3 exams in a row (4 actually, if you don't take the weekend into account) ... But I'm eager enough to do my best and make it to the end. Not that I wasn't before, I only have more will to actually do it now.
And actually, my exam yesterday was the only real interesting thing I could write about today, as it has also filled my thoughts constantly for the past days. Therefore, I'm ending this blog here now.
I might, however, still write another blog this weekend, about how the rest of these last two days went. Depends a bit on how I'll be able to fill my weekend.
See you around.
Wednesday 10 November 2010
H-hour minus 11
Hey
Tomorrow is D-Day for us. Our first real exam here at Skyguide, subject to learn: AGA. I can't even remember what it's like filling one out, as it's been that long already, so I don't really know what to expect anymore. I know what needs to be known - or that's the feeling I have, at least - so I don't suppose there will be big problems, but Murphy's Law might be just around the corner. I'm crossing my fingers he stays there...
But of course, this exam hasn't been the only thing occupying me these last few days, so here's a brief report.
On Monday, we had AN1, AN2, ACD, ACT, MET and for 5 of us (including yours truly) a visit to the General Aviation apron at Zurich Airport. That is what was on the schedule. But we also got a little extra.
At 12h10, we were approached by Angela, saying we were expected in the entry hall to have lunch with both Heads of Training from Skyguide (Fritz) and EUROCONTROL (Patrick). Patrick had come to Zurich to meet us during lunch, and a FABEC-meeting on Tuesday so hence the lunch.
Unfortunately, nobody had informed us about this little meeting, and as AN2 was done early, we already had lunch at 11h30. An unfortunate timing, but nevertheless very informative.
The visit to the airport was also great fun. We were allowed to get so close to the aircraft we were able (and allowed, to some extent) to touch them. All sorts of aircraft, ranging from a simple Cessna 150 leisure plane to a Hawker 4000 business jet, were within hand's reach. Unfortunately, my phone's battery was as dead as it could ever be and I forgot my camera at home, so no pictures there...
Tuesday, we had RAT, ADY, RAD, ACD and the airport visit for 5 others of our group. Nothing special to report, but for the feeling that having RAT and RAD (two quite technical subjects) on 1 day isn't really my cup of tea. My head felt like exploding yesterday evening.
Today, we had AN2, ACD, ACT, NAV, MET and - you guessed it - a visit to the airport for some. Also had two tests today: one for NAV and one included in the CBT for MET. Proud to say I got a solid 100% on both of them. Let's add that luck to the crossed fingers, shall we?
Now, it's time for some relaxation before I get back to studying/revising in about 30 minutes.
See you later.
Tomorrow is D-Day for us. Our first real exam here at Skyguide, subject to learn: AGA. I can't even remember what it's like filling one out, as it's been that long already, so I don't really know what to expect anymore. I know what needs to be known - or that's the feeling I have, at least - so I don't suppose there will be big problems, but Murphy's Law might be just around the corner. I'm crossing my fingers he stays there...
But of course, this exam hasn't been the only thing occupying me these last few days, so here's a brief report.
On Monday, we had AN1, AN2, ACD, ACT, MET and for 5 of us (including yours truly) a visit to the General Aviation apron at Zurich Airport. That is what was on the schedule. But we also got a little extra.
At 12h10, we were approached by Angela, saying we were expected in the entry hall to have lunch with both Heads of Training from Skyguide (Fritz) and EUROCONTROL (Patrick). Patrick had come to Zurich to meet us during lunch, and a FABEC-meeting on Tuesday so hence the lunch.
Unfortunately, nobody had informed us about this little meeting, and as AN2 was done early, we already had lunch at 11h30. An unfortunate timing, but nevertheless very informative.
The visit to the airport was also great fun. We were allowed to get so close to the aircraft we were able (and allowed, to some extent) to touch them. All sorts of aircraft, ranging from a simple Cessna 150 leisure plane to a Hawker 4000 business jet, were within hand's reach. Unfortunately, my phone's battery was as dead as it could ever be and I forgot my camera at home, so no pictures there...
Tuesday, we had RAT, ADY, RAD, ACD and the airport visit for 5 others of our group. Nothing special to report, but for the feeling that having RAT and RAD (two quite technical subjects) on 1 day isn't really my cup of tea. My head felt like exploding yesterday evening.
Today, we had AN2, ACD, ACT, NAV, MET and - you guessed it - a visit to the airport for some. Also had two tests today: one for NAV and one included in the CBT for MET. Proud to say I got a solid 100% on both of them. Let's add that luck to the crossed fingers, shall we?
Now, it's time for some relaxation before I get back to studying/revising in about 30 minutes.
See you later.
Sunday 7 November 2010
Week report
Hello everyone,
As you most probably noticed already, I haven't really written a lot this week, but to keep you up-to-date, I'll write a blog now.
Last time I wrote was Tuesday, where I said we would have a whole day of TRM on Wednesday. This TRM-session filled almost every minute between 8h15 and 16h. We discussed all sorts of things, pretty much all related to the safety network ATCo's have available. To give some examples, we have automatic systems detecting possible conflicts, we have 2 sets of eyes instead of 1 etc.
We also did some exercises, for example the classic one to see the effect of distortion in communication. 6 of the class, including me, were sent outside and had to wait until we were called in one by one. While waiting outside, a message was being discussed in the class which we would need to pass on to the next one.
The original message was something like this:
"An A320 takes off from Adelaide, headed for Brisbane, and is cleared to climb to flight level 370. He must, however, reach flight level 330 at latest 20 nautical miles before MIL due to a B747 crossing MIL at flight level 310 at approximately the same time. There is also a B767, going from Sydney to Adelaide, at flight level 310."
The final message was:
"An A320 is going from somewhere to Brussels, cleared to flight level 370 but not allowed to climb higher than flight level 330 because of a B747 at flight level 310. Then there is also a third aircraft going to ADLEY."
Point made, Erik. Good job there.
One small remark though, in case anyone having a say in this would read this... Overall, TRM was fun, but I think it would be better if it is split up into half days. By 14h30 or 15h, almost everyone was falling asleep due to lack of change. Having the same classroom and instructor the whole day can become a bit dull after a while.
Thursday was a normal day of school again. Started with RAT, AGA and MET. While RAT and MET are relatively new subjects to us, that was the last lesson of AGA we had before our first real exam, coming up next Thursday, so we pretty much reviewed everything there was to review. I'm actually a bit nervous as to how our exam will look like, especially since it's a almost-no-mercy one, in terms of retrying.
In the afternoon, we had AN2 and ACT but there isn't really much to tell about that. Just the ordinary things you'd expect from a course: new material to learn.
Friday was a shorter day on our schedule, finally. Starting with a progress test of NAV wasn't really the best way to start it though, especially when you figure out you've been learning the wrong chapter while reading the questions. I had to rely on what I picked up in class, and got myself a failing but still decent 60%.
After the test and some instructing about maps and charts, we had FPL and ACT. Apparently, FPL was the before last lesson as well, meaning we'll have our exam on the 19th already. Looks like we're really in for the "good" times now. But as a teacher of mine used to say in her Ghentish (Belgian city) accent "ge stot ervuur, ge muut erduur". Roughly translated it means as much as "Just get it over with already".
In the afternoon, we had a CBT of RAD, but most of us decided we could do this another time, so we headed home. Thinking about it now, I'm not really sure if we were allowed to do that, but we went back yesterday (going to school on a Saturday !!) to do it, so I hope we won't be in trouble.
Finally, we wanted to end the week with a nice touch and some of our group suggested to go to the Zurich Zoo. Unfortunately, it was too warm to see the (apparently famous?) penguin march, so the idea is discarded until further notice. Still in the mood to have a good time, we agreed to build a campfire in the woods just behind Wangen. There is a place specifically made for this purpose, so we didn't just pick a spot at random hoping we wouldn't light the entire forest. ;-)
Then, as mentioned before, we went back to Skyguide on Saturday to do our homework. The rest was pretty much a lazy day, watching a movie, listening some music, surfing the web etc. Today won't be much more for me either, I guess.
Unfortunately, I can't really say when I'll be writing a next blog, with my first exam coming up this week and some more homework to do in between.
If you don't want to check everyday if I wrote a new blog, maybe you can add me on facebook. I'm the only one in the world with this name, so you shouldn't have a problem finding me. Just add a personal message to your request, saying you're a reader of my blog and I'll accept it.
Why add me on facebook? I always publish my blog on my facebook-page, so it might be an easier way to keep track of new blogs.
As you most probably noticed already, I haven't really written a lot this week, but to keep you up-to-date, I'll write a blog now.
Last time I wrote was Tuesday, where I said we would have a whole day of TRM on Wednesday. This TRM-session filled almost every minute between 8h15 and 16h. We discussed all sorts of things, pretty much all related to the safety network ATCo's have available. To give some examples, we have automatic systems detecting possible conflicts, we have 2 sets of eyes instead of 1 etc.
We also did some exercises, for example the classic one to see the effect of distortion in communication. 6 of the class, including me, were sent outside and had to wait until we were called in one by one. While waiting outside, a message was being discussed in the class which we would need to pass on to the next one.
