Back to school

It's been a long time since I've posted. My plane has been grounded and I've not flown yet since my last post earlier in the year since I just bought a house.

Speaking with some of the guys at the airport, there's a lot of people in my situation too. Funding this hobby is many people's issue in maintaining the career and it fits my case.

I'm planning on flying again in the summer, which will give me some time to start preparing for ground school. I'll post as soon as a chapter or two is completed and put down a few notes.

Ground School begins today

Today was the first ground school class which is every Tuesday and Thursday from 7-10pm. Typically, I start those days at about 6am to get to the gym for 7am, then rush to work and stay there until its time to leave for class. It's a long day. No, you don't understand, it's a freakishly long day.

The first lesson was about the different kinds of licenses available in Canada: Recreational and Private. There are many differences between the two, but the ones that stuck in my head are:

- Private License (PPL) is a license, Recreational is a permit
- The Private license can be upgraded (i.e.: for night flying)
- PPL enables you to fly as many people that your permit is rated for (right out of the gate you are enabled to fly up to 8, but there are some restrictions).
- PPL requires 45 hours of flight, Recreational is 25.
- There are some test differences too, but at the moment, I will have to get back to you on that one as I'm a bit exhausted :P

The rest of the time in class was spent reviewing the structure of the plane and the different types.

With ground school now in effect, I'll have tons of learning material to cover in the weeks to come, so I'll leave it there and try to remember to come back to what exactly those parts are. Right now, I'm going to sleep because it's been a freakishly long day.

The Airport Diner

Just before you check-in at the front desk at my airport, you'll notice that there's a diner with a fully decked out patio ready to serve. Most of the larger airports (I'm at the Waterloo-Wellington Flight Centre in Breslau) will have one of these, and they all typically look the same - a 50's style diner with decorations that will make your grandparents comfortable.

At my place, it's everything your typical greasy spoon would look like with the kind of service you'd expect from one. It's very family oriented and there's always a supply of loyal patrons coming out on weekends.

Before becoming a member to the airport, I've always thought that the diner was merely set up as a cafeteria to serve employees in between flights. Instead, it acts as the staple to many social events and a gathering place for ex-world war pilots to new pilots ready to share their experiences. I've yet to share or experience any of the thrilling tales that are heard within those walls, but I'll be there. As a pilot-in-training, I'm still living through the conversations of others and hoping that one day I'll be able to return the favour with something just as inspiring.

Flight Simulator X for Pilots!

I'm really excited to set up Flight Simulator X for the PC because from the demo (click here for free trial) it is a huge improvement over Flight Simulator of years ago. It's not a fair comparison to compare older versions of the software to the newest and greatest, but it's only thing that I could compare to since my last visit with the game. My previous experience looked like this:


Which is now changed to this:


First Impressions of Flight Simulator X: Realism. Compared to the earlier FS2000 version, the ground looks more realistic relative to the height of which the plane is flying. There's even an Air Traffic Control report within the game which completely caught me by surprise since I was expecting a game to just take me in a plane and fly around. I've also found that there's a book written for pilots in training who'd like to use this software to help them earn their pilots license. NEAT!

Lots more to add, but, I've yet to do a full review and synopsis since I've a computer that I want to upgrade first and am waiting patiently for it to arrive. Details to come.