Quinten Ampe

The VFR phase is over. I successfully passed my VFR navigation check (similar to the private pilot check ride) T56 on Friday two weeks ago. A new chapter can begin: the IFR (“Instrument Flight Rules”) phase which comes together with a new aircraft (Diamond 40 with Garmin 1000!).

The solo navigations went by really fast, too fast. In less than only 4 weeks it was over. I visited Wickenburg (E25), San Manuel (E77), Ryan (KRYN), Gila Bend (E63), Benson (E95), Coolidge (P08), Lake Havasu (KHII), Bullhead (KIFP), Yuma (KNYL), Blythe (KBLH), Kingman (KIGM). Conclusion: Arizona is absolutely beautiful. In between the solo flights were some dual missions to practice things we couldn’t do on our solo’s: forced landings, diversions, etc. We also had a few missions to practice our manoeuvres.

The IFR phase started with three FNPT II simulator training missions on the Diamond 40. Especially to learn and understand al the features of the Garmin 1000 instruments, Diamond 40 flows, and to learn many IFR procedures (like interceptions). All well, but not as nice as flying the real aircraft. Wednesday the 14th was my first real flight on the DA40. We went out to the North-East practice area to exercise manoeuvres, etc. to “get used to the aircraft”.  Later we came back for some Touch & Go’s at Falcon.

It will go really fast now. In only seven more missions (on both simulator and the real aircraft) I have my basic IFR check ride (T68) and somewhere the beginning of February I should be finished here and come home. After T68 are only 2 more checks before my CPL check ride… Exciting! We will get a hard time to study and keep up the work…

Luckily there is also some free time left. The 30th of October we visited Montezuma, Sedona and the the Grand Canyon. Amazingly beautiful and breathtaking scenery. We departed early in the morning, stopped in Montezuma to view a medieval castle, ate breakfast at Sedona airport, stopped at Valle and Grand Canyon airport, all the way to the Grand Canyon were we saw the south rim. In the evening we had diner in Flagstaff, and came back at our apartment during midnight. A long but fantastic day. I will upload some pictures later.

Last week on Sunday I passed check T30, which is the pre-solo navigation check ride. The check itself consisted of a navigation to Ryan (KRYN) with a diversion to Casa Grande (KCGZ) and a practised forced landing at the end. We did a touch & go at both airfields. It was a nice mission.

After T15, local solo missions in Falcon field and to the practice area’s around followed. As from mission D27 we started practising navigations. Not a lot of time to learn this, including diversions and practised forced landings. With my instructor I already flew to Gila Bend (E63), Wickenburg (E25), Payson (KPAN) and Sedona (KSEZ). I had to fly diversions to several landmarks, airfields like Buckeye (KBXK), San Carlos (E13) and some private airfields like Tonopah, Chapman, … I have already seen beautiful sceneries! Now, after T30, I have the possibility to discover Arizona on my own and oh yes I am looking forward to it

Yesterday was my first solo navigation to Coolidge (P08). Those navigation flights take a lot of time to prepare. There is not much spare time left to do other things than preparing flights, cooking, ironing, cleaning, etc. Everything will go very fast now. A lot of solo flight will follow and within a few weeks, T56 – the last VFR checkride – is already there. Afterwards it’s IFR

After 4 weeks in Arizona I have flown my first solo flight here . Even though I have already been flying solo before (gliders & DA20-C1 in Belgium), it feels great to be allowed solo in a very professional and way different environment like here at CAE. Before the solo I had to pass a progress check (mission T15) of course. A check instructor, other than your flight instructor, evaluates your performance by asking theoretical questions about the weather, the mass & balance, the aircraft, general knowledge, etc… During the flight he remains quiet and checks how you handle the aircraft safely throughout the traffic pattern. I had to fly a normal and flapless pattern, and a short approach. Because we finished early and everything went well, my examiner also asked me to make a short field precision landing. Still we finished early and on the de-briefing I was being told I passed . The day after the check was my solo. A cool fact is that it was exactly 1 year after I started my training at SFA/CAE.

Our second week in Arizona we bought a nice car (which is highly necessary here), a 1995 GMC Suburban. In our free time, we hang out at the pool or do some visits. We have already visited Goldfield Ghost Town (a restored abandoned village with a nice view on Superstition Mountains), and went to South Mountain to view the amazing sunset over Phoenix city.  I am enjoying this training a lot so far. It is a great place, with great people.

As from today I will have a few dual and solo missions before we start with the VFR navigation part of the training. We already have a briefing about it this week.  The following check ride (mission T30), the one for our solo VFR navigations, will be there very soon… Next week, group C from our Prom will arrive and we are looking forward to their arrival.

