Basic Training: Complete

The next time I’ll be at the controls of a real aircraft will be an empty British Airways Airbus A320.  That’s a surreal thought, and one that’s both exciting and rather daunting in equal measure.  For now, I’ve completed the basic training element with CTC and from here on in I’ll be in the simulators until I join BA and fly the A320 for real for the first time.

Another Farewell

I have now upped sticks and moved home again, another mini life that was created in Bournemouth has now finished.  Of course, the nomadic lifestyle will continue with the next phase back down in Southampton which starts in about a months’ time and will last for approximately 3 ½ weeks.  I am pleased to have finished in Bournemouth though, it was a busy few weeks and we certainly had to hit the ground running there.  I am pleased to say I passed my Instrument Rating test a couple of weeks ago now, so I have sent off my licence application and await for that little bit of paper to return to prove that the last 15 months and vast expense was worth it!  The flying through my time in Bournemouth was brilliant fun, I flew various routes to Exeter, Cardiff, Southampton (well that one wasn’t a very long flight from Bournemouth), Oxford and Alderney. 

On test day I flew down to Alderney to do an approach at the airfield down there before heading back across the channel to Bournemouth.  The test itself wasn’t too difficult as we were familiar with the format from our previous flights, and Air Traffic Control are especially helpful when you come over the radio with the “Exam” callsign – they will do their best to give you exactly what you want which takes some pressure off at least.  My approach back into Bournemouth was one of the most difficult I’ve done to date however, with a ‘windshear’ warning given to me over the radio.  This basically means the wind is likely to rapidly change in speed and direction, making the approach much more…interesting!  In any case, it was tricky and wasn’t the best flight I’ve done so I was all the more relieved to have passed.   We spoilt ourselves with a well-deserved weekend break to the Isle of Wight – it seemed only right to have another holiday while the sun is still shining.

The Isle Of Wight - backseating down to Alderney

The Isle of Wight - from the ground this time!

Upset Recovery

The final three lessons here focus on ‘upset recovery and prevention’ – essentially it is designed to allow us to experience putting the aircraft into an unusual situation which we need to recover from.  This could be a very steep angle of bank, speed rapidly increasing with the nose pointing to the ground, speed rapidly decreasing with the nose pointing high into the sky, etc. – all situations that you don’t want to be in particularly.  The general idea, however, is to not get into an ‘upset’ situation but we still need to know what to do should the situation arise.  There have been various accidents where pilots have not recovered from an upset situation which should be recoverable, so it’s a really important skill to learn at this stage and why it has been introduced so recently into our training. 

With the aircraft rapidly gaining speed and the nose pointing down towards terra firma, it’s a little disconcerting initially to say the least (don’t worry, we do this from plenty of height so no need to have visions of shearing a few sheep with the prop as we level off inches from the ground).  It’s this ‘startle factor’ which we also hope to mitigate through this training, by experiencing this situation in training it allows our brain to kick into action with the recovery rather than being startled by something unusual and losing time to react. 

The Firefly

These flights are also mostly done in the Firefly, an aerobatic aircraft meaning we can throw it around a bit and it allows the instructors to put us into some very unusual positions to recover from.  It is most definitely a mix of serious training and a lot of fun and a real highlight of my training here.  The added bonus being a couple of aerobatic manoeuvres at the end of the lesson to finish my training with CTC.  Although I now want my own Firefly… maybe in a few years.

JOC (Jet Orientation Course)

What’s next?  We move back to Southampton in a month for our Jet Orientation Course – where we begin our transition onto jet aircraft in the simulator and learn how to operate in a multi-crew environment.  I am looking forward to both aspects of this phase, having operated as a ‘single crew’ pilot for the training so far I think it’ll be both really interesting and a lot of fun to work as a team while also learning to fly a jet and all the differences that entails from the Twinstar until now.  This phase is also part of our induction into BA, as we will use the BA operating procedures while flying the sim – all bringing the end goal even closer!

Not everyday you get to see the Red Arrows taxing by

More planespotting: Typhoon in it's commemorative Battle of Britain livery