The original message was something like this:
"An A320 takes off from Adelaide, headed for Brisbane, and is cleared to climb to flight level 370. He must, however, reach flight level 330 at latest 20 nautical miles before MIL due to a B747 crossing MIL at flight level 310 at approximately the same time. There is also a B767, going from Sydney to Adelaide, at flight level 310."
The final message was:
"An A320 is going from somewhere to Brussels, cleared to flight level 370 but not allowed to climb higher than flight level 330 because of a B747 at flight level 310. Then there is also a third aircraft going to ADLEY."
Point made, Erik. Good job there.
One small remark though, in case anyone having a say in this would read this... Overall, TRM was fun, but I think it would be better if it is split up into half days. By 14h30 or 15h, almost everyone was falling asleep due to lack of change. Having the same classroom and instructor the whole day can become a bit dull after a while.
Thursday was a normal day of school again. Started with RAT, AGA and MET. While RAT and MET are relatively new subjects to us, that was the last lesson of AGA we had before our first real exam, coming up next Thursday, so we pretty much reviewed everything there was to review. I'm actually a bit nervous as to how our exam will look like, especially since it's a almost-no-mercy one, in terms of retrying.
In the afternoon, we had AN2 and ACT but there isn't really much to tell about that. Just the ordinary things you'd expect from a course: new material to learn.
Friday was a shorter day on our schedule, finally. Starting with a progress test of NAV wasn't really the best way to start it though, especially when you figure out you've been learning the wrong chapter while reading the questions. I had to rely on what I picked up in class, and got myself a failing but still decent 60%.
After the test and some instructing about maps and charts, we had FPL and ACT. Apparently, FPL was the before last lesson as well, meaning we'll have our exam on the 19th already. Looks like we're really in for the "good" times now. But as a teacher of mine used to say in her Ghentish (Belgian city) accent "ge stot ervuur, ge muut erduur". Roughly translated it means as much as "Just get it over with already".
In the afternoon, we had a CBT of RAD, but most of us decided we could do this another time, so we headed home. Thinking about it now, I'm not really sure if we were allowed to do that, but we went back yesterday (going to school on a Saturday !!) to do it, so I hope we won't be in trouble.
Finally, we wanted to end the week with a nice touch and some of our group suggested to go to the Zurich Zoo. Unfortunately, it was too warm to see the (apparently famous?) penguin march, so the idea is discarded until further notice. Still in the mood to have a good time, we agreed to build a campfire in the woods just behind Wangen. There is a place specifically made for this purpose, so we didn't just pick a spot at random hoping we wouldn't light the entire forest. ;-)
All happily around the camp fire. Thanks for the pictures, Kristof.
We all arrived around 17h and left the (extinguished) campfire at about 23h. Having never camped before, I'm very proud to say we've kept the fire burning for the entire 6 hours and even had some trouble extinguishing it before leaving. There's the result of TRM and a great spirit among us: teamwork to get the fire lit and maintaining it, so thanks once again for the wonderful evening, guys and girls (Jen's mom also joined the party).Then, as mentioned before, we went back to Skyguide on Saturday to do our homework. The rest was pretty much a lazy day, watching a movie, listening some music, surfing the web etc. Today won't be much more for me either, I guess.
Unfortunately, I can't really say when I'll be writing a next blog, with my first exam coming up this week and some more homework to do in between.
If you don't want to check everyday if I wrote a new blog, maybe you can add me on facebook. I'm the only one in the world with this name, so you shouldn't have a problem finding me. Just add a personal message to your request, saying you're a reader of my blog and I'll accept it.
Why add me on facebook? I always publish my blog on my facebook-page, so it might be an easier way to keep track of new blogs.
See you later.
Tuesday 2 November 2010
Three's the charm
Hey there,
Today, I'll start my blog by answering to the comments and questions I received between Friday and today. I'll start off by the most important one, namely that I wish to apologize to my colleagues, whom I talked about in my previous blog. Though I may unwillingly have done so, it was never my intention to offend or create a bad image of these people. They are great people and I share lots of enjoyable moments with them. I hope people can forget what I said and are able to forgive me for my choice of words.
I don't know if I have said it before but I'd like to stress the point that everything written in this blog is solely my opinion and view on things around here, and do therefor not always necessarily represent a truthful depiction of reality here.
Then, I had the question what I do in my free time. The main things I do here at this moment is keeping in touch with girlfriend, family and friend at home. Zürich is approximately 800km away from my doorstep, so that's quite a long distance to overcome.
When I'm not doing that, I usually spend my time surfing the internet, watching tv, ATC'ing on IVAO, playing the piano, continuing on a novel I'm writing (in Dutch, so I can't really put an excerpt on here) or studying/reading through my lesson material.
Furthermore, before going into the details of what happened yesterday and today, I'd like to thank those wishing us the best.:-)
But now, the real reason you're all reading this blog.
A new week again, number 3 already, and we start it with 2-hour blocks of RTB, FPL, ADY and RAT. Talked about lots of stuff throughout the day, including transponder mode S, ATC messages, drag/lift and ranges of radio signals.
Yesterday's biggest shock to me was to find out a B777 has the capability of retracting its wingtips, allowing it to park at 'smaller' gates. Not that it's of any concern for our line of work, or at least I hope they don't try it at FL330, but it's still nice to know.
Today, we started with 2 hours of BRT (not to be confused with RTB), 1 hour each of ACD and ACT (in which we had a progress test, which was the reason I didn't blog yesterday, and I believe I did pretty good), 1 hour of MET (aha, a new kid on the block) followed by yet another block of BRT (Jenny didn't want to miss us for too long, I suppose) and 2 hours of AGA in which Bruce already started reviewing the lessons a bit. Not really a surprise, knowing that AGA will be our first real exam, coming up 11th of November already. I can throw a list of our exam schedule online, if you wish. Just say so in the comments, and I'll do it ASAP.
To end the day, we had our first Video Conference (hereafter VC) with Maastricht, in which we got to know our Maastricht training leaders who discussed several things such as training schedule, arrangements for Luxembourg etc with us.
Today's biggest surprise to me came in this VC. It was the fact that a resit (a second try) on an exam is not a guarantee, whereas I used to think it actually was. Not that I was planning on using the resit, but it felt a bit more comfortable thinking there's at least a back-up parachute strapped to your shoulders while you're falling down.
That's it for today. Tomorrow, we have an entire day of TRM to chew on. Erik already mentioned something about it being more active than what we're used to, so I'm guessing we won't be just introducing ourselves to the group anymore. If anyone can ellaborate before tomorrow morning 7 a.m., please do so.
See you around.
Today, I'll start my blog by answering to the comments and questions I received between Friday and today. I'll start off by the most important one, namely that I wish to apologize to my colleagues, whom I talked about in my previous blog. Though I may unwillingly have done so, it was never my intention to offend or create a bad image of these people. They are great people and I share lots of enjoyable moments with them. I hope people can forget what I said and are able to forgive me for my choice of words.
I don't know if I have said it before but I'd like to stress the point that everything written in this blog is solely my opinion and view on things around here, and do therefor not always necessarily represent a truthful depiction of reality here.
Then, I had the question what I do in my free time. The main things I do here at this moment is keeping in touch with girlfriend, family and friend at home. Zürich is approximately 800km away from my doorstep, so that's quite a long distance to overcome.
When I'm not doing that, I usually spend my time surfing the internet, watching tv, ATC'ing on IVAO, playing the piano, continuing on a novel I'm writing (in Dutch, so I can't really put an excerpt on here) or studying/reading through my lesson material.
Furthermore, before going into the details of what happened yesterday and today, I'd like to thank those wishing us the best.:-)
But now, the real reason you're all reading this blog.
A new week again, number 3 already, and we start it with 2-hour blocks of RTB, FPL, ADY and RAT. Talked about lots of stuff throughout the day, including transponder mode S, ATC messages, drag/lift and ranges of radio signals.
Yesterday's biggest shock to me was to find out a B777 has the capability of retracting its wingtips, allowing it to park at 'smaller' gates. Not that it's of any concern for our line of work, or at least I hope they don't try it at FL330, but it's still nice to know.
Today, we started with 2 hours of BRT (not to be confused with RTB), 1 hour each of ACD and ACT (in which we had a progress test, which was the reason I didn't blog yesterday, and I believe I did pretty good), 1 hour of MET (aha, a new kid on the block) followed by yet another block of BRT (Jenny didn't want to miss us for too long, I suppose) and 2 hours of AGA in which Bruce already started reviewing the lessons a bit. Not really a surprise, knowing that AGA will be our first real exam, coming up 11th of November already. I can throw a list of our exam schedule online, if you wish. Just say so in the comments, and I'll do it ASAP.
To end the day, we had our first Video Conference (hereafter VC) with Maastricht, in which we got to know our Maastricht training leaders who discussed several things such as training schedule, arrangements for Luxembourg etc with us.
Today's biggest surprise to me came in this VC. It was the fact that a resit (a second try) on an exam is not a guarantee, whereas I used to think it actually was. Not that I was planning on using the resit, but it felt a bit more comfortable thinking there's at least a back-up parachute strapped to your shoulders while you're falling down.
That's it for today. Tomorrow, we have an entire day of TRM to chew on. Erik already mentioned something about it being more active than what we're used to, so I'm guessing we won't be just introducing ourselves to the group anymore. If anyone can ellaborate before tomorrow morning 7 a.m., please do so.
