Exciting Phase

Following our exams, we had a preparation day to give us some info about the next training phase and we had an exit interview to tell CTC how you think the last 6 months went and also to see what the instructors wrote about you. After the exit interview we went back to ours houses to pack up to leave.

We were given just over a week to go home see family and friends. In that time we also had to find time to pack our cases and try and recover some sleep. Packing for 6 months away from home was no easy task but I eventually ended up unpacking most of what I had originally packed because of the 30Kg weight limit.

So this phase is the flying phase in New Zealand where I will be flying around in a Cessna 172S with a Garmin glass cockpit display (digital instruments for those who don't know). This phase will last approx 6 months if the weather is kind to us. 

Our flight to Auckland was with Emirates from Gatwick via Dubai and Brisbane with a 10 hour stop over in Dubai. Thankfully this 10 hour stop over was made easier because we were given a hotel to stay at which gave us chance to freshen up. The 38C heat at 01.00am in Dubai was intense and I was dressed in winter gear as I couldn't afford more weight in my case. After 40 odd hours of travelling we arrived at our accommodation at Clearways which is 5 minutes from Hamilton Airport where we will be training. The views we get at Clearways are amazing. There is very little light pollution so the stars are easy to see on a clear night. We are also on the flight path so there are a lot of planes buzzing around for the avgeeks to watch.

The weather when we arrived was very warm and lasted for the first 2 days. I am now sitting in my room looking out at the sight of grey sky and rain but we are going to go caving to make the most of our time off before we start another week of ground school. The ground school is Air Law but for NZ which we have to pass before we can go solo flying here. There is also a differences exam which at the moment I'm not really sure what it will be about.

Now that I will have more time I will update my blog more often and I will let the pictures do more of the talking. 

The big beauty we flew on

Gatwick sky bridge

All set for take off

Sunset enroute Dubai

Night over Dubai

Dubai streets

Bang on glide slope and centre line

The A380 flight deck in Dubai

Taxiing in Dubai

Inversion layer over Dubai

Flying over Maldives

Sunrise in Brisbane

The journey was too much for some....

Clearways accommodation

Amazing night sky

Phase 1 Complete

Since my last post, we have been taught the final 6 subjects which were Meteorology, AGK(Engines, Electrics, Airframes and Systems), Operational Procedures, Air Law, Visual flight rules communications and Instrument flight rules communications.

Although I found some of the subjects interesting, module 3 was by far the hardest for me as there were so many more things to remember than the other 2 modules. It became more of a memory capacity test rather than knowledge of the subject.

Met was a subject that I found difficult but I did enjoy learning about the different weather that we will see on a day to day basis as an airline pilot. It covered areas such as predicting what weather you would see on the passing of a frontal system, what happens when different air masses meet each other and also how to read METAR'S/TAF'S which are basically coded scripts which pilots are given to give current and future weather based on actual observations and computer generated predictions.

AGK is everything to do with the aircraft. Learning how the different types engines work, learning about the electronic systems in aircraft like the Airbus and the Boeing 737. I enjoyed this subject the most because I have always been surrounded by mechanical knowledge from my kart racing days and from my degree which helped me grasp the concepts we were learning. The one thing that helped my knowledge the most was my work placement at the maintenance centre at Cardiff airport during my summer time off. The things we were learning about were the things I was working on back then.

Ops was a fact learning subject where we had to learn about things like how many oxygen masks need to be provided on commercial planes, the number of fire extinguishers and a load of other facts which I won't bore you with. Along with Ops, Air law which as the name suggests, we had to learn about the rules of the air. It was another memory capacity test.

Comms was by far the easiest subject. Having a PPL made these subject a lot easier as it is just learning what you would say on the radio at different times.

I'm pleased to say that I not only passed all 6 exams and also beat my overall target of getting over 90% throughout all 14 subjects sat in the last 6 months.

It has been a very stressful 6 months but with ground school out the way, there finally feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel.

More post-it notes than any other module.

Playing with long exposure out the front window

QA09 after final exams

Paperless studying??

Class of CP128