Off To Newplace (again)

Yep, still feeling ill. It's a bit of an annoyance because I'm off to meet and greet the new recruits in a bit. I've just stayed indoors and played on the new computer game. Gladly I'm using Beccy's laptop with a better spec so it plays very well. Not much else to report really. Off we go for some good grub and a comfy bed. As I cannot be bothered to find any decent interesting things I shall leave you with the rules for extended rock, paper, scissors:

Broken Sword

Today I'm feeling even more ill than yesterday, admittedly the hang-over has passed but I have now definately got a cold. So I slept in. When I arose at about 11 o'clock a game had arrived which I did order from t'internet (more precisely play.com). So I've been busy playing that. "Broken Sword: Angel of Death" is a point and click adventure puzzle. It's the fourth of the series but I haven't played any others. You play a character, called George, who is an ex-expert in his field and is approached by a character in need of help. It's a bit like being in the Da Vinci code etc but actually solving the puzzles yourself. I would highly reccomend it to anyone with a puzzle loving mind! Any ways, must get back to it. I'll leave you with a screenshot:

A Bit Rough

No I'm not feeling very well this morning. Mainly because of a combination of last night's beer etc and this morning's sore throat which has been coming on for a while really.
So I missed a call from my pastoral carer, if you can call him that. You see there's been a bit of a problem at work because of the failures yesterday. One of the guys was supposed to be meeting and greeting the new kids at the management centre (you remember back in late June/July). Anyway, Graham; the person who organises events like these, called me to ask if I would go and talk to the new guys. So I agreed in a very croaky voice.
Anyway I'm just going to leave you with a nice self portrait of a man on a space walk. (Caution; if you click on the picture it is very large!)

Results Day

So today I've been in college waiting for my results. I passed. 26/51 failed. Some friends of mine have failed but I'm not shocked, I'll leave it at that. Anyway I'm going out to celebrate tonight so apologies for the short blog but wahooooooooooooooooo!

Last Summative Run

Yes it is true, I have finished the last assessed exercise of my Basic Radar Skills Course. How did I do? you'll have to wait until Monday, maybe Tuesday for that. Let's not count our chickens....

Apart from that I was trying to post an interesting article about Maths and Choas and the Mandelbrot set with some lovely pictures last night but the connection wasn't working so here are some pictures of a graph:

This is the Buddhabrot	This is the Nebulabrot

And who said Maths was boring?

Outage

Yes I think there was something wrong with tinternet last night, that or there was something wrong with blogger.com. Either way I couldn't post this lovely picture of the largest fire for a very long way:

I got it from the soho website. Apart from that I can't think of anything else to say about yesterday really. That was the most interesting thing that happened all day. Today, however, I had a summative first thing this morning which went very well. The instructor said that it was one of the best runs he'd seen. Apart from that I spent the rest of the day playing Broken Sword on Laurie's laptop (he was there).

Daily Interesting Stuff (19-Sep-06)

Ok today check this out!! Right it is work related so if ATC bores you just ignore... But I was watching it for yonks today and am still pretty excited about it. It is a stylised version of ATC radar output. It doesn't look like this on the radar screen. The aircraft fly around talking to JFK approach, check out the vectoring. This is what I'm learning. There is a key and if you click on the aircraft you will see the data. Most interesting is the height and the departure / destination. During busy periods this is what the Area advanced sims look like traffic level wise.

N.B. check out La Guardia (about 15 miles NW of JFK) departures and how they avoid inbound traffic. Also the stack is over to the East and they use a Standard arrival Route (STAR) to get down to approach where near the end (West Islip) the approach controller vectors them. They've got some great techniques but good to see how they make a plan.

Have a look anyway. It's not quite as hard on our simulators (I'm only starting).

Cause To Celebrate

BIG NEWS: Beccy has got a job offer. It's working for Bournemouth Churches Housing Association (one doesn't have to actually be a christian of course). The charity helps out persons without permanent housing regardless of age, gender, religion, convictions, addictions, mental health etc etc (sounds like a laugh a minute). It is what she really wants so we're heading out for some food and a movie as I don't have a scheduled summative exercise tomorrow.

I had a good run. It was nearly perfect but an aircraft with no mode charlie flew through my airspace and I didn't get a level check after he reported "descending FL35" on initial call (which is below CAS). Anyway because of this the safety of everything within 5nm could have been jepordised but it's quite a dastardly thing to do so I got away with "Mostly achieved" in Separations, Task management, Flight Data, etc.

We're off to see the Black Dahlia.

