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I can hardly believe another full week of ground school has passed again. Time just flies out here, everything goes sooo fast! In 2 weeks we have our first mid-phase tests already! Let me tell you more about all that later on. First a quick re-caps of the last week.

The sign to our accommodation – “Langford Hall” (a.k.a. “Langford Hell”)

This might actually sound boring, but nothing much has been going on in the past week, school wise. We had normal lessons, but at a bit faster rate, since we’re getting to the “normal” ground school speed. The instructors tend to take it “easy” on the new students the first few weeks, but that’s all over now. We spend more hours on home work each night, trying to recaps the lessons and taking as much tests as possible to determine your weaknesses, and filter out what is and what isn’t needed for the exams. The brain basically works as a big sponge when it comes to knowledge; there is only a certain amount it can absorb. When it’s full, it really is full, so we tend to drain it a bit every now and then. Anyways, it’s starting to get really interesting now, since different subjects are falling in their position as part of the big puzzle/picture we need to create.

But there’s time for fun and relaxation as well. Even during class sometimes! Last week our class mentor, Dick Hughes who’s our instructor for Piston Engines and Gas Turbine Engines, suddenly showed up in clogs (klompen)! That was quite hilarious. Wait….I should have a picture of him here somewhere……

Dick Hughes – in clogs!

As you might have noticed last weekend was Valentines weekend, and this couldn’t pass unnoticed here as well of course. A few weeks ago Ania bought a ticket to come here for this weekend, so we were looking forward to this for some time already. Friday evening I got the school’s car and drove to Heathrow to pick her up. Over the weekend I showed her around in Oxford and here at the academy and the airport of course. We had a great time, and it was sad to see her leave again on Sunday. This also meant that I had some catching up to do on Sunday and Yesterday evening. I’ve worked quite hard the past nights, but I’ve managed to keep up.

Walking around in “downtown” Oxford

Showing the Academy – Planes!!

As I said in the first paragraph of the post we have our first tests coming up in 2 weeks already. As explained earlier the total ground school (14 subjects) is divided in two phases, phase 1 which lasts 15 weeks and covers 7 subjects, and phase 2 which lasts 11 weeks and covers the other 7 subjects.
Within phase 1 there are 3 test/exam weeks;
- a knowledge test half way the phase, known as Test-1,
- School finals, which you have to pass to get allowed in the JAA-exam,
- the JAA exams, which are the general European exams that we are required to do.

Phase 2 had the same construction. Test-1 starts on the 2nd of March for us. School finals start on April 20th and the JAA-exams start on May 4th. There is a week of study-leave before the JAA-exams, to allow us to prepare a bit more for the exams. We have to complete 3 exams a day, resulting in a 3-day exam period. It’s quite hard to get all these subjects in your head completely, so I’m wondering how we’ll manage. But on the other hand, so many others have passed already, why shouldn’t I pass? Let’s stay positive.

Alright, with this in mind I’m going back to hit the books. Working on Meteorology now…Whohoo! It’s something that confronts a pilot daily and something that’s never the same, so I better study hard on this one.
Take care!

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