New pictures are available. Click here to see them.

I am finally there: Mesa, Arizona, where my practical flight training starts to obtain my commercial pilot license. It is the first time I am here, and also the first time I am in the United States. We will live here approximately 7 months, so it will be a huge adaptation: the temperature (as hot as 49°C), the way of living, food, facilitation, etc.

Here is an overview of my departure to Mesa and our first days:

Waking up excited on Thursday for our 12 o’clock flight to Washington DC with a United Airlines Boeing 777-200. I packed my bags the day before, but checked them thoroughly to not forget something. Me and my 5 colleagues met in the Brussels Airport departure hall in front of the Starbucks and went together to the check-in. After having said goodbye to family and friends, we proceeded to board our aircraft for a 8h flight. The crew on the flight was really nice to us, and at the end we were allowed to take a look in the cockpit. During the flight we passed the time by chatting, watching some videos or playing some games on the in flight entertainment system (luckily is was there ). In Washinton DC, we boarded our United Boeing 737-800 on time, taxied out to the runway, and had to wait 1,5h (with engines running) before departure due to bad weather. That is a long time! After we could finally depart, we flew in about 5h to Phoenix. While it was already early in the morning in Brussels, it was evening in Phoenix. Heavy!

On arrival in Phoenix, our colleagues from group A waited to bring us to our apartment in Springs at Alta Mesa. After having changed cloths we went to the Cheesecake Factory, a restaurant in the neighbourhood for – late – dinner.

The next day, Friday, we had a small welcome briefing and tour around the CAE Oxford Aviation Academy Phoenix. We got the weekend off to get everything done (for example shopping) and on Sunday we went “tubing” at Salt River for recreation with group A. This week was filled up with briefings, and on Saturday I flew my first flight (mission D04) here ! It was a 1h flight in the North-East of Falcon Field early in the morning (I had to wake up at 3 o’ clock am). The scenery is very nice, and my flight instructor is great!

Today was my second flight (D05), South-East of Falcon and also very early. We have to study flows, check lists, procedures, charts, data, communications, … It is a lot, but great to do. Until know, everything is going very well!

I have taken some pictures on my trip to Mesa, you can click here to see them.

About one week ago I finished all eight FNPT II sessions. With a few briefings before and a few in between the sessions, we practised VFR and IFR procedures like patterns, tracking, precision and non-precision approaches, … using flows and checklists.  The simulator represents the Diamond DA42 which we will fly in the States near the end of our stay overthere. Everything went very well and it is very nice to do, even if it is just an advanced simulator.

Entering the United States as a student pilot requires a lot of paperwork. Luckily everything is done now: all required forms filled in, all required fees paid, new JAA medical and an FAA medical received, VISA interview done.  Now there are 3 days left to rest and say goodbye to family and friends. I am fully ready to depart to Mesa, and really looking forward to it!

Hi all,

When I knew I was allowed to start my ATPL training at the Sabena Flight Academy (now called the CAE Oxford Aviation Academy Brussels) in September 2011, I started this blog and decided to post a few notes each month to keep you up to date of how things go on. But studying at SFA took of course a lot of spare time away, and plans were changed.  This is actually my first real blog post

After 7 months of ground school and a few weeks of exams I finished the ATPL theory training.  With a very nice average score of 92,7% I passed all 14 official exams at the Belgian Civil Aviation Administration. My reaction was easy to describe: very, very happy!

The first chapter of my flight training is finished.

Here is a small overview with some highlights what happened last months:

September:

September the 5th was my first day as an airline pilot student. We were all expected at the SFA-building in Steenokkerzeel in the afternoon for a welcome briefing, an overview of the training and to receive the rest of our uniform and some tools like measuring instruments, Jeppesen charts, our 14 Oxford ATPL books, a pilot case, etc. We also received our course schedule for September. A normal day begins at 08:20 until 12:10, lunch and then from 13:00 until 16:50. Of course we have some brakes in between.  Our class, “Promotion 21″, consists of 24 people (the limit).

Our first course was Piston Engines, followed by Electrics, Meteorology and Air Law, Turbine Engines, General Navigation, Physiology and Psychology, VFR & IFR Communication and Principles of Flight. All very interesting courses, with all very nice instructors.

I made myself volunteer to man the public relations stand of SFA at the 35th Sanicole Airshow. I was the only one of my Prom, together with 2 of Prom 20 and one ex-student. Our task was to answer questions  and handover information to interested people, give away some ballpoints and stress balls, etc… While doing that, we could enjoy the show. It was a nice experience.

