Er.. am I missing something. Wasn`t all this covered in your R/T groundschool training... normally a two day course.
Not quite that formal where I am training
. I could certainly book a few hours with an instructor to go over this stuff. Infact, I have an actually lesson booked on Monday, perhaps I should stay on the ground and spend the time doing some RT ground school.
d.p. - I know you are going to flame me...
Brace yourself then!!!
Nope, seriously, no flaming warrented. I am prepared to accept that I am not ready for it. I have an extended session with the RT examiner on Tuesday and part of that involves going through a practice route to test how prepared I am. I will let the examiner make the final determination. I can get through the practice route with relative ease though, its the finer points I am a bit fuzzy on.
ground service so no ATC?? wtf?
Sure! Perhaps I phrased it poorly, but I am talking about the distinction between licensed ATC and air/ground radio operators, with respect to the services that each can provide. With FISOs thrown into the mix also.
I appreicate the question was a little basic, but not entirely dumb I think. I have found that the relevant documents make a clear distinction between the different level of service that FISO and A/G operators provide on the ground, and make it clear that neither can offer 'instructions' when airbourne. So my question simply centres around the 'information' that each can provide.
To be honest, the whole concept of a FIS is a little fuzzy in my understanding. It establishes a 'connection' through which I can get traffic information and met information, but since I can ask for either of these things from an air/ground radio operator but cannot ask them for an FIS, it just like a formality.
What I am assuming is that with a FIS, you know that somebody cares about where you are and what you are doing in case you suddenly go quiet (alerting service). Is there more to it than this?