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.

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.

"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.

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.

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. ;-)

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.

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.