Welcome to ~flying!
As some of you already know, I signed up for flight school a while ago.
The last three weeks I had been on vacation to collect the required 100 hours for the theoretical exam.
However, before you can attempt the theoretical exam by the LBA (Luftfahrt-Bundesamt, the German equivalent of the FAA), you also need to pass a (free) pre-test by the school.
Today, I took the pre-test as the first in my class, and I failed! But I’m happy, because I didn’t expect to pass. I only took it now because I currently live close to the school, so I thought, why not try it before I move back 1–2 hours away? I can repeat it six times.
I’m actually surprised I even reached 82% of the required 85%. There were 72 questions in total, so with just three fewer wrong answers, I would have passed. I’d say that’s pretty good, considering I haven’t had time to go through all the questions even once yet. For example, I haven’t practiced a single question about meteorology—I can’t even pronounce it—and there are 300 different questions in total, 20 of which appeared on the exam.
However, “three fewer wrong answers” doesn’t really mean much. Our instructors told us that if we failed because of one wrong answer, we didn’t fail because of "one wrong answer," we failed because we got enough other answers wrong as well. I liked that grounded perspective (pun intended)!
In general, I really like how all of our instructors (most former Luftwaffe pilots) cared that we take what we learn seriously, because our lives and the lives of others might depend on it one day. This is especially true for the 13 other young students in my class, most straight out of high school, who want to become airline pilots (only another guy in his forties and I are doing it just for fun). Some even used a shock factor by first showing us how much fun aviation can be, and then abruptly pointing out that the same pilot we had just watched performing aerobatics died because his engine failed during a critical phase of a normal flight, and there wasn’t much he could have done except be luckier. I also didn't expect the instructors to just randomly send us an email with the subject "Oh man" and a link to a recent crash, with nothing else.1 It's as if they want to scare away anyone who hasn't really considered the risks yet.
Anyway, I’m now pretty relaxed about the real exam on December 3, where I only need to get 75%.
In addition to the theoretical exam, I also need to pass a test to get my license to use the radio on November 13, but we’ve already practiced a lot and will practice some more in the days leading up to it. I’m not too worried about that one either. A simple way to describe it is that you’re basically just repeating back what you’ve heard, and if you don’t understand something, you say “Say again?” until you do.2 As far as I can tell, there’s only one fatal mistake: repeating a clearance like “cleared to land, runway two-zero” when you have not actually been cleared to land on runway 20.
I’m actually a bit worried that I’m too relaxed now, because learning to fly turns out to be not as hard as I expected. It’s not difficult to understand; there’s just a lot you need to have looked into at least once. The rest is practice, practice, practice, so you can perform well under high pressure. But on the other hand, what do I really know yet? I haven’t even had a single flight lesson, haha.
That's why I'm going for the 100% now so I can be very confident about starting my flight lessons in December if the weather allows it.
Now please ask questions so I don't feel presumptuous to have assumed people would be interested in this AMA, haha
Footnotes
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According to the narrator, the pilot lost control because a tire blew. However, it’s not clear to me whether he actually lost control or simply overreacted. 🤔 ↩
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Ideally, you say "Say again wind speed?" if all you didn't understand was the wind speed. Otherwise, the controller will repeat everything, and you might miss the one thing you didn’t understand the first time again. It’s also important to be precise: one time I said, “Say again wind?” and the instructor only repeated the direction. Then I had to call back one more time and say, “Say again wind speed?” We all had a good laugh about that little situational comedy, haha. ↩