RobertL18C wrote:
My point is that so called NOTECH skills are more valued these days.
Sure, according to NOTECH people 
Safety is a sum of everything. Skills, airmanship, planning etc I get what you mean, and don’t disagree in principle. But if you dig down into it, what any NOTECH skills actually do (in a one person PIC situation) is to stop a flight you would otherwise do if you had the skills/experience. How do you get the experience? CAVOC is not a necessity for a VFR flight for instance.
Thank you!
I pushed some topics and it feels like things are moving and I’m excited to go back again into the plane. On the other hand, I’ve some periods when it stills feel scary but I set some timeline for me and I’ll not change/reevaluate any decision before that milestones (e.g. first flight lesson).
Does it make sense to do the ICAO language test already at the beginning? I think about getting it done and maybe have a positive motivation if I can cross this item off my to-do list.
If you’re doing this in Luxembourg then our school will tell you when you’ll do the language proficiency test. First time you can only do level 4 and you need it for your solo cross country so that is the latest that you will need do it. What you should go and do asap is get your medical. You don’t want to start spending time and more importantly money on flight lessons and then discover you can’t get class 2.
hazek wrote:
First time you can only do level 4
If you have a decent level of English, I would then recommend to take the test online with one of the setup that allows it, thus making possible to get a higher level from the start. But I would recommend doing some flying first to have some idea of the actual practice of English on the radio.
hazek wrote:
What you should go and do asap is get your medical
The medical is already scheduled :)
I assume you’re talking about English radio qualification (aka “FCL.055”).
I would not recommend taking the exam before any flying, because much of what you say over the radio is linked to what you do in the air (or intend to do, decide, or commit to doing etc.). Much of it will be quite obscure before you figure out what it means, and most (if not all) of it will be taught on the ground by your instructor. What you could do instead is, during briefing / instructor lesson, note down full examples of radio calls and repeat them later. Mental rehearsal, one of the most useful tools to reduce stress, works great with radio calls.
Having clean radio calls helps a lot with streamlining, while sloppy calls can make you sound (and feel) undecided. But IMO better learn what it means (and learn flying step-by-step at the same time) than learn by heart without any actual meaning.
Maybe you can also work on the theory exam. It takes more time (I would definitely have gotten bored by theory lessons if there was no flying in-between), but it’s a good milestone and helps gain some knowledge. It’s also negligible as a financial commitment. Obtaining theory can probably take anywhere between 2 and 6 months depending on your work pace.
WingsWaterAndWheels wrote:
But I would recommend doing some flying first to have some idea of the actual practice of English on the radio.
Thank you!
I was told that they check for language proficiency and not if the content is right/wrong. The only reference should be to understand an ATIS message and answer a question about it. Otherwise it would be to describe pictures and have a conversation with the examiner, which is adapted to your level of experience.
At least that’s what I also saw at the practice exams online e.g. here: https://say-again.aero/en/preparation/
The idea was to do this at the beginning. As the radio course at my flying school also takes place at the very beginning.
Volaris wrote:
Otherwise it would be to describe pictures and have a conversation with the examiner, which is adapted to your level of experience.
The picture and conversation is likely aviation-related.
hazek wrote:
First time you can only do level 4
Why? I got level 5 when I did the exam first time.
First time you can only do level 4
I guess this is some kind of local restriction. I did my level 6 with bordeaux_jim’s outfit. I was already level 4, grandfathered from my FAA license, but I had never done the test before. (It was just too embarrassing to be 4 in English and 6 in French, for a native English speaker).
I don’t think it would be wise to do the test without a bit of experience of ATC English. You need to have an idea what to expect. I speak fluent French, practically bilingual, but I still had a lot of trouble getting my ears around ATC French (and still do, actually).
