Scott James Remnant

Look what happens; the whole world goes “carbon neutral” mad, planting trees and burning Jeremy Clarkson instead of Fossil Fuels and what do we get? A summer so wet that you can pick up the “dropped sausage” as it floats past the barbecue. I want the global warming back, at least then it was nice out!

A combination of the glorious English summer, and a busy social and work calendar has meant that I’ve had no chance to get airborne.

I’ve made a booking with Wellesbourne Aviation for Saturday July 14th, one of the few days in July that I have free, so hopefully the weather can be persuaded to behave by then.

Wimbledon will be over and the British Grand Prix a memory, so I’m hopeful that the rain gods will bugger off for a while and give us some clear skys for a couple of weeks (since we’ve got yet another re-booking of a balloon flight that I bought for my partner last September scheduled for the week after!).

I’ve put the time to good use however, and purchased the complete set of “Trevor Thom” books. The flying school slightly favours the Jeremy Pratt, but I found after reading through both that the style of the Thom books far better suits me.

The usual comments against them are that they’re overly technical or precise, which makes them to me read more like the computer manuals and science articles that I’m used to; and a far better fit. I found the casual tone of the Pratt series more difficult to learn from.

I don’t think there’s any particular disadvantage to starting the exam study this early, without the practical experience to back it up. Both reinforce the other; and I do think that the longer run-up you have on the written side, the more likely you are to learn it rather than just cram the answers into your head before sitting the exam.

For me, I think it’s even more useful. I’ve found that I’m sometimes not able to fully grasp a subject without the necessary technical background. I don’t know whether my physics teacher remembers my difficulty in understanding how a capacitor worked; I couldn’t understand why the simplistic description of them didn’t cause the same effects with an ordinary switch. It wasn’t until later on when I learned the underlying principles that I fully grasped how they could be used.

I can already think of an example where this is true in flying.

Some people may be content to know that the altimeter can be set to one of four settings; and happy to just learn by rote which of QFE, Aerodrome QNH, Regional QNH or 1013.2mb they need at which point in their journey. They can probably remember learning why for their exams, but not worrying about it anymore.

For me, knowing what the difference between them is, and how to calculate one from the other, has given me a far greater understanding. I could’ve probably learned them by rote, but it would have never been entirely clear to me. Instead, I now understand them, so the appropriate choice at each point in the journey is obvious to me; not to mention the effects of moving from one pressure region to another.

Another useful thing from starting the reading so early is that I’m able to read the aviation weather forecasts.

EGBB 021644Z 030024 21009KT 9999 SCT020 TEMPO 0009 8000 SHRA PROB30 0007 BKN008 TEMPO 0921 6000 SHRA BKN020CB PROB40 TEMPO 0920 3000 +SHRA TSGR BKN014 BECMG 1013 27014KT

Unfortunately, this is still depressing reading …