Radio Telephony Exam

This is the last exam on my Pilot training programme – the RT practical.  I had booked this with a different flying school (Harvard Aviation) at Redhill as they had the specialist equipment to do the test.  Basically, I was given a planned route which involved a departure, a route through a Military Air Traffic Zone (MATZ) two turning points, a route through controlled Class A airspace and an approach and landing.  The test is carried out with an examiner and a computer and I had to “fly” the route on the PC simulator and make appropriate radio calls en-route with the examiner acting as the air traffic controller.  It also included an emergency relay call and an urgency call to a Radar controller.

The test took about two and a half hours, much longer than I expected.  It was also a bit more difficult than I expected and at the end of it I was exhausted.

Anyway, I passed it so that is my training completed.

The plan then was to go to the CAA at Gatwick to hand in my documents for my licence.  I eventually found the CAA building after getting lost around Gatwick several times and then discovered I needed my passport to apply.  Of course I didn’t have it with me so that was the end of that.  Back to the CAA tomorrow morning – at least I know where it is now.