Flight Plan - ATP: Weight and Balance

Almost done with the weight and balance chapter. In addition to the DC-9, 727, and 737, I have been practicing the Beech 1900 questions since the questions are marked for the 121 test.  I'm not having much difficulty with the questions.  They're just time consuming.  I studied for an hour and a half today between work and family responsibilities. I also studied over six hours this past weekend.

Flight Plan - ATP

Wow what a crazy week.  Amongst all of the craziness, yesterday I was able to finish up the chapter on performance and flight logs. It is a great feeling when you are able to consistently get within seconds of the correct answer.  Now onward to weight and balance!

Flight Plan - ATP

Today I was able to study for a little over three hours. I studied for an hour and a half while at the office this afternoon and a little over an hour and a half at home this evening. I am still working on flight logs, but am making good progress. I have revised the way I lay out the flight logs on paper which makes the process considerably faster than the way I was doing it before. I still need to be a little bit faster at plugging those numbers in.

Flight Plan - ATP

Here's the deal. I finally have reached ATP minimums. I have been studying for the knowledge exam for quite some time as well. I began studying for it in 2008 when I was interviewing with regional airlines. As far as I know, I did really well on the interview exams. The companies I interviewed with couldn't tell me exactly how well I did, but I felt satisfied with my answers and the airlines did hire me. Ever since my last job interview, I have been studying for it here and there. Now that I have the required flight time, it's time to get down to business and get this done. Over the last few weeks I have debated whether or not I should take the part 121 or part 135 knowledge test. In the end it does not matter which one I take. An ATP certificate is still an ATP certificate regardless. I prepared for airline job interviews by studying the part 121 regulations. As I already am familiar with 121 regulations, I have decided to study for the part 121 knowledge exam.

In preparing for my job interviews I studied part 121 regulations, aerodynamics, flight operations, weather ... pretty much everything except for performance and weight and balance. I have retained most of this information over the past year and still review it from time to time. Recently, I began studying the aircraft performance chapter. As of tonight, I have completed everything in the performance chapter up to the "Flight Logs" section. This evening I spent about an hour practicing flight logs and answering the subsequent questions. Once I am able to finally get the kiddos to stay in bed I'll continue practicing the remaining 20 pages worth of questions. I most likely will not get finished with all 20 pages tonight, but I plan to make some decent progress.

My goal is to have my ATP certificate by the end of this year. That's right. Within the next three months. In an effort to hold myself accountable and reach my goal of holding an Airline Transport Pilot certificate by the end of 2009, I'll update my progress via this blog.

Now, back to work...

Quote of the Day

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted anything. So, in that regard, let me leave you with a quote I read a few weeks back. I think its appropriate considering a lot of the knee-jerk reactions going on in Washington that I keep reading about concerning the aviation industry among everything else...

"Half the worry in the world is caused by people trying to make decisions before they have sufficient knowledge on which to base a decision." - Herbert E. Hawkes, Dean of Columbia College, Columbia University.

quote of the day

"Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you are capable" - John Wooden

www.coachwooden.com