Daily Interesting Stuff (18-Sep-06)

Yes it's back. Take a look at this game, it's pretty in depth but quite addictive if you a) don't like cats and b) like the physicsy sort of stuff (don't let that put you off).

How it works? You're a dog called Murre with a cat called Misse in his hand. Use your mouse to swing the cat around your head. Use a circular motion holding down the left mouse button. Release the mouse button and Murre lets go flinging Misse into orbit. Use left click to add a boost from the rocket pack attached to Misse's back. If you get more advanced use the instruments around to help. Aim of the game? To fling the cat (by it's tail) as far as possible.

Tip: Get the cat high out of the atmosphere to reduce air resistance and use the rocket pack when flying along the orbit, not facing to or away from earth.

My Best Score: 4109

What a Rubbish Weekend...

... for my fantasy football team. I can't believe how rubbish I did, 35 points -rubbish! I dropped 2 places in my course league and in my ex-uni league. I blame Henry (Arsenal) who is now lame and I need a replacement. Well perhaps it was more because I had a bad week all round... hmppff. In other news today's summative went very very well and the assessor said it was a brilliantly executed exercise. There were quite a few problems which I expertly dealt with. Fab!

Yesterday I went for a walk in the new forest. It was lovely. I thought it was going to be mega busy like some piccadilly circus but once you get 20 yards from the road it is actually quite quiet. The walk culminated in Burley which is shown here on google. There are many tea rooms and publice houses which made the walk extra enjoyable. It is a bleak, almost desolate landscape on the most part, but really is full of roads. Not a wilderness really, not like the lakes. You could walk quite happy that you'll never be more than a mile from a road which, on a weekend, would be full of cars nose to tail. We had a great book which is very descriptive and helped find free parking! It's only about 30 minutes drive from our house so there's no excuse for being lazy and not going. Anyway Beccy's parents are going to get a great week when they come down, already got a walk per day organised.

The Weekend

It is indeed the weekend and I've got some time to myself so I thought I'd add an update. What I 'a bin doin'.

1. listening to Q radio (channel 716 on freeview)
2. musing at the availability of lost season 3 for download which started this week in the U.S.
3. cursing my laptop whose power supply has failed and now is a bit dead
4. playing with the lift simulator from NASA (cool)
5. being assessed on the simulator (AAAAH!).

So it's been a busy one! but I've been remaining cheerful mainly by browsing the internet for silly pics like this one:

and also playing games like this:

Ski Run Complete the Slalom course as quickly as possible to take Gold

Play this free game now!! Can you beat my time of 01'20.26''

Summative 6

Today was the 2nd summative exercise. I have to admit that I found it quite tricky. I had a whole bunch of stuff come up. It is a bit more nerve racking than the 1st one I did as it counts a bit more and it's a bit more serious. I didn't think I'd done that well but I was the right side of the line so that's all that matters. I need to improve still (obviously). They're marked with ticks in boxes: Fully/Mostly/Partly/Not Achieved. Fullys and Mostlys are a pass and the other two aren't good. I got all Fs and Ms which is good. But it's not really that simple nor cut and dry. Can't be bothered to explain. So I'm off out with the gang tonight!

Oral Boards

I have to admit my job is incredible. I mean it really really is. But you've got to want to do it so much. Throughout my career I will be assessed for competency. Every day as it happens. When I make validation a small computer widget will monitor every angle and decision I make. When I detects an error it could spell the end of my whole career in Air Traffic whether life threatening or not. I have to say that it scares me, but who would it not?

Aside from "the snitch" or STCA as it is known every year or so I will have to pass an oral exam. These are designed not to test what, or how (those things can be tested in a simulator or a written test) but why. Understanding. I had my first taster today. That was just it, a taster. It doesn't count (much) now but in the future my license will be on the line. Every thing I have learnt from lectures is pulled together into 30 minutes and the questions are very open following no strict script and picking up those things I do and don't know. To pass one must achieve a satisfactory level of knowledge and understanding in ALL of the topics covered. It's a tough call as literally everything must be answered correctly. Saying "I don't know" will almost certainly constitute unsatisfactory "what would you do if you saw a 0033 squawk, why can't you allocate a squawk 7890? When must an aircraft carry a transponder?"

I failed. The last question above I couldn't answer. I knew at that point what the outcome would be. I knew that the answer was in Schedule 5 of the Air Navigation Order as Amended 2005. But I could not say. I am a little frustrated tonight. But I have to look forward to the real task in hand; passing the summative exercises (the simulator exams) they start on friday.