Half Way Done

Well I am half way done with semester # 1 making that 1/8 of the way done with school. Only 7 more half semesters to go. In my Intro to ATC class we are moving onto the radar portion of the class as depicted by the image on top. This is a screen shot of what my radar screen looks like. You can click on it to get a better view of the picture. The circle in the middle with the two dashed lines going through it represent the academy airport (fictional airport). The dashed lines are one mile apart and they are the ILS approach lines. The circle that they go through is the tower's airspace. The circle just to the south is another airport Jeske Air Base with the ILS approach lines. The "goal looking" things on the outer most part are called gates in which departing and arriving traffic must go through. There is four departure gates, North, South, East, West and these are depicted with the poles of the gates pointed inward. The other four gates are the arrival gates. Each of these gates are named something different to depict on the map where they are. Sounds confusing, but with the proper memorization it shouldn't be too hard.

In my tower class we are moving on from giving clearances and weather to the proper way to taxi aircraft and the correct departure intersections at which they are to depart from.

Math, just moving on from the same old theorems that will not mean anything to me in the future, English, getting ready to write the eight page report on an environmental issue.

Human factors working on Crew Resource Management, Aviation Orientation we are still listening to boring lectures about the different career paths for aviation offered at UND, this is a freshman course worth one credit I wish I could have done without.

And on a side note I have enrolled in a distance Management course, that I have to take, that I hope to complete during the month break I will have over Christmas. I am hoping that I can get it done in time to take another before the end of the year. I am hoping that by Fall of 2008 I have gotten three of these courses done to lighten my load for that final semester. My goal is to only be taking four classes during the Fall so that I can TA in some ATC courses and make a little bit of money to prepare for the move to OK.

Here is a link that talks about what you have to go through to become a controller

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos108.htm

Spending Money??

Well the tests that I have had in the last couple of weeks went by without a hitch, classes seem back to normal. I have recently been looking at my next couple of semesters trying to plan them out so that I have to be here as little as possible. I have run into a problem with a flying class. In order to graduate in ATC you have to take either AVIT 101 or 102. One class is a survey of flight, the other is Private Flight class. I have already taken this class @ UVSC but they will not accept the completion of the class @ UND. Sounds rather stupid to me, I am finding out that I will have to retake a ground school class but instead of the 40 hours of flight time that I will need for a private, I will be able to by pass most of the lessons. At least that will take away some of the cost. My major concern is that this ground school will take up a good section of my week, possible delaying some of my other class into another semester. I am hoping that this is not the case, I would sure hate to have to hang out for another semester for just one or two classes. I talked with an ATC advisor / professor and he told me that he thought that I had to take the class again was just stupid. He thought the reason ATC has to take any of the flying classes is to keep the student instructors here with work. Makes sense but it still sucks being on this end. I read in a book ( one that I had to read ) that the UND aviation department logs over 100,000 hours of flight time per year.

On a side not, I am going to be taking my AT-SAT exam by Christmas, at least that is the plan. This is a exam that I have to pass to get a job offer from the FAA, so it is pretty important. If I don't pass I will be able to take the test again after one year, that is why I am hoping that I can take it now, so that I can take it again just before I graduate.

When I was working @ Skywest I had a co-worker that made me listen to this, I found it, so I thought that I would pass it on. It is rather length, but the content it funny if you can follow it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUnVlyyar4M&mode=related&search=