Published: July 12, 2016
Today was the second full day of real labs that lasted all day. It was pretty fun, and the day went by really fast.
Until next Tuesday we are in tabletop labs/3D labs (see previous blogs for explanations) and I start and end each day as a “plane carrier” in the tabletop lab (just what it sounds like). This part goes kind of slow, because you don’t always get to do a lot and sometimes you go fifteen minutes without a single plane in your hands depending on where you are in the problem or your physical location in the lab. There were some interesting dynamics (conflicts) between some instructors and students during that run, but I tried to stay out of it as much as possible.
After a break, I had a run in the 3D lab at ground control (controls planes on the ground, except the runways). It went pretty well and I thought it was a pretty easy run overall. Next I had a run on flight data, which is a position that isn’t actually a control position (and won’t be graded). Mostly we issue clearances to aircraft before they depart, handle reroutes (route of flight), record the ATIS (automatic terminal information service – a recording that provides information about the airport, current runways in use, and weather information).
I had a run in 3D at local control (“tower” – aka – cleared to land, cleared for takeoff). This run went alright, I only got tripped up on a few small items, and it wasn’t anything I didn’t know how to fix as soon as it happened. It was a pretty basic run, one runway 16 departure, and a few touch-and-go planes in the pattern for the VFR runway. It also had around 3-4 IFR arrivals and departures.
After lunch I had another ground control run, which was very slow and boring, no issues on this run. My instructor even joked with me during this run because it was so slow. It was nice however, to have a slow run to make sure I had my stripmarking and notepad documentation techniques down.
My final run of the day was back in the tabletop lab – and it was again, interesting (all the “good” stuff seems to happen in the tabletop lab). Because our class has an odd number of students, sometimes an instructor is on the control position, because they won’t allow another student to have an extra run out of fairness. This made the dynamics in the classroom very interesting, as the instructors proceeded to “show off” a little bit since they were basically running the problem themselves. It was a unique learning opportunity, to say the least.
Overall, my instructors’ feedback has been extremely position, including remarks that I have good phraseology, good workflow, and don’t have major issues to correct. There are a few things that we didn’t do in school that I will have to learn, and a few imperfect habits that I’ll need to break, especially before getting into the real labs next week. Overall, I’m very confident and happy with my performance thus far. We will see how the problems are tomorrow!