Rainy sunday

Got up a little later this morning (finally). The rain was pooring down, well, continuously. Decided to suit up (rain gear) and go look for a 'drug store' that sells a lot more that just pharmaceutical products (a lot high tech stuff too like computers, sound systems, etc).
What happened ? Well, I didn't find the drugstore, although - in retrospect - I was on the right track. The canadian/american road system apparenly allows for 2 different streets to have the same name. Well, maybe not quite that way.
A street can be interrupted by several other streets and you can pick up that same interrupted street again a mile later.
To clarify:
Each street with the same number is on a fixed degree of latitude (from E to W or vice versa) or longitude (N to S or vice versa). No matter what the interruption is (river, park, city centre) you'll find it on the other side.
One thing is clear though, without a car, you're nobody. Well ok, that might be true everywhere in the world, but even MORE SO here. Especially if you have to cover several miles (x 1.6 for km's) in this continuous rain ;-)
Flickr photo blog has some pictures of homestay (inside). Enjoy.
Thanks again (everybody) for the kind and encouraging messages in the comment section !

Saturday

So, brought in 2 boxes of donuts for the guys this morning. Did some more meteorology work, at noon I headed out with a high time pilot, mainly flying for the UN in Sudan, french guy. Bought me a beer at the restaurant, not comparable to belgian beer, but it's no use in comparing things any more.
When you're a tourist you can demand excellence, but when you're a someone who is staying in the country for longer periods of time, you have to live with (& be content with) what's available.
If not, you'll keep bitchin'/complaining and the stay will lose part of it's charm. There's a fine line between critique and insult here. Diplomacy is key.
Went out to this store called 'Army & Navy' store, which is just one big outdoorsy supply store who sell goods at very affordable prices (e.g: a descent sweater for +/- 20 $)
So what's it like celebrating your birthday in another country ? Well, I was just discussing the exact same thing with a german guy studying here. He hasn't celebrated his birthday or christmas with his family for the last 4 years. It's definately tough on you, but you get over it. That's the main conclusion.
So what did I do for fun today ? I got home today, the homestay lady got out to get some meat and I just cranked the stereo. LOUD. Filling every nick and crack with of the old house with sound. What's a nice track for this occasion: 'Joker and the Thief' by Wolfmother seems to fit the bill nicely. Suggestions for future occasions are welcome though.
Posted some pics of the runway lights in the morning, an oldtimer (plane) running up and a nice black mustang. Will redo the runway lights one, one of these days, because I'm not getting the desired effect...yet.
Stay tuned for more to come & take care.

Metar, TAF, GFA's, PIREP's...

Yep, still focusing my attention on this phenomenon called weather.
It's so beautiful, yet there's so many factors to take into account. It's kind of hard to simplify thing: heating of the earth, makes air rise, coriolis force splits things up at the equator and puts a spin on things, different air masses are created ranging from continental arctic to tropical, with those air masses different pressures are associated, those pressures (air masses) clash creating fronts who are (always) low pressure.
You want nice weather ? Have yourself a nice high pressure. High pressure air, is wel... pressurised. Pressurized air is hotter (think bike pump in motion) reducing the moisture content of air. No moisture means no rain.
This explanation might not be perfect, but I think I'm starting the gist of things.
Check flickr for some nice photos of an early morning moon.
Tomorrow (saturday), I'll have to get up a bit earlier to get those donuts at Tim Horton's.
Don't want to come to school empty handed tomorrow.

More meteorology

Still no second flight today. Did manage to ame some nice pictures though. Check flickr for those.
Other than that some more meteorology.

Meteorology & Navigation

Did some navigation and a lot of meteorology today. The 3 basic (most extensive) subjects are 1.Meteorology 2.Navigation 3.Canadian Aviation Regulations all other subjects are pretty straightforward, from what I've seen so far.

