In October 2011 I finally started flight school, as you could read here. All was new for me. I moved to a different country, lived on my own for the first time and started a course that I honestly did not know much about yet. All the courses were given in English and although my English was fairly good, I did not know many technical words and expressions that were used a lot during the course. Slowly but surely I managed to find my way and I was lucky to have roommates that were in the same situation. 

The flight school consisted of 10 months of theory classes after which we had to pass the 14 official exams, but after the first 3 months of theory classes we got to fly as well. Our theory classes were from 16:00 to 20:00 in the evening, which allowed us initially to relax a lot and after we started flying, to fly in the morning and to go to classes in the afternoon/ evening.

What followed were months of flying combined with studying. The flying really kept me motivated to study. You’ll soon read all about the flying part in the next article of my own experience! On days that I was not flying, I would study from 10 am to 10 pm and I prepared for my exams in a very structural way. Every day I would know exactly what I had to study and only allowed myself to finish for the day when I would have completed whatever I had planned to do.

It was important to plan and study very systematically, as there is a lot to study and it is impossible to postpone everything to the last week before the exams (which, frankly, I used to do often in high school!) In flight school this was different. I now knew what I was going for, to achieve my dream it was important to study hard, plan well in advance and only enjoy free time after I had finished my planned duties.

The 14 subjects we had were: Communications VFR, Communications IFR, Instruments, Aircraft General Knowledge, Human Performance and Limitations, Meteorology, General Navigation, Radio Navigation, Performance, Mass and Balance, Flight Planning, Principles of Flight, Air Law and Operational Procedures. Next week I will publish an article that explains the content of all 14 subjects!