October:

“Time flies”, was what I thought the first month, but that is not always true. Being in classrooms with only artificial lightning is tiring, and when you come home, the day mostly ends with studying for a test (which requires 75% to pass) or the next courses.

We had new courses like Airframes and Systems, and Basic Radio Propagation which is basically an introduction for Radio Navigation.  I subscribed to help at the Open House the 22nd of October: guiding visitors to and through the building.

November:

With groups of 6 students, we started the practical communication courses. Fun to do, and a good way to learn/practice our radio telephony. For our last Turbine Engines course we want to SFA’s basement for some engine starts on a Boeing 737 Classic mockup. We also dealt with hot starts, hung starts and other problems and received general explanation about different B737 systems. It is always nice to see the theory in practical examples! This month we also started the Performance course, which was very interesting.

December:

There were nice things in December: we visited the planetarium in Brussels, and a briefing about observation flights was given, which meant we could finally plan great observation flights with Jetairfly, Thomas Cook or Luxair ! There were also three other briefings: one about Jeppesen charts, Rules of thumb  and the effects of controls.

We also started BFC, which stands for ‘Basic Flying Course’ and consists out of a few briefings and 6 sessions. It is a kind of course which works on the development of professional attitude, understanding the basic tasks of flying and how to apply them, the teaching/learning process, the link between theory and practice, and how to create a Personal Pilot Handbook. During the sessions we flew on a basic flight simulator and learned procedures, call-outs, scanning techniques, etc. Discipline is one of the most important factors to pass BFC courses.

January:

We did not see a lot of daylight during winter time: going to SFA in darkness, going home in darkness. During the training we also do not have holidays: for example the second day after Christmas started with a test. January was quite a busy month: together with the tests, BFC brought an additional workload.

February:

Because BFC is in small groups of 3 and lasts half a day, the other students have extra study time or other ‘split’ courses. Extra study time was  welcome to keep the required level of knowledge up to date, and to learn for next tests. We made a nice visit to Aviapartner at Brussels Airport to have a look behind the scenes at the airport. We generally followed the whole flight preparation of an Ethiad flight to Abu Dhabi, made a walk-around at Ethiad’s Airbus A330-200 and had a briefing about loadsheets, etc. At the end we could take a look in the cockpit. Then we all wished we were already flying for company

March:

March was a month of lots of visits. We first visited Belgocontrol where we were guided around the site, visited the control tower, training simulator and CANAC (the air traffic control centre). It was my second visit there, but still interesting. We also visited the cargo part of Aviapartner where we saw the cargo handling itself, the Maastricht Upper Area Control Center, and the Brussels military airport. The C130 is a magnificent aircraft ! At SFA, we had a lot of Performance and started also with Mass & Balance, on of the more practical courses.

This month, I also did my first SFA observation flight! I had the privilege to fly from Brussels (BRU) to Tenerife (TFS) and Lille (LIL) with an Airbus A320 of Thomas Cook Belgium. A great flight, a great experience. A big thank you to the crew and company!

April:

Our last month of theory. Great ! With a lot of tests in our last 2 weeks, we also had a simulator session in a B737NG to finish the Instruments course. A nice experience! During these weeks, one evening, we also had the ‘Pre-departure briefing’. We were briefed about our departure and stay in Mesa, Arizona. I would depart the 9th of August, which was coming closer and closer . After these two lasts weeks of theory training, studying for the official exams at Brussels began…

May – June:

Two months of studying hard for one of the most important exams until then. While studying, everything what you have seen and studied comes together, which gives a great overview and a boost to remember all the required knowledge. The official exams are split up into two ‘blocks’, A and B. Both blocks consist of 2 days, with each 3 or 4 exams per day.

The 20th of June I finally finished the theory.

I really enjoyed all these months. It is great to be together with people with the same interest and motivation in aviation. After a day at SFA, we sometimes went to Leuven, someone’s ‘kot’ or the café The Pitchers’ for a drink . Sadly enough, 3 people of our Prom already had to quit.

What rests now, until my departure to Mesa, is FNPT II and a lot of paper work. FNPT II consists out of a few briefings and 8 simulator sessions in the Diamond DA42: 5 IFR and 4 VFR courses. That is going to be fun! Paper work also has to be done: preparing the VISA application, doing another JAA medical examination and now also an FAA medical, TSA, SEVIS, etc. There is a lot to do to enter the States to fly, but definitely worth it.

Click here for the pictures from these months.