To give you an idea of what pilots have to decipher weather-wise,here's a METAR (METeorological Aerodrome Report) & TAF (Terminal Area Forecast) for Vancouver Intl today :
METAR CYVR 270200Z 29002KT 15SM FEW015 SCT170 BKN230 12/10 A3017 RMK
SF1AC2CI2 SLP218=

METAR CYVR 270300Z 00000KT 20SM FEW015 SCT170 BKN230 12/09 A3015 RMK
SF1AC3CI1 SLP211=

METAR CYVR 270400Z 01002KT 15SM VCFG FEW160 BKN230 11/09 A3013 RMK
AC2CI2 SLP204=

TAF CYVR 270238Z 270324 VRB03KT P6SM FEW015 SCT120 BKN220
FM0900Z 09005KT P6SM SCT015 BKN050 OVC100 TEMPO 1015 5SM -SHRA BR
BKN015 OVC040
FM1500Z 12012KT 6SM -RA BR SCT010 OVC025 TEMPO 1524 2SM -RA BR
OVC010
RMK NXT FCST BY 06Z=

This is supposed to give you a 3 dimensional idea of what the weather should look like above Vancouver. The reason it's al abbreviated is because they used to do all this by telex and they got charged for every letter they put in.
A metar would usually contain:
Station identifier (CYVR), time (zulu time, that currently GMT-1, but it's because we are in daylight savings time now, normally it's just GMT), wind, visibility, clouds & their height, cloud density (few, overcast, broken) and precipitation if present (e.g.:-SHRA= light rainshowers) .

Seemed to have problems uploading photos today, I think I exceeded my montly limit on my cell phone. So no photos this month (unless for some reason it only didn't work today)

The schedule

Nothing 'special' today. Thought I would let you guys and gals know what my daily schedule looks like:

05.05 or 05.45:wake-up. 05.05 if I'm working out (3x a week)
06.15:shower & shave
06.30: breakfast
07.00: out the door, on my way to heli college.
07.15: arrival at heli college + pushing out of the helicopters
08.00-12.00: study. I'm usually fresher in the morning then I am after lunch, so I try to get as much stuff studied (usually of 1 single subject) as possible. (within some small breaks in between).
12.00-13.00: lunch
13.00-17.00: again studying, usually preparing for that evenings ground school. The breaks in between sessions would sometimes be slightly longer, to accomodate a small walk outside for some fresh air
17.30-19.30: ground school (only on Tue, Wed and Thur). On off nights I would call it quits at around 18.30-19.00
20.00: Arrival at homestay. This time varies as ground school sometimes starts later.
20.15:dinner
20.45: answer emails + post my day on blog + upload pictures (if new and if there's still time)
21.30 - 22.00: hit the hay to be ready to start over again :-)

Flight !

Today, totally unexpected I might add, I flew !
We went up to the west part of the airport for some hover practice. My instructor graudally gave up each control (cyclic, collective and torque pedals). Everything went smoothly and I even managed to briefly hover at the end before setting her down on the helipads. My arm was pretty tired back then as the helicopter cyclic (stick) makes you use some small stabilizer muscles in your hand/forearm that you don't usually use in every day life. Instructor was satisfied with the flight and next flight we'll do hover turns and climbing and descending turns, I can't wait !
Did some more PSTAR work and prepped navigation (ground school tomorrow).
Check flickr photo blog for some beautiful pictures of the Canadian countryside and some more airport scenery.
Stay tuned for more info/pictures coming soon !

Early morning wake up and PSTAR q's

Heard that it was good practice to be at the school at 0700. So I was. Had to get up at 05.45 though.
Did some more PSTAR questionnaires and some 'theory of flight work'. Hopefully some of the more advanced guys can go solo next week so I can get some flying done. I'm really looking forward to it. It will be welcome change to be able to put things into practice. Check the flickr photo blog for some awesome helicopter photos along with some scenery.

PSTAR, fun, the gym and the dollar.

Rainy day here in Langley (see flickr).
Got some contact information of one of the CHC guys, before which he had given me his take on how flying isn't any fun any more when you get into the big leagues. He reminisced about the days that he used to fly 206's in the Grand Canyon and would like to do some solo work. He added that flying was more about unions and wages and the actual fun was missing. He finished by recommending me to 'stick with the fun' type of flying instead of trying to get bigger paychecks as soon as possible. Sound advice if you ask me.
Did some work on to prepare for my PSTAR (rules and regulations using your Aeronautic Information Manual) today. Went home a bit early as we had no ground school today.
Oh yeah, almost forgot, went to the gym with some guys (fellow students) today. After moving some heavy weights and them only doing the same old 'isolation, mirror bicep workout' I quickly got the comment :'Wow, man, you're like the bionic man or something'. :-) Quite funny.
Just heard the news about the us dollar going down to the level of the canadian. For a moment there I thought it was the other way around. Phew. Will still be watching this though and hope the canadian dollar stays stable and unaffected.

