Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been feeling kind of off lately. It was really a rough week. I thought basics was hard, and I always knew that level 2 was just going to get harder, but, now that I'm in level 2, it's just insane. You have to learn the map, then you also have to learn the book work, as well as learn the proper way to clear an airplane to take off, land, and cross areas without flying into another aircraft's protected airspace. So, I'm trying to stuff three major areas of knowledge in my head, all while learning practically a new language.
On Friday, we did a walk thru with our first scenario - 7 planes. They weren't even landing or taking off. Just flying in my airspace. Three of them were flying at the same altitude. So, you have to move two of them. But when you move them, you put them on the same level as another aircraft. So, you have to give them restrictions - "Cross 6 miles soutwest of the Jackson Vortac (a ground-based measuring point), at or above 9 thousand [feet]" The problem is that if a plane is flying on a certain airway heading south and needs to decend, and another plane is going to intersect or cross that plane at the same altitute heading from west to east, DEPENDING ON THE ANGLE AT WHICH THEY ARE CROSSING, it determines how far away the first plane needs to decend before crossing the second plane. If the angle is only 15 degrees, the plane needs to decend 17 miles before crossing the second plane. If it is a 80 degree angle, then the plane only needs to cross 6 miles away. It's all basic geometry, and if you don't understand it, well, neither do I. Actually, I do get it, but, you need to be able to instantly recall the angles of the airways (called degrees divergence) for all the airways on the map.
I'm sorry, I'll get of the technical stuff. Needless to say, my brain was completely fried on Friday. I really felt like there was no way that I could do this. It was kind of depressing. The instructors keep saying, "It will come to you...It will come to you", but I just feel like i'm not really getting it...
We are shifting our schedule to nights next week. We work from 3:30pm-12:00pm. The instructors don't really know why, the standard answer seems to be that they need to share the classrooms and the equipment, so they alternate the schedule...So I'm staying up late tonight! I just got my body set to wake up at 4:00 am, and now I have to change it to sleep until 10. Thank god it's only for one week.
Not much else going on. I'll post a better post tomorrow.
We changed buildings - here is my new classroom:
Anyone want to guess where I sit again?
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