See you around.
Friday 29 October 2010
POETS day
Good day everyone,
Today I found out that EUROCONTROL has discovered my blog and published it on their official Twitter- and Facebook-page. Therefore I would like to start this blog by thanking EUROCONTROL for the recognition and with welcoming my new readers/followers.
This blog's initial intention was to inform my family and friends about my progress here, if I wasn't able to keep or get in touch with all of them, so even though it's a great honour having my blog published like this, I have to admit the feeling of realizing that people all across Europe will now be able to follow me is a bit scaring. The fact that persons I don't even know will read if I pass or fail the course, increases the pressure quite a bit actually, but that, of course, does not mean I don't welcome you. I sincerely hope you'll enjoy reading my story and make it through to the end, together with me.
My "regulars" might have noticed I haven't uploaded a new blog yesterday, so today will be a compilation of yesterday and today, starting of course with Thursday. As a reminder, we had RTB, AN2, ADY and RAD that day.
As I do realize, some of the new readers are likely to start reading this blog from this point on, I'll probably make this one a bit more technical and thus longer than I have done in the past few days (old habits die hard, regulars)
In RTB, we discussed the reasons of why a radar was needed in the past, how it evolved through time and how it will evolve in the future. We also discussed how ATCo's can use the situation display to identify and keep track of so-called "targets" or "blips".
AN2 was again about the airspace structure in Switzerland, more precisely its VMC minima, and a first introduction on how to read navigational charts.
ADY was nothing out of the ordinary of what you'd expect from an Aerodynamics-lesson. Wing shapes and their effect on relative wind, critical angles of attack at which it will disrupt the oncoming airflow etc.
RAD had about the same setup as ADY, only about radar-related information.
All in all, material-wise it was a bit of a "boring" day. Mainly theory, without a lot of interaction so here and there some heads were dropping. Willem and I ended the day with a comical note though, watching Toby doing his ritual of making trucks honk at him while he's standing on the bridge and later watching Gabriel Iglesias's stand up comedy show called "I'm not fat, I'm fluffy".
Today, being POETS day, was a bit different. Most of us were not really looking forward to RAT, a class we had for the first time and which is the same as RAD but for radio technology. With RAD being a very technical course, we had expected the same for RAT, but actually today was the first time ever I understood the principle of how radio wavelengths are measured actually. Martin, our instructor for RAT, was about 30 minutes late due to a mishap in the scheduling system, but nevertheless I'd like to thank him for finally making it crystal clear to me.
In ACT, we reviewed our homework about engine design and got some in-depth views on how throttle and mixture control are operated in a piston engine.
As we had ended all course material for FPL in the previous lesson, today we had to fill out a VFR-IFR flightplan between Sion and Zürich, while the other half of the class were allowed to have a look in the AIM-section at Skyguide Dübendorf. After about 15 minutes, positions switched and we were allowed. About 10,000 flight plans per year pass those small desks we went to visit and about 200 AIP's, all kept up-to-date of course, are available in print-out and on computer for flight briefing. Quite a big business for such a small office and once again a proof that looks can be deceiving.
In the afternoon, we had NAV, in which we had a progress test. About half of our class weren't properly informed about this, so the results were slightly below the required 80%. I got 79,16% with my 9.5/12, still being among the top of the class though, so we're lucky that these progress tests aren't taken into account for our final score.
In the final class of today's course, we had AGA with our class teacher Bruce. He's the one who introduced us to the term "POETS day". It's an aussy abbreviation for "Piss Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday" so that's what we all did. Our class was scheduled to end at 16h45, but instead we finished at 16h05. Guess the instructors don't really like staying late either, so they rush us through the course if necessary. But even though we actually rushed through today's lesson, I don't have the feeling we missed out on anything. Everything was still very clear and understandable. If only all teachers could make a lesson go as fast as Bruce can. I'm sure we would have 5 days off and 2 days of school, instead of the other way around.
That's about it for today's school talk. That aside, we also had Michael's birthday (he blew out 24 candles today) to celebrate, which most of our group are doing at this very moment. Everyone but Damien (whose girlfriend is coming over for the weekend) and me (who doesn't like and isn't used to going out until 4 a.m.) went out to Zürich to party.
This concludes about the entire last 2 days in Wangen. I don't think I'll be writing any blogs this weekend, by the way. Not that I have a lot of plans made (only one is a virtual ATC-event on Sunday evening), but as this blog is still supposed to be about my ATCo course, I don't think it's of much use if I write you what I'm doing in the weekend. Feel free to let me know in the comments, though, if you want me to write what we are doing in our spare time as well.
Thanks for reading. See you on Monday.
Today I found out that EUROCONTROL has discovered my blog and published it on their official Twitter- and Facebook-page. Therefore I would like to start this blog by thanking EUROCONTROL for the recognition and with welcoming my new readers/followers.
This blog's initial intention was to inform my family and friends about my progress here, if I wasn't able to keep or get in touch with all of them, so even though it's a great honour having my blog published like this, I have to admit the feeling of realizing that people all across Europe will now be able to follow me is a bit scaring. The fact that persons I don't even know will read if I pass or fail the course, increases the pressure quite a bit actually, but that, of course, does not mean I don't welcome you. I sincerely hope you'll enjoy reading my story and make it through to the end, together with me.
My "regulars" might have noticed I haven't uploaded a new blog yesterday, so today will be a compilation of yesterday and today, starting of course with Thursday. As a reminder, we had RTB, AN2, ADY and RAD that day.
As I do realize, some of the new readers are likely to start reading this blog from this point on, I'll probably make this one a bit more technical and thus longer than I have done in the past few days (old habits die hard, regulars)
In RTB, we discussed the reasons of why a radar was needed in the past, how it evolved through time and how it will evolve in the future. We also discussed how ATCo's can use the situation display to identify and keep track of so-called "targets" or "blips".
AN2 was again about the airspace structure in Switzerland, more precisely its VMC minima, and a first introduction on how to read navigational charts.
ADY was nothing out of the ordinary of what you'd expect from an Aerodynamics-lesson. Wing shapes and their effect on relative wind, critical angles of attack at which it will disrupt the oncoming airflow etc.
RAD had about the same setup as ADY, only about radar-related information.
All in all, material-wise it was a bit of a "boring" day. Mainly theory, without a lot of interaction so here and there some heads were dropping. Willem and I ended the day with a comical note though, watching Toby doing his ritual of making trucks honk at him while he's standing on the bridge and later watching Gabriel Iglesias's stand up comedy show called "I'm not fat, I'm fluffy".
Today, being POETS day, was a bit different. Most of us were not really looking forward to RAT, a class we had for the first time and which is the same as RAD but for radio technology. With RAD being a very technical course, we had expected the same for RAT, but actually today was the first time ever I understood the principle of how radio wavelengths are measured actually. Martin, our instructor for RAT, was about 30 minutes late due to a mishap in the scheduling system, but nevertheless I'd like to thank him for finally making it crystal clear to me.
In ACT, we reviewed our homework about engine design and got some in-depth views on how throttle and mixture control are operated in a piston engine.
As we had ended all course material for FPL in the previous lesson, today we had to fill out a VFR-IFR flightplan between Sion and Zürich, while the other half of the class were allowed to have a look in the AIM-section at Skyguide Dübendorf. After about 15 minutes, positions switched and we were allowed. About 10,000 flight plans per year pass those small desks we went to visit and about 200 AIP's, all kept up-to-date of course, are available in print-out and on computer for flight briefing. Quite a big business for such a small office and once again a proof that looks can be deceiving.
In the afternoon, we had NAV, in which we had a progress test. About half of our class weren't properly informed about this, so the results were slightly below the required 80%. I got 79,16% with my 9.5/12, still being among the top of the class though, so we're lucky that these progress tests aren't taken into account for our final score.
In the final class of today's course, we had AGA with our class teacher Bruce. He's the one who introduced us to the term "POETS day". It's an aussy abbreviation for "Piss Off Early, Tomorrow's Saturday" so that's what we all did. Our class was scheduled to end at 16h45, but instead we finished at 16h05. Guess the instructors don't really like staying late either, so they rush us through the course if necessary. But even though we actually rushed through today's lesson, I don't have the feeling we missed out on anything. Everything was still very clear and understandable. If only all teachers could make a lesson go as fast as Bruce can. I'm sure we would have 5 days off and 2 days of school, instead of the other way around.
That's about it for today's school talk. That aside, we also had Michael's birthday (he blew out 24 candles today) to celebrate, which most of our group are doing at this very moment. Everyone but Damien (whose girlfriend is coming over for the weekend) and me (who doesn't like and isn't used to going out until 4 a.m.) went out to Zürich to party.
This concludes about the entire last 2 days in Wangen. I don't think I'll be writing any blogs this weekend, by the way. Not that I have a lot of plans made (only one is a virtual ATC-event on Sunday evening), but as this blog is still supposed to be about my ATCo course, I don't think it's of much use if I write you what I'm doing in the weekend. Feel free to let me know in the comments, though, if you want me to write what we are doing in our spare time as well.
Thanks for reading. See you on Monday.
