Proper Preparation...

prevents piss-poor performance... or so the saying goes.

After passing my Principles of Flight exam a couple of weeks ago, I had been studying for my CPL Nav, hoping to squeeze it in before Christmas. Things had been going fairly well so on the closing date for applications, I had booked my exam. According to the timetable, it would be next Tuesday (16th December), or so I thought!

The exam acceptance slip and practice paper duly arrived, via CourierPost, about a week after booking (like it always does). After checking the bag to make sure everything was there (but not actually reading any of it), I put it all to one side, intending on doing the practice exam over the weekend (most probably the night before the exam!)

Thankfully, I went to check the practice exam on Wednesday afternoon this week, as I wanted to see what 'area' the planned flight was in, to see if I had the appropriate chart(s). That is when I just happened to notice that the exam date was listed as 12/12/2008.

Me: "WTF?!!?!? The 12th?? That's this Friday... not next Tuesday... something must be wrong, I'd better call ASL to double check."

Then I noticed the little box that said in somewhat small writing, 'Dear Mr Yates, please note change in date due to heavy bookings'

Me: "OH SH*T!"

That only gave me 1 day to finish all my study... instead of the 5 that I had budgeted for! Thankfully my boss was very understanding and let me take the day off at short notice, so yesterday was filled with revision and practice exams... I finally went to bed around 1am, satisfied that if anything CPL Nav related was not already in my head, it:

A. Wouldn't get it in, in my half awake state
and
B. Wouldn't fit anyway


Woke up late this morning as my alarm didn't go off, despite the fact I checked it twice before I went to bed! Got ready and headed off to find the exam venue which was different from the usual location. Was a bit of a mission trying to find it... somehow I missed the building with 'Taha Wahia Woodside' emblasoned in big letters on the front... twice! :)

Apparently, several other people seem to have fallen into the same trap. There were supposed to be around 18 people sitting various exams this morning, but only 5 of us showed up! I imagine there are going to be some unhappy campers making phone calls to ASL...

Despite everything, the actual exam went surprisingly well!! There were only 1 or 2 questions that caused me to pause and scratch my head, so I am fairly confident that I have passed (famous last words ;). This, of course, means one of two things... I have either passed comfortably or failed spectacularly.

I always considered Nav to be one of the easier subjects. As it is essentially learning processes, and then applying them to the situation given... which I find relatively easy. It is the exams that rely on you remembering obscure 'facts' (ie. Air Law and P of F) that cause me the most problems.

Now I get to play the excruciating 'Wait for your Results' game... However, we were told today that ASL are shutting down for the holidays next Friday (19th December), which is why they have moved everything around, so it should be marked before then. Yay!


Fingers Crossed...