Charts & stuff

Today I did some more navigation prep work (see photo on flickr blog marked 20/09 to get an idea).
Had another talk at lunch today with the CHC guys and -just for kicks- thought I would ask how much one flight hour on the Puma or Super Puma would cost. That helicopter holds about 17 people and is quite demanded in different branches of the helicopter business. Any guesses ? For 1 hour on the super puma you pay 7000 Euros ! That puts things in perspective huh... A pilot would need 5-10 hours to get qualified on a new helicopter, so... you do the math ;-)

I just wanted to thank everybody for your support and for those of you who think I don't the 'comment' section, fear not. I do read em, but don't have time to answer them. So here's an extra THANKS to all of you.

Stay tuned.

R22 questionnaires & Navigation

Another day full of studying. Arrived at 08.30. Got out to have lunch with a french CHC guy. Got back and studied some more. Then we had ground school at around 18.00 to 20.00. Got home around 20.30. It's almost 22.00 now. In the morning I did some R22 questionnaires, which is basically a bunch of questions (on paper) that you have to find the answer to (an open book quiz if you prefer). They are designed for you to get you to learn more about the helicopter you will be flying, while looking things up. Again, when you're up there, there is no time to take out your manual.
Next up was ground school preparation followed by ground school. Today was the first day of navigation and we learned about latitude and longitude, variation and deviation, true course, true heading, etc, ...
It's to prep yourself for a subject because when you get the actual subject you will already have absorbed part of the subject, which makes things easier in class. I mean you pick up on stuff easier.
Will be doing my first flight somewhere next week. Got to get my technical specs memorized first.

Got my foam roller delivered today, again some weard looks along with 'hey, what you got there ?'. After which I promptly unpacked it and had guy lay down on ir that had spinal issues from when he was a kid (high shock absorption while mountain biking). He had a decompression table at home (from which you hang upside down) but said this worked well and didn't get that much blood into his head.
Okay, long post. Going to bed, workout tomorrow.
Will only be posting 1 picture a day on the photo blog from now on. It takes me too long to load more up.

Studying...

The first week of school is really all about knowing as much as possible of the R22 (our helicopter) as you can, because if something happens during the flight you have no time to consult an aircraft manual for oh let's say... your best glide speed.
So my day is mainly focused on absorbing as much data of the helicopter flight data in as little time as possible, while also preparing the upcoming ground school lessons (next up: navigation).
i'm still a bit jetlagged and waking up at 4am isn't unusual, but I guess that by the end of this week things should start to normalise. Some new photos are up on flickr. There's some pictures of classroom material and from a bike ride I took to the bank today.

Do the walk around !

Finished my first day of schooling today.
Did a lot of theory work on pre flight checks and the ' walk around' the helicopter to ensure everything is safely attached and not damaged by previous flights.
Talked to some more experienced students from a big company called CHC helicopters who are themselves from all over the globe (Spain, Argentina, France, ...).
It's interesting to here their stories and how they got started in the industry.
I also met my fellow students today, grear bunch of guys. Uploaded some photos made from my room to the flickr photo blog (see link on the sidebar) along with some more photos of my reading material.
Brought my 40kg kettlebell in today. It's heavy, but I'll be taming it once I get over this jet lag which is still not completely out of my system.
Hitting the sack, tired. Another busy day of studying and visiting my new canadian bank tomorrow. More info to come soon.
Stay tuned.

Arrived in Vancouver...

Just arrived in Vancouver, getting settled in at my new home stay.

Will be posting pictures tomorrow as the sun's no longer out and I'm pretty tired
after a 10 hour flight; 1 screaming baby and 3 in flight movies. Then for a sloshing
back and forth ride to the homestay. Automatic gearboxes and indian drivers don't always mix without a glitch it seems, they have a trouble applying either to much or too little 'throttle' which constantly makes your head bob back and forth and eventually leads to an uncomfortable 'queesy' stomach.

First day of school tomorrow, better freshen up and hit the sack.

Be(ing) Prepared

In an effort to get things organized before the 16th,
I'm looking up the routes to follow between my 'home away from home' and
Langley Airport. Here's the map and another beautiful photo.

Here's the route from my homestay to Langley airport