learning how to get from here to there ....

The pace has definitely picked up in class. A week from this Friday we’ll be taking our FAA written test for the Flight Dispatcher (ADX) rating. We take a practice test in class the day before to help us see where we’re at. Unless you get a 75, Jeppesen doesn’t let you go to the feds because they’ve found that students generally score very close to this pre-test. In the meantime, the Gleim study book that we have provides software to take a practice test over and over and over.

Yes, my brain hurts.

We’ve now moved into navigation, learning how aircraft navigate thru the airspace system. NACO charts, Jeppesen charts, STAR’s, SIDS, enroute charts, airport charts, how aircraft transition thru various stages of flight …. EXTREEMLY FACINATING!!!! We’re now doing manual flight planning, aircraft moving thru different altitudes enroute etc. Interesting to see how all of the pieces come together. In the spoiled real world, about 20 seconds worth of data loaded into one of the many commercial online flight planning tools can crank all of this out in 2.4 nanoseconds.

We’re also studying navigation tools onboard aircraft. When I learned to fly X years ago in my Cessna 152 and Cherokee 140, I had basic flight instrumentation. Now I learning about glass cockpits, trying not to rotate my head too much as I learn how Horizontal Situation Indicators and Radio Magnetic Indicators work. Ya gotta hate that reverse sensing!!!!

In the meantime, I’ve been sending out resumes and hope to get some callbacks. As I mentioned earlier, this rating is a requirement for the Airline industry (part 121), but more and more 91 & 135 Dispatch offices have been including the rating in their requirements. This week the NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers conference is going on in Savannah, and I’ve asked a few colleagues to keep their eyes and ears open for me.

Gotta go …. I need to plan my Beech 1900 for a flight from PWK to LGA. Silly … we ought to go to TEB !!!!!

Later