2 months sounds like a long time and I know it is a long time to wait for a blog post because I have waited for blog posts myself when following previous cadets. The 2 months went so fast! A lot happened in those 2 months, like catching up with family and friends which I haven't seen for a long time. I also did some shopping trying not to spend too much of my mum's money in the process and I went to visit a friend in Zurich for 5 days after I had worked a week at Farnborough International Airshow.
The first couple weeks seemed to go really slow, I was catching up on rest, trying to pack my stuff away from moving back home and I was also helping my dad out to do various tasks. I then worked at Farnborough Airshow to help CTC out to demonstrate an A350 flat panel training device. We were demonstrating the device to potential buyers on the trade days. A lot of important people visited on the trade days even if I didn't know who they were. On the public days I helped out on the CTC stand which was right on the flying line and had a lot of passing traffic. I had a great week and was super tired by the end of it, I hope that those that I gave advice to pursue their dreams as it really is worth the hard work and commitment!
During my time off I had all of the vaccinations associated with the locations I'll be flying to. I had a total of 8 injections and 2 blood tests which is a lot considering I don't really like needles. I also had a lot of paperwork to fill out ready for my arrival in Doha.
After leaving parties and preparations, the fly out day was upon us. The last week went so fast. It was hard to believe that I had just checked in with a one way ticket to the desert with 70kg of checked in baggage hold and 7kg hand luggage. Thankfully the send off was quick so wasn't too emotional. We started our journey by having some cultural Lebanese food in the terminal to get into the middle eastern zone and a great meal it was!
The plane was late but it didn't really matter for us as we didn't have a connection to make. This was my first time flying on Qatar Airways and first impression was how clean everything was, completely different to the easyJet flight I was on the week previous where you had to wipe your feet of food to get off the plane. The flight went seamless and after being met by the company accommodation people we were taken to collect our bags. We were then given our welcome pack and driven to our accommodation. The weather going from the terminal and car park was intense! The heat was made worse by how humid it was even though it was past midnight it was still uncomfortable. We got to our new home and we were very impressed! We were given a 3 bedroom apartment between 2 of us and it is so spacious.
After a day to settle in, we had the start of the induction process. We started off with welcomes and introductions to the other 12 candidates on our batch which would be starting on different aircraft to us. Most were there to start as first officers on the Boeing 777.
These inductions include showing us around the various buildings that Qatar Airways are in as well as the operations centre for the global network (where all the magic happens). We also had our uniform fitting which was exciting. Finally got to wear the hat which I have been waiting to do since I was young. Other introductions included opening a bank account, safety and emergency procedures, learning how to operate a door, local air law exam, fire training and organising resident permit which will allow us to do a lot more like get mobile contracts and the all important liquor licence.
Coming up we have first aid training, crew resource management, ground school, ditching in Bahrain where we jump down slides and swim in a pool. We still have about a month and a half before we jump in a real plane and do our 12 take offs and landings.
I'll talk more about adventures in the next post as there won't be so much to talk about from the training aspect. Here are some pictures for you to enjoy:-
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| Barry Island |
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| Worms Head, Gower |
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| Colour changing lampposts on the way from the airport Doha |
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| Our living area for 2 of us |
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| West Bay Sky Line |
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| Condom shaped tower |
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| Our Hotel Lobby |
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| Qatar Airways Tower 3 |
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| Our Lovely pool |
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| Training to use a door |
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| Dive pool at the national training centre |
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| Our smoke hood for the training. |
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| Under seat electrical fire simulation |
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| Gondola at the 2nd largest mall in Qatar |
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| Torch Hotel, Aspire Zone, Qatar's tallest hotel standing at 300m |
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| The stadium being built for 2022 |
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| The floor rotates 360degrees in 1hr 30mins |
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| The water sports building. |
