Never Give Up On A Dream

Observation flights

2009-08-23T03:05:00.008-07:00

Hi guys,

Except that I did some observation flights, nothing really happened the past few weeks. At the moment there are no Belgium companies hiring and in the rest of the world it isn't going well either. Sitting at home isn't that fun and I want to stay in touch with the aviation world, so I selected a whole bunch of Observation flights with Jetairfly. I did last week 3 of them and Tuesday I will have another one.

1st : 10th of August - B737NG - OO-JBG - Souda (CHQ) Greece
2nd : 19th of August - B767-300 - OO-TUC - Tangier Boukhalef (TNG) Maroc
3th : 21st of August - B737CL - OO-TUA - Madeira (FNC)

and Tuesday I will go to Girona (GRO) Barcelona.

You can see that I had the 3 airplane types in a row, and I wish I could tell you guys which aircraft I love most, but I can't. The cockpit layout of the B737NG is very nice, but the cockpit of the B767 is much bigger and much more comfi. There is so much room in the 767 compared with the 737!
However, I do can tell you guys which flight I loved the most. The trip to Maroc, TNG was just incredible. Till now, I enjoyed all my observation flights but the word 'enjoy' is to weak to describe the flight to TNG. A-W-E-S-O-M-E is a better word. The most flight crews and cabin crews are very nice, but on that particular flight it was just funnier, more relaxed and more pleasant. A lot of jokes and laughs, and I got more work from the captain then I normally get. Radio's, FMC, walk-around, following up of the flight plan, ETA calculations, fuel, and a couple of other things more... I had a good time :-)

1. B737NG
2. B767-300
3. B737CL
4. Holding short for landing traffic, Korean Air Cargo
5. Take off
6. The little suite of the royal family in Maroc.

Graduation!!!!!!!!!!

2009-07-13T04:53:00.007-07:00

First day at school: 23 Nov 07
Last day at school: 10 Jul 09

19 months and 18 days = 596 days = 14 304 hours = 858 240 min = 51 494 400 seconds

FINISHED!!!

It looks like it was only yesterday that I went to SFA to pick up my books. And at the same time it looks ages ago. It still didn't sunk in that I'm finished and that I graduated last Friday. And at Sabena we always finish with a big BANG! IT'S PARTYYYYY TIMEEEEEE !!!

First there is a ceremony with the family and some friends where the students get there diploma and a little present. All boys got a blue present, me the only girl got a pink one, little surprise from our sweet Klaartje. It's then as well picture time! After the aperitif and the little delicious appetizers we are invited for a big big big yummy yummy yummy dinner! The theme of the eve was Hawaii and so was the food. After the dinner the music starts and the tables are moved to make some room. The other proms are then as well welcome to come and have a drink.

It was a great party. Now it's time for me to move on and start to look for a job. Which will not be easy with the lovely economical situation that we are in but like Guy Vanderlinden always says, NEVER GIVE UP.

I hope you guys liked the blog and I hope I can continue soon with it for the next chapter of my life.

Blue skies, tailwinds, and happy landings!!!

3lke

MCC/ACPP CHECK

2009-07-13T04:35:00.002-07:00

The 8th of July I had my final check. The ACPP check on the B737NG. My crew existed out of 3 people meaning it would be a 6hrs flight. It was pretty long, but all three the flights were nice. I had a flight from EBOS (Ostend) to EBCI (Charleroi). We had a rejected take off, a take off with a failure between 80kts and V1, take off with an engine failure after V1 and a failure without re-call items...couple of landings, go-arounds, ILS 26 at EBCI and other fun stuff. Joost Smith our examiner was a really nice guy.

All three of us passed, and we were ready for the graduation that would follow already Friday evening!

links

2009-06-27T04:01:00.004-07:00

Two links to check out:

Amelia's(sry in Dutch)

http://www.amelias.be/

Het nieuwe "Luchtvaartthema-Meeneem-Eetcafé " We kozen de naam “Amelia's” voor onze zaak als ode aan de feministe “Amelia Earhart “die leefde van 1897 tot 1937. Ze werd bekend als "Lady Lindy" in 1932 toen ze de eerste vrouw en de tweede persoon was die solo de Atlantische Oceaan overstak, precies vijf jaar nadat “Charles Lindbergh” dit had gedaan. Ze vloog een “Lockheed Vega” van Harbor Grace, Newfoundland naar Londonderry in Ierland. We willen hiermee benadrukken dat vrouwen ook in staat zijn tot grootse dingen. Het luchtvaartthema hebben we gekozen uit fascinatie voor alles wat vliegt.

Dagelijks doorlopend open van 8u-19u Zon-& Feestdagen van 10u-19u

The Flying Juniors
http://www.flyingjuniors.com/index.htm

A group of 3 young pilots are making their own plane to fly in 18 legs around the world.

MCC/ACPP

2009-06-24T07:00:00.003-07:00

G'day,

After the CPL check, the SFA story didn't end. I started the 8th of Jun with the last chapter of the training. The book 'Sabena Flight Academy: from zero to a pilot' is almost finished and it's almost time to start a new book. I hope the next one will even be better and more fun.

The last SFA Chapter: MCC/ACPP
Multi Crew Co-operation Course - MCC
Airline career preparation program - ACPP

http://www.sfa.be/pilot-training/en/mtrmccacpp.htm

I choose to do the training on the B737NG and after 3 days of CRM (Crew Resource Management), which I found very cool, and 3 days of CBT (Computer based Training) which I found less cool but very interesting at the same time, I and my team started finally to fly the B737NG on the FFS (Full Flight Simulator). The first FMS mission we did as well on the FFS because we don't have an FMS trainer for the NG at school. Yesterday, I did my FBS (fixed base simulator) mission and tomorrow we will start with the first FFS session.

CPL ME IR

2009-06-07T06:15:00.003-07:00

Friday was FINALLY the big day....The Final CPL ME IR check. (Commercial Pilot License check) Thé check of all checks for my training. I don't have to mention that I was pretty nervous, do I? Two years I worked for that flight, two years I worked for those 2 nerve racking hours and 12 minutes.

At 0605 I took the train and I arrived at EBAW (Antwerp) 1h30 later. The usual stuff to-do followed: weather, notams, calculating the Mass and Balance, calculating the headings/time/time ticks for my VFR flight plan/navigation, filing a IFR flight plan for EBCI (Charleroi), calling EBCI tower to ask them of it was possible to come and shoot a couple approaches at 1130LT. They gave me a slot at 1200 LT and when I was done with everything I went downstairs to the C-hangar. I did the walk-around and dropped my 4 little pillows on the left seat. I had to put the OO-SFA outside but I wasn't able to do it solo, nor did I actually want to take the risk to tow it outside by myself. Luckily two maintenance guys came by and they helped me push it outside. At 1030 LT I had to be in the restaurant of EBAW to meet my Examiner, Mr. Cabooter. A friendly and relaxed pilot. He checked all my documents - student pilot license, medical and logbook - and asked me a couple questions about the approaches we are going to do. When we arrived at the plane two groups of primary school kids - who were on a guided tour at the airport - stood around my plane. One of the little girls said, "look, it's a girl who will fly!" I gave the girl a wink of my eye and did again a quick walk around, just to check of I still had my two wings, two engines and three wheels.

Because my slot was at 1200LT in Charleroi, my examiner decided to let me first do the ILS approach in Antwerp to loose some time. The approach wasn't bad, and I continued with my IFR navigation. To win myself some time and free hands to prepare myself for the other approaches, I put the flight plan in the GPS and with one push the autopilot was on. (only for the en route part) The ILS approaches in EBCI was good as well and when I got vectors for the VOR approach the examiner pulled an engine. I recovered immediately but was cursing in myself because I still had to go 12 DME outbound to intercept the final approach course and flying on one engine is very heavy, especially if you are like me too small and if you can't reach the rudders very well. The rudder trim helped a bit, but not completely. Till now I never did a good single engine approach because of the heaviness but I think the adrenaline of the check helped. My leg didn't start to shake, I was able to keep my heading and I didn't drop more as 20 feet, which I recovered easily. The VOR approache went very smooth and I was not the only one who was a bit surprised. After the touch and go, I smiled secretly when the examiner made a comment about the good approach.

The most scared I was for the IFR part of the check, but it was the VFR part that didn't went as good as I hoped. I first had to go to the point 'Yankee', but to find a point in Belgium is not that easily as in Arizona. Let us say, VFR navigations in AZ are very cool, pretty easy once you are used to them and relaxed. To do VFR navigations in Belgium however...everything looks the freaking same here! And If you have a low ceiling or rain, you are screwed. Anyway, to continue, EBCI - who knew it was a check and knew I was 'on my own' in the plane - helped a bit by 'whispering' a heading and a distance to find Yankee. I recovered and followed my flight plan. Then it was time for some maneuvers. Two stalls and a steep turn, which was like always better too the right side. Back in Antwerp for the visual pattern I had to follow one of the VLM Fokkers for a flapless landing. The fokker's pattern was of course a bit bigger then mine and when turning final I saw that my speed was to high. I thought it was just because I didn't had my flaps, but when I started to say out loud my landing checklist I knew why my speed was to high. "Gear Down, three gre..." Sh*t, no green lights!!! My landing gear! I pulled my landing gear out and the speed dropped. I could have hit myself! ONLY, ONLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!! on a check you "forget" to put the gear down. Thanks for the checklists! I was very glad I was on a extended final and I still had to cover some distance. I established the approach and made a nice landing.

Back in the restaurant Mr. Cabooter gave me a short debriefing. Meanly he said "you are to small for that aircraft and that I was lucky that I saw in time that my landing gear wasn't down. When he said, "Congratz you passed", it felt like 1000000 tons fell off my shoulders.

The whole way back I had a smile that reached till my ears and when I arrived home, the champagne was already cold :-)

happy flights everybody!!!!

Flying in Belgium

2009-05-30T07:31:00.006-07:00

Flying in Belgium...is...well...euhm....different. While AZ is a huge playing ground for pilots with only a few rules, sunny days, nice to navigate, cool airports, superb views and a lot of fun with all the pilots from India and China, Belgium how ever is not. For every rule in AZ, they have 10 more rules here in Belgium. I even think they have rules for rules. Flying in Belgium is totally crazy. Restrictions everywhere and it seems to me that every airport has their own set of rules just to make everything even more complicated. Before every flight you even have to call the tower of the airport where you are going to ask them of it wouldn't be a problem to come to shoot an approach of two or to come and do some patterns/circuits. If they say 'no', you have to start again to prepare everything and try to contact the next tower and hope you are welcome there. Madness! At my new "home base" EBAW (Antwerp) only, !2! aircrafts are allowed to make some VFR patterns and you have to inform them beforehand to make a 'reservation' so you can take one of the two spots. In America 5 or more aircrafts in the pattern wasn't rare. And you also have to inform every Navigation office that you are leaving or coming and with how many souls on board and who's the PIC. Not only all the calling makes me a bit irritated (almost 15€ gone on my cellphone in less then 2 weeks only for the aviation related calls) but last time I had to hold short for a local VFR flight because there was a Piper Warrior aircraft on a !8!NM final. Meaning +- 4-5 minutes before touch down. I'm sure of it that at KFFZ in that time 3 aircrafts could have done their Take off without disturbing the Warrior but no, here I wasn't allowed because he was 'to close'.

Re-reading all the above, some things sound a bit harsh and it gives the impression that I don't like it here. Well, I guess that's correct :p I always said to the Indian and Chinese guys that Belgium people are quickly moody, a bit depressed and often not that friendly because of the weather and other stuff. I guess I left my good mood and my joyful spirits behind in AZ because I didn't found them back yet. I know I'm nagging a bit or even a lot, but I don't feel like writing an 'everything-is-just-perfect' story like I mostly do. I feel a bit 'trapped' at the moment and I miss AZ, especially the people who I had to leave behind. I feel like I'm nagging to everybody the last few weeks, especially to the people at home. Nothing over here 'is good enough' anymore. But I can't help it. In AZ it was me and a lot of friends. Sometimes you had a bad day, but then there would be a lot of friends that would try to cheer you up. Or you would go and cheer somebody else up after a check-gone-bad. Here in Belgium I feel alone again, like I have to compete and fight the rest of the world. I miss the mountains, the smell of flowers mixed with sand, the millions of colors from the sunset/rise and the laughter of people who just did their first solo and feel like they own the whole galaxy. I miss the hummingbirds, salamanders, little prairie dogs and the cacti. I miss the evening walks to the park, the Chinese food, good pizzas, 101 flavors of ice cream, ice creams so wicked you will never find in Europe. I miss the Saturday and Monday van drives to Walmart with Bob, the Chinese and the Indians who I really really really start to miss. I miss the cheerful 'Goodmorrrrrrrrrrrrrning's from Bill who always was so positive that I'm wondering of he ever had a single pessimistic thought in his life. I miss Kim and Sharon with who I always could talk if there was something wrong. I miss Mike (dispatch) who was always concerned and who always helped me if I did (again) something stupid. I miss the serious talks with Don and Mike (van drivers) and the goofy stuff with Bob (van driver). I miss the cheerfulness of the most instructors and the exciting feeling of a solo to a far airport where you never went before. I miss the simplicity of the flying in AZ and to be able to really enjoy every single moment in the air with my whole soul, something I only felt once in this little country. I miss Ryan, Gaurav and Sid who always were there for me, Simon and Benjamin, who made me smile. The never-met-such-a-sweet-and-cheeky guy Peter, Frank who I never saw without his affective smile, and the other Chinese guys who always made me feel welcome. I miss Rohit's, ravi's, Bharat's and Preetham's grin. The camera-dude Akaljot who's pictures will become world famous, Harbir who would help if the computer wouldn't obey my orders and the copy machine would turn his back to me. Neil 'knock knock', Priyang who I still need to give the last show of Jeff Dunham, Jd who moved to another state to finish his training, Varun who always amazed me with his intelligence and of course all girls: Swati, Shriya, Smita, Divya, Monica 1, Monica 2 and Monica 3.

Now, if you are thinking, 'Is there something you do not miss from AZ', then my answer is 'yes'. I do not miss the horrible turbulence and the mountain obscuration. I do not miss the American bread, fries, chocolate and beer. Ow, and I do not miss all the degrees that the sun is giving above the 25°C.

Cya all next time, with I hope a better story and mood...

3lke

Home

2009-05-15T16:30:00.013-07:00

Hi Guys,

I have a lot to talk about today and I don’t know where to start…At the moment I’m writing this piece at 0220, sitting on my bed…in BELGIUM. That’s right, I’m back in the country with a major jetlag. Anyway, the start of the ending goes as follows…

Only 6 missions to do before the VFR CPL check, which we normally would do in The States. 6 missions, so around 1.5-2 weeks to go and to enjoy the sun who wants to kill every living thing that’s around...we thought. However Friday morning I got a phone call from Adria asking me to be at school in 10 min. because JP VDB wanted to speak with my group asap. Only 8 min to catch the van to school…jumping in my uniform, rushing downstairs with untied shoelaces, trying to put on my tie while walking very fast to the front gate and with a mind that can’t stop making doom scenario’s. We had to wait 1h30 and once we entered JP’s office it was very simple. ‘Oké guys, start packing you will leave Sunday morning back to Belgium’. Nothing more. One simple sentence. And then ‘Aren’t you happy?’. No I’m not happy! Why would I be happy to go back to cloudy-rainy-depressing-always-cold-and-wet-and-with-unfriendly-people-Belgium? Why would I be happy to go back to Belgium? Ok, I see my friends again and my family, that’s it. The only 2 things that are keeping me anyway in this *********** country. In 3min time we left JP’s office, not knowing what to do first. Only 1.5 days to arrange everything, pack and say goodbye to everybody. There was still so much I wanted to do, but Mr. Time was suddenly running away very, very fast. We all went home and started to pack our huge suitcases. The packing took already 0.5 day of my only 1.5 days time.

To do before I go back home list:
Friday,
*Going to eat with Ryan in New China
*Buy presents
*Visit the ramp to take a lot of pictures
*Say goodbye to everybody that works at school
*Having a last walk around the springs and in the neighborhood

Saterday,
*Go back to school to say Goodbye to Mike Dispatch
*Go and eat for a last time at Flencers with Delaney
*Take the van-ride to Walmart just to see Bob (my second boyfriend) for a last time
*Pack a bit more
*Making a complot with the Boyfriend so I can go home without informing my parents and sis. ‘Knock Knock, guess who’s back’
*Party
Almost everybody was at the party. From the normal SFA’ers, to some Chinese and Indian friends. The party was from 21h till 0530 the time Mike The Van Driver came to pick us up.
Phoenix, Sky Harbor – Washington, Dulles International – Brussels International Airport. The exact opposite route as the first time.

