Why did I create the BZF.app ?

Hello, my name is Telmo Dias. I’m a Software Developer and the creator of BZF.app and this is where I will tell you about the incredible irony that led to its creation.

Since I was a child, I think like lots of kids, I was fascinated by flying machines.
But because airplane accidents are always a selected topic for news, I grew up with the idea that I would not want to risk flying, and this stayed like this for most of my life.

Until one day. When in 2016 I got a contract to work for a big telecom company in Düsseldorf, I decided it was time to overcome this fear and take a plane to this new destiny.

Since it was my first flight, I decided also to book the window seat, so that I could really experience as much as possible, being able to look at the ground on take-off, and watch the wings bend in turbulence.

This day marked me for many reasons, but by overcoming this fear and being so fascinated with the experience, I re-activated the child dream of maybe one day flying a plane.

It took some time, but in 2019 I was offered a gift commonly known as “trial flight” or “pilot for a day” (Schnupperflug) for the MG Flyers flight school in Mönchengladbach (MG).

On that day I had the incredible luck of meeting my friend Walter Bandt, a flight instructor at MG Flyers, who took me to fly allowing me to control the plane during most of the flight (or at least giving me this feeling 😅), where he explained me all the basics of the flight instruments for altitude, speed and navigation, as well as the basic aviation manoeuvres such as turns.

As I recall it, this was one of the best moments of my life, and I will never forget it.

The irony is that I went from being afraid to fly, to actually signing up for the PPL(A) (Private Pilot Licence Aircraft) course, having flown more than 10 hours as a student pilot.

When the time came to prepare for the BZF exam, I was not able to take full theoretical classes in German, so I found the Blue Sky Aviation flight school, just next door, where I was given BZF lessons in English. We undertook several hours of theoretical preparation, and somehow the instructor convinced me that my German level, which was not good, was good enough to apply for the BZF I license (German + English), instead of the BZF E (English only), because radio communication phraseology is standardised and therefore you can still manage to speak it even if you don’t speak complete fluent German.

I accepted the challenge, so, although all theoretical lessons were held in English, when preparing for the questionnaire, no one could clearly confirm to me if I would be able to have it in English or not, so I needed to study it in German also.

Because my German is not so advanced, I was having a really hard time studying the German questionnaire, so I had an idea:

what if I create an app to help me study the questionnaire in which I could quickly switch between German and English ?

Thats exactly what I did. I created a simple application, and I used all the questions from the PDF questionnaires available from the Bundesnetzagentur (https://www.bundesnetzagentur.de) both for German and English.

This way I could now better understand the translations of the questions, directly on the question itself. I found this really helpful, and I also added some other modes, like random question sequence, to improve the training and understanding.

I ended up passing the BZF I exam, even having the German version of the questionnaire.

This is the reason why I decided to convert my simple application to a mobile App so I can make it available to other students who are also preparing for the BZF exam, whichever version of the exam you decide to take.

I ended up also creating some theoretical materials, which consist of presentable versions of all the notes I took during the BZF course, and also compiled several internet links I considered important during my study.

I hope this app can help you obtain your BZF license!