Wednesday 27 October 2010
First marks in a long time
Hey again,
As the title explains, today we got our first marks of the training here. But before that, we had to wait an hour, because we first had ACD. Keep in mind, we have the same instructor for both ACD and ACT. After about an hour, in which we discussed Single Engine Utility Aircraft and how to recognize them, we finally got our marks. I passed the test with a beautiful 92% (2 questions, instead of one expected, with a wrong answer). Could've gotten a better result, with a tiny bit more attention to details but nothing I can do about it now...
Further in ACT, we got an introduction on how aircraft engines work internally.
In NAV, which we had after the morning break, we discussed the Earth's magnetism and speed. A few (small) errors made by the instructor, during the 2-hour course (eg. -273° Kelvin = 0° C according to him, while in reality it is the other way around) but most of us understood the explanation anyway.
After lunch, we had AN2 and RTB coming up. In AN2 we finished the airspace classes (A - G) and their characteristics, as well as how the general layout of these classes is in Switzerland, Austra, Italy, France and Germany. Apart from Germany and France, I don't really know why MUAC Students also need to learn the global structure, but I guess there's no chance of escaping it?
RTB is a new course for us, given by the Chief Instructor (Clive Pile, for the interested) at Skyguide, so I had actually expected it to be a thorough one. Turns out it's the exact opposite actually. Even though the material he'll be teaching us, will be very hard to learn (most of it will be "know this to the letter"-type of material) he has a certain relaxing effect on us. He also has a lot of experience (hence the position of CI probably) which gives him the opportunity of telling us all kinds of so-called "war stories" (= own experiences during or related to the job). One example is his life as an ATCo at Kai Tak Airport, near Hong Kong.
A normal approach at Kai Tak (this one actually does pretty decent)
After school, which was particularly early (16h05 instead of 16h45) I went home, surfed the web a bit and then went for a run with Kristof and Michael. Left the apartment at 17h55 and got back in at 18h50. Have to admit I didn't run the entire time, but I did manage to get an average of approximately 10-12km/h over a distance of 1 mile, despite the terrain. I am actually pretty proud of that (even though it killed the stamina I needed to continue the run afterwards).
Finished the day by some more surfing the web and a bit of ACD studying, tomorrow we start with RTB, continue with AN2 and ADY, to finish with RAD.
See you.
As the title explains, today we got our first marks of the training here. But before that, we had to wait an hour, because we first had ACD. Keep in mind, we have the same instructor for both ACD and ACT. After about an hour, in which we discussed Single Engine Utility Aircraft and how to recognize them, we finally got our marks. I passed the test with a beautiful 92% (2 questions, instead of one expected, with a wrong answer). Could've gotten a better result, with a tiny bit more attention to details but nothing I can do about it now...
Further in ACT, we got an introduction on how aircraft engines work internally.
In NAV, which we had after the morning break, we discussed the Earth's magnetism and speed. A few (small) errors made by the instructor, during the 2-hour course (eg. -273° Kelvin = 0° C according to him, while in reality it is the other way around) but most of us understood the explanation anyway.
After lunch, we had AN2 and RTB coming up. In AN2 we finished the airspace classes (A - G) and their characteristics, as well as how the general layout of these classes is in Switzerland, Austra, Italy, France and Germany. Apart from Germany and France, I don't really know why MUAC Students also need to learn the global structure, but I guess there's no chance of escaping it?
RTB is a new course for us, given by the Chief Instructor (Clive Pile, for the interested) at Skyguide, so I had actually expected it to be a thorough one. Turns out it's the exact opposite actually. Even though the material he'll be teaching us, will be very hard to learn (most of it will be "know this to the letter"-type of material) he has a certain relaxing effect on us. He also has a lot of experience (hence the position of CI probably) which gives him the opportunity of telling us all kinds of so-called "war stories" (= own experiences during or related to the job). One example is his life as an ATCo at Kai Tak Airport, near Hong Kong.
A normal approach at Kai Tak (this one actually does pretty decent)
After school, which was particularly early (16h05 instead of 16h45) I went home, surfed the web a bit and then went for a run with Kristof and Michael. Left the apartment at 17h55 and got back in at 18h50. Have to admit I didn't run the entire time, but I did manage to get an average of approximately 10-12km/h over a distance of 1 mile, despite the terrain. I am actually pretty proud of that (even though it killed the stamina I needed to continue the run afterwards).
Finished the day by some more surfing the web and a bit of ACD studying, tomorrow we start with RTB, continue with AN2 and ADY, to finish with RAD.
See you.
Tuesday 26 October 2010
The longest day...
... until now. Today, classes started at 08h15 and ended at 17h40. But even though this was the longest day, I think it will at the same time be one of the shortest blogs I've written so far.
In the morning, all we had was TRM, which is short for Team Resource Management. This will be a course, held to enhance the teamspirit among us by getting to know each other a bit better. So that's what we did: a thorough introduction by everyone, including personal background in studies, family, relationships, hobbies etc.
As this took about 4 hours to complete, we went straight to lunch when this course ended. Thereafter we had FPL, AGA and FBK in the afternoon.
In FPL we ended the main part of how to fill in a flight plan, in only 8 lessons, so I figure that will be all for that subject. We do have another FPL lesson scheduled upcoming Friday, but I have no idea what we'll see in there.
In AGA, we discussed different distances on a runway and taxiway/runway markings.
FBK was a new subject, which wasn't on the initial planning and is an abbreviation for FEEDBACK (quite obvious if you think about it). Dave came in and asked us how we had experienced the first week and what we would like to see improved.
That was about it for today. Tomorrow we have ACD, ACT, NAV, AN2 and RTB (this last is a new subject for us, wonder what it will be exactly).
See you tomorrow.
In the morning, all we had was TRM, which is short for Team Resource Management. This will be a course, held to enhance the teamspirit among us by getting to know each other a bit better. So that's what we did: a thorough introduction by everyone, including personal background in studies, family, relationships, hobbies etc.
As this took about 4 hours to complete, we went straight to lunch when this course ended. Thereafter we had FPL, AGA and FBK in the afternoon.
In FPL we ended the main part of how to fill in a flight plan, in only 8 lessons, so I figure that will be all for that subject. We do have another FPL lesson scheduled upcoming Friday, but I have no idea what we'll see in there.
In AGA, we discussed different distances on a runway and taxiway/runway markings.
FBK was a new subject, which wasn't on the initial planning and is an abbreviation for FEEDBACK (quite obvious if you think about it). Dave came in and asked us how we had experienced the first week and what we would like to see improved.
That was about it for today. Tomorrow we have ACD, ACT, NAV, AN2 and RTB (this last is a new subject for us, wonder what it will be exactly).
See you tomorrow.
Monday 25 October 2010
Here I am again
Hey,
As you have most likely noticed, no blogs came online after the one I wrote Thursday. There was only one reason for this, and that was my girlfriend staying over for the weekend. I won't go into much detail about this (some will love me for this, others will hate me) but this:
I had a great time seeing her again. :-D
Time to get back to the main topic, my training here, of this blog now. I'll begin where I left you guys and that was last Friday.
We started the day with AN2 and FPL in the morning. AN2 was a new subject so I remember being a bit anxious about it as I didn't really know what to expect of it. It was however soon clear, when we had had the first 5 minutes of class. Different kinds of airspace classes, airfield identifiers etc. is what we'll be discussing during these hours. FPL was just some further information about how to fill in an international Flight Plan. No biggie, really.
In the afternoon, we had ACD, ACT and NAV. ACD was nothing interesting (not for this blog at least) so won't talk about that, but in ACT, we found out what our first test would be here in Switzerland, namely a progress exam about lesson 1-3. Finally, to end Friday's course, we learned how to calculate the distance between two given coordinates on this blue planet called Earth.
I then rushed home, looked up information on the internet on how to get the airport by public transport (which was actually not as simple as it sounds) but luckily found other means of transport (thanks, Lars). After about a two hour wait for me (and only an extra 30 minutes of delay for her), Marjolein had finally landed at Zürich Airport.
On Sunday, we both went to the airport again, where she left me standing in front of the check-in. The first time ever I experienced one of those romantic movie-scenes where they both want to run back and fly in each other’s arms again. The only difference was, there's was no such moment. It's a shame that every hello has to end with a goodbye.
Back to the things at hand now: the courses we had today.
Started with FPL, ACD and ACT. Nothing special in FPL and ACD, but as mentioned before: the first Progress Test we had here in Switzerland. If I'm right, I should have gotten a 96 or 100% on that test today. Might have 1 question wrong due to a (to me) unclear picture. For those who are somewhat familiar with airplane primary control surfaces: there was a picture of an tail section and the question was whether we saw a horizontal stabilizer or a stabilator.
In the afternoon, we had RAD and BRT. Had some troubles staying up through RAD, because of the teaching method, and BRT was pretty much things I already knew. We also finished early because of good progress in the BRT-lessons.
When I got home, I met the cleaning lady of our apartment for the first time. She was standing about 30cm behind the door, I just opened and not knowing she was there, so at first she scared the living **** out of me, but then we had some small talk about what she had done in the house etc. Not really an easy thing to do if she doesn't speak English, and I only speak half a word of German.
