BGS notes & Meteorology

[lock wire]

Hi chaps. I've got a slight distress issue with this JAR ATPL stuff.

I recently started the Bristol Module 1 to start the process of 'converting' a foreign ICAO professional licence and although most of the course content is relatively straight forward (although many of the questions are not--in fact, deliberately and unecessarily vague and ambigious) I'm struggling with Meteorology and it's unlikely that I'm going to attain the level of understanding required prior to the exams in early November.

Anyone been in the same boat? Can anyone recommend additional study sources?

[FlyingForFun]

Lock wire,

Met was my worst subject in Module 1. Do you have the CD installed on your computer? If you do, learn each chapter the best you can, then do the progress test on the computer. If you get questions wrong, read the sample answers on the computer and make sure you understand them. If you still don't understand, either post the question here, or e-mail Noush who will pass the question onto Ken, the met instructor at Bristol.

The next day, repeat the test on the computer. Continue until you get 95%+. Then send the progress test off the Bristol.

Once you go the brush-up, you'll cover the whole syllabus again in 2 weeks. It's very intensive, but as long as you understood the stuff once (which you must have done if you got 95% in the progress tests, as long as you got that mark by understanding the answers and not by learning them parrot-fashion), the brush-up course will bring everything to the front of your mind. I found that Ken wasn't the best instructor (unlike all the other Bristol instructors, who are absolutely superb). But the brush-up course which I was on was the first time he'd done that course, and he was still getting into it. He was very good at taking on our constructive criticism, and tried to adapt his style as the course went on. I'm sure that by the time you're ready for the brush-up he'll be up to the usual Bristol standard.

There are 4 Met tests which you'll have to do during the two weeks at Bristol, and a huge wad of feedback questions as well. I just about managed to scrape through the tests (I think I got 74%, 75%, 75% and 76%), and I was really worried about the exam. I spent the whole of the night before going over the feedback questions, and going over the questions which I got wrong in the tests. When I came out of the exam, I though I'd just about scraped a pass.

I couldn't believe it when I got my marks through, and found I'd got 87%! So, the moral is, if I can get 87% without any material other than what Bristol provide, and with Ken learning at the same time as the rest of the class, so can you!

The only other thing which I found useful was globe, which I bought for about £5 from WHSmith. Perfect for locating places I'd never heard of that the Climatology questions asked about. (Incidentally, there are only handful of places which they ask about - if you learn all the places which the progress tests ask about, that's enough to see you through the exams.) The globe also helped for Gen. Nav (understanding great circles, for example) and for Instruments (transport wander and earth rate wander on gyros). And it also helps understand Corriolis effect (although you don't actually need to understand the effect for the exams, just know what the result of the effect is).

Good luck!

FFF
-----------

[laurie]

Hello,


You might like to get a copy of:

"Meteorology for Pilots" by Mike Wickson, ex senior met lecturer at Oxford Air Training School.

A good read. Try www.pilotwarehouse.co.uk or www.transair.com
The ISBN is 1-84037-284-2 ...... its about £25.

Best of luck,


Laurie.

[Haul By Cable]

FlyingForFun,

I just thought I'd take the time to thank you for that post.

I am currently wading through chapters 9 and 10 of Met (frame 10), but have booked my Mod. 1 exams for December!

It was good to get a feel for what's coming up in the brush-up, forewarned is forearmed.

lock wire, good luck with your exams :)

... brain re-booted, now back to studying!...

[FlyingForFun]

Good luck, HBC. :)

[pugzi]

or even better than all this go and get hold of the interactive cd-rom (NOT text based which is boring) that the met office and oxford just made. Looks blinding!!!!

www.metoffice.com/aviation
www.oxfordaviation.net/shop

[avrodamo]

Lockwire...i found Met a nightmare too, but came out with 89%, and actually quite enjoyed it towards the end. I found the BGS notes have it all in there. I got a couple of othere book to study from, but to be honest they were far more difficult to take on board. The brushup for Met is very good, and there are loads of test questions to do.