At the first trip next to me sat a woman who was very scared to fly and she was taking some medicine to calm herself down. As I was wearing my uniform she started to ask a lot of questions and I talked with her for the entire 04h30 min of flight to keep her mind off the fact that we were floating at 10 km above the earth. The second trip however was very boring. 06h45 min of turning uncomfortable in a little chair trying to decide which crappie movie I should watch next. And I almost had the privilege to sit on the jumpseat! I had permission from the steward to go and talk with the pilots to ask them if I could sit in the cockpit. Which was no problem as long as I showed them my commercial pilot license…What a joke!! The jumpseat was so close, and so far away at the same time. Only around 2 weeks of training. I thanked the pilots for the little chat and went disappointed back to my seat making myself ready what would be a horrible long flight. Which it certainly was…
I knew we were back in Belgium when I found the courage to peek through the window when we were approaching EBBR. I couldn’t see anything else then filthy grey clouds, filled with rain. Definitely THE sign to announce that I’m back and probably stuck for a long time in Belgium. The only thing that made me go off the plane instead of staying on it and waiting till it would return to America was the fact that the BF was waiting for me at the arrival hall and that I was desperate in need of a bed and a lot of sleep. My own soft bed for the first time in 7 months. After collecting all our stuff we headed to the arrival hall. Not a lot of people for us. A single pair of parents and the BF. Me and Tom didn’t told our parents. It would be a complete surprise.
And a surprise it was! First we stopped for some croissants and chocolate cookies for breakfast and then we drove to the house. We opened the door and tiptoed too the living room. My mom was taking something in the little cupboard 0.5 m from the door were we were standing. I waited till she would look up and see me. 20 seconds passed before she looked up. She started to scream and then she took me by the shoulders and started to shake me, followed by a suffocating hug… The dad was walking the dog and the sis was at school. When we heard the dad enter a couple of minutes later we hide in the room next door. I heard my mum say something about ‘Oli and a present’. At that time I came around the corner and said ‘koekkoek’. His face went from a healthy red-brown to pale white while his hands went to his chest. A movement he always makes when something catches him by surprise. He first didn’t moved and then another suffocating hug followed. We ate breakfast and around 1230 the sis came in. She didn’t moved, she didn’t do anything…for at least 30 second. She just stood there, not being able to get the full picture, not being able to put 1 + 1 together. Later on she told me that the first thing she thought was ‘Did I just came out of the kitchen while standing actually at the door in the living room?’
I was happy to see them all back and in the evening a lot of my close friends were there. Damn, I missed those guys so much. And I’m already missing a lot of good friends I had to leave behind in the states…I hope one day I also can surprise them as I surprised my parents and sis.
There’s no place like home…luckily I feel like the whole world is my home.
Ps: it’s freaking cold overhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HOT

2009-05-07T18:32:00.004-07:00

KFFZ 071952Z 13005KT 30SM SKC 38/03 A2982

HOT!!! Only one word describes 'being in AZ' at the moment. H-O-T. We are reaching temperatures from almost 40°C and in a couple of weeks we will have even higher temperatures. The warm weather is almost the only thing were everybody is talking about lately. In the noon it's so hot that you have to force yourself to breath the warm air and you wish that you could take off your skin, to have it maybe 1 or 2 degrees cooler. The air conditionings are working on full power day and night. The computers are often shutting themselves down, so they don't overheat. I swear, I can bake eggs and even sausages and bacon on my laptop! If you want to have a walk, you move from one point with airco to another point with airco or you wait till it's dark. The ramp is at the moment a definition for 'oven' and you only close the cockpit door when you have the clearance to take off or to position and hold. When you come back from a flight the back of your shirt is soaken wet and it looks like you pee-ed in your pants. Turbulence is another word that I can put next to 'HOT'. The turbulence is so horrible at the moment that you kick several times a flight with your head at the ceiling, and for me that's very difficult, because I'm not that big :p At this time of the year we also have very strong winds and gusts everywhere. Nice is something else but hej, as long as we can fly, no?

Today I had mission 117 and mission 123 is my check, so I hope to be home in at least two weeks! I'm happy to go home, but I also will miss AZ. Especially all the friends I made here. My visit here will be around 7 months and still, I know for sure, if I come home that it all will look like a nice dream. A dream that will be over very soon.

blue skies, tailwinds, happy landings and cooler Temps,

3lke

Da42 start

2009-04-27T17:45:00.014-07:00

25 April 09 : Final DA40 check completed. Yeeha!!!!!!
The waking up
26 april 09 : It’s only 03h30 in the morning but my alarm clock screams at me and shouts that I have to get up immediately. One would think that somebody who has to wake up at 03h30 on a Sunday morning to go to school, would be pissed off and would have a morning mood so bad that you better avoid the person for the first couple of hours. You can’t be more wrong. I gave my alarm clock a soft tap that made him shut up, I kicked my blanket out of the way and with a lil’ jump I was out of bed. Opening the window made that the wind came in to greet my sleepy head and the smell of the I-don’t-know-which-flowers-but-they-smell-very-good prickled my noses. A quick shower and an even quicker breakfast followed. At 04h25 I closed the door behind me and once downstairs on the path I held still for a couple of seconds to listen. The moon was standing right above me, floating silently between all the stars. It was almost quiet. Almost. The wind played gently with some leaves on the ground, the crickets were singing their song and a dog was barking in the distance. Peaceful. I took a deep breath to capture the moment and continued my walk to ‘the gate’ where ‘the van’ from school picks up the students. My feet knew the way, as they walked the same route as every other day. A cat looked at me with his yellow eyes when I passed him and my shadow followed me like it always does at night. When passing the houses I saw that not everybody was asleep. I had to wake up already, but some didn't even went to bed. Most of them were on the computer, probably chatting with the home front, telling them the latest news. I was the first to arrive at the gate and when the time ticked further more students who had the first flight arrived, all of them nodded or smiled a “good morning” and slept a bit further on the path. It's still early for everybody.
The drive to school
At 04h35 the van pulled in on the driveway and Bill, the driver, greeted everybody with his never ending optimism. “Guuuuuudmorrrning everrrrybodyyyyyy.” Like always I took the passenger seat next to the driver, I said “G’morning Bill” , and I listened to the voices of the others who greeted him. “Morning Bill”, “Hi Bill”, “G’day Bill”, “How r ya Bill”. Once the doors were closed and secured the van started to roll the same way it rolls every hour, 17/24, 7/7, 31/31, 365/365. I left the van with hearing the same sentence that I hear every day. “ Well guys, have a grrrrrrrrrrrrreat day and a guuuuuuud flight” and then one for one all students thanked him, . “Thx Bill”, “Cya Bill”, “yup Bill”, “have a nice day Bill”, “ciao Bill”. This routine, even how small it looks, it happens every day, every time. In a routine like this, One knows what will come, because it was never different. In a little routine like this, One knows what will come, and when it doesn’t come, One feels bad.
The Bigger Routine
Once in Dispatch, you log in, sign in, print your flight report, make your weather briefing, make your mass and balance and check the squawk book. Samey, samey, everyday.
Twinstarrrrrrrrrrrr
First flight on the Twin
N4130M
Instructor KNG
Level of AWESOMENESS: 100%
A short briefing, the walk around we did together for the first time, the flows and checklist, propSSSS clear, no run up, holding short, position and hold, brakes and full power, power checked, brakes release and freaking right rudder!
Flying a Twin
It was great! After flying a long time with the DA40 I was happy to fly again with a ‘heavier’ plane and a more stable plane. Damn, it felt good! I love the DA42. The mission was over way to soon and today I had mission 107 and 108. We did some patterns, maneuvers, stalls, steepturns, slow flight, and a VFR navigation. The last time I had to prepare a VFR navigation, I still flew the Archer. But I love VFR navigations and I was very happy to do it. Also, it was a long time ago that I flew VFR, so my mood was much better than it is when I fly IFR, so when I’m under ‘the hood’. I hate that stupid thing! I don’t know but it makes me nervous flying with a hood and not being able to see anything.
Updates
I arrived 26 Oct, which makes that I’m already here for 182 days. (6 months)
I flew in total 215hrs 54 min, which is already much more then I drove by car.
I’m at Mission 108 and I have to go to Mission 123, almost done!
I flew an average of 5 mission a week.
It’s getting hot here in AZ.

ALL PICTURES ARE FROM Akaljot Grewal, BEST PHOTOGRAPHER AT SABENA!!

Random pic's

2009-04-04T11:26:00.008-07:00

Pima air and space museum

2009-03-31T21:27:00.015-07:00

Last weekend I went with the dad and Guyke to Tucson. Now, what do you find in Tucson besides dust, an airfield, sand, some buildings, sand, hotels, sand, golf courses, sand, cacti and more than thousands and thousands adorable-I-wanna-have-a-couple-of-those-cuter-then-cute prairie dogs? You will find there... *mysterious drum sounds to make it more exciting*... one of the largest air and space museums in the world with more than 275 aircraft and spacecraft including many of the most historically significant and technically advanced craft ever produced. Ladies and Gents, I present to you, Pima Air & Space Museum!!

IT WAS AWESOME!!!

A replica from the Flyer I, which was the best invention after chocolate, made by the all known, famous, respected, genius bicycle makers from Ohio, the brothers Wright and there under appreciated, less known, less famous, less respected but certainly not less important sister Katharine. It is said that two wrongs don't make it right, but two wrights do make an airplane!

The Bumble bee! World's smallest piloted airplane built by Robert H. Starr. It's so small and so cute! And, I even think I can reach the rudders XD

I entered Hangar 'patati patata' via a back door and was walking at the back when suddenly I reached the beautiful ass of a plane. Thinking by myself, "Damn, this tail looks a lot like a tail from a SR-71". Not that I ever saw such beautiful, awesome, extremely wicked SR-71 in my life. I took my dads wrist and started to run to the front of this divine creation. Me dad, not knowing what was going on and hobbling after me asked what was wrong. "B-B-B-Black B-B-Birrrrrd!!" was all what I could squeeze over my lips. I arrived at the birdies front, and yes there it was...a big thingie that said: "SR-71A, Blackbird" I was standing in front of, and watching with my own eyes, a SR-71...Coming slowly out of the shock from seeing my favorite -worth-giving-my-right-hand-for-if-I-could-fly-it-once-airplane I realized that even if this was the only plane in the whole museum, it still would have been worth to drive all the way to Tucson! I opened my backpack and tried to squeeze the Birdie in it, but how hard I pushed, how hard I tried to force it in it, my backpack was too small, and I had to leave the museum without the most beautiful airplane on earth.

Outside, the area is dominated by a lil sweet fellow...say Hellow to Nasa's Super GUPPY. Why they called this gigantic beast after a ini mini tiny, brightly colored freshwater fish instead of "flying whale/walrus/dinosaur" I don't know. If you do, let me know!

Skycrane! A heli that looks like a fierce, mad, evil, insane insect, but is very useful. I love heli's and this Wasp is my second favo heli.

I had a great weekend, lots of fun and sun, lots of airplanes and lots of blue skies!

Happy landings everybody,

3lke

1. Flyer I replica
2. Starr Bumble bee II
3. BLACKBIRD!!!
4. Lil sweet Guppy
5. Insect
6. Astronaut 3lke :-p
7. Neuze-neuze doen :p
8. Capt 3lke
9. Capt 3lke and FO Guyke
10. Capt Dad and FO Guyke
11. The dad and me :-)
12. Me in the kids toy airplane
13. Dad in the kids toy airplane

week nummer 1 million

2009-03-25T21:52:00.010-07:00

Hi people,

My dad and a friend of him are here for 2 weeks to visit me and the beauty of Arizona. I was over duty time, meaning I flew 11 days without a break and then you MUST take 3 days off. The decision was very simple, LAS VEGAS! We passed the Hoover Dam, Route 66, and we went also to see a "pueblo" from the Tuzigoot, a national monument.

Hoover dam: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Dam
Route 66: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_66
Tuzigoot: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuzigoot_National_Monument

What else is new?

* A part of Prom7A left yesterday and are now back in Belgium and the others of prom7A will follow in a week or two. If they leave I'm in the oldest SFA group in AZ. *jeuj* Meaning I'm almost home as well XD Don't get me wrong, I love AZ, I love the people over here, and I sure will miss all my new friends I made here...Especially some Indian guys and the very polite Chinese guys :-) But 6 months is good enough, and I have to go back home to care for my little sister a bit :-)
* I passed check 80 and 90 without difficulties, whoehoe!!!
* Only 14 missions on the DA40 anymore
* DA42 here I come
* 2 weeks ago I had to do a long solo navigation flight on the Archer again because i didn't had enough "pic" (pilot in command) hours. And I'm done doubting, The Archer rules over the DA40!
* Belgium Chocolate is worth Gold over here!
* I just received a kilogram of it for the Bday!
* I feel so powerful right now!
* I had to fly yesterday night again...IFR so no big deal. I'm sorry that I'm not a poet. Otherwise I would have been able to capture the beauty of a night flight in a couple of sentences for you guys. I would have been able to let you feel, hear, taste, and see the magic, the silence, the peace, the lights and so on.

Anyway,

Blue skies, tailwinds and happy landings everybody!

3lke

1. Tuzigoot pueblo
2. Somewhere at route 66
3. Bellagio
4. Las Vegas
5. Las Vegas
6. Las vegas
7. Hoover Dam

Road Trip North Arizona

2009-03-12T16:07:00.011-07:00

Ya'at'eeh, (Hello, in Navajo)

Wow, there happened so much the last weeks! Even a couple surprises! I knew that my aunt was coming the 4th of March and we would make a road trip to North Arizona to visit the Grand Canyon and other beautiful places. But my aunt wasn't alone! While waiting in the terminal of Sky Harbor I suddenly saw between a sea of unknown bodies somebody walking with just the same walk as my mum and next to this person I saw somebody walking just like my Twin sister. I ran to the front and I didn't let go of my sis for the first 3 minutes! I missed her so much. Even a bigger surprise - that I found out that evening- was that almost everybody of my class knew that my mom and my sis would come, except me. And believe me, keeping a secret in this school is not possible, well that was what I thought.

I took Friday and the weekend off and after packing my suitca...actually my flight case (multifunctional!!!) we were off to the Vermilion cliffs. It was so beautiful!
We had a great day with a lot of laughs and doing crazy.

The next day we went to the horseshoe bend (next to Lake Powell) which I find one of the most beautiful places I ever saw in my life!!! There are really no words to describe that place. I could use the word "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious x 100" and I would not even be close in telling you all how awesome this natural piece of art is!

Next stop was Page and the Antilope canyon. We had a Navajo guide to show us around and I was really impressed by him, the tour and the canyon. I learned a lot and we had a lot of fun.

Monument vally, another place to be. Magnificent! The isolated red mesas and buttes surrounded by empty, sandy desert where breathtaking! You all will know them from the old cowboy and Indian movies, but of course it is totally different if you see those giants in real life.

Sunday we went to see the Dinosaur prints and the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is...well...euhm...a very very very very very very very big canyon.

Monday I had a flight first thing in the morning and afterwards we went to the Botanical Garden and Canyon Lake.

http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/blm_special_areas/natmon/vermilion.html
http://www.americansouthwest.net/utah/monument_valley/

I don't have the pictures of the first day, they are on my sis her laptop and she already left to freezing cold Belgium. But as soon as I get them, I will upload a couple.

1. Horseshoe bend (Lake Powell)
2. Horseshoe bend (Lake Powell)
3. Antilope Canyon
4. Monument Valley
5. Dinosaur tracks
6. Me + a canyon
7. Me + Grand Canyon
8. Me + Grand Canyon

week number patati patata

2009-02-26T11:52:00.009-07:00

Yo pilots, student pilots, pedestrians and others,

The temperatures are going up, flying the DA40 is awesome and the pool water is nice...I can't wish for more. I just love it over here :-)

My last 5 missions were all night flights and a solo night flight. They were...euhm...well...even the word "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" can't describe how magical-wonderfull-just-like-in-a-fairytale-awesome they were. I sure will miss them! I don't have pictures of them, and I really regret that, but it was impossible to shoot nice ones because I have every time the reflexion of the cockpit in the windows. I had also a couple of sim sessions in the FNPT II again, which y'll know by now, I just hate. I mean, compared with the real stuff it's just...just...well not cool :-p Y're captured in a little stinky basement room without windows in a filthy sticky never-cleaned-in-at-least-100-years simulator which is oversensitive compared with the real stuff and is to big! Even with my army of pillows I've troubles with the freaking rudders,...again.

