I enjoyed the first two days of ground school at Laminar Aviation. Why is it that one enjoys things like learning more when one gets old and does not really need it anymore?

On the first day our little group of students (2 new and 2 license conversions) got an orientation from Brian, the Chief Ground School Instructor, and a thorough briefing of the Safety Management. System of Laminar. The latter was done by Alison. The briefing was of a scope and quality I would have expected from a much bigger company. They take this stuff very seriously at Laminar.

For a license conversion (FAA/PPL -> CAAP/PPL), you will have to pass three “theory” exams: Philippines Air Law (at CAAP), NTC Radio Telephony (at NTC) and English Proficiency (at CAAP). The school rather optimistically suggested that I would not need any ground school, but I signed up for a review of the Air Law anyway. Instructor Mark did a great job going through everything at a reasonable speed.

Turns out that the Air law of the Philippines is very close to the IACO, but as usual the devil (and the correct answer in the CAAP exam) are in the details.

Now I am trying to memorize the information for the NTC exam. Laminar has good training materials for that. Some of the information is common knowledge, such as which term to use when acknowledging an instruction and confirm intention to comply (“Wilco”), but who knows the maximum penalty for violating the radio laws (2000 Pesos and/or one year imprisonment) or the name Republic act 3846 is known for? Another tidbit I had never heard before is the phrase to request silence on a frequency due to an emergency (“See-lonce”). It took me a while to realize that this is coming from the word silence.

There are also some flash cards for the NTC exam in the public domain, which seem to be free: quizlet NTC reviewer

The NTC exams will be next Wednesday. Wish me luck.