Last week, as part of their IPC/Science topic Climate Control, Year 5 students were given the opportunity to visit the offices of the FABEC Airline Navigation Weather Station at Findel Airport. They were split into two groups, with one group creating their own weather reports using FlipCams and the other group learning about the work of the office before swapping.

In the office, the students learnt about how information is passed between the various airports through a series of codes, which explain many weather conditions, and why the work of the weather station is important for airports and pilots. They were even lucky enough to see some aeroplanes taking off and landing!

The students thoroughly enjoyed the trip, which has provided them with further insight into the effects of climate and weather.

Here are some of the Students' Testimonials:

"I really liked the trip!  I have learnt that I would not like to be an observer, because those people even have to work at Christmas!"

"The trip to FABEC was awesome, we got to see how people communicate with pilots all around the world.  They communicate using a special language code.  I also learnt how to read a bit of the code and which order to write it in."

"I thought the trip was fun, but it was quite hard to understand the words the man used.  I found the part upstairs quite boring, except seeing the aeroplanes taking off and landing."

"I learnt how so many countries can communicate through one code language.  It was amazing to see where all the planes come from - we even saw planes flying all over the world on a computer."

"I liked being able to see the planes landing, [...] however, I wouldn't like to work there because you have to write lots of codes."