Anyway,...the guys from my promotion invited everybody over last Saturday for a party. It was a nice one with Indiers, Dutchies from the KLS, the Germans who arrived a week before and of course the SFA group. Only the Chinese guys were missing but somebody forgot to inform them. The theme was 'Hawaii'.

What's also new? Ow yeah, I moved again to another apartment. At 5-6 O'clock in the morning prom6B moved out and at 9 AM Gwen was at the office of Kim to request of we could have apt 2063 because it's so much nicer then ours! We got the keys and at 11 AM we started already to move our stuff. That makes that I lived in 3 different houses in less then 4 months and I think that's a record here in the Springs.

pic's:

0. Hawaii party
1. Hawaii party
2. KFFZ TWR
3. Me + 2 Dutchies from KLS
4. I got the fishies!
5. FNPT II sim
6. DA40

DA40 start

2009-02-10T14:25:00.006-07:00

G'day guys,

Today I had my first mission on the DiamondStar (DA40). The only thing that it has in common with the archer is that they both have a fuselage and two wings. That's it, nothing more. It was so strange to fly such a glider with an engine stuck up his nose.

Anyway, I also had to backseat and it was very beautiful today. Normally over here the sky is always blue and today we had some nice clouds. Even the instructor said he wished he had brought his camera because it is very rarely that you have this beautiful clouds.

3lkejavascript:void(0)

1. It all started with one single little baby cloud...
2. Soon the invasion of the clouds started
3. The view
4. Stephen flying...

CVR US Airways 1549

2009-02-05T21:15:00.000-07:00

CVR US Airways 1549

SIC: “Number two’s gone, boss.”

Sully: “I know it! What do I look like, an R-22 pilot? Just shut the
f*cker down, boy. Oh, and tell Departure that we need to come back in and
land. F*cking birds…”

SIC: “Sheesh, somebody got up on the wrong side of his throne this morning.
You don’t have to insult me just because I got my commercial helicopter
rating in the mighty Robinson. Oh, and by the way, sir, we’re not climbing,
if you even care. Maybe your decision to take on that extra 5,000 pounds of
fuel wasn’t so hot, Captain.”

Sully: “One more comment like that and I’ll make sure the union keeps you
in RJ’s for the rest of your miserable, short career.”

Sully: “SON OF A BITCH!”

SIC: “Number one’s failing, boss.”

Sully: “I can see that! Am I a-f*cking-sleep? Can I not read the gauges?
Am I not flying the plane here?”

SIC: “I’m just sayin’…”

Sully: “Goddamn Canadians, sending their f*cking geese down here every
winter. Why, if I ever *see* another Canadian I’m gonna punch him right in
the throat. I *HATE* Canadians.”

SIC: “Everybody does, boss. Think we can make Teterboro or straight-in to
22 at Newark?”

Sully: “Yeah, probably. But f*ck Teterboro! Let’s go to Newark. I’ve
flown out of Teterboro. Short damn runways…always a crosswind. And their
FBO’s suck. I’d rather land in the Hudson f*cking river than land at
Teterboro. Hey….”

SIC: “You’re not…”

Sully: “Why not? Maybe we can take out some sailboats with some prick
Canadian snowbirds.”

SIC: “You ever land on the water before?”

Sully: “Plenty of times! I got my seaplane rating back in 1946. I think it
was in a…Piper…somethingoranother, I forget. Never mind. It’ll all
come back to me. Pull out the Before Water Landing checklist and run it.”

SIC: (flipping through the stack of checklists) “Can’t seem to find one for
that.”

Sully: “Fooled ya! HAH! There ain’t one! Just get on the horn and tell
the people to put their heads between their legs and kiss…no wait, that
won’t sound good on on the CVR tape…make it, ‘brace for collision’…no
wait, make it ‘brace for impact.’ Yeah, that’s better. No wait! Tell them
that out the left side of the plane they can see the Intrepid Museum, and
that if they’d like to visit it, they’ll be able to, this afternoon, like,
in about twenty minutes. Oh, and ring the stews and have them bring me a
rum and coke. If I’m gonna do this, I need a good stiff drink. And have
that one with the big tits bring it up. If I’m gonna die, I wanna die drunk
and with a boner.”

SIC: “Like your grandfather did?”

Sully: “This is no time to make jokes, son. I would really appreciate it
if you’d try to take this situation seriously. I’m fairly certain that my
grandfather did not die with a boner. I mean, have you ever met my
grandmother?”

SIC: “You know, if you pull this off CNN will be calling you the Hero Pilot
of the Year.”

Sully: “F*ck CNN. Liberal bastards. All I care about is what the
fair-and-balanced Fox News will call me. I hope Fox News calls me a hero!”

SIC: (sighing) “They probably will too. Nobody will remember *my* name.
It’ll be ‘Sully this’…and, ‘Sully that.’ ‘Captain Sully, the big f*cking
hero.’ Like you are the only f*cking one in the cockpit.”

Sully: “You’re quite bitter. You really are a helicopter pilot at heart,
aren’t you? You know, some pilots wait their whole career to be called a
hero. I mean, Christ, I’ve only got two years to go to retirement. That
was close!”

SIC: “We’re not down yet, Captain Skygod.”

Sully: “I know, this thing glides pretty well, huh? Dammit, no sailboats.
Oh well, let’s see if we can buzz one of those damn sightseeing helicopters.
What’s best-glide/engines out?”

SIC: “Beats the shit outta me.”

Sully: “Vref?”

SIC: “F*ck if I know.”

Sully: “Britney Spears‘ birthday?”

SIC: “December 2, 1981.”

Sully: “Well, I’m glad you know SOMETHING! Just gimme full flaps…”

[END OF RECORDING]

NEW "You might be a pilot if..."

2009-02-02T15:42:00.001-07:00

- you know the rule '8 hours bottle to throttle'
- you have an CR-2 / E6B / (Flight Computer)
- you pull on the hand brake in an attempt to 'add flaps' to slow down
- you have ever used chocks on your vehicle
- you do the 'Tune, Identify, Test (TIT)' check on the radio before you drive your car
- You know way too many acronyms
- you get in your car and think, “Passenger Brief”
- you no longer check normal weather websites, but rather use NAIPS for the nearest airport / Area (eg. Area 21)
- you see red lights up ahead while driving and use both feet to brake
- You can name all different types of clouds when you look up at the sky
- cars seem weird when you steer and it doesnt bank
- you use “three six zero,” not just “zero”
- you watch EVERY SINGLE plane that flies overhead
- you enjoy the smell of avgas
- you always want to do an 'oil-check' before you start your car every morning
- you would be more worried about losing your logbook than 1000$ cellphone
- you have a compass in your car
- you know what a Cumulonimbus (Cb) can do to your little piper warrior
- when giving directions, you give 'Zero-Niner-Zero (090)' instead of East, and your friends thinks you're crazy
- you conduct a fuel drain test after refuelling your car at a petrol station
- you know what a lenticular cloud is, and appreciate the beauty of it
- your friends always ask you, "why do you always use feet and not metres?"
- you have a copy of NAIPS on your computer
- you get 'pissed off' when the weather turns 'shitty'
- you remember the 4-stroke cycle (Intake, Compression, Power, Exhaust) by remembering "Suck, Squeeze, Bang, Blow"
- you draw pictures of runways, airports, airplanes,etc when you are bored
- you love the joke :
Q: "How do you know when you are flying a Cessna?"
A: "When you get a bird strike from behind."
- you always try to 'trim' your car while driving
- you know exactly what "Bankstown Tower, Uniform-November-Foxtrot, TWRN, One-Thousand-Five-Hundred, Received Whiskey, Inbound." means
- you at the same time hate AND love flight planning
- you use 24 hours time
- you remember the transponder codes by :
7500 - Seventy Five, Staying Alive (Hi-Jack)
7600 - Seventy Six, Radio Tricks (Radio Failure)
7700 - Seventy Seven, Going to Heaven (Engine Failure)
- the first thing you do in the moring is look at the current TAF and METAR from NAIPS
- you constantly say "stand by" instead of 'wait, hang on, etc' when someone asks you a question
- when you do a 60 degrees steep turn in a piper warrior, you think youre in a fighter jet
- you pull out your weight and balance chart while loading your car
- The back seat of your car is full of VTC, WAC, VNC, ERC, TAC charts, and all other aviation junk
- you have busted airspace at least once in your flying
- you always look at your watch while driving, estimating your ETA
- you were sad when you found out concorde stopped flying
- "Say again" replaced "what, huh" in your everyday speech, your friends thinks that you are very polite, but infact, its a pilot thing
- you know more about the plane you fly than your own car (engine, electic systems, hydraulics, etc etc)
- your friends always buy you aviation related stuff for your birthday (
- you have a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator at home
- your favourite site is 'www.airliners.net'
- you hate Nimbostratus (Ns) clouds
- ERSA & AIP are your bible
- you think flying in the sky is safer than driving on the road
- you remember when sex was safe and flying was dangerous
- you read these the n-th number of times, but you still read them with a smile because they are so truly describing YOU
- you can operate the FMS through the CDU with finesse, but can't figure out Microsoft Powerpoint
- you end your phone calls with you aircraft call letters.
- you have been flying for years, you still remember how your first solo flight was like
- you know you love your course when:
* u think its fine to spend 4 hours on public transport for an hour flying
* u think holiday sucks and can't wait to return to the airport
* u know everyone thinks u are cool even though u are just an normal person
* u think its reasonable to leave the airport at 11PM and come back at 8AM the day after
* u enjoy every single minutes you spend at the airport
* u no longer care about living under the flight path. in fact, u love living under the flight path
- you ever dreamt that during a commercial flight, the pilots passed out and you, the only pilot on the plane, were about to save everyone by landing a 250 tons aircraft safely
- you are either a Boeing fan or an Airbus fan, and not both
- you long to own one of those cool breitling watches
- you are a pilot when you can just press the 'Direct To' button on the gps
- you look forward to the next red bull air race more than christmas
- you wear sunglass all the time to go to work, whatever the weather.
- if you have to explain to everyone that a cross country isnt literally flying across the country.
- You have to explain to your friends that Cross Country is not only a sport
- You know the Definitions for certain certificates:
*Private Pilot - How not to kill yourself.
*Instrument Pilot - How not to kill yourself while in the clouds.
*Commercial Pilot - How not to kill yourself and 20 other people.
*ATPL - How not to kill yourself, 200 other people, and write of a multi-million dollar aircraft.
* Flight Instructor - How to not let another person kill you.
- you go to www.aviation-terms.com to find a name for your pet dog.
-you laugh inside at the sim junkies when they try to apply their fantasies to our reality.
-you wake up at the yoke wondering where you are
- you know it’s “three six zero,” not just “zero”
-EHAA - Everything has an acronym

- if you shout "CLEAR TAB", before opening a beer can
-If you got a big watch worth more than your car
- You might be a single/engine pilot if you always go over the speed limits with your car... we always use more right foot than the left one.
- you think to pull up instead of breaking when you see an obstacle
- you expound for a full fifteen minutes on Bernoulli's Principle and the function of slats and flaps, as - your non-flying friends get that glazed look in their eyes, so sorry they ever asked.
- traveling on an airliner, you pay more attention than anyone else to the safety instructions at the beginning of the flight.
-When this..."KMDW 281745Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR 15/5 A29.92 RMK AO2" means it's going to be a "perfect" day!
- you dial 7500 when someone packs you in the trunk and robs your car.
- you know airways better than highways.
- when your wife asks how far are you, you'd say 5.6DME inbound.
- you can´t see a movie that include aircrafts because you are looking for the mistakes, at the end you have a list of errors but you dont know at least the name of the movie
-reading the METAR/TAF text is easier to you than reading the newspaper.
-Your profile pic on facebook is you over or around or in cockpit of an airplane.

long XC solo nav's

2009-02-02T14:58:00.013-07:00

Hi guys,

Damn, more then 2 weeks that I didn’t write on my blog. I’m so sorry.

But here it goes…In the meantime I had a couple of successful solo missions without any problems. Yihaa!!! *doing a happy dance*
The last missions were all ‘long cross country solo navigation’ missions. And if I say ‘long’ then I mean it. The longest missions in the training manual are 4hours. Which is sometimes cool, if you have work to do and what is sometimes a bit boring if you have long legs and nothing to do. Anyway the most of us are mostly busy taking pictures and eating candy/donuts while flying the long cruise legs but you can’t stuff yourself full of sugar for 4 hours.
My first long solo navigation was too Lake Havasu and together with the one too Flagstaff, it was the most beautiful navigation I ever did. It was very nice weather and I had to pass 2 nice lakes before I arrived at Lake Havasu. The lakes are always gleaming in the sunlight as though freshly painted and the lonely cloud smiling at its own reflection in the sparkling water. (sorry my poetic side wanted to say 'hello') Lake Havsu’s is a nice big airport – not controlled- and after landing there was not one, not two, but at least three “follow me” cars who led me to one of the fuel companies. Somebody told me to follow the ‘desert skies’ follow-me-car so I did. I parked my plane where the Marshall asked me to put it and immediately 2 guys came to top-off my Archer. When I went inside to pay the lady send me also to the pilots room. And that room, ladies and gentlemen, is THE room of all rooms. It’s the second reason why we like to go to Lake Havasu. Not only because the trip is a dream for your eyes, but because at Lake Havasu you have more than 15 different kinds of sweets, donuts and ice creams, popcorn, slush-ice-drinks, coffee, tea, water, coke, lemonade etc…and all FREE! It is the most perfect place to relax after a trip. View on the lake and mountains combined with the view of the airport and the lovely sounds of engines. It is the best place to plan a flight too. I had a slush-ice-drink-thingie while I relaxed a bit in one of the huge pilot sofas in THE room and I took a donut to eat on my way back to Falcon field. The friendly lady behind the desk also gave me a bottle of water because it’s very hot over here – can you imagine that? Hot? Here? No way! Ur joking!- and I went fat and happy back to my be loving 49Yankee. At the end of the day I flew 160 NM (a bit less than 300 km) in 4hours and 6minutes.
The trip to Flagstaff was also nice…but cold, very cold. When I left Falcon Field in the morning it was around 15 degrees. When I put my 44P on the ground in Flagstaff in the middle of the snow my Temp. meter showed -12°C. Normally I would have made a full stop landing so I could go outside to walk a bit around and check the area but I had only my little pullover with me. No single hair on my head that thought about going outside. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Still, it was strange, I left in nice and warm weather and in less than 30 min flying I was flying over snow, ice and more snow.
What else is new. Tomorrow I’ve my last VFR check. Mission 65. If I pass I’ll go to a new aircraft – DA40- and IFR flying. Which me luck…

pictures:
1. Hiking trip
2. Hiking trip
3. Hiking trip
4. Hiking trip
5. Trip to lake Havasu
6. Trip to lake Havasu
7. Trip to lake Havasu
8. Me and 2 Indian girlz

You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience, before you empty your bag of luck.

2009-01-15T16:06:00.011-07:00

Hi Guys,

2 days ago I wrote that I never had a solo mission without any problems. I would have loved to report that I had today my first-without-any-problems-solo, but no, it was even worse.

At 0720 LT, I kicked my engine to life and taxied to the run up. The only thing that was bothering me was that my fuel pressure was higher then normal, still in the green, but flirting with the red zone. At the run up, everything went very smooth, except the fuel pressure was almost 'kissing' the red line. But green is green, and with a smile I called 'ground' to report that my run up was complete. I got the clearance that I could taxi to the holding short point of runway 04R via D. I was happy, finally a solo that would go OK, without any squawks or cancellations. I forgot to touch some wood - or my head- after that comment.

"Falcon twr, archer 4177L, with information Tango, is holding short runway 04R, for a SE departure"

"Archer 77L, cleared for take off runway 04R, right turn approved"

Take off I've controls, power checked...power a bit lower then normal, but nothing critical. The duration of the ground roll was longer, but I had less power, so it didn't bother me. Finally the speed reached 65kts...rotate. Since Monday there are new Departure and Arrival procedures, so I climbed to 2000 feet before making my right turn. Climbing speed 85kts, full power, going to Apache junction, the new 'Whiskey'. The junction is about 7-8 minutes flying and it is the point I mostly use to ask my frequency change. I put the frequency of the SE practice area in the standby comm. box and I was ready to request the change when the engine started to sound differently. The throttle was at full power, but the RPM's showed me 2100. I wasn't climbing anymore and my speed was dropping. I put the A/C level, went to my normal RPM setting, but the position of the throttle didn't match what the RPM indicator was showing me. And my speed was still dropping slowly. I checked my mixture, everything fine, I put the fuel pump back on... and switched full tanks, just to be sure. Nothing. RPM's still not giving me what I want to see and my speed was now around 70 going to 60kts.

