Wednesday, October 24, 2012

ATPL theory: exams

My exams were separated between 3 phases and it took me 10 months to finish:

1ª phase
Air Law
Human Performance and Limitations
VFR Communications
Aircraft General Knowledge
Meteorology
IFR Commonications

2ª phase
Operational Procedures
Mass and Balance
Instrumentation
General Navigation
Principles of Flight

3ª phase
Radio Navigation
Performance
Flight Planning

Every phase was a week of exams in Lisbon so we had to search for accommodation and the choice was a residential with a good reputation/price in Areeiro.
Getting started the study for my first exam (Air Law)
Good study environment :)
 Studying in group was a great help because we could learn from the doubts of each other and sometimes during the exam when some of the questions we discussed appeared it was easier to answer.

0500am: Quick revision for Meteorology exam at 0900am
For the Meteorology exam, I and my friend put in practiced what we learned in Human Performance and Limitation :) - for every hour of sleep we gain energy for 2h awake (more about this on a future topic) - so we slept 3h, given us about 6h of mental sanity to do the exam. It WORKED!!!

View from my window - Areeiro, Lisbon
It was 10 months of hard work between classes, studying and working but I managed to get a great classification of 97%.


Monday, October 22, 2012

Background

I started looking up to the sky since my 11-12 years old seeing A-7's and F-16's that were based in an airbase near my home. The seed was planted!

After a few years the A-7 were phased out and I started to pass many hours just outside the airbase watching the F-16 practicing the landings
and waiting that one day I could sit in one of them. But that thought gone away after my second attempt to apply to Air Force due to my vision :(.

My next plan was to take a degree in engineering while saving some money to be some day an Airline Pilot. Right now I'm in the middle of my ATPL course doing the instrument training.

This blog born with the goal of sharing my flying experiences mostly like a pilot diary. I'm a person of few words but I'll try my best to give you an idea of the sensations and views from up there!

Hope you enjoy the flight... :)