Nollning and barbeque

Another week at school is over. Now we’ve had our first class in all theory subjects for this semester. The new subjects this week have been:

Physical education
Principles of flight
Radio communication

During the first class of physical education we talked about the course in general, about sports facilities in Ljungbyhed (there are more than you would think) and we were shown the gym inside the High School (neighboring our school). Principles of flight is basically a physics course where we learn how an airplane flies in detail and what happens if the speed is too low (“stall”) etc. Radio communication is naturally about how pilots should speak on the radio to each other and to the air traffic control (tower).

Since errors in radio communication are the cause of many accidents it is of course important that we speak loud and clear, correctly using the right words and that we speak the same language. While we are automatically assumed to know Swedish as needed, we will do tests to check that our English skills are adequate. About the pilot in the below Youtube-clip, one really wonders if he passed his English examination…

We will have one more week of theory studies before they will let us up to the air, and of course we’re all really thrilled about it. In the beginning the flight instructor will control much of the flight including take-off and landing but gradually we will take over all parts and hopefully, if we’re lucky about the weather, we may do our first solo flight later this fall (October or so). When we’ve finished the programme, we’ll begin intensive training to catch up with the abilities of Mr. Hoover in this Youtube-clip (don't miss the part from 2:10):

Haha, just joking…

Last weekend we were zeroed (nollade) by last year’s class, which was fun and they totally surprised us not suspecting anything. Today, we had a barbeque with all students and teachers at the school, which was also really nice. And in addition to the good food and welcome speeches etc. we were treated with an unadvertised air-show by one of the veteran flight instructors in an old biplane. He did loops, rolls, combinations of both right above our heads and then landed on the grass right in front of the hangar and our tables.

By the way, in the school right now there are around 50 students, of whom half are Swedish TFHS students belonging to Lund University, and half are Norwegian students belonging to the University of Tromsö (UiT) in the far north of Norway. Norwegian students will be in Ljungbyhed at least until early next year because their own university still doesn’t have the necessary certification for a pilot school. Last year’s TFHS class will also stay here until early next year, when they will move to Stockholm or another city with a major airport to do their Type Rating training – which means learning how to control a passenger airplane (like Boeing 737, Fokker 50 or something in between).

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