"Falcon TWR, 77L request to make an 180 and come immediately back to the field for a full stop landing"

"77L, roger that...*a couple of seconds of silence* Do you have some problems Ma'am?"

I couldn't help myself thinking, "Problems? I just took off 7 minutes ago, I request a 180 to come back for a full stop landing!" How could he ever have guessed I had some problems?! OK, OK, it was maybe a bit hard, he just checked of I was OK.

"That's affirmative, but I think I can make it back and make a normal landing, 77L"
"77L, roger that, enter right downwind for runway 04R"
"right downwind for runway 04R, 77L"

I remembered that the person who was after me also had requested a SE departure, meaning I was in his way, at his altitude, because A/C's going inbound to the field have a lower altitude. The engine was still running, so I put the engine in idle, to lose some altitude. Instead that I saw the normal 700 RPM's when idle, the damn thing showed me 1600 RPM's. I was nose down, to get some speed back, but it didn't help as much as I had hoped. I entered the traffic pattern altitude a bit to low and with 2200 RPM's for only 65 kts. Abeam the numbers, I put F10 to make use of the 'ballooning effect' to get my ass again a bit higher. Of course, with putting flaps, the speed went more down as well, so I retracted the flaps back. On base, 2200 RPM's, 60kts and dropping. I was below glide, below speed, not the kind of situation I love. I kicked the throttle to 2400 RPM's to maintain some speed and was able to put the 77L just before the numbers on the ground.

I taxied back to the Lima's standing position and called Sabena Dispatch on the frequency. And of course Mike responded with a nice, "What did you do wrong now?"

My fifth squawk in not even 3 months. Lets hope, my next solo will be for once without any problems. *touching wood*

(just for the record, Mike put me then on the 44P and I didn't have any problems with my solo)

Safe Landings everybody!

3lke

Week number euhm...dunno

2009-01-13T16:44:00.009-07:00

Hi guys,

Today I had my "first", "real" solo VFR navigation flight. I putted 'first' and 'real' between those two thingies because I already had solo VFR nav flights, but those flights where always to airports where I already went too a couple of times and I think I could have found them even with my eyes closed. Yes, that's just in a matter of speaking ladies and gentlemen, I'm not that stupid to close my eyes during a flight. Anyway, I flew to Ryan today, and I really enjoyed it! One of my best flights so far. The day didn't start that good though. My plane was 'squawked'. (= in maintenance) I thought it would all go very smooth because it was the 44P. Till now, EVERYTIME I had a solo, I had to squawk it, or somebody else who flew the plane just before me squawked it. And yes, today it was the same bullshit, only another day. I hope my next solo will be for once without any squawks or cancellations. Luckily Mike (Dispatch) loves me and he gave me another plane to fly with. So with a bit delay I still could leave Falcon Field. The flight went perfect. Why can't somebody have a perfect flight if a instructor sits next to him/her or when somebody is doing a check? That's so not fair. I found Ryan without any problems, my headings and my timings were spot on, and after a touch-n-go on runway 060L in Ryan - who had a very nice and polite guy sitting in the tower - I went back to Falcon Field to do some patterns. It's so funny, I remember my first pattern. I found it quit hard, I was sweating, I was nervous, I barely payed any attention to the tower and didn't had the time to listen out what and who was talking on the frequency, and to keep an eye on your instruments and the other traffic was just a hell. Doing all the tasks in the pattern, flows, checklists, lookout for traffic, speeds, altitudes,... it's all to much the first time.
And now,...now if you are in the pattern you could do it with a cup of tea or coffee in your hand, singing your favorite song, cursing on the other traffic if they do something stupid and already thinking of the nice refreshing pool that's waiting for you or the nice warm jacuzzi.

Blue skies, tailwinds and happy landings,

pics:
1. pattern @ Falcon Field
2. view going back 2 Falcon Field
3. At Tempe, where we celebrate our New year at the big street party. There where also some stunt bikers doing salto's and other wacko stuff.
4. Firework at Tempe for New year.
5. Euhm...me XD

Castles 'n Coasters

2008-12-29T14:14:00.009-07:00

Yesterday we went with 11 to Castles 'n Coasters a very very very tiny tiny tiny amusement park for...euhm...little kids :-p I can't say much about it, just some 'older' people acting childish between the little ones.

pictures:

1. koekoek, in the coaster, all the little heads
2. in the thingie, where the one who sits on the outer seat always get squeezed
3. Ter zee, (at sea)
4. Ter land (at the land)
5. Ter lucht (in the air)
6. Baby Sky diver
7. Samen op de mo-o-toooo (Samson en gert)

Flagstaff, Snowbowl

2008-12-29T14:01:00.014-07:00

I know, I know, I didn’t update my blog anymore for 2 weeks now…but guess what! I’ll put 3…well actually 2 new articles at the same time…see it as a late Christmas present.

And this second article is about…Christmas! Surprise! We don’t have a lot of free days over here but the 24th and 25th the school was closed. Off course nobody of us wanted to stay at home and do nothing. We made a flight plan, we filled our ‘request to leave’-forms out, we booked a motel, bought warm clothes , counted the people who wanted to go, chose 3 PIC’s for the cars and 3 FO’s, divided the passengers into the cars, and Tuesday eve – 2 hours later than planned - we were ready for departure. And the flight went toooo….*drumbeats*….Flagstaff, Snowbowl. That’s right, what better place to celebrate Christmas than at a 11.500 feet high mountain on two (or one) small planks, covered in snow?
Jammed with 15 people in 2 cars and my be loving minivan, it took us +- 3h30min to arrive at the motel. A last “quick” visit to the local wal-mart to buy some more warm clothes – Temperature was more or less -8°C - and then it was already time to go to sleep. 2AM and at 6 AM the alarm clock went off. Most horrible sound in the world. Everybody will agree with that, right?
First day: After a very njam njam breakfast in the motel we drove to Snowbowl. At the foot of the hill there’s a parking spot where you can put your chains on the wheels. When we bought the minivan there where already chains in the trunk, so who would have guessed that those chains weren’t the correct ones! ? We finally arrived and we even couldn’t go up the mountain because we didn’t had the freaking correct chains. Back to wal-mart then. After a delay of an hour we were back in position and putted the correct, brand new, snow chains on the wheels.
Upstairs, the ski-pistes were waiting for us, gleaming in the sunlight as though freshly painted. We hired some ski’s, booths and ski-poles and finally we were ready to take the first ski-lift up. For me it was at least 10 years ago that I stood on those small little planks. And I remembered almost nothing off it. Luckily I wasn’t the only one. Byron, Raph and Dylan never skied before. The first time we went down was for me and all the other newbie’s a complete disaster. We all felt at least a thousand time. Raph was cursing all the time and saying he hated this sport and I was wondering how it came that I couldn’t remember anything from my skiing lessons from when I was a kid. Then when I was thinking about that I didn’t paid any attention anymore on the skiing and my legs just took over the manoeuvres like they never have done something else.
After an hour everything went much smoother, also with the others who never skied. And the fun could begin.

In the evening, we went to a very njammy Italian restaurant for Christmas and the +21’s were teasing all the -21’s with their wine.
The next day it wasn’t that nice as the first day. A very big snowstorm was passing by. It was really horrible, you even couldn’t look further then 10m. When we left the ski-lift the wind was so cold and it felt like somebody was biting your nose off and putting holes in your skin with million little needles. Some of us, including me, didn’t had ski goggles and our sunglasses fogged up every single minute. Almost blind we went down and back at the foot of the mountain we all looked like little snow puppets, ice lolly’s or snow angels. After a couple of hours we were back inside to warm up with a hot choco, we ate something and then the nice 2 days were over. We loaded the cars and putted the gps and auto-pilot on and went to sleep.

Pictures:
1.@ the motel, Chris, me and Robert
2.Yummy breakfast
3.Beautiful sunrise
4.The boyz putting on the chains and me...being very helpful by taking pic's :-)
5.Me the Smurf
6.Laurent being typical
7.The Smurf again
8.The roof of our motel suit
9.The chain of the little car fell off
10.Bert, Gwen and Byron in the ski lift in front of me
11.Eskimo raph
12.View from the top

Sanstav Paul (20/12/2008)

2008-12-29T13:57:00.001-07:00

Flyer's Prayer
By Patrick J. Phillips

When this life I'm in is done,
And at the gates I stand,
My hope is that I answer all
His questions on command.

I doubt He'll ask me of my fame,
Or all the things I knew,
Instead, He'll ask of rainbows sent
On rainy days I flew.

The hours logged, the status reached,
The ratings will not matter.
He'll ask me if I saw the rays
And how He made them scatter.

Or what about the droplets clear,
I spread across your screen?
And did you see the twinkling eyes.
If student pilots keen?

The way your heart jumped in your chest,
That special solo day-
Did you take time to thank the one
Who fell along the way?

Remember how the runway lights
Looked one night long ago
When you were lost and found your way,
And how-you still don't know?

How fast, how far, how much, how high?
He'll ask me not these things
But did I take the time to watch
The moonbeams wash my wings?

And did you see the patchwork fields
And mountains I did mould;
The mirrored lakes and velvet hills,
Of these did I behold?

The wind he flung along my wings,
On final almost stalled.
And did I know I it was His name,
That I so fearfully called?

And when the goals are reached at last,
When all the flying's done,
I'll answer Him with no regret-
Indeed, I had some fun.

So when these things are asked of me,
And I can reach no higher,
My prayer this day - His hand extends
To welcome home a Flyer.

For each of us is created to die,
And within me I know,
I was born to fly.

week number...I lost count

2008-12-14T12:02:00.018-07:00

Hello everybody,

Since my first Solo a lot happened here in America. I had a lot of solo sessions,and also my first solo not-in-the-pattern but in the practice area. Next Monday I'll start with the navigation. The real stuff finally begins.

For the rest I had a horrible week. Monday my throat and ear became infected and y'll know it isn't that healthy to fly with an ear infection...it only hurts a little bit ;-) Wednesday morning I still flew my solo but when I was back on the ground my ears didn't stopped 'popping' and I almost couldn't understand a word what somebody was saying, not even if he/she stood next to me. My flight in the afternoon was canceled and Jan drove me to the doctor because here you need a doctors prescription for almost everything.

After an hour waiting I could finally go to see the doc's assistant who looked like a High schooler. I explained him that I had a Otitis media. Just a normal ear infection with fluid behind my ear drum. He looked very surprised and he asked me if I was a medicine student. Then it was my time to look surprised :-p He took my pols and temperature etc and then the doc came in. I told him the same thing and he also asked me of I was a medicine student. He confirmed my diagnose and I got a prescription to get some antibiotic. The next day I wasn't allowed to fly from the doc and Friday I had 2 missions to fly. It were 2 solo's. When Mike (dispatch) saw me he didn't want me to go flying! Nobody's flying with an ear infection...oki I know he was right, but I felt already much better. After a lot of nagging and promises that I would stay below 3500 feet he send me to Guy (Chief instructor) to ask permission. I could go, he said, if I stayed below 3500 feet and I had to come back from the moment the pain would start. So far so good...now the only thing I needed was an instructor to sign my flight release form. The only instructor available in the room was Joris Hendrickx and before I could ask him of he wanted to sign me off, he asked of I was sick! He asked me of I had permission from Guy. I had! Nah! Finally with a bit delay I took off for my morning flight. The flight went smooth, until I reached 4000 feet. Well, my own fault I guess...Slowly I started to descend again to 3500 feet. I tried some steep turns but I could have know that wasn't a good idea either. I left the maneuvers for what they were and went to search for spots that I could find on the map. A road, a crossing etc.

Back on the ground I went back upstairs to prepare for my next mission. Lately we often fly 2 missions on one day because we have enough aircrafts...well actually ... we have less students flying the archer at the moment :-) Prom 6 started to fly on the DA40 and prom 8 will not fly the archers anymore. They all fly on the DA20's. So we're with less then 13 who are flying the archers. We're not complaining...2 'short' missions a day (= 2x 1h30) or one longer mission (3-4hrs) is nice. We fly +- 12 hours a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less. All depends of the weather, instructor and having an ear infection or not :p But anyway...my second solo flight of the day went even less smooth. I only could start my engine 1 hour later then foreseen and I had the 49Y. If you fly the 49Y, the 50%-50%-90% rule is applicable. Anytime you have a 50-50 chance that something will go right, there's a 90% probability it will go wrong. And off course the run-up of the bird was a complete mess again. When I started to do the right magneto check, the plane started to vibrate horrible and the RMP dropped to 1300. Luckily after a couple of months you start to know the aircraft his behavior and I just let the engine run a bit. 2 min later I tried again and everything was fine. Because of the infection I was allowed to stay in the pattern of falcon field.
And it was actually very fun! I did the patterns on the North runway like always. Normally we are only with 3 or 4, and very rarely with 5 aircrafts in the pattern, and now we where with 8. It was crazy! After 30 min with the same aircrafts in the pattern everybody knew who was who and which number in line he or she was. The traffic over the radio went so fast and a bit chaotic, but it was a good practice. Everybody had to extend upwinds and downwinds, making several 360's, doing go-around's because the other one didn't left the runway in time etc. And then a 9th person came in the pattern... I think it was a new student because he had difficulties with the communication and because he made several mistakes -turning X or base when the controller clearly said he had to extend up or downwind, and his instructor apologized several times too the tower - but yeah, the nice patterns were now screwed up for everybody and it was difficult to get again a new rhythm.

pic's:

1. Front of our "resort"
2. Sunrise
3. Sunset
4. Heli in the Yankee pattern
5. Average American Car
6. Moi
7. Moi
8. Moi
9. Moi
10. Look out from the balcony at school.
11. Sabena Ramp
12. Sabena Ramp

3lke goes solo!

2008-12-03T15:24:00.019-07:00

3lke goes solo!

03/12/08 a date to remember…
First word: WAAUW

0700 LT waking up, breakfast, shower, before-leaving-the-house-checklist, going to the gate, van pick up at 0800.
I was more nervous than yesterday. Yesterday I had my pre-solo-check which I passed. But, with a pre-solo-check there’s still somebody who can take over if it is needed. There’s still a person next to you who can say something to the TWR if you missed a call. There’s still a person next to you with two more eyes to check the area and the other traffic. Today I would be alone for the first time. Well, that’s why they call it a solo, right?
0810 LT: Sabena dispatch. Sign in, in Blue One. Yes! I have the 44P. That’s a positive start. I prepare the weather briefing, it’s a bit windy, the mass and balance sheet, I print the flight report, check the squawk book. Done.
Atis: information W, 060/11 12/6 A3013
0845 LT : time to do the walk-around and to pre-flight the 44P.
0915 LT: Instructor arrives, and we first do 3 patterns as a dual. The 3 patterns where pretty nice and at 0940 I ‘kicked’ my instructor out of the bird. (Yes, I was so kind to bring the Papa to a complete stop. The instructor also needed to fill out the logbook at the back and on my medical. )
0945 LT: Less nervous, and back at the left seat. No one at the right. All alone…at last! I do the cockpit preparation flow again. I know I forgot something but I can’t remember what. The checklist says I’m ready to start the engine. I check behind and in front of there are no supporters or other students in the way, and I scream PROP CLEAR. I press the start button and hear the beautiful sound of the engine when he kicks alive. “Falcon ground, Archer 4144P with information Z at the Sabena ramp, request taxi to the run up, full stop taxi backs” … “Roger 44P, taxi to the run up via the ramp”…

Once in the run up area and after I completed the run up, I remembered what I forgot…the briefing. I brief myself and request taxi to the runway.
The point at the holding short was the most horrible. There were still 3 aircrafts in base or final so I had a couple of seconds before taking off. I think I did the flows and checklists 3 times over and over again, just to make sure I didn’t forgot anything. “Archer 44P, cleared for departure rwy 04R, fly the rwy axis”. I took a deep breath, I lined myself up with the centerline, lights, transponder on altitude, and I said loud and clear like I do every time “take off, full power I have controls”…It was strange…there was nobody to confirm my take off with “take off, you have controls”. Speed 65, rotate…Oki, so far so good…”next step”…speed 75 climb to 2200 feet traffic pattern altitude at FFZ.

