PPL preps... & first ASHTAM over Belgium!

... next step will be obtaining my PPL-licence (aka single-stripe-on-the-shoulder ;-) ). To be well prepared for the examination, the OAC training schedule contains a few hours allowing the student pilot to focus on his/her weak points.

But to be able to focus on ones weak points, these have to be determined first. That is why during the first PPL prep (Private Pilot Licence exam preparation), a student pilot has to perform all manoeuvers & demonstrate his/her skills to fly the plane according to the book. That is what I did yesterday... but but but...

Oringinal plan was to set course to the castle of Poeke (near Aalter) & next to Sint-Laureins near Eeklo and the Dutch border since I had asked my instructor to focus on dead reckoning & lost-position plotting first. However mother nature decided differently. Since a few days a large and stable high pressure area has been extending over the Atlantic southwest of the UK bringing nice and fair weather to our area. Pérfect & very smooth training conditions if it were not the fact that the anticyclonic movement around this vast high pressure area is the perfect means to transport the Eyafjallajokul-volcanic-dust&stone-crap over large areas in Western Europe. Off course this cloud is as good as invisible and many many times thinner than at the location where it escapes from the volcano itself. But it is still there and apparently dangerous enough to cause damage to both propeller and turbine engines. That is why several European authorities (Finland, Danmark, Germany, Poland, Belgium, France, ...) as well as Eurocontrol have publised ASHTAM's (standardized message containing information to airmen about danger zones around erupting volcanoes). Since the dustcloud is covering a vertical area from groundlevel up to 35 000 feet (jetplane cruising altitude) that means nó flight can takeoff for the moment! ... that means total chaos! Thousands of people stuck on airports, pilots and planes grounded... and indeed: student pilots patiently waiting at home untill they get a message or phonecall to come over to the airport for their next mission ;-).

But I was one of the lucky students that had about a small hour left and was already sitting in a smoothly running Diamond 40 at holding FOX in Ostend before the ASHTAM became finally valid over Belgium! I agreed with my instructor to postpone the dead reckoning part over Flanders and to focus on the circuit training part instead. With one hour left, we had plenty of time left to fly some normal circuits, short circuits, a few simulated engine failures overhead the field. And apparently the weather gods had accepted my request for crosswind because they delivered a steady 12 kts from the north so I could focus on crosswind landing technique. We had fun, happy landings and last but not least: parked the plane safely and volcanic-dust-protected in the hangar afterwards.

For those that might be interested, I found this nice Skynews documentary showing a 737 being severely struck by volcanic dust (simulated off course & nice to see for worst-case-lovers ;-))...