Great thread mazzy!!
Glad to see that I got a mention in your post...
I also encountered that aviator who messed up their approach,their go-around procedure and several other ATC instructions!!!
They messed up so bad they ended up 10ft behind me as my wheels touched the ground and my sheer happiness of making a near perfect landing turned to horror. Its not often that you take off from a touch and go while a PA28 is about 20ft away from your right wing tip! SCARY!
Keep up the diary and I will no doubt see you in Ravenair soon!
C'mon guys ! Dont biccer about something stupid - OK so I used the wrong set of words to describe what I was trying to say. One disadvantage of text communication is that it is bloody difficult to show tone or attitude etc.
DiscoChocolate - welcome to PPRuNe ! Glad to see your making posts! For the benefit of everyone else, this is the nice chap I met in Ravenair on Sunday.
That sounds like a nerve wrecking moment - all character/skill building I am sure.
Good thing about PPRuNe is that it caters for all tastes, and that you can choose what you read by looking up those threads which are of interest to you.
I think we see less threads like these as there are less students and some BBs offer a special forum for studes which may give some competition.
Top idea, and good luck mazzy!
And to help, here's a piece of advice. You will shortly begin to (If you haven't already) the groundschool part of the course. If you have a choice (Some schools prefer one book to another), then go for the Trevor Thom series.
I JUST scraped through Human Performance, which is supposed to be the easiest of the lot. Then I discovered the difference between Thom and the Jeremy Pratt books I was using. Thom has a lot more detail and explains items better. For instance, I am currently reading navigation. A whole chapter of Thom is dedicated to time, very little mention of it in Pratt.
Now Jeremy Pratt is a very well respected aviator, and I am not here to rubbish him, and some people do achieve great success with his books, but from my point of view, Thom wins hands down. Sadly, it now costing me an arm and a leg to buy the remaining Thom books having bought the full AFE series!!
And to answer a previous question, CATS is still going strong at Liverpool, but not with the names that were given.
With regards to groundschool - I am not actually receiving any tuition - I am going through the books myself and using the confuser to brush up before the exam. I actually bought a pack which had everything in it which I needed about 4 months ago, and hoping not to contradict your good advice, they were actually the AFE (Pratt) books!
To be honest I havent seen the Thom ones, so wouldnt be able to give a good comparison, however, so far I have read the Air Law book thoroughly and seemed to get through it OK with no problems. I have just (tonight!) started the nav/met book, which is more complicated and daunting at first, but on the other hand is far, far more interesting and thereofre I am hoping it will sink in better.
As mentioned in HOUR 1, one of my first fears (petty I know) was the size of the Tomahawk. I have now developed another concern (not a fear really, but a foreseeable hurdle) that is, the use of the ARC-1 flight computer. I am pretty good with numbers and maths etc, so am hoping to get to grips with this as best as possible. I have a friend in the RAF who has completed NAV training so I am hoping to get some tips from him. Also fellow flyers at the flying school who are good with the device.
I am pretty sure, a few hours down the line form this post, I will be writing the fact that I can now use the ARC-1, at least better than I can now. Please correct me anyone who thinks it takes longer!
I am pretty good with numbers and maths etc, so am hoping to get to grips with this as best as possible.
You can either treat it as a recipe - do what it says in the book and believe the answer - or you can try to understand what's going on, which personally I prefer as I think it'll be easier for me to spot gross errors if I understand the process. All the whizz wheel does is solve vector triangles - to understand how it does this is just a matter of drawing pictures and thinking about it.
Point is, the whizz wheel is supposed to be quicker and easier than either doing the trigonometric calculations with algebra or drawing scale vector triangles on a piece of paper and measuring them; you can use whichever you like for pre-flight planning; in the air, if you have to re-plan a diversion because of weather or something, like I did last Saturday, it's estimating and mental arithmetic (by any of the means discussed here from time to time) and rule-of-thumb (the rule being that a thumb is six miles wide on a half mil chart).
The groundschool subjects will fall into place, just like the flying.
There are two ways to study.
You can beat yourself to death trying to understand everything in the books, or you can learn the answers to the questions.
Many of us could not pass the PPL exams if we had to do them tomorrow.
The knowlege gained either way will only become aparent as your flying skills develop.
Try to get some flights with other pilots, and if you can, listen to the radio (ATC, not radio 1) as much as possible.
My first lesson was 30 years ago just last week and I still love just being in the air, it is still one big adventure, we are all just kids with bigger toys.
Many pilots seem to give up after a couple of years, I think some just did not have the passion to begin with.
Flying should be fun, its not normal, its different, so enjoy it.
Continue to post here (you WILL be insulted) there is lots to learn from others and I am sure you have lots to give.
It all slowly starts fitting into place. I agree with going up with other pilots - I met DiscoChocolate at the school, and will go up with him when he passes as he is much further ahead of me. Until then, it's just a case of finding someone to fly with who lives near Liverpool.
Its a shame that I will be insulted - I simply cannot see why, as I am not insulting anyone else, making nasty comments or disrupting the forums in any way. It is very sad.
Good luck with your training. I wish I'd kept some sort of diary of my training so far. I've just completed my General Flying Progress Test recently here in OZ and took my wife and daughter flying for the first time (am now allowed to take passengers). That was a huge blast for me...even bigger than the first solo.
Regardless of your ultimate goal in the industry, be it the airlines or just for a bit of fun, get out there and enjoy the flying. I'll keep an eye out for future installments in your diary. ..
I'm currently about 30 hours into my PPL at Southampton. I've read the CPL diary in the Prof Pilots Forum and if your's end up anything like that it will be a most valuable input to the forum. Good luck and let us all know how it goes!
Mazzy, keep up the good work. The forums are a two way affair, you learn from it, and it learns from you.
I found it really useful whilst contemplating training, during training, and now, as a PPL, i continue to learn constantly.
I'm currently working for the health service, (not far from the big bridge), and still enjoy the student contact I have in this field---it always keeps you on your toes. The grumpy so and so's who resist student contact, tend to be the ones who have been doing it "their" way for years at a time. (Usually doing it wrong every year, for 20 years).
Learn from an old medical adage, DLTBGYD....don't let the b s grind you down ! Good luck, and keep us posted
Good for you Mazzy. And do try and ignore the put-you-downs that you WILL get. I felt very intimidated by this forum for a while, mainly during my training which led to me finding a friendlier forum as I saw it.... but ultimately always keep coming back here. And a recent fly-in proved to me that everyone posting here is only human, they eat, breathe and sleep just like us!!!
Well, I just booked my first lesson today for the 9th August at 3.30pm. Its a lifetime ambition to fly and I can't wait to get up there. Keep up your diary please, it will be really useful to hear of your experiences as you move along to gaining your PPL.
! Glad to see your making posts! For the benefit of everyone else, this is the nice chap I met in Ravenair on Sunday. 
s grind you down ! Good luck, and keep us posted
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