Tomorrow we have TRM - whatever that may be is completely unknown to me - the entire morning, and we're filling the afternoon with FPL and AGA.
Talk to you later.
Thursday 21 October 2010
List of course acronyms
- ACD: Aircraft Data
- ACT: Aircract Technique
- ADY: Aerodynamics
- AGA: Aerodrome Ground Aids
- AN1: International and National Aviation Agencies
- AN2: Division of Airspace and Services
- AVE: Aviation English
- BRT/BRG: Basic Radio Telephony / Basic Radio Groups
- COF: Customer Focus
- FPL: Flight Plan and Associated Messages
- LAW: Aviation Law
- MET: Meteorology
- NAS: Modern and Future Navigation Systems
- NAV: Navigation
- PER: Performance
- RAD: Radar Theory
- RAT: Radio Theory
- RSX: Basic Radar Simulation
- RTB: Radar Procedure
- SAF: Swiss Air Force
- TRM: Human Factor Training
- TSX: Basic Tower Simulation
- TTX: General Tower Theory
- TTY: Local Procedures for Omega (note: Omega is our simulation area)
Yet another day of learning
Here I am once again, with a new blog. I've had some complaints about my last blogs being too long and I must admit, they are somewhat lengthier than the average "hello, how are you, goodbye"-conversations. This, unfortunately (?), is my writing style, but I'll do my absolute best in trying to keep it short...ish.
Today we started the morning with AGA, ACD and ACT. I'll be using the acronyms, as it's just quicker and easier for me, but I'll put a blog online to explain what every acronym means as well, so there's no reason to panic. ;-)
AGA was some basic information about the difference between airfields and airports, explanation on what (limited) customs are etc. Also the basic layout of and markings on an aerodrome were explained.
ACD was more about recognizing different kinds of aircraft (nose, wings, engines, gear and/or tail are the most important factors to distinguish one aircraft from another). Personally I had expected a bit more about climb rates, maximum speeds etc, but I guess we'll be seeing that in PER.
In ACT we were taught about the primary control surfaces of an aircraft and its axes. Not too complicated yet, if you have a bit of knowledge about aviation.
The afternoon was filled with ADY and RAD. 2 lessons, each taking approximately 2 hours.
ADY was the funniest course of today. Our instructor, Erik, had brought all kinds of items with him (almost anything you can find between a pingpong ball to a vacuum cleaner) in order to show us some special capabilities of air flows. Have you ever tried making a ping pong ball fly with a straw? We had to today, in order to understand the principle of how lift is generated. It actually made learning the stuff quite interesting. When I first read we would have lessons of ADY as well, I thought these would be SOOOO boring I'd fall asleep just by the thought of it. Now I'm actually looking forward to the next course. Kudos to Erik for that.
Radar however, was the most boring course this week. Could be that my judgement was impaired by the great class we had before, but all we had to do was sit down, watch and listen ourself through a sort of powerpoint (and solve a few questions along the way) and try to learn things. Almost no interactivity, hardly any interesting facts and this all at the end of the day. Self-study they call it... I think I'll watch, I'm sorry, learn it when I really can't sleep.
For the last few days, the skies over Dubendorf were very cloudy but today, we actually had clear skies !!
On my way home, I discovered something about our region which actually astonished me. While I believed there were only hills in this area, there are actually mountains further up ahead.
After taking some pictures, we all went to the Gemeindeverwaltung (I suppose the translation is City Hall) to register ourselves as students in Switzerland, at a costly price of CHF 20 just to have a paper filled out, but luckily all costs are reimbursed.
Tomorrow, I'll first have an entire day of school (08h15 - 16h45 again, luckily the last one this week) but then my girlfriend is coming over for the weekend, expected to arrive at Zurich-Kloten Airport at 21h10. Can't wait for the weekend to start. :-D
Today we started the morning with AGA, ACD and ACT. I'll be using the acronyms, as it's just quicker and easier for me, but I'll put a blog online to explain what every acronym means as well, so there's no reason to panic. ;-)
AGA was some basic information about the difference between airfields and airports, explanation on what (limited) customs are etc. Also the basic layout of and markings on an aerodrome were explained.
ACD was more about recognizing different kinds of aircraft (nose, wings, engines, gear and/or tail are the most important factors to distinguish one aircraft from another). Personally I had expected a bit more about climb rates, maximum speeds etc, but I guess we'll be seeing that in PER.
In ACT we were taught about the primary control surfaces of an aircraft and its axes. Not too complicated yet, if you have a bit of knowledge about aviation.
The afternoon was filled with ADY and RAD. 2 lessons, each taking approximately 2 hours.
ADY was the funniest course of today. Our instructor, Erik, had brought all kinds of items with him (almost anything you can find between a pingpong ball to a vacuum cleaner) in order to show us some special capabilities of air flows. Have you ever tried making a ping pong ball fly with a straw? We had to today, in order to understand the principle of how lift is generated. It actually made learning the stuff quite interesting. When I first read we would have lessons of ADY as well, I thought these would be SOOOO boring I'd fall asleep just by the thought of it. Now I'm actually looking forward to the next course. Kudos to Erik for that.
Radar however, was the most boring course this week. Could be that my judgement was impaired by the great class we had before, but all we had to do was sit down, watch and listen ourself through a sort of powerpoint (and solve a few questions along the way) and try to learn things. Almost no interactivity, hardly any interesting facts and this all at the end of the day. Self-study they call it... I think I'll watch, I'm sorry, learn it when I really can't sleep.
For the last few days, the skies over Dubendorf were very cloudy but today, we actually had clear skies !!
On my way home, I discovered something about our region which actually astonished me. While I believed there were only hills in this area, there are actually mountains further up ahead.
The view from our balcony on a sunny day, when looking in an easterly direction.
After taking some pictures, we all went to the Gemeindeverwaltung (I suppose the translation is City Hall) to register ourselves as students in Switzerland, at a costly price of CHF 20 just to have a paper filled out, but luckily all costs are reimbursed.
Tomorrow, I'll first have an entire day of school (08h15 - 16h45 again, luckily the last one this week) but then my girlfriend is coming over for the weekend, expected to arrive at Zurich-Kloten Airport at 21h10. Can't wait for the weekend to start. :-D
See you later.
Wednesday 20 October 2010
20/10/2010: A beautiful day
A beautiful day it was indeed. Though it actually started with some drizzle, today was our first day filled with classes. According to the online schedule, we started our actual training with FPL01: Flight Planning and Related Messages lesson 1.
So our first 2 lessons were about Flight Plans (hereafter FPL). We received a Swiss FPL (of course, they have to be different) and were told it was an exact copy of the international one, but for the header. At a slow pace were we introduced to the importance of an FPL, its purpose, the different kinds of flight etc. As I already know a bit about FPL filling (thank you, IVAO), most of it was just a small reviewing.
After our morning-break, we had an introduction to Basic Radio Telephony (hereafter BRT). Again, thanks to IVAO, this was just some reviewing, as all we've seen is the alphabet (alfa -> zulu) and numbers (wun -> niner).
Time for lunch again, with gordon blue and french fries on the menu. Of course, being Belgian, there was no doubt about it I went for the french fries (why do they even call it FRENCH fries? O_o). With the coupon we received yesterday, we had a full meal for only CHF 5.
After lunch, we had Navigation (hereafter NAV), in which we would learn about all sorts of ... *pause for dramatic effect* ... navigation. This will include both visual and instrumental navigation. But there's more to NAV than you think. And we thought.
Apparently, we will be required to learn how to work with a Jeppesen Model CR-3 Computer. I have had it in my hands before, I had it in my hands then and I didn't understand one bit of it. Luckily, now it's all coming to me and I can already do some basic converting. It actually looks complicated whereas I think it actually isn't.
This is what we'll have to be able to use in order to convert and calculate things. Help?
We also had a part of Computer-Based Training (hereafter CBT) in which we were to "discover" Earth's characteristics. One example of what we have to know is: The Earth is an ellipsoid rotating around the sun in 365.25 days, and rotating around it's own axis in an angle of 23.5° off longitudinal center.
I have a feeling NAV might be one of the difficult subjects. :-/
After our afternoon break, we had Aircraft Technique (hereafter ACT), in which we will be learning more about the techniques used to build aircraft, what the most important parts of an aircraft are etc.
To end the day, us MUAC students only, would've had a HR-course, lasting 2 hours, but fortunately for us the instructor didn't show up. After a first day of classes, I think it would've been too much if we had been obliged to sit there for another 2 hours. We all went back to our apartment and called it a day.
We started working on our homework, got in touch with relatives at home or just browsed the internet.
Now it's time for bed again. For the next weeks, we're expected to be at school from 8h15 until 16h45, so long days are ahead, so we can use all the sleep we can get. I'll blog again tomorrow, if time permits. Having seen the material today, I might not have time to write every single day, which is actually pretty much what I expected. We'll see, I guess.
