As you have read in the title this will be my final post on the blog until I decide if I want to keep it going. I will still answer any questions you may want to ask me.
Since my last post time has gone by so fast that my feet had barely touched the ground until now. Stage 3A was by far the most challenging time as I had to not only fly both sectors on each flight, I also had the syllabus to complete which is very difficult while flