Tag: flightschool

8 THINGS TO DO JUST BEFORE YOUR VIVA

Anil Goyal

That crucial 15 minutes before a VIVA can become the longest 15 minutes in an aspiring ATPL seeker’s life. What are you doing in those last few moments before you go into high stake Viva? Most people are getting just nervous or more nervous. They are thinking about all the things that can go wrong and all the ways in which they might screw up. They are worried about being judged by others and found lacking. In other words they are sabotaging themselves. Not many professionals are able to collect…

PILOT LICENCE (ATPL. CPL) EXAMINATION: TOP 3 TIPS FOR VIVA

Anil Goyal

Reading time: 5 min Once you have passed the written examination, life can seem a little flat for a while. Congratulate yourself, take a breath – but try not to lose your momentum. Remember that this is not an interview but is an oral examination and, like any other examination; you need to revise and prepare for it thoroughly. And, as with other exams, there are strategies that you can adopt that may help you with this. Purpose of the Viva Voce Examination. Literally, “viva voce” means by or with…

PILOT LICENCE (ATPL, CPL) EXAMINATION: TIP # 7: EXAM DAY PREPARATIONS

Anil Goyal

Reading time < 2 min Get plenty of rest the night before. Sleep, learning, and memory are complex phenomena that are not entirely understood. However, animal and human studies suggest that the quantity and quality of sleep have a profound impact on learning and memory. Research suggests that sleep helps learning and memory in two distinct ways. First, a sleep-deprived person cannot focus attention optimally and therefore cannot learn efficiently. Second, sleep itself has a role in the consolidation of memory, which is essential for learning new information. We suggest to sleep…

PILOT LICENCE (ATPL, CPL) EXAMINATION: TIP # 4 ORGANISE YOUR LEARNING

Anil Goyal

Focus on your study objectives. What do you intend to accomplish during this session? Setting a concrete study goal may help you. Creating study plans is also a good idea. If 3 out of 5 lessons are easy and can be finished fast, finish them first, so you can spend quality time on the difficult lessons without fretting. Take Notes. Take notes and rewrite the most difficult and important information and display it where you are most likely to see it. Make mnemonics to remember. Not only will this give you a…

PILOT LICENCE (ATPL, CPL) EXAMINATIONS: TIPS # 3: SOLVING MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

Anil Goyal

Studying for a multiple-choice exam requires a special method of preparation which is distinctly different from an essay exam. Multiple-choice exams ask a student to recognize a correct answer among a set of options that include 3 or 4 wrong answers (called options/distracters ), rather than asking the student to produce a correct answer entirely from his/her own mind.  Students commonly consider multiple choice exams easier than essay exams. Perhaps the most obvious reasons are:  The correct answer is guaranteed to be among the possible options.  Many multiple-choice exams tend to emphasize basic definitions…

What Airline Pilots need to know about difference in bird and drone strike?

Anil Goyal

US Airways flight 1549 presents a single most illustrious example of the kind of damage a bird strike can cause and piloting-skill required to be able to bring out everyone safely from a disastrous situation. Birds are intelligent species which have natural instinct to survive and avoid a collision while in the air or on the ground. With their sharp vision and quick decisive ability, they are able to avert not only other avian traffic but also human-made obstacle and flying objects. Differences between drone and birds. 1.   For the same…

What pilots should know about circuit breakers and the risk of resetting tripped CB?

Anil Goyal

I was recently asked to re-cycle PA system CB on ground by the engineering staff as the system was not working. Without giving it a second thought I did that and the system was working again. Subsequently this made me think. Is this normal? But then what about tripped CBs? What are circuit breakers? The single most “proliferated” item of the electrical system in a modern cockpit is the circuit breaker. These round black heads line the cockpit’s walls and ceiling. AC or DC, ganged, multi- or single-pole, they control,…

What pilots should know about lightning and its effect?

Anil Goyal

Recently I was operating to Colombo. ATIS reported thunderstorm activity around aerodrome and heavy rain. Subsequently, the Director reported Aerodrome lightning warning. After we landed, we realized that all ground movement has been suspended due to lightning warning, and passengers had to wait for 45 minutes before de-boarding. Airplanes get struck by lightning frequently. Fortunately, they’re built to handle it. The average commercial airliner gets hit by lightning a little more than once a year according to Lightning Technologies Inc., a Massachusetts-based company that manufactures lightning protection for aircraft. The last confirmed commercial plane crash directly attributed to…