Instrument training is back in full swing, and we’re now
coming up to three weeks completed in Bournemouth having enjoyed only a week
off post New Zealand to recover and prepare for the next stage down here. It was straight into a packed schedule,
once all the inductions were over we found ourselves in the Twinstar simulator
once again (exactly the same as the ones we used in NZ) and starting our
orientation into UK airspace and procedures.
We are in the sim for another week or so before we are let loose for
real into the air, and although the simulators are pretty good I think we’re
all looking forward to flying the real thing again.
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| Late evening sun on the CTC fleet of Twinstars in Bournemouth |
UK Orientation and LOFT
As mentioned, the first batch of sims were designed to get
us thinking about some of the more subtle differences in UK airspace and radio
transmissions from what we’d become accustomed to in the Southern
Hemisphere. It’s also an opportunity to
start becoming familiar with Bournemouth airport and the local ones that we’ll be
flying to and where we’ll be doing our Instrument Rating test. The Instrument Rating qualifies us to fly in
low visibility weather (cloud basically!) by following certain procedures
through our instruments, and that test should happen in a month or so if all
goes to plan. Of course, this means we
fly around in the sim mostly in front of a solid grey screen until we reach the
runway for either take-off or landing, as if we are in cloud the whole time.
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| Sitting on the ground in Manchester... in the simulator before the inevitable grey screen after take off for next two hours while 'in cloud' |
Familiarisation flight
As part of our training we get one ‘famil flight’ through BA – it’s a
chance to ride in the cockpit on one of BA’s commercial flights to experience
what it is actually like behind those closed flight deck doors. It is an interesting part of choosing to be a
commercial pilot – signing up to what is an expensive and time consuming course
for a job that you might never have actually seen in action in the flesh (Ok, I
managed a visit to the flight deck as a youngster, but it’s been many years
since passengers can visit in flight and I don’t think I quite took everything
in back then!). Signing onto this programme requires a leap of
faith to some degree - of course before signing on the dotted line I did my
research, spoke to plenty of people within the industry and got some flying on
light aircraft – but it was brilliant to see the operation in action on a typical day, and get further insight into what I can expect further down the line. Although the actual flying wasn't that
different to what I’d learnt so far (something encouraging to hear for future
passengers!), it’s the commercial operation and interaction between the pilots
which I found most interesting to watch.
The flight was to Zurich and back, and I barely had time to look out at
the view in what was a very busy flight (bar the brief morning snack, to keep
everyone going of course). I took
encouragement from the maze of buttons, acronyms, and radio chatter that are
now starting to make sense – a lot of which would've passed me by a year ago.
Then again, in a few months’ time I could be flying this very route – a scary/exciting mix of feelings!
Most of my training to date has been as ‘single pilot operations’, rather than the ‘multi-crew’ environment that the airlines use. During my training flights, essentially all the decisions are down to me (as if I am flying solo) and the instructor will step in to teach or prompt me if I miss something. In the airlines (and part of my later training) the aircraft are designed to be operated by two crew members, and each pilot will have certain jobs to perform while the other checks that nothing has been missed – a seamless team effort. This is most clearly demonstrated on the approach, where one pilot will fly most of the approach (while the other watches) and then at a certain height they switch over for the watching pilot to now take over and land. This might seem strange, but it is designed to have both pilots fully cooperating and fully involved in the approach all the way to the ground. I noted how the pilots are given just enough time on the
ground, not so much they had to rush, but enough that they could carefully and
methodically prepare the aircraft and run through all the checks before take-off,
and considering where precious minutes could be made up if needed en
route. There were regular updates to the
passengers on timings, discussions with the cabin crew, co-ordination of the
aircraft on the ground to make sure the turnaround happens as quickly as
possible, and much more. I came away hugely excited about the rest of my training,
and ultimately looking forward to the ‘day job’ even more!
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| Head on with the A320 - slightly dwarfed by its much bigger brother, the A380 behind. |
BA Open Day
Last weekend was the BA
Engineering Open Day up at Heathrow – it was a great opportunity to explore a
few of the aircraft in the BA fleet and also admire the new Airbus A350 which
will be joining BA in a few years’ time.
We managed to get a tour of the new simulator hall as well – a
place we will become very familiar with when we join the company for our
regular checks. It was also an
opportunity to chat to pilots from various aircraft fleets and even some of the
new guys fresh from their own training at CTC, who were in our shoes not long ago.
Of course, we had an explore of an A320 - one that we could very well find ourselves flying soon!
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| Cabin crew rest area in the 777 |
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| Concorde - still captures the attention after all these years. I'm pretty sure everyone who looks at it wishes they still flew! |
