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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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!!!

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.

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'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.

*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.

Intro

Well, this is it.

It's been a long way to get to this point, which took me little over a year to complete, but I made it. In little over a week, I'll be leaving home for Zurich, Switzerland, where I'll have the first part of my EUROCONTROL Air Traffic Controller (hereafter ATCo) Training Course.

I don't know yet how high the workload will be, but I'll try to write a new blog from time to time to keep you up to speed on how I am doing over there. The reason I'm writing in English is the international character EUROCONTROL and aviation in general have.

To give you an example of this character, there are 8 people to start the EUROCONTROL ATCo Course #55:
- 2 are Belgian (both male)
- 2 are Dutch (both male)
- 1 is French (male)
- 2 are German (both male)
- 1 is Irish (female)

The entire first part of the training will be given under the watchful eye of Skyguide, the Swiss Air Traffic Control (hereafter ATC) agency.

Those who are succesful in the first part, will then have to move to the Institute of Air Navigation Services (hereafter IANS) in Luxembourg for further training. Here, this training will be given by EUROCONTROL employees, as will it be in the Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (hereafter MUAC) in Maastricht, The Netherlands, where we will have the final stage of our training if succesful in Luxembourg.

The schedule for these parts, is as follows:
18 October - 28 January : Zurich, Switzerland
31 January - 4 July : Luxembourg, Luxembourg
12 July - unknown: Maastricht, The Netherlands

Those of us who will have succesfully gone through all parts of the course, will be employed as a qualified ATCo in the MUAC after the training. Even though the exact date will depend on personal progress , graduation day is expected to be somewhere around 2 years and 8 months after starting the course, which will be approximately Summer 2012.

That's about what I can think of right now for this blog. Feel free to leave remarks and/or questions under any of my blogs.

Kind regards,
Mathias