Thanks again for reading my blog. Hope you keep following it. :)
This week's classes (starting hours)
Wednesday:
08.15: FPL01
09.05: Break
09.10: FPL02
10.00: Break
10.20: BRT01
11.10: Break
11.15: BRT02
12.05: Lunch
13.00: NAV01
13.50: Break
13.55: NAV02
14.45: Break
15.00: ACT01
15.50: Break
15.55: HR
Thursday:
08.15: AGA01
09:05: Break
09.10: AGA02
10.00: Break
10.20: ACD01
11.10: Break
11.15: ACT02
12.05: Lunch
13.00: ADY01
13.50: Break
13.55: ADY02
14.45: Break
15.00: RAD1
15.50: Break
15.55: RAD02
Friday:
08.15: AN2
09.05: Break
09.10: AN2
10.00: Break
10.20: FPL03
11.10: Break
11.15: FPL04
12.05: Lunch
13.00: ACD02
13.50: Break
13.55: ACT03
14.45: Break
15.00: NAV03
15.50: Break
15.55: NAV04
08.15: FPL01
09.05: Break
09.10: FPL02
10.00: Break
10.20: BRT01
11.10: Break
11.15: BRT02
12.05: Lunch
13.00: NAV01
13.50: Break
13.55: NAV02
14.45: Break
15.00: ACT01
15.50: Break
15.55: HR
Thursday:
08.15: AGA01
09:05: Break
09.10: AGA02
10.00: Break
10.20: ACD01
11.10: Break
11.15: ACT02
12.05: Lunch
13.00: ADY01
13.50: Break
13.55: ADY02
14.45: Break
15.00: RAD1
15.50: Break
15.55: RAD02
Friday:
08.15: AN2
09.05: Break
09.10: AN2
10.00: Break
10.20: FPL03
11.10: Break
11.15: FPL04
12.05: Lunch
13.00: ACD02
13.50: Break
13.55: ACT03
14.45: Break
15.00: NAV03
15.50: Break
15.55: NAV04
Some catching up to do
OK, so as the title suggest I'm trying to catch up by writing yesterday's blog now. The one from today will (normally) follow later tonight.
Still tired after the last night, I woke up around 7 a.m. again and started writing on my (then already late) blog. If we had started at 8h30 I'm sure I could've made it and wouldn't need to catch up now. Unfortunately, we started at 8h15 and this made it impossible for me to complete my entire post then.
Our day at Skyguide began with asking if our badges had already arrived. Unfortunately, they hadn't, so we we got visitor badges once again. After entering the building, our first course was a 3 hour-introduction to the SCS and LMS, by Cornelius Bona. In short, this was an introduction to the e-learning system used by Skyguide.
After this lesson, we were allowed to go have lunch, only this time we didn't get it for free and had to pay CHF 12 instead of 10, because we were externals according to the lady at the cash register. Our badges said so, so we didn't really have a chance of arguing (which doesn't mean we didn't a bit).
Luckily, she came around and asked who our contact was within the building and after a while, we all got CHF 2 back. Doesn't seem like a lot, but in this country, every franc is welcome.
In the afternoon we were once again welcomed to Skyguide. This time by Bruce, an ozzy who appears to have been appointed as our class teacher. He was the only one left out of a group of ... well, one. He introduced us to a small part of the instructor's team, gave us our locker keys, containing our study material, and also gave instructions on how to know the weekly schedule, as well as what the school rules are. To end his course, he showed us around some buildings, including the simulation in Building A. These sims are identical to the real radar and tower environments, as they are needed to familiarize the students with the environments and are used as platform to check if licensed ATCO's still know what to do in certain (rare) situations.
Still tired after the last night, I woke up around 7 a.m. again and started writing on my (then already late) blog. If we had started at 8h30 I'm sure I could've made it and wouldn't need to catch up now. Unfortunately, we started at 8h15 and this made it impossible for me to complete my entire post then.
Our day at Skyguide began with asking if our badges had already arrived. Unfortunately, they hadn't, so we we got visitor badges once again. After entering the building, our first course was a 3 hour-introduction to the SCS and LMS, by Cornelius Bona. In short, this was an introduction to the e-learning system used by Skyguide.
After this lesson, we were allowed to go have lunch, only this time we didn't get it for free and had to pay CHF 12 instead of 10, because we were externals according to the lady at the cash register. Our badges said so, so we didn't really have a chance of arguing (which doesn't mean we didn't a bit).
Luckily, she came around and asked who our contact was within the building and after a while, we all got CHF 2 back. Doesn't seem like a lot, but in this country, every franc is welcome.
In the afternoon we were once again welcomed to Skyguide. This time by Bruce, an ozzy who appears to have been appointed as our class teacher. He was the only one left out of a group of ... well, one. He introduced us to a small part of the instructor's team, gave us our locker keys, containing our study material, and also gave instructions on how to know the weekly schedule, as well as what the school rules are. To end his course, he showed us around some buildings, including the simulation in Building A. These sims are identical to the real radar and tower environments, as they are needed to familiarize the students with the environments and are used as platform to check if licensed ATCO's still know what to do in certain (rare) situations.
Luckily, this is only a sim.
After the visit to the sim, we were handed over from Bruce to Simone (or Simmie as we may call her, if we want to) who is the only 'licensed' staff member you can go to if you have serious pedagogical issues. If you have, she will try to help you discovering learning styles and techniques which may aid you in studying easier. A lot of useful information, so I took a lot of notes, in case I would need to find out what kind of a study person I am.
At the end of the day, or so we thought, we had a Q&A - Open Forum. In short, this was the right moment to ask questions to some members of the staff, concerning the training here, the school, the rules etc.
To our big surprise, we weren't done yet. We were expected in Hanger 11, which is the name of the Skyguide-restaurant, for an introduction on where and how we had to queue for food. Since we had already done that the same afternoon, it wasn't really a mystery anymore, but it was obligatory, so everyone went. Some of us (including me) were late, because we had to ask Leda about our EUROCONTROL-badges, but we still managed to hear the most important things (different types of meals and prices and stuff like that). At the end, we received a coupon of CHF 5, which we could use in the restaurant, for free. That would mean that, if we bought the cheapest dish, we would only have to pay CHF 1,50 ourselves for a complete meal, which as you can imagine was like a godsent gift to us.
After school, we still had some shopping to do. We still needed a water heater, a toaster, microwave oven and a VGA-cable, for which we went to Media Markt, where I also bought a webcam as my built-in one doesn't work apparently. The guys from the other apartment bought the same as us, with an additional sandwich maker and electrical adapters so they could fit their plugs in Swiss sockets.
We also needed some food, so we went shopping in the nearby Aldi. Nothing fancy there, so not a lot to tell about.
We came home much earlier than the night before, so we still had a lot of time left before going to bed, which we used to eat, I continued my blog and we ended our day by hooking up my laptop to the TV and watch a movie (The Invention of Lying, for those interested).
As we now have our schedules, I can tell you what classes I'll have, but I'll do this in a separate blog.
Tuesday 19 October 2010
Let's get the show on the road
That's what I've been thinking yesterday morning. We finally were off. The doors will open, we'll meet the actors and see how it all evolves.
We started the day at ± 7 a.m. Getting up, taking showers, getting dressed etc. because we were expected to be on the premises of Skyguide Dübendorf at 8h15. Once there, we waited in the lobby/temporary lounge for Leda to come pick us up. When she did, we started our day at Skyguide by getting ourselves photographed in order to get personal badges that'll grant us access to all the places we'll be allowed to enter. These will include the buildings C, D and some limited access to building A.
- Building C is where we will get all our material (paper, pens etc.) from, should we need it.
- Building D is the actual training center. We'll probably be staying there for most of our time at Skyguide.
- Building A is where the actual Zürich ACC (both civil and military) is. Unfortunately, this section is off-limits to us not having the right clearances, but in the same building we have radar and tower simulators which, as far as I understood, will be available to us later in the training. We were told it isn't a playstation though, so no fun&games-section around here.
But that's where the staff comes in. At 9h30 (which was half an hour delay already), we were taken to the Amsterdam-room, where we would be welcomed and greeted by some members of the staff. These included, but weren't limited to the CEO of Skyguide, our Head of Training and our Head of Operations.
We got an introduction of the main structure of Skyguide from the staff, before we had to introduce ourselves to the group.
The group is a mixture of Skyguide-students, Apron-control-students and EUROCONTROL-students and we are 20 combined (it's 10 - 2 - 8, I believe). It soon came out we all have different backgrounds and as such different stories to tell.
Afterwards, the staff went, having more important things to do, like managing an Air Navigation Service Provider (hereafter ANSP), and we were greeted by Angela Cachin, who gave us an in-depth introduction on Skyguide and air traffic in Europe and around the world, of which I will spare you the details.
Because we were already half an hour behind schedule, we were only allowed 5 minutes of coffee break instead of 30, but eventually we ended up squeezing 10 out of it, so it wasn't all lost just yet. Back to the Amsterdam-room for a lecture about safety on the premises of Dübendorf. How to react in case of emergencies, what can we do and more importantly, what CAN'T we do, where are the fire extinguishers, first aid kits, emergency exits etc.
We were told we can't lend anyone our personal badges, because it is caught on tape and registered in a central system, so sorry guys if you wanted to come over and have a look yourself. You just won't get in with my badge. I doubt I'll be allowed to take guests in as well.
Then, the second big moment of the day, receiving our personal badges!! Or at least, so we thought. I was really looking forward to seeing my own picture (even though it's a bad one) on a badge, so it was quite an anti-climax to hear EUROCONTROL-students couldn't have any yet, because of some communication mishaps between EUROCONTROL and Skyguide. But hopefully we'll get them today (more later on about why I'm writing today).
Our morning schedule ended with an introduction by Leda about practical information in this region. This included for example, how and where we should register ourselves as students in this country etc.
The final part of this introduction was only of importance to Skyguide-students, so we were able to have lunch already.
FINALLY, a voice in my head screamed.
Another small anti-climax though. The caterers were told to come by the time the Skyguide-students had had their entire lecture as well, so we found ourselves trying some of the weird-looking amuse gueules. Luckily for us, there was soup a bit later (we believe it was pumpkin, but with the whipped cream on the bottom and in the small shot-glasses it was quite hard to tell) and eventually also lunch.
Our lunch existed out of rice, chicken and scampi. Very tasteful and obviously inspired by the Asian culture. Even the room we were having lunch in, had all sorts of Japanese items.
During lunch, we also had some small talk with some people of the management, about all sorts of things really. Obviously, being Belgian, our political 'issues' passed by as well, but I managed to talk my way out of it without really saying anything important. 1-0 for me, Skyguide, though I have a feeling you'll get back at me with the training, so I better watch out.
We started our afternoon with a personal introduction by the Head of Training, David 'Dave' Kocher, in the Constellation-room. He gave us an introduction to the Skyguide Training Center (hereafter STC) and what is to be expected of the course and our stay here. For those who have followed lessons in the Atheneum of Veurne, by the way. Dave reminds me an awful lot of Geert Costenoble, both in appearance and handling. About the only difference is, he's not caucasian.
To those who don't know him, he was my English teacher in the last three years of high school. ;-)
We ended our time at Skyguide with a mentoring introduction. We were greeted by Yvonne and Olivier, two psychologists working for Skyguide, who gave us more information on where, how and when we could contact them if we felt it to be necessary.
At the end of their tutoring, they asked us to accompany them outside, where they had laid down a circle. In this circle, there were about 7 blocks of wood which we needed to stack onto each other. Of course, it wasn't as simple as it looked. To do this, we had to stay out of the circle and had to use ropes and some sort of coat hanger to pick up the blocks and put them correctly on each other.
First time, we failed miserably. Everyone new to the game, no communication at all, everybody doing as they please etc.
Second time went smoother. There was some communication and some people were already getting the hang of it. We still failed to stack more than two though.
The third and final time was, as expected, the best run. We had a pretty decent communication, people knew sort of what was expected from them and we were able to think out of the box to get things sorted out. We did, however, not manage to stack more than three. Pity. Better luck next time, I guess.
Which was already quite obvious, was confirmed. This game's only objective was to encourage teamwork. As the results show, we got further by using it and showed as such the advantages of working together. A lesson not to be forgotten for sure.
Then we all went home and took care of our own personal things. We decided all to go to IKEA and shop for our apartment. We had asked and most, if not all, things would be reimbursed by Skyguide if the "investment" was deemed necessary for the apartment. This lead to us walking around in IKEA for about 3 hours. Of these three hours, we spent most shopping time at the least expected place: the light bulb section. For some reason, most guys just couldn't decide which lamp to take so we spent more than 20 minutes there, before we were finally able to move further. I already had my lamp, by the way (brought it with me from home) so I'm not to blame !!
We went for dinner in the IKEA-restaurant (about the only place where you can get full meals at decent rates around here) before we went to the cash register. In the restaurant we suggested to open a bet, just for honour. Everyone had to guess how much everything would cost. To give you an idea, estimated prices were between CHF 200 and 400.
We went to the cashier and got to an astonishing CHF 427.80!!!
I'd actually wonder how Dave will look when we give him the receipt. For some reason, I don't think he'll be thrilled. Especially since he knows this doesn't include the desired water heater, toaster and microwave oven, (which we were allowed to buy, by the way)...
And this, in the end, brings me to why I'm writing this blog one day late. Yesterday evening, we were home so late, I just decided to go to bed and call it a night. I was just too tired after the long day (see for reference the length of this blog) to write this blog and still post it. I hope you can forgive me for this.
Not to break protocol though, I'll end as I normally do.
Tomorrow, we'll have SCS and LMS introductions (turned out to be something and Learning Management System, today) and an introduction by the instructors, general information about the school, schedules (finally), distribution of materials and a visit to the buildings (including the simulator). Thereafter we'll have a lecture about learning styles and techniques and we'll end the day with an open forum, in which we can as questions.
That was it for now. Thanks for reading.
We started the day at ± 7 a.m. Getting up, taking showers, getting dressed etc. because we were expected to be on the premises of Skyguide Dübendorf at 8h15. Once there, we waited in the lobby/temporary lounge for Leda to come pick us up. When she did, we started our day at Skyguide by getting ourselves photographed in order to get personal badges that'll grant us access to all the places we'll be allowed to enter. These will include the buildings C, D and some limited access to building A.
- Building C is where we will get all our material (paper, pens etc.) from, should we need it.
- Building D is the actual training center. We'll probably be staying there for most of our time at Skyguide.
- Building A is where the actual Zürich ACC (both civil and military) is. Unfortunately, this section is off-limits to us not having the right clearances, but in the same building we have radar and tower simulators which, as far as I understood, will be available to us later in the training. We were told it isn't a playstation though, so no fun&games-section around here.
But that's where the staff comes in. At 9h30 (which was half an hour delay already), we were taken to the Amsterdam-room, where we would be welcomed and greeted by some members of the staff. These included, but weren't limited to the CEO of Skyguide, our Head of Training and our Head of Operations.
We got an introduction of the main structure of Skyguide from the staff, before we had to introduce ourselves to the group.
The group is a mixture of Skyguide-students, Apron-control-students and EUROCONTROL-students and we are 20 combined (it's 10 - 2 - 8, I believe). It soon came out we all have different backgrounds and as such different stories to tell.
Afterwards, the staff went, having more important things to do, like managing an Air Navigation Service Provider (hereafter ANSP), and we were greeted by Angela Cachin, who gave us an in-depth introduction on Skyguide and air traffic in Europe and around the world, of which I will spare you the details.
Because we were already half an hour behind schedule, we were only allowed 5 minutes of coffee break instead of 30, but eventually we ended up squeezing 10 out of it, so it wasn't all lost just yet. Back to the Amsterdam-room for a lecture about safety on the premises of Dübendorf. How to react in case of emergencies, what can we do and more importantly, what CAN'T we do, where are the fire extinguishers, first aid kits, emergency exits etc.
We were told we can't lend anyone our personal badges, because it is caught on tape and registered in a central system, so sorry guys if you wanted to come over and have a look yourself. You just won't get in with my badge. I doubt I'll be allowed to take guests in as well.
Then, the second big moment of the day, receiving our personal badges!! Or at least, so we thought. I was really looking forward to seeing my own picture (even though it's a bad one) on a badge, so it was quite an anti-climax to hear EUROCONTROL-students couldn't have any yet, because of some communication mishaps between EUROCONTROL and Skyguide. But hopefully we'll get them today (more later on about why I'm writing today).
Our morning schedule ended with an introduction by Leda about practical information in this region. This included for example, how and where we should register ourselves as students in this country etc.
The final part of this introduction was only of importance to Skyguide-students, so we were able to have lunch already.
FINALLY, a voice in my head screamed.
Another small anti-climax though. The caterers were told to come by the time the Skyguide-students had had their entire lecture as well, so we found ourselves trying some of the weird-looking amuse gueules. Luckily for us, there was soup a bit later (we believe it was pumpkin, but with the whipped cream on the bottom and in the small shot-glasses it was quite hard to tell) and eventually also lunch.
Our lunch existed out of rice, chicken and scampi. Very tasteful and obviously inspired by the Asian culture. Even the room we were having lunch in, had all sorts of Japanese items.
During lunch, we also had some small talk with some people of the management, about all sorts of things really. Obviously, being Belgian, our political 'issues' passed by as well, but I managed to talk my way out of it without really saying anything important. 1-0 for me, Skyguide, though I have a feeling you'll get back at me with the training, so I better watch out.
We started our afternoon with a personal introduction by the Head of Training, David 'Dave' Kocher, in the Constellation-room. He gave us an introduction to the Skyguide Training Center (hereafter STC) and what is to be expected of the course and our stay here. For those who have followed lessons in the Atheneum of Veurne, by the way. Dave reminds me an awful lot of Geert Costenoble, both in appearance and handling. About the only difference is, he's not caucasian.
To those who don't know him, he was my English teacher in the last three years of high school. ;-)
We ended our time at Skyguide with a mentoring introduction. We were greeted by Yvonne and Olivier, two psychologists working for Skyguide, who gave us more information on where, how and when we could contact them if we felt it to be necessary.
At the end of their tutoring, they asked us to accompany them outside, where they had laid down a circle. In this circle, there were about 7 blocks of wood which we needed to stack onto each other. Of course, it wasn't as simple as it looked. To do this, we had to stay out of the circle and had to use ropes and some sort of coat hanger to pick up the blocks and put them correctly on each other.
First time, we failed miserably. Everyone new to the game, no communication at all, everybody doing as they please etc.
Second time went smoother. There was some communication and some people were already getting the hang of it. We still failed to stack more than two though.
The third and final time was, as expected, the best run. We had a pretty decent communication, people knew sort of what was expected from them and we were able to think out of the box to get things sorted out. We did, however, not manage to stack more than three. Pity. Better luck next time, I guess.
Which was already quite obvious, was confirmed. This game's only objective was to encourage teamwork. As the results show, we got further by using it and showed as such the advantages of working together. A lesson not to be forgotten for sure.
Then we all went home and took care of our own personal things. We decided all to go to IKEA and shop for our apartment. We had asked and most, if not all, things would be reimbursed by Skyguide if the "investment" was deemed necessary for the apartment. This lead to us walking around in IKEA for about 3 hours. Of these three hours, we spent most shopping time at the least expected place: the light bulb section. For some reason, most guys just couldn't decide which lamp to take so we spent more than 20 minutes there, before we were finally able to move further. I already had my lamp, by the way (brought it with me from home) so I'm not to blame !!
We went for dinner in the IKEA-restaurant (about the only place where you can get full meals at decent rates around here) before we went to the cash register. In the restaurant we suggested to open a bet, just for honour. Everyone had to guess how much everything would cost. To give you an idea, estimated prices were between CHF 200 and 400.
We went to the cashier and got to an astonishing CHF 427.80!!!
A visual reference of our TWO carts at IKEA, put next to each other.
I'd actually wonder how Dave will look when we give him the receipt. For some reason, I don't think he'll be thrilled. Especially since he knows this doesn't include the desired water heater, toaster and microwave oven, (which we were allowed to buy, by the way)...
And this, in the end, brings me to why I'm writing this blog one day late. Yesterday evening, we were home so late, I just decided to go to bed and call it a night. I was just too tired after the long day (see for reference the length of this blog) to write this blog and still post it. I hope you can forgive me for this.
Not to break protocol though, I'll end as I normally do.
Tomorrow, we'll have SCS and LMS introductions (turned out to be something and Learning Management System, today) and an introduction by the instructors, general information about the school, schedules (finally), distribution of materials and a visit to the buildings (including the simulator). Thereafter we'll have a lecture about learning styles and techniques and we'll end the day with an open forum, in which we can as questions.
That was it for now. Thanks for reading.
Sunday 17 October 2010
Day 2: Zürich
Today will probably be our last day on which we have absolutely nothing to do, so as the title suggests, we went to Zürich. But my day started earlier than the others.
I met my parents and went to the airport with them to change my Euros (€) into Swiss Francs (CHF), as that's one of the very few places where that can be done around here.
When they dropped me off at the apartment, they had to drive all the way back to Oostduinkerke, so I had to wave them goodbye. Though I didn't burst into tears, I have to admit it gave me chills, knowing I won't be seeing them again until December. Even just thinking about it now, makes me a bit emotional... (Sorry mom, if this makes you cry :-/)
Right after we had separated, I got a telephone from the other group asking when and where we would meet to go to Zürich. As we hadn't seen their apartment yet, we decided first to go there, have a look and then all head together to the Dübendorf Bahnhof.
Though the exterior of their apartment seemed a bit ugly (scaffolding and such), the interior was as nice or perhaps even nicer than our apartment. A large living room, a separated kitchen (with broken oven), 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
With about half an hour of delay as Lars still had to take a shower, we walked to the train station which took us another 25 minutes and were forced to buy tickets. Our first encounter with the Swiss fares. Even though Dübendorf - Zurich HB is only about 10 minutes, it cost us CHF 12.40 (€9.25) for a two zone-ticket.
Once in Zürich, we had another encounter with the high prices. Nearly nowhere were we able to find a place where you could eat a decent meal for less then CHF 20,- (unless you're into fast food). Eventually we went into a place where prices seemed somewhat fair and ended up eating pizza or kebab. Not a really healthy alternative for fast-food but it had to do, given the prices.
After eating, we went through a shopping street and saw prices we couldn't even imagine. There was a small statue (only 30 cm in height or so and made in bronze or copper) of a man's torso, or at least we think that was it, going for the modest price of only CHF 1,880. We were already getting out our wallets when we noticed the shop was closed. Too bad. :-(
A bit later, we saw a jacket going for only CHF 4,500 and a coat for CHF 3,500 and they weren't even that nice...
Going back home, we all bought ourselves a Swiss SIM-card (my new Swiss number is 0041 76 737 3755, by the way and I won't be using my Belgian number anymore in Switzerland) in the train station of Zürich. Even though prices in Switzerland are as high as the mountains, these SIM-cards actually allow us to send text messages around the globe for only CHF 0.10 (€0.07) and call and text each other for only CHF 0.05 (€0.04).
We went back to the apartment, had dinner - Thanks for making up for yesterday, Jen. The pasta was lovely. (I CAN be nice to you as well, you see?) - and then I decided to get to my room, do some ATC'ing on IVAO one last time before I get to the real thing tomorrow and go to bed.
Tomorrow we'll have our first day at Skyguide. I'm a bit nervous how it's going to be actually. A whole new world will open to me. Hopefully I like the scenery. :-)
I met my parents and went to the airport with them to change my Euros (€) into Swiss Francs (CHF), as that's one of the very few places where that can be done around here.
When they dropped me off at the apartment, they had to drive all the way back to Oostduinkerke, so I had to wave them goodbye. Though I didn't burst into tears, I have to admit it gave me chills, knowing I won't be seeing them again until December. Even just thinking about it now, makes me a bit emotional... (Sorry mom, if this makes you cry :-/)
Right after we had separated, I got a telephone from the other group asking when and where we would meet to go to Zürich. As we hadn't seen their apartment yet, we decided first to go there, have a look and then all head together to the Dübendorf Bahnhof.
Though the exterior of their apartment seemed a bit ugly (scaffolding and such), the interior was as nice or perhaps even nicer than our apartment. A large living room, a separated kitchen (with broken oven), 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
With about half an hour of delay as Lars still had to take a shower, we walked to the train station which took us another 25 minutes and were forced to buy tickets. Our first encounter with the Swiss fares. Even though Dübendorf - Zurich HB is only about 10 minutes, it cost us CHF 12.40 (€9.25) for a two zone-ticket.
Once in Zürich, we had another encounter with the high prices. Nearly nowhere were we able to find a place where you could eat a decent meal for less then CHF 20,- (unless you're into fast food). Eventually we went into a place where prices seemed somewhat fair and ended up eating pizza or kebab. Not a really healthy alternative for fast-food but it had to do, given the prices.
After eating, we went through a shopping street and saw prices we couldn't even imagine. There was a small statue (only 30 cm in height or so and made in bronze or copper) of a man's torso, or at least we think that was it, going for the modest price of only CHF 1,880. We were already getting out our wallets when we noticed the shop was closed. Too bad. :-(
A bit later, we saw a jacket going for only CHF 4,500 and a coat for CHF 3,500 and they weren't even that nice...
Going back home, we all bought ourselves a Swiss SIM-card (my new Swiss number is 0041 76 737 3755, by the way and I won't be using my Belgian number anymore in Switzerland) in the train station of Zürich. Even though prices in Switzerland are as high as the mountains, these SIM-cards actually allow us to send text messages around the globe for only CHF 0.10 (€0.07) and call and text each other for only CHF 0.05 (€0.04).
We went back to the apartment, had dinner - Thanks for making up for yesterday, Jen. The pasta was lovely. (I CAN be nice to you as well, you see?) - and then I decided to get to my room, do some ATC'ing on IVAO one last time before I get to the real thing tomorrow and go to bed.
Tomorrow we'll have our first day at Skyguide. I'm a bit nervous how it's going to be actually. A whole new world will open to me. Hopefully I like the scenery. :-)
Saturday 16 October 2010
I'm there
So,
Today was the day. Got up very early and dragged myself in the car at around 5 a.m. The road ahead was long (± 820 km) and took more than 9 hours to complete.
Today was the day. Got up very early and dragged myself in the car at around 5 a.m. The road ahead was long (± 820 km) and took more than 9 hours to complete.
*yawn*
The trip took us through Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Switzerland and around 14h15 we finally arrived at the apartment (address: Mathias Jacobs-Anseeuw, Skyguide, Haldenstrasse 65a, 8602 Wangen; for those who want to write me a card)
My driver for the day. Thanks dad.
When I finally arrived at the apartment, I stood waiting for a closed door, as Jennifer (the only woman in our company) had decided to go shopping at that precise moment. We went by my parents' hotel for the night before returning to the apartment, where we met Jennifer, Mike (Jen's husband who's leaving before we start the course) and Willem.
After picking the smallest room of 2 left, I unpacked the first of my 6 bags (those include my notebook, camera and keyboard bags) and went shopping for food and drinks. Soon after, I was again expected in the apartment where I was greeted by Leda (our Skyguide contact), Michael and Kristof. After giving us a thorough explanation of how we can get around the neighbourhood, Leda took Michael and Kristof to their apartment, located about a kilometer away.
We finished the day by eating a pizza, some mixed salad with a bit of cleaning product flavour (thank you, Jen), and some surfing the web.
Tomorrow we're planning to go sight seeing in Zurich, which promises to be fun.:-)
Again, if you have any remarks of questions: fire away.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)