The first pattern went great…oki maybe not perfect, I was so busy trying not to make to much mistakes that I forgot the landing checklist but anyway… On final…this is it…first landing. Am I on glide? Yes. Good. Keep it that way! Too far to the left…back on centerline, and add more wind correction. Is my nose pointed where I want it to be? Good…speed? 70…close enough…Over the numbers, idle….looking outside….flare. I swear it was like somebody stopped the time when I flared. I thought my wheels would never touch the ground. I had the feeling complete centuries passed by before I felt and heard the “boink” of rubber vs. runway. And then I made a mistake. I’m so used to do touch-and-go’s with my instructor, but as a solo student you are not allowed to do that. You have to taxi back to the holding point. “I have controls, full power”. Just at the moment I gave full power, it hit me that I had to taxi back. I pulled the throttle back to idle and jumped on the breaks. I had to turn left, and my speed was a bit to high so I slipped a bit. Luckily not too much, but it wasn’t a nice experience. A word – in Maltese - that I’m not going to repeat on my blog came out my mouth and I turned left to taxiway Echo. I soooooooooo hope nobody saw that!!! I taxied back and waited a minute at the 04L holding point to clear out my mind. I waited till I was mentally ready again, took a breath and forced myself not to think about the mistake anymore. New pattern, new start.

The tower gave me a “go” and up I went for another pattern. This time it went smoother. More relaxed. But again, when I pulled idle and started to flare, somebody stopped the time. I kept on repeating “full stop taxi back” in my head. Hit the ground, centerline, flaps up, break. Taxiway echo. Holding short. Ready for my last solo pattern. Except for the flares, the time went way to fast.

Back up in the air, last pattern for today, on downwind turning to base the controller says I have to go back to the other frequency because this will be a full stop. I switch to 124.6 and report to the tower that I’m turning base. No answer. I check my comm. Everything fine. I hear the tower speaking to somebody else. I almost have to turn final. Frequency is clear and I wanted to try for a 2nd time when I heard “44P, number two follow the archer, cleared to land, rwy 04R”. I thought immediately “Number two? Did he said number two? Archer? Which Archer? I’m on final you …. !!!!!! *again a Maltese word that I’m not going to repeat*! And off course there’s no Archer in sight! Not in front or behind me. Not on the left or right. But I was wrong, there WAS an Archer…on the runway below, just in front of me, positioned and holding, ready to take off as soon as he got the clearance. There was only one little tiny problem, I was on short final and there was no way I could land. I remember I heard the voice of Achmed The Dead Terrorist in my head saying “holy crap!”. I hit the throttle to full power, flaps up. When the tower finished giving the Archer below me his take off clearance I said “very friendly”, “Falcon tower 44P RUNWAY 04 RIGHT, going around!”. I saw that the aircraft below me started to roll just a couple of seconds before I flew over him. “Archer 44P, roger, make euhm…right traffic and euhm…turn crosswind when able.” I don’t think I was nervous…I didn’t had the time to be stressed, only time to react…I know the plane below me was climbing in the same axis as I was…I looked behind and below and had him in sight. To be sure not to hit him I turned a bit to the right to fly next to the runway and I turned crosswind as soon as possible to separate us. When I extended my crosswind I heard, “Archer 44P, sorry for that, you are number 3 and cleared to land runway 04R, advise when you have the traffic in sight.” “Number 3, cleared to land rwy 04R, traffic in sight”. Checklist completed, 45 degrees, 1500RPM, flaps 25, turn to base. Glide path, looking good, speed perfect 75, turn to final, flaps…correct for the wind. Oki, good…flare…”boink”…centerline, flaps up, break.
I taxied back to the parking spot of the 44P. My instructor said congrats and pushed the plane back on his spot. At SFA we have a sort of ‘ceremony’. When you go solo, you are not allowed to touch the ground anymore. Somebody else of your prom has to carry you on his shoulders to the car. Then they dump you in the trunk of the car and drive as lunatics back to the apartments. Then you have to climb again on somebody’s shoulders – not allowed to touch the ground!- and then they throw you in the swimming pool. With your uniform on :-p You only are allowed to take your shoes and tie off and make sure your cell phone is not in your pocket anymore. Wet and on your socks you have to go back to your apartment where you can take a long hot shower and think the flight over again in your mind 

Happy landings everybody!!!!

pic's:

1. Instructor KMB writing the solo stuff at the back of my logbook.
2. Me and KMB
3. Putting the trim-wheel back on his take off place. I'll be glad when I'll have the electrical trim again.
4. Doing the cockpit preparation
5. The supporters
6. First take off
7. Airborn
8. Back on the ground *don't touch the ground*
9. On raph's strong shoulders.
10. Ready to be dumped in the trunk.
11. In the trunk.
12. Going back out of the trunk. The guys drove like lunatics!
13. Going to be very very very wet in 1......2.....3....
14. wet :-p

Thanksgiving

2008-11-29T17:29:00.007-07:00

Hi guys,

Thursday was Thanksgiving. I was invited by Delaney - a friend of me from Mesa - and her parents. It was my first thanksgiving ever and it was very nice. Turkey, sweet potatoes and other njammie stuff. Her family was there and other friends. After a nice afternoon, we played a bit with the darts - I think I lost - and then it started to rain. And I mean rain...like just-run-2-seconds-in-this-type-of-rain-and-ur-soaking-wet-rain. The lovely rain we have often in our beautiful little country in Belgium. The rain was accompanied by thunder and lighting and it was quite a spectacle.

For the rest...I moved to another apartment. I'm now sleeping with Diaz (prom7B) and two of prom8A...Gwendoline and Arthur.

For the rest I putted some old militairy crafts up...

Enjoy,

3lke

Out of Africa

2008-11-24T13:32:00.012-07:00

G'day everybody,

Yesterday Stephen, Rene and me went to the Out of Africa wild park. It was a very long drive but eventually it was worth it. Not only I had the opportunity to see a lot of the beautiful landscape of Arizona but it was also nice to be out of the Springs for a while. At the park we first made the Safari-tour in the bus. Zebra's, giraffes, a camel, and other creatures. Second thing on the agenda was the Tiger Splash show. It's was very nice. 3 zoo-trainees "played" and swam with the 2 tigers. It was very nice to see. After the show we made the tour around the park and in the afternoon we saw how they fed every animal. There where a lot of lions and lionesses, tigers and bears. But also snakes and Lemur monkeys. And as cherry on the pie, 2 beautiful Grey wolves!

For the people who has me on facebook...there are a lot more pics!

hug,

3lke

2008-11-14T11:40:00.004-07:00

Good morning Guys,

After a horrible night, being sick and only 4.5 hours of sleep, I woke up at 0430 because I had the first flight of the day. I took some painkillers, left my breakfast for what it was, and went to dispatch with my flymate to prepare for the flight, Mission 28. After all the checks and holding short for RWY 04R I got the clearance and off we go...South-East departure too Coolidge. Everything went fine, the landings where already much better then yesterday and the ground-reference maneuvers where good as well. "Coolidge traffic, archer 41488E is turning on final rwy 05, full stop, Coolidge traffic". I hit the breaks and start to taxi. Because it's always hot inside my instructor already opens the door a bit...and then we hear a loud 'crack' and the door hits the wing surface. I bring the aircraft to a halt, not even nicely parked, and we go and check it out. The upper bolt and the hinge are missing. When I did the walk-around everything was perfectly fine, and now where stuck at Coolidge with a bolt missing. The instructor made a quick call to Sabena Dispatch and afterwards he went to check of there was somebody of the maintenance in Coolidge who could help us out. We got a bolt that was more or less oké and some tools. I have to say the boys worked perfectly as a team to get the plane fixed...and me? I just watched and smiled...and took some pic's ;-)

mission 25: Valley Rally

2008-11-10T15:57:00.004-07:00

Hi guys,

Today I had my 5th flight and it was the first flight out of the practise area. This mission my instructor called "The Valley Rally". At 0700 LT I took off at Falcon field (FFZ) with my instructor and flymate. We flew too Scottsdale (SDL) and reported overhead, and then too Deer Valley (DVT). From DVT I flew the bird too Glendale (GEU), where I made several touch-and-go's. The same for the following two airports, Goodyear (GYR) and Chandler (CHD). Touch-and-go's and some more touch-and-go's. With flaps, without flaps, "engine failure" -landing etc... At Gateway I made a full stop landing and I switched places with my flymate. I was glad to see Chandler and Gateway in real live, because I made a lot of landings - the NDB in Chandler and the ILS in Gateway - at these two airports in the FNPT II DA42 simulator. What costed me often blood, sweat and tears in the simulator was now actually simpler to do as an VFR flight.

Cya,

3lke

solo johan

2008-11-05T16:40:00.001-07:00

Sorry guys, this is a text only for the Dutch speaking people...

Beschrijving van de solo van mijn "flight-peter":

Zelf kan ik me het nog seconde per seconder herinneren. Aligned on the runway. Gyro juist zetten. Diep ademhalen en full throttle. Dat is nog rijden. Maar seconden later trek je eventje op de joke en besef je dat je die wielen terug op de grond moet weten te zetten. Je doet het helemaal jezelf aan. "Shit die trim staat niet goed!" Het vluchtje zelf moet zowat een compleet foutenlogboek geweest zijn. Ik wist zelfs niet meer of het een links of een rechts circuit was. Downwind in op 800 ft en eruit op.... 1200. In de baseleg vloog ik er de flaps bijna onderuit. 'Alfa November Oscar is Turning final for two zeven'."Godver, ben er toch wel voorbij zeker!" En daar hang je zowaar voor de piste die zo verdomd laag ligt. Opgehangen aan de flaps vliegt dat ding als een opgesmeten baksteen. En dan maar die beton zien naderen, zo dicht mogelijk, dicht, dicht, TE DICHT, 'moeder!' en...flare. Hij steekt zijn neus op, waggelt als een aangeschoten gans met reuma. De runway is weg, je ziet alleen maar den boven, vanwaar je kwam en niet meer zijn moet. Als in een verschrikkelijk slechte sofa achterovergevallen, machteloos afwachten. Hij wil maar de grond niet raken en je kwelt je zelf met trekken, trekken..... Hij gedraagt zich als een halfopgeblazen luchtmatras.De stall warning jengelt en jankt als een fanfare die niet van opgeven weet. Eeuwen duurt dat. Er IS misschien geen piste meer, alleen maar een gat, mijn graf! Tot de verlossende schokken van de maingear, en hij smijt zijn neus naar beneden. Eindelijk terug land in zicht. Een cabine vol zweetlucht is al wat rest. En een vertwijfeld gevoel dat je toch bijna gecrasht bent. Want zooooooo slecht heb je nog nooit gevlogen... De instructeur vond het..... Perfect!. En gelogen dat ik heb toen hij me vroeg of alles goed was gegaan: "pfff Prima!". Gelukkig dat er geen voice recorder inzat: ik heb de hele tijd tegen mezelf zitten kletsen.Ruzie gemaakt. Gescholden. Me voor gek verklaard. En die Cessna, die heeft er ook van langs gekregen. Ook verbaal. Gelukkig dat het een solo was!

Happy landings!
Johan.

first flight AZ

2008-11-04T16:17:00.002-07:00

G'day everybody,

04 Nov. 08, It's not only election day here in America, but also the day me and the others from Prom 7B had there first flight. I was the first on the schedule, at 0645 in the morning. That means wake up call at 0450, van ride at 0530, and then I've an hour to check the weather charts, listen out the ATIS, check the METARS and TAFs, the Notams, fill out and calculate a mass and balance sheet, calculate the performance, check the squawkbook, sign in, etc...Just the normal 'to do before flight' preparation. 20 minutes before flight I met my instructor, and he checks my 'homework', I get a short briefing and off we go to the Sabena ramp. The last plane, N4149Y, was waiting for us. We do a quick preliminary inspection and a walk-around. After the Cockpit preparation flow, I scream 'props free' and start the engine, which ran very roughly. We got the taxi clearance and started to taxi to the run up area. The next flow, is the ground check. Everything went fine, till I started testing the magnetos. Normally, you're only allowed to have an RPM drop of maximum 150 RPM and the difference between the 2 magnetos can not exceed 50 RPM. One magneto was showing a drop of 25-50 RPM, the other ossilates between 250-300, what is way to much! The only sentence I wanted to hear today was 'Archer 4149Y cleared for take off", but instead we informed dispatch we had a 'no-go, due to mag. probs, and we had to turn back to the parking area, shut everything down, and my first 'flight' was over even before it started. I was a bit disappointed...well actually a lot :-p I filled out my first squawk ever in the squawkbook and gave all the papers to dispatch...but, N4144P was free at 1015. So, we postphoned everyones flight and at 1115 I was finally airborn, after again a delay of one hour due to a fueltruck problem.

It was just an introduction flight. The instructor did the take off and I could fly the wings to the practise area. We practised just some basic stuff. Straight and level flight, turns, climbing/descending turns, steepturns, slow flight, accelerated flight, etc etc...The only problem was, till now I always flew IFR, and this was my first VFR flight. My eyes where sometimes glued to the instruments and then I had to remind myself to look outside and not to the needles. Afterall the flight was pretty relaxed and fun :-)

I just loved it!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy landings everyone!

hug,

3lke

2008-11-03T14:44:00.003-07:00

Some more pics

2008-11-03T13:29:00.005-07:00

It's party time!!

Saterday eve there was a big Halloween party in one of the hangars of SATC. So,we needed costumes and i went with the frenchies and kristof of prom6 to the mall. There where really nice costumes, but also very expencive. At the end we all took a cheap costume, but they where still oke.
It was a nice occasion to meet other people from the school, like the Idian and the Dutch guys.
First ,if you arrived at the hangar, you had to show your ID card too two police officers who had there guns, matrak, electric stun guns etc etc with them...It was only a little student party, but Hey, you never know if an instructor would have brought his bazooka or that the Indian guys planned an attack, the Dutchies could have done something really stupid or the Maltese guys could have done...well, i'm going to shut up or they will all hit me ;)

I went as Artemis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis

2008-11-01T10:20:00.000-07:00

G’day guys,

Some boys of India who’re living just across my bedroom thought it would be funny to scream everybody awake at 0615 in the morning, so I thought by myself, ‘rise and shine’ it will be a beautiful warm/hot day.

The little piece here below I wrote already on the plane, but I didn’t had internet access till now to put it on the blog. I’ll just copy and paste it.

Hi all,

I’m writing this piece in the plane to Washington D.C. The screen in front of me says that we already travelled 2221 miles, we’re 37000 feet (11277m) high, our speed is 805km/h and we have a head wind of (38 km/h).

But I’ll start with the beginning.

0600: waky, waky time. For the first time in a couple of weeks I’m wearing my uniform again. It feels good :-p After a quick breakfast my dad kicks my two huge suitcases in the trunk of the car, and off we go. I’m the first to arrive at the SV4 – who’s not hanging there anymore - in the departure hall of Brussels airport. My grandparents arrived a bit later J At 10.15 everybody’s there and we’re checking in our luggage. We say goodbye to our supporting teams. We receive the last hugs and kisses we will get in 6-7 months. Just wave and smile….

At the security check I’m ‘beeping’ just like I predicted. My shoes, it’s always the same story. The security picks me out the line, and I’m getting searched.
Finally we board the plane –United B777- and 5 minutes later, we start to taxi. It’s a long trip, still 3 hours to go, it will be a total of 8 hours and some minutes. I already saw 2 movies, and one of them was the newest movie with Will Smith, Hancock. Djeez, I never saw a bad movie with Will in my life, so I was very, very, very disappointed in this one. Come on, Superman with an alcohol problem? *rolling eyes* They should fire Vince Gilligan, the one who wrote the screenplay. Oeps, battery is almost flat, time to go…

8 hours and some minutes later we land at Washington D.C Dulles. We have 3 hours to get our stuff and find the gate for our next stretch. From Washington DC to Phoenix Skyharbor, a trip from 5 hours. I didn’t know so much about that part of the trip because I was already sleeping before we took off! I remember that the plane started to taxi and that’s it.

* The first week here is actually pretty boring.
* Briefings, and briefings and more briefings!
* We also bought the Chevy Van of prom 5.
* That car is awesome.
* We start flying on Tuesday.
* It’s hot over here!

Sorry, this time the writing is a bit all over the place, but I don’t have that much time…

Hug

3lke

monday is D-day

2008-11-01T10:19:00.000-07:00

The examinations are finished!!! I already started packing and the paperwork is almost done. (tip for the following proms: from the moment u recieve ur I-20 form, start doing the paperwork! Don't wait till the last 2 weeks, because u will be in trouble!)

Monday we - Laurent, Stephen, Tom and me - have to be under the SV4 in the departure hall in Bxl-airport at 0930. Apparently the A/C isn't there anymore but I'm sure we'll find eachother ;-)

What's the program in the states?

1. Piper Archer: PA-28
phase I: exercises up to first solo + solo check = 15 hrs
phase II: exercises up to first solo cross-country + x-country check = 20.5 hrs
phase III: exercises up to VFR navigation + VFR nav. check = 45.5 hrs

2. Diamond Star DA-40
phase IVa: night flight, basic & advanced instrument flying + BIF check + IR (NDB & VOR) check + final DA-40 IR check = 58hrs

3. Diamond Twinstar DA-42
phase IVb: multi-engine flying (VFR & IFR) + ME CPL (A) skill test = 25.5 hrs
phase IVc: ME IR acclimatization training JAA + ME IR (A) skill test = 5.5 hrs

I'll try to take some pictures of our departure and I'll write again when I'm on the otherside of the world.

Cya all!

3lke

btw: nope, I'm sorry I do not know what is happening with my blog, with the white vs blue background...if anybody knows what's going on, pls contact me :-)

week 40, 09/10/08

2008-11-01T10:18:00.002-07:00

Hi folks,

pfiew, damn, it's almost 3 weeks that I didn't write on my blog, that's a record, no? I'm sure, ya all mist me very much *angle face*.
Good, what's up in SFA-PROM-7-Land? Prom 7A are enjoying theirselves in the big sand box of Arizona and Prom 7B, including me, had their first exams.

Principles of flight: Why a piece of metal can fly and mostly doesn't fall out of the sky.

Flight planning: How not to get lost in the big blue sky.

Performance: How to calculate the performance data and why a computer is 100 times better in it.

General Navigation: How to use a pooley, and the 101 reasons why they don't use it anymore.

Radio Nav.: On which frequencies my navigation instruments work, and why I don't give a sh*t about it as long as they work.

Human Performance: Why you better don't smoke, scuba-dive, and drink to much coffee as a pilot.

Powerplant: Why turbines kick propellers ass.

Psycho: Why antisocials are not the most enjoyable people to fly with and why sleep is very ver very very very important for a pilot.

Electrics: How many electric wire is going in a ship? (inside sfa joke)

Airlaw: Why a Medium aircraft has to wait 2 minutes before it can take off after a heavy one, and how come some ATC'ers doesn't know that rule.

Meteo: 1000 reasons why u better avoid flying in a CB.

Communications: Where you learn that 'wiskey' isn't a drink and 'tree' doesn't have anything to do with the green stuff in ur garden.

Instrumentation: Gimbal lock isn't a special kind of dance style

Mass and balance: To avoid to look stupid like these guys...

grtz

3lke

week 36, 19/09/08

2008-11-01T10:18:00.001-07:00

Howtideloe everybody!

Today I had the FNPT II simulator check. Yes, yes I passed. Not that everything went perfect though...Normally I would have started the check at 1300, but I got a mail the day before that it was scheduled too 1500. Good for me, more time to prepare and reread the appraoches. At 1530 I'm still waiting in the briefingroom and nobody's there. The checks where again a bit delayed and eventually I started at 1700. With also a bit more stress because of the waiting. The first hour it went great, and I told myself that everything was good and I started to relax a bit. I better hadn't done that, because 2 second after I thought it, I made my first mistake. But eventually everything was oké in the end and I'm happy that I can go to the next fase...well, after I pass my ATPL exams...

Hugs,

3lke

week 35, 12/09/08

2008-11-01T10:17:00.000-07:00

Y'all,

The 29th of September my theoritical exams will start. So, I suppose you all can understand that it's pretty buzzy overhere. My room is literally a rubbish dump, with ATPL books, files, papers, empty bottles and clothes everywhere. I never clean while I'm studying for my exams, so I think I'll have to live like this a little longer.

If you are curious how the ATPL exams work:
SFA will give you 3 papers.

Paper 1: The groups and dates. A prom is mostly split in two because otherwise there'll be to many people going too the States in one time. The groups are divided based on the marks/points of the progress checks. On the paper you find also the dates you will make your exams. Those dates will change at least 2 times, before you have your 4 real dates! And, you only got 4 days to make 15 exams. (Nobody said becoming a pilot is easy)

paper 2: The paper with the subjects that you will have to know for the 4 days, and how many time you will get.

paper3: A paper with the Do's and Don't's for the exams.

How the rest works at the examinitiondays, you will hear in a couple of weeks.

For the rest, Prom 7A will leave too The States Tuesday, the 16th of September. Enjoy guys!

Hug,

3lke

week 33, 15/08/08

2008-11-01T10:16:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

Yesterday I was struggling with a full headwind and by occasion x-wind when I was riding my bike towards my next 2 simulator sessions, mission 13 and 14. Before I arrived at the parking lot I heard already a heavy noise blowing my way. Listening to the sound of it, it couldn't be a little avro or a bigger 737,... No, it was a fully grown 747 who was testing his engines. I wasn't that surprised to see a 747 next to the parking lot, because there are often planes testing their engines, but moreover because it was one of the slinking fleet of Kalitta's 747's. The last time I saw such a large Kalitta bird was on May 26, one day after the crash on rwy 20. Quick I putted my bycicle inside and shot a couple of pic's of the enormouse beast that was already taxiïng back to the ramp. While putting my camera back in my flightcase, I wished the big boy a save flight and went inside with a big smile, hoping that one day I also will be able to control one of the most beautiful inventions in human history, an aircarft.

Save landings boys and girls,

3lke

Btw, JDC would say: "A pilot's life is one big struggle against the wind!"

week 32, 06/08/08

2008-11-01T10:14:00.002-07:00

G'day my dear blogreaders,

I guess u're all anxious to know what I have been doing up to now.
My days consits out of the simulator DA42 and to prepare for those sessions. Tomorrow I have mission 11.

Below this paragraph u will see the "what-do-I-have-to-know-and what-will I-have-to-do-for-mission-11"-sheet.
At the top of the paper, you have the "nice-to-know-stuff" and the lesson objective. At the leftside you have the list with the topics u have to review, prepare and know. U can see that the things I have to know for this next session are to be found in the IFR manual of Sabena. Mostly I like the Sabena manuals, because they are clear, well illustrated and good explained, however, I don't have so much good to tell about the IFR manual. It's a chaotic thing, with not enough examples and badly explained. I don't know what my fellow collegues think about that manual, but that's my opinion anyway.
Good, to go further. Under the 'Homework' box, you have the 'completion standards'-box. For example in the beginning of the sessions u are allowed to fly 200 feet below or above your altitude, but now we are only allowed 100 feet difference anymore.
At the righthand side you have the exercises u have to do in the air, the ATC clearance and the Wx information.

As you can see, I have to perform a ILS approach in Gateway. I did it before, but together with the instructor who gave me vectors to fly, what is much easier off course. But i'm pretty sure I'll be tomorrow on my own.

Save landings,

3lke

2nd obs flight, 23/07/08

2008-11-01T10:14:00.001-07:00

Y'all

JAF 3897/8 EBBR-LICJ LICJ-EBBR OO-JAN

Brussels - Palermo / Palermo - Brussels

Today I had my second observation flight, and just like my first flight it was with Jetair. This time I had the privilege to join the crew of the 737-700, OO-JAN, to Palermo, Sicily.

I arrived before the crew and asked for a copy of the flight plan. This time I was glad that I understood what was written on those papers. When the capt. arrived we checked the flight plan, weather and notams and he took the time to explain something when I had a question.

When we arrived at the plane, the capt. started the walk around, the FO did the cockpit setup and preparation and I was glad to hear the sentence 'Do u know how the FMS works?' After giving the FO a postive answer I climbed on the left hand seat and started to fill out everything on the FMS ,which the FO checked afterwards off course.

When the Capt. entred the cockpit, I was banished back to the jumpseat, we asked push back and taxi clearance and a couple minutes later we where airborn.

The flight was peacefull, the crew pleasant to talk with, and the food good. I could not have wished for more.

And Palermo is Beautiful with a capital letter! I'm sorry I don't have so much pictures to show you guys but believe me if I say it. The weather overthere was also nice, so it was a bit of a disappointment when we where back in Brussels. Clouds, clouds, and some more clouds, wind, and a way to low temperature for this time of the year.

Like on my first observation flight I had a great time and I really can't wait to take place behind the yoke myself.

Happy and save landings everyone...

3lke

week 29, 10/07/08

2008-11-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

G’morning/noon/evening y’all,

Waauw, where to start, where to start…maybe just with the beginning? No?

Between the last time I wrote something on the blog and now, I had four FNPT II sessions and a practical communication course.

Tuesday the 1st I had my second sim session and the 5th, I had two sessions to fly as PF (pilot flying) and two sessions as PNF (pilot non-flying). Four sessions in one day, let me assure u that it was a long, long day. Yesterday, the 9th I had my 5th session. If you are wondering what we have to do in the beginning of the FNPT II sessions:

The first 2-3 sessions are VFR sessions. Those sessions we have to do visual by looking outside and only occasionally inside to the instruments, just to crosscheck of everything is still ok. The first sessions are more ‘familiarization’ sessions to get use to the airplane and to learn how the Garmin 1000 works. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garmin_G1000 (Don’t you just love Wikipedia?)

We have to do every time the cockpit preparation and all the flows and checklists. The first sessions are just ‘basic flying’, and I find it a lot easier then BFC. (for now on!) The 3rd and the 4th are more precise flying and with take off’s and landings, patterns to fly etc. From session 4 we already have to intercept the ILS, and do off course the ILS landing.

Because I’m…euhm…'not that tall’… I always had a problem to fly ‘normal seated’. I use four pillows to sit a bit comfortable and ‘higher’, but higher also means further away from the rudder pedals and the instruments and controls. I couldn’t reach the rudders, and going full throttle was impossible. My four first missions where quit an adventure, especially if I had to taxi. I kind of had to lay half down in my seat to reach the rudders, and giving rudder to centre the ball couldn’t be done either. In session five, my instructor seated me lower (it is now IFR flying, instruments, so I don’t have to sit higher anymore to look outside) and he putted the two big pillows behind my back. It was the first time in …well ever, that I sat ‘normal’ and flying is a lot easier now. Even my erratic movements – which I had enormous in BFC – aren’t there anymore and the painful shoulders because of the forced seated flying are gone as well.

From now on, it will be kind of difficult to write every week something on my blog. I don’t think it will be that interesting for you guys to know how many times I crashed the plane, or landed in the water, messed up the pattern or totally screwed up a navigation flight, so I’ll write only if I have something really interesting to tell.

I want to say too :

Prom 10: Welcome to SFA and good luck!
Prom 6A: Enjoy Arizona and don't forget to write us by occasions...if you have two seconds time by the pool...

Prom 6B: Good luck with the exams
Prom 3: (they are almost finished) Enjoy and succes with your careers and many happy and save landings!

To the selections candidates who're now following the physic course / doing their selection tests: Good luck and study well! It is worth it! And don't forget to say 'Hi' if you see me :-p ( Some of u still own me a fanta :-p )

The 23rd I have another observation flight with jetair, to Palermo, Sicily. I’m really looking forward to it.

Cheers,

3lke

week 28, first FNPT II session, 28/06/08

2008-11-01T10:10:00.001-07:00

G'day all,

Thursday I had my first FNPT II / DA42 session together with my fly-mate Stephen. The first session is a familiarization session so it was quite relaxed.

First we did the flows, checklists, briefings and we also got a bit more explanation about the G1000. Once airborn, we made some exercises on straight and level flight, turns, climbs, descents, effect of controls and the instructor even made a looping which ended in a stall.

It was a VFR flight so I had to order myself to look constant outside instead of inside, which is kind of strange if you only flew on instruments till now.

Enjoy the pic's,

Save landings,

3lke

My first scribble in my Logbook.

full flight avro sim, 22/06/08

2008-11-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gents,

Like I said, Friday was our last day of groundschool. It went so fast. Almost a year ago everybody of my Prom was stressing for the entry examinations and now 27 week later we're done with the theory. And we finished with something fun! Xavier Coetermans, our instructor (Gen. Nav) booked the full flight sim (Avro) for us and everybody could make a little flight and landing. I was in the last group, and when the group before me came out of the sim they looked like 4 little boys who just had received the best present ever in their whole life. And maybe that wild guess is not even far from the truth! They all wore a smile on their face that went up to their ears and even their eyes where like bright shining stars. Smiles of pure joy.

Two of my group weren’t there in time. Pascal and Diaz decided that they wanted to make a second flight in the jumpseat, and they accompanied John and me. John flew first, and when it was my turn he looked like he never ever wanted to leave his place. To bad, the girl wanted to fly also :-p

I only have one word: supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!!! That’s the right word, isn’t it? The word u use when you actually mean ‘there are no words to describe the feeling that you feel’ or ‘there are no words to say how awesome, amazingly fun something is”
It was (awesome)³³³³³³³. And just like the group before us, we were smiling. I felt like I was in love again, with butterflies everywhere. I smiled the whole way driving back to Ghent, I even smile right now, typing this little blog-part. I wonder what I will feel when I will start flying for real. I mean, it was only for a couple of minutes but even the coolest, most superb amusement park attraction can’t beat the joy of flying. Paul Huyghe was right. This isn’t a beautiful job, it is THE MOST beautiful job!

Xavier thanks!!!!!!!

Full flight sim: Avro(tje)

John flying with Xavier in the left seat

3lke flying

The Three jumpseaters (from left to right: Diaz, Pascal, John)

Diaz in the left seat

John in the right seat

Pascal in the left seat

Me in the left seat

Groups pic

And last but not least...an unpaid pic of Xavier :-p

Cheers everyone,

Happy landings,

3lke

week 26, 13/06/08

2008-11-01T10:00:00.001-07:00

Hi Guys,

I don't have much to report about this week...the next weeks that will come how ever will be more enjoyable...

Next week will be my last week of theorie - damn, those 26 weeks went fast!- ...and we will end with the subject Gen nav.

The 26th of November 2007 we started our first course with Xavier, subject Gen nav, and we will end our last course also with Xavier and Gen nav. How nice...

Next week we start also flying on the FNPT II Sim, DA42.
We received our dates for the exams, but they can be delayed off course if there will be...well yeah, delays :-p

I will have my first 7 exams the end of September, and the next 7 exams the beginning of October. A lot later then I had expected,...

Hug,

3lke

week 24-25, 07/06/08

2008-11-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

Oké, guys get a grip...pls, don't spam my mailbox full with messenges that I didn't write an update for 2 weeks now. I have two very good and simpel explanations why I didn't made an update at all.

First one: Week 24 consisted only out of 2 half days. So, the chance that there would have happened something tremendous spectaculair, something extraordinary 'out-off-all-boundaries' funny, something that is even more interessting then winning the World Cup, finding the missing link in the evolution, finding the last pirat treasure, climbing the mount everest without any oxygen, knowing what's inside pandora's box, or even finding back my red shoes with yellow pokadots and purple shoelaces, is very very very very very very slim.

Second one: Week 25 was (very very very very very very)²³ buzzy, and even today (Saterday) I had a whole day course. But yeah, we keep on smiling and as long as we can sing, isn't it? (Not that I can sing, it is just a matter of speaking, because if you want to hear me sing, I strongly suggest and advise you to go and get some very good earplug-thingies that are extra soundprove)

So...what's up for the rest? Well, NORMALLY, I only have 2 weeks of groundschool left. After that we'll start with the FNPT II (D42) simulator, then we'll have exams and I hope I'll be flying above the grand canyon or laying next to the swimmingpool at the beginning of September. (I sure hope everybody saw the 'normally'? I don't have 'flashing-neon-light-buttons' to surround the word, so I hope I made my point with the red color and the caps?)

Well, I hope that everybody is now fat and happy with the little update...
If not, well...to say it in pilot terms --> I don't give a sh*t!

Cheers! And cya next time...

3lke

week 20-21-22, 17/05/08

2008-11-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

I’m sorry that I’m a bit behind with the updates on my blog, but the last two weeks weren’t the easiest and free time was very rare. Sleep also. The work load the last two weeks was enormous and the NMBS thought it would be fun to cancel 4 times in 2 weeks time my train. Don’t you just love the public transport? And one of the NMBS their slogans is ‘Zonder stress naar het werk’ (go with no stress to your work)…yeah, right… I’m now looking for a kot, because after 5 months of this no-sleep-and-a-lot-of-work I’m fed up by it. Anyway, I don’t have much to say about week 20. It was a short week because we had Thursday and Friday off. Labor and Ascension day. And it wouldn’t be SFA without a couple of tests, so instead to enjoy the sun and the warmth I was stuck inside with my beloving books of powerplant and meteo. Joy!

In week 21 we had a lot of flight planning and for once we didn’t need the computer so Xavier our instructor had a marvelous idea. We had only excersises to do, and why not make them outside in the sun, next to the runway? After a while I looked like a lobster, but we had a nice morning after all J

Thursday we had a whole day briefing. Diamond 42 and the Garmin 1000. And if I say ‘a whole day’ I mean a ‘whole day’. We finished almost at 21h in the eve. Again, student power and motivation. The briefing was given by Paul Huyghe. I heard other students (SFA aswell as KLS) talk about that guy, and they where right, that guy is awesome!

This week we had 2 more briefings about the DA 42 from Mr. Solheid, and our last lesson of performance. I’ll miss perfo…oki wait let me say it in a different way…I’ll miss the jokes and stories :-p

For the rest, what do we do when we have a break, and prom 8 can miss their rugbyball?

Cya all next time,

3lke

(ps: pic's are from Stephen)

week 19, 25/04/08

2008-11-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

G’eve Y’all,

Damn, this week was awesome! Where to start? Maybe just with the beginning to keep it simple J

Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal days but Wednesday, Thursday and today (Friday) were not that ‘normal’ at all :-p Wednesday we had the first two hours Principles of Flight (till 1100) and then we were free till 1430 because we had the ‘Brussels Airport behind the screens’ on our program. But yeah what to do with all that free time in between? We just plugged one of our laptops in and then we had a first class cinema J And in the meanwhile we still can learn a bit and we can’t get annoyed by people who eat there chips or popcorn to loud or with that “way-to-big-guy-in-front-of-you-so-you-can’t-see-a-damn-thing!”

After the movie it was time to go to the airport but like y'all know, free parking at the airport doesn’t exist. We decide to drop our cars at the delhaize and go by bus because we can go free with our Airport badges.

In the tour we went to the baggage-sorting-thingie and the crisis-centre but unfortunately I had to give my camera to the securing agent because no pictures were allowed to take. Still, I could take some pictures in the public area's.

The following two pictures are my favorite! 8 of my 'little boys'. Ain't they cute? They grow up so quickely :'-( Luckely there was no single person in the hall to see them like that :-p

Next day, Thursday, we had our second FNPT II briefing given by P. Solheid. I find him one of the best instructors till now. He explains everything very well and completely different then other instructors. After the briefing we had some patati and patata and thereafter we went to Belgocontrol to visit the tower.

I think everybody his reaction was the same as mine if you entred the tower. The only word that you get over your lips the first seconds is 'WAAUW'. Damn, what a view! I wish I had an appartement with a view like that. Those guys are living a dream. Oki, as a pilot your 'view' is also very nice, but still...We could see everything! It was just amazing.

The next part of Thursday was also pretty cool. Because we didn't had class on Friday morning and we decided to go out with the whole prom. Everybody was +- between 2100 and 1030 at the kot of the Maltese.

We went all out in Leuven and had a great time. But for a couple of us at 0400 it was enough and the half of the group went home, I was among them. When the others came home they had a flower with them, for me. Even though the flower had only 2 yellow leaves left, I was happy with it ;-) Thx guys!

For the next pictures there will be three guys who will love to kill me...but yeah can't help it...

There wasn't that much room available, they were (half) drunk and I refused to share my little bank with them and unless somebody was willing to sleep on the floor...

Aren't they sweet when they are asleep?

Cya all next week and keep on flying!

btw: Sam I hope ur happy with the extra pcitures ;-)

3lke

week 18, 19/04/08

2008-11-01T09:51:00.002-07:00

Hi all,

Week 18…the week after the famous briefings. I don’t know of it is due to that briefing or not but this week there were more people late then in the previous weeks, or maybe there’s just something in the drinking H2O at Sabena. Anyway, in general week 18 was a pretty nice and good week and the week started with something fun. We had our FMS workshop. For the pedestrians who’re reading my blog : Ever wondered what happened to Flight Engineers and Navigators in the civilian aircrafts? Well, due to the FMS they are kicked out of the airplanes. FMS stands for ‘Flight Management System’ and it is a computerized component in the airplane that assists pilots in navigation, flight planning and aircraft control functions and performance. To continue my little story: In groups of 2 or 3 we were introduced to this lovely computer who will make our lives much easier. We stared with 2 very old documentary movies about the FMS and after that we had to prepare our flight to Ostend. In the FMS-trainer room of SFA our instructor explained the basic and most important things about the FMS and we made the little flight to Ostend. 5 minutes before our landing the computer crashed so we had to stay 2 hours more, to check the last 5 minutes together with group 3. Staying 2 hours longer for those last 5 minutes was a waste of time, but I enjoyed the workshop very much. J After the workshop we had the final exam of radio navigation in group. (I love teamwork :-p )( I tried to make some pictures of our FMS-trainer at Sabena but my camera wasn’t in a very good mood and just to annoy me he decided not to work to hard that day)

This week we had our last lessons of Airlaw and psycho. We are finished with: physiology, electricity, radio navigation, mass and balance, airlaw, psychology and basic radio. Next week we’ll have a tour: ‘Brussels Airport behind the screens’ and we are going to visit Belgocontrol as well. I can’t wait and I hope my camera will be a bit less moody then this week or I’ll have to kick him out and replace him.

Big kiss and keep on flying,

3lke

week, 16-17, 11/04/08

2008-11-01T09:51:00.001-07:00

G’day,

I skipped again a week on my blog. I kicked week 16 out because it was such a wasted week. Normally we have -+ 35 hours in a week, and week 16 only counted 15 hours. There didn’t happened things that are worth mentioning and it was actually just a boring week. Week 17 was the whole opposite of week 16! Busy, busy and busy! And a lot happened. Monday we were scheduled for a physio test, what would have been very normal but there was a little catch :-p We finished physio months ago…Due to that mistake we had 1hour off at 11h. We wanted to go and play billiard somewhere but there is no single café or whatever in the neighborhood with a pooltable. Then we decided to go and eat somewhere but at 11h there isn’t much open, so eventually we wasted the whole hour driving in circles and the half of the group ‘landed’ at the Airport to eat something and the others in Belgocontrol.

Wednesday we had two briefings: the first ‘observation flights’ and the second ‘internal regulations’. The Obs. Briefing came a bit late. Normally a prom gets that briefing in the second or third week and we are already busy with the training from November. Not that we cared so much about it because me and 3 others of my prom already did an obs flight without the briefing. (see blog a month ago) For the guys who don’t know what an observation flight is: At the very little library of the school there’s a very big writing case with all the dates, destinations and flights from Jetair, Thomas Cook and Luxair. (SN and VLM under construction) You just pick a flight you would like to do (or toss a coin), and fill it in on a paper that you then handover to the administration who will call/mail the company. They will then ask the captain of he/she wants to be so kind to lend the jump seat to the ‘rookie’ who wants to do the obs flight. Meaning that you will be a member of the crew and you will do everything what the pilots do…well not everything, u’r not allowed to fly, to bad ;-p. But for the rest, you have to be at the crew room 2 hours in advance just like the pilots and other crew. You will get also a copy of the flight plan and together with the Capt. or FO you check the weather, fuel, notam’s, taf’s, etc…With the crew you go to the A/C and luckily your job isn’t only ‘watch and observe’. If you are lucky you can do the communications and some other little stuff as well. It’s strange that we’re the only school that has a procedure to do such flights because they are fun to do and you not only learn a lot on those flights you also can see/feel how it is to be a ‘real’ pilot and how an average day of a pilot looks like. In the noon we had then the ‘internal regulations briefing’ what is actually a very advanced, upgraded word for ‘school rules’. The briefing was very childish. The two mean points:
Be in time!
Yeah Duh!!!!!! A student (nobody knows who) went to the CGI to tell-tail that there are sometimes people late in the class and that’s not a good pilot attitude and patati and patata…I fully agree but the attitude of being a tell-tail as a pilot for such childish things I find much more disturbing then somebody who’s late because of traffic jam or a bloody train that has been delayed. For the guy who did à grow up!
Don’t stand for the coffee machines at the second floor.
Some pilots (pilots who rent a sim) have complained that the students are sometimes standing for the coffee machine and that it takes a while before all the 16 guys of a prom have there coffee, so that the pilots who rent a sim (they only have a break of 10 min) don’t have there coffee in time. Blinkblink Euhmmm, hello! You all have a mouth to talk, use it or if you are to shy to ask a bunch of trainingstudents to get out the way because you will otherwise get a hartattack, a nervouse-breakdown or maybe eventually die due to the lack of caffeine, go the the first floor to get a coffee. (I always thought that the psycho kicked shy people out in the selection fases, but apparently I'm wrong)
Today we had a part of the FNPT II briefing. The sim of the Diamond 42 in which we’ll start to fly in hopefully a month. The Diamond DA42 Twin Star is a four seat, twin engine, propeller-driven airplane manufactured by Diamond Aircraft Industries.

Also
Diamond DA 42 Twin Star instrument panel showing the garmin G1000 glass cockpit installation

Prom 9 started today. We didn’t saw them yet but it will be very crowdie at the third floor with 4 proms (+- 64 people), next Monday. Cya’ll next time… Fly!

week 14-15, 29/03/08

2008-11-01T09:49:00.000-07:00

G’eve everybody,

I know, I know, I didn’t wrote anything about week 14, and y’all are dying to get some news of me…I can understand that, but time, time, time…Oki, that’s maybe not completely true… ‘Only a part of the truth’ JDC would say.
Week 15 was pretty relaxed so I would have been able to write something about week 14, but I didn’t. Why? Because nothing very extreme, worth noting, I-have-to-tell-my-blog-readers-that, happened. It was just a normal week. A normal week that only has two little thingies, and that was our first lesson of communication and the fact that we’ll have Stijn for the rest of Airlaw. (The prom is pretty pleased with that fact.)
For the rest like I said, we’d a normal week, with normal days, which’re always starting at abnormal hours, +- 5 o’clock and if I’m home at 04.50, that hour is for normal, reasonable teenag…, I mean “twenty-agers” the middle of the night! If that ****** alarm goes off at that hour I ask myself the same questions as I did when I was in high school:

a. Which day is it?b. What are the consequences of that day?c. How to avoid them? But then I realize that the alarm is going off so I can jump into my uniform – very cool because now I don’t have the ‘what-should-I-wear-today-game’, and go to SFA, what would pretty awesome if I wouldn’t have such a “lovely” morning mood. But with a free-cup-of-hot-choco that is always waiting at me at SFA, my ‘sunny’ morning mood doesn’t stay for very long.

Sorry, I kind of lost of track…Where was I? Oh right, ‘normal’ week…Good well so week 14 is closed…lets go further to week 15. Week 15 was pretty relaxed like I told in the beginning. We did a bit of Airlaw, Meteo, Mass and Balance, a lot of Gen. Nav and a bit of paintball…Yep, u read it correctly, paintball. Thursday we had nothing to do for once – except some of us had a test, me included- and after the test, the guys of Malta came and pick me up, (aren’t they sweet :-p ) and then we drove to Merchtem. We were with 10 of our prom and we’d a great time. The day after everybody had black-purple-green-yellow-and-all-colors-of-the-rainbow-spots on their bodies but nobody cared for it. We had fun, that’s what count.

Some Did-u-knows:

We all miss Catherine Bernier like hell? And I mean really-really-really miss her.
We also miss Tom Van Laetem!
We’ll have our observation flight briefing next week and our internal regulation briefing.
Already 4 of us did an observation flight, and we’re now at SFA for 4 months and 3 days, so what a perfect timing to give such briefings. *roll eyes*
We only had to search for our sandwiches twice!!! New record!
We want that Catherine comes back.
I finally have almost my full uniform, only 2 trousers to go.
I found an old postcard of Sabena that was from the mother of the mother of my mother, or simply my grand-grandmother. (see below)
We have new BFC equipment. (see below)
That we want to know when Catherine is coming back?
That we have sometimes course in the weekend, like we’d today?
That some of my ‘pupils’ have their final briefing next week and that they better can make that they pass. (hint!)
SFA is fun!
Flying also!
The houses become smaller if ya pull the yoke?
That according to our instructor of POH/Jeppesen an Avro isn’t a plane.
That it isn’t healthy if the houses become unwanted, too big.
We want Tom Van Leatem back.
Gravity sucks.
Questions of this week:

When is Catherine coming back?
Where’s Tom Van Laetem right now?
Why do we have only 10 fingers?
When is Catherine coming back?
When will we leave to the USA?
Who’ll be in group A and who in B?
Wouldn’t it be easier if we’d a third eye at the back of our head?
When is Catherine coming back?

Cya ya guys next time…

week 13, 16/03/08

2008-11-01T09:47:00.000-07:00

G’noon all,

I’d a great week, lots of fun, and yeah, oki, lots of studying also. There’re at least two progress checks every week, so free time is worth gold. Yesterday I took a ‘day off’. Why? Because this little girl became 20 and I really didn't want to celebrate that with Radio Nav. or Meteo.

This week we were introduced to ‘Operational Procedures’, OPS. It’s given by the same instructor as Mass & balance, Matthias Van de Kerchove. His openings sentence was ‘Welcome to the most boring course of them all and be prepared to fall asleep.” But we did everything, accept fall asleep! It’s was damn funny! Ok, the course itself is b-o-r-i-n-g like hell, but luckily Matthias tells a lot of stories and they’re all funny like hell. The same for Perfo, with Tom Poelman, the stories are awesome!’ …and with ‘awesome’ and ‘funny like hell’, I mean ‘rolling-on-the-floor-laughing-with-a-painfull-stomach-because-u-can’t-stop’. Djee, I so love SFA!! I would tell a couple of those stories if I could, but ‘What happens in the cockpit, stays in the cockpit’. In the first course of OPS we had a bit of a safety briefing, given by Christian my Spanish Prom mate. And I think you can guess it…it was funny like hell!

Next week we’ll have our last course of ‘Airlaw 1’, and believe it or not, I think I’ll miss it. Airlaw is given by Stijn and that guy really deserves a ‘pluimke’ because he actually succeeded to make such a ******* course interesting.

For the rest, what’s on the pic’s below?

The first pic, is ‘Pistache’…our class-fly. Pistache is a very silent and a bit shy fly who’s I think a year old. He never ever leaves his be loving spot on the window. Pistache was already there when we came and I think he will still be there when we leave again. I love that little bastard and I sure will miss that little fellow.

Next picture: our noisy-but-we-can’t-miss-them-anymore guys from Malta.

The 4 pic’s below are all Christian who’s making an effort not to be disturbed by our laughs and the flashes of the cameras, while he’s trying to do a safety briefing. Matthias is helping him to fasten the belt of the life jacket, while he’s also trying to be serious and not to laugh. Too bad I didn’t take a picture while he was explaining how an oxygen mask works…

Poor Christian,…

Good that was it for today, hope to see ya’ll next week,

3lke

first observation flight, 08/03/08

2008-11-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

TF1 F100/100 JAF 6003 BRU 0515 0810 AGP J JAF 6004 AGP 0850 1140 BRU J

I’m just back from my first observation flight. It was with Jetair on the Fokker 100, destination Malaga and it was the last day that that Bird was operative. That’s actually the reason why I choose the Fokker flight and not the NG flight. Time enough for me to see the NG but now I still can say that I made a trip with the F100.

At 04.30 I was waiting in the crew room for my Capt. and FO. I received the flight plan and looked at it as if it was Chinees. 30 min later the Capt. came in and he asked of I understood what was on those papers. I answered ‘no’ and he said “Don’t worry, I fly now for more then 30 years and I don’t understand it either”, he blinked too me and he started to explain what was on those papers. It’s actually not that hard but all those abbreviations makes it difficult to understand. We checked together the weather and fuel and the other stuff that has to be done before flight. The FO came and also the steward and the stewardess. Funny group all together.

Take off at 06.15 and we landed around 08.50, 20 min earlier then expected (tailwind ;-) ) It was a nice trip and they explained a lot. Breakfast was njammie and also the meal at noon. In Malaga I did the walk-around together with the FO, and I was very pleased that he took the time to explain me everything he had to check.

The flight back was funny too, the only thing was that we went from nice weather back to cloudy Belgium. Well yeah, at least I saw the Spanish sun for 30 min. Or is that the same sun as ours?

I’m very happy with the trip, and it’s also a good motivation-boost. I can’t wait to plan a next observation flight! Below some pic’s of the trip…

Cya all next week…

PS: I know that I didn’t wrote something about week 11 and 12, but nothing very interessting happened.
PPS: Only that the Maltese guys went back to MaltaThursday eve, so Friday it was for once very silent in the class and meteo was finished 40 min earlier because there where no “Maltese-questions”.
PPPS: No hard feelings guys, I still love u all ;-)

PPPPS: No Byron I’m very sorry I didn’t cry Friday, but if it makes u feel better, I sure missed you all :p

week 10, 25/02/08

2008-11-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

The hell week continued…We had 3 progress checks in one week, our first course of piston engines and our first course of airframes and systems. So, it was again very bussy... Our course of pistons is given by a nice lady, Ruth D’hondt, so for once I wasn’t the only girl in the class.

Luckely this week will be more relaxed…today, monday, I have no course, and for the rest this week will be a lot of meteo, psycho, pistons, and radio nav., all courses I like, and only one progress check à meteo.

week 9, 15/02/08

2008-11-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys,

The last week was such a hell!! I even can't give a definition anymore of the word 'sleep' because I don't know what it means. Everybody was so damn tired...The last two days my eyes didn't stopped tearing from the fatigue...Yesterday I went to bed at 20.00 and I swear I think I was already sleeping before touching my pillow. Well, anyway...4-5 hours sleep a night is not enough, but yeah what do you do about it? It's only for a couple of months and study has a higher priority level then some hours sleep...

For the rest nothing new to say, unless that we finished the course of physio and that I still love SFA, I still love the courses, I still love my prom and I still love the free hot choco (that's the mean reason I choose for SFA!!!)

I hope your week was better then mine and c y'll next week...

3lke

week 8, 05/02/08

2008-11-01T09:42:00.000-07:00

I know, normally i do an update of my blog every weekend...and i would have done it also this weekend if a day would have count more then 24 hours...but yeah...We all have problems...

Anyway, u probably want to know what happened the last 168 hours?

Well, I had my first course of turbines and the new promotion started. Promotion 8 counts 16 people, with again 6 guys from Malta. If they will send every 2 months 6 persons, Malta will be empty by the end of the year...
Prom 8 also counts two girls...so i'm not the only girl at the groundschool anymore. The two new girls are awesome and we get along very well :-)

For the rest the sandwiches disappared only once, there were no more pole-strikes (there's still a 10.000€ price on the head of the last pole), and 'shit' is still a common word for our instructors...

Cya next time...

3lke

week 6 and 7, 25/01/08

2008-11-01T09:40:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

No pole-strikes, no hidden sandwiches, and no crashes happened the last two weeks. Only...funny socks...

Question: What happens when you have to stand up wayyyyy to early and you don't turn the light one???? Any guess??

The only two 'exciting' things that happended during the last 14 days:

* We were again introduced to a new course, and this time it was 'flight planning'.

*The official introduction of the B737 NG. Me and a couple of other prom students were asked to help a bit at the reception or at the gate, and one of my prom buddies took the opportunity to shoot a couple pictures...
Too bad but we couldn't go inside at the moment but our time we'll come :-)

See ya all next time,

3lke

week 5 , 13/01/08

2008-11-01T09:36:00.000-07:00

Hi people,

The only highlights of last week were our first course of BFC (Basic Flying course) and the first course of performance.

Our first BFC session was given by Xavier Jensen, and the keyword of that day was "CENTRE POINT"!!! We only worked with the yoke, throttle, trim and pedals and for the instruments with the ADI and the RPM indicator. Level flight, climb, descent, bank, etc...

Our instructor for Performance is Tom Poelman. Damn that guy is funny! Jokes and jokes + good teaching skills... That's the way to fly :-)

For the rest, nothing very exciting happened. Exept maybe that the second pole is also gone...
2 poles gone, 1 to go ... Who will hit the last one? Who will win the 1.000.000€???
"The Three Gate Poles"...to be continued!!!

For not SFA-people: Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a gate...an entry gate. And next to that gate there were three poles. One day one of the Three Poles was hit by a Maltese guy of my prom. The two other poles stayed lonely behind. A couple of weeks later the people of that land far, far away saw that there was only one pole left. Till today nobody knows what is happend to the second pole. Some people say he missed the first pole so much that he took off. Others say that he has to search the fields for ever, tilll he find his pole-mate back. And the last pole is doomed to stay there whole its life, alone, without company and without his dudes....Till somebody hit him.

The End

C u all next week...

3lke

BFC, 06/01/08

2008-11-01T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

The last week was a very short week. We had only course on Thursday and Friday. Friday was a very interesting day, we had our first briefing of BFC, Basic Flying Course.
First there was the 'normal' introduction briefing, where Jean De Clercq explained all the 'Goals':

* Develop professional attitude
* Understand basic tasks and apply
* Teaching/learning process
* Link between theory and practice
* PPH (Personal Pilot Handbook)

After a short break we had the Technical briefing and a short introduction what we will have to do in our first session.

The sessions are in groups and there are 4 groups of 4 people. I'm in group 1

See ya all next week

Grtz

3lke

week 4, 24/12/07

2008-11-01T09:31:00.001-07:00

G'day everybody,

The keyword of the 4th week was 'Instrumentation'. We talked a lot about gyroscopes, gimbals and precession. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precession

The gyro's are used for the following instruments: DGI (directional gyro indicator), AH ( artificial horizon), turn and slip indiactor, and the turn co-ordinator)

We also had some Gen. Nav., POF and friday noon, we were introduced to another new course: Psycho. We started the course with the beautiful sentence: "Destiny is not a matter of chance, but a matter of choice."
And for once, it was very quiet at the third floor and in the classroom, because the Maltese guys left Thursday for the x-mass holidays.

Did u know that:

* 'Gimbal' isn't a sport
* 'Gimbal lock' isn't a kind of strange dance
* There is no 'I' in 'We, Crew and Teamwork'
* That you can order sandwiches
* That 'search-the-sandwiches' is a daily game at SFA
* Everybody hates that game
* A 'Tumbling' is not a tropical animal
* I still love that I'm the only girl
* My prom rulez

C u all next time...

grtz

3lke

week 3, 15/12/07

2008-11-01T09:26:00.000-07:00

G’day (Student) Pilots, aviation lovers, and pedestrians,…

Again, we were introduced to a couple of new courses this week. POF (Principles of Flight) and meteo.

After the first course of POF, given by Piet v/d Velde, I was glad that I did aerodynamics as my end thesis, in high school. So, I was already familiar with some new terms, formula and of course the law of Bernoulli.

We learned to fill in the ‘load sheet’ of an Archer III and to calculate all the necessary stuff, like the centre of gravity, etc.

Today we saw ‘how the use the Pooley’s CRP-5’. That thing looks so professional.

Did u know:
The coffee/hot choco is free at SFA
Everybody would panic if that coffee machine would be shut down of would be broken.

That every single teacher uses the word ‘sh*t’

That Stijn Andries broke his own record…

He said the word ‘cava’ 73 times in 2h30

The DC part of electrics is finished

We all are very glad with that!!!!!

We all can explain perfectly all the electrics in a ship.

We don’t like the guy/girl who invented the ‘courses during the weekend’

I hate my alarm at 0500 Saturday even more then the one at Monday.

I’m becoming a pilot, so I better get used to such early hours.

I just love to be the only girl

The eyes of our ‘Prom 1 teachers’ start to twinkle every time they mention their time at Arizona.

My prom rulez!

3lke

week 2, 07/12/07

2008-11-01T09:25:00.001-07:00

G’day Pilots and Student-Pilots,

and also Pedestrians, and other strange walking people…

Week 2 went fast, very fast, and I’m very sorry I can’t write more on my blog. I really don’t have the time.

This week I had 3 new courses:

*POH/jep
*Radio Nav.
*Airlaw

I don’t find POH and Airlaw the most interesting courses, but Stijn Andries (Airlaw) really tries to make it as interesting as possible. Lots of stories and examples…

My first course of radio nav. was really nice. Ruddy Kiekens, explains everything very well, also with occasionally a story between two chapters.

The 6th of December , ‘Sinterklaas’ came to visit the Academy and he gave us all chocolate & candy. “Zwarte Piet” wrote rules on the blackboard and one of them was “treat the only girl as if she's a Queen!” After that, the boys were even nicer then before.

I’m so damn lucky with my prom.
Thanks Piet…

C u all next time…

Keep on flying = keep on smiling

3lke

2008-11-01T09:25:00.000-07:00

week 1, 01/12/07

2008-11-01T09:23:00.001-07:00

G’day Ladies & Gents,

I just finished my first week at SFA. I would have written earlier but 24 hours in a day aren’t enough. Like I said before….Time has a bad attitude. It’s full throttle from the first day, and we don’t have much time to do something else then study.

These are the courses from my first week:

*basic radio
*electrics
*mass and balance
*physio
*instrumentation

This is how my day looks like: I wake up at 05.30 AM, go to SFA at 06.00 AM (because of the traffic-jams), arrive at 06.30 AM, study + chat till 08.20 AM, have courses till 12.10 followed by a break of 50 min., and then course again till 16.50 PM. Going back home, eat, study, sleep…

The class is very nice, and also the teachers…and at the moment I just love to be the only girl :-) But I think that I will be very happy when Mathilde and Gwendoline will arrive in February. (Prom 8)

I’ll keep u lot posted…

C u all next week

3lke

week 1

2008-11-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

first day

2008-11-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

23/11/07

11.00

The first thing I had to do in the morning, together with Jan, another Flight Student of my promotion, was to collect my BIAC badge at the ‘airport security badges service’. We also had to watch a 30 min. movie about the security at the airport. The movie explains what u can and can’t do, and how it all works.

13.30

After some words from our ‘President & CEO’, Jacques Waldeyer, we had the welcome briefing, which was given by our CGI (Chief Ground Instructor), Catherine Bernier. We received an overview of our theoretical and flight training, our courses and instructors, and last but not least, the rules and rights. The briefing was followed by a quick tour in the school, and we received our material . (tip for the following proms for the first day: come by car!)

Material:

* 15 very tiny books :-p
* student pilot manual
*CRP 5 Computer
* Ruler
* Protactor
* Plotter
*3 water-soluble pens
* CD-rom 'JAA ATPL Exam Preparation
* Uniform

I even received a Flight-CAT...

So, how does my class look like?

6 from Malta
1 from Spain
1 from Greece
1 from Congo
2 from Wallonië, Belgium
5 from the Flanders, Belgium

15 boys 1 girl...
I think I will enjoy it

Monday 'the big start', wish me luck...

Hug,

3lke

2008-11-01T08:35:00.000-07:00

14/09/07

medical :Na een slapeloos nachtje ben ik met de trein naar Brussel-Noord vertrokken. Aan de overkant van het station stond het grote WTC gebouw op de stoep, op me te wachten. Ja, wij hebben in ons klein zakdoek grote landje ook een WTC gebouw. Het eerste onderzoek was bij de oogarts. Voor de (ex-)Wispelberg’ers die dit lezen, stel je vdv voor - uiterlijk én karakter - maar dan 20 jaar jonger. Gezellige kerel...
Na het oogonderzoek werd ik naar een toffe, grapjesmakende verpleger gestuurd, voor de gewone medischonderbroek toestanden, zoals meten, wegen, potteke plassen, ECG (= hartonderzoek.) Daarna bij de dokter gezellig even kletsen, longinhoud en debiet meten, mijn knieën werden verbrijzeld met de sloophamer, en een paar buisjes bloed werden getrokken. Met de keel-neus-oren was alles tiptop in orde en ik ben er achter gekomen dat de ‘geluidsdichte kamer’ niet geluidsdicht is. Bij het laatste onderzoek moest ik plaats nemen op een draaistoel en werden er 3 elektroden op mijn slapen en voorhoofd gezet. Als de stoel begon rond te draaien moest ik van 300 naar 0 tellen in stappen van 3. (300-297-294-291-…) Daarna werd er water van 44°C in mijn oor gespoten – om mijn evenwicht te verstoren- en moest ik weer aftellen. De volgende onderzoeken vonden plaats in de Leopoldskliniek. Er werd een thorax (foto) genomen en het laatste was een EEG onderzoek, waarbij ik een muts van elektroden opgezet kreeg en in mijn geval nog eens 3 naaldjes in mijn hoofd. Om 13h was ik klaar met alles en nu moet ik alleen nog 2-3 weken wachten op de uitslag én het gewilde roze papiertje.

voorbereing voor de selectie

2008-11-01T08:28:00.000-07:00

06/08/07

Ik krijg nu vaak de vraag, “hoe je voorbereiden op de selectie van SFA?”. Ik kan daar niet echt op antwoorden aangezien dat voor iedereen anders is. Ben je goed in fysica maar niet zo goed in Engels, dan duik je beter in een ‘Engels voor Dummies’, of omgekeerd als je niet zo goed bent in fysica maar wel in Engels, bestel je beter het aanbevolen boek: ‘theory and problems of college physics’. Dit boek is in het Nederlands, Frans en Engels verkrijgbaar, maar ik raad iedereen aan om de Engelse versie te kiezen, aangezien de fysica test in het Engels is en dat de vraagstukken uit dat boek komen. Voor fysica kun je ook een week lang, een cursus in het schoolgebouw zelf volgen. Daar worden alle onderwerpen behandeld die aan bod komen in de fysica test. Die cursus heeft ook als voordeel dat je het schoolgebouw al een beetje leert kennen en een groot deel van je medekandidaten waardoor je op de testen zelf stukken minder gestrest bent.
Voorbereiden voor Engels is voor iedereen verschillend. Ikzelf heb gewoon een maand lang alleen maar Engelse boeken gelezen. Anderen hebben hun oud grammatica boek van onder een dikke laag stof gehaald, aangezien je 100 grammatica oefeningen krijgt, meer bepaald over de tijden. Deze is multiple choice. Je voorbereiden op de COMPASS test, is al iets moeilijker. Het enige wat je kunt doen is op de site van ‘epst’, de IPASS test eens maken en je hoofdrekenen oefenen, vooral de staartdelingen zijn moeilijk.
Voor de psychologische testen kun je je uiteraard niet echt voorbereiden. Wees assertief en mondig, zorg dat je goed weet hoe jezelf in elkaar zit, wat je motivatie is en weet op zijn minst 3 goede en 3 slechte karaktereigenschappen vanbuiten. Denk rustig na, let op je houding, zorg dat je fatsoenlijk gekleed bent en alles komt wel goed.
De moeilijkste is de scan skill test (de 737-200 full flight simulator). Aan deze test mag je alleen maar deelnemen als je voor de andere testen geslaagd bent. Deze test is dan wel de moeilijkste, het is wel de leukste van de hoop. Slaap goed uit, wees alert bij de briefing, en vooral SLA NIET IN PANIEK! Blijf rustig, ook al gaat het mis, want mis zal het gaan, geloof me ;-)

Veel succes iedereen,

2008-11-01T08:25:00.000-07:00

03/08/07

Physics test:
Based on the knowledge required at the end of secondary school
Contains 20 questions who have to be solved correctly within 1h30min.

Psychometric test:
A psychometric test of 2 hours will be performed in English
The test consists of six tests which have been developed to check some of the key aptitude areas for the pilot profession. No flying experience is required to perform well in the tests.

Control: A compensation task looking at basic hand/foot/eye co-ordination
Slalom: A tracking task looking at hand/eye co-ordination
Mathematics: A test of basic applied mathematical understanding and speed
Memory: Accuracy of short-term memory recall and ability to 'chunk' information
Task Manager: A test of the candidate's ability to scan the screen and manage concurrent tasks accurately and quickly
Orientation: Instrument interpretation, comprehension and spatial orientation

Psychological test:
The goal of this test is to make sure the candidate has the required profile to be a future airline captain. It consists of a personality test and a team work evaluation.

An English test - written and spoken
As all courses are given in English and as all aviation communications are performed in English a good passive and active knowledge is required

Scan Skill test:
This a special test performed in a full flight simulator that will assess the learning curve of the candidate. Prior flying experience is not required

Final interviewhet grote moment waar je na een gesprekje met de toelatingscommissie een ‘je bent er helaas niet door’ of een ‘je bent geslaagd’ krijgt. Er viel een kleine 10.000 ton van mijn schouders af toen ik dat laatste te horen kreeg. De september klas zit jammer genoeg vol dus ben ik in de volgende klas, die in november begint, geplaatst. Ik ben helaas tot nu toe het enige meisje van de klas, maar hé, ik sta men mannetje wel

voorbereiding

2008-11-01T07:59:00.000-07:00

28/07/07

Na lang gesurft te hebben op het internet, na veel informatiedagen van verschillende scholen en hun lespakket uitgeplozen te hebben, heb ik me ingeschreven voor de ingangsprocedure van de Sabena Flight Academy. Indien gewenst kan ik ook deelnemen aan de voorbereidingscursus fysica die wordt aangeboden door SFA. Aangezien dat die lessen een goede heropfrissing zijn voor fysica en dat je zo een unieke kans krijgt om de school en een deel van de andere kandidaat-piloten te leren kennen schreef ik me voor deze cursus, die op 9 juli begon, in. We waren met +- 23 mensen en in de cursus kwamen volgende onderwerpen aan bod:

uniformly accelerated motion
newton’s law
equilibrium of a solid
work, power, energy
angular motion, density
theory of fluids, electricity
trigonometry, equations, use of units

Na een weekje met de andere kandidaten van de sfeer geproefd te hebben is het dan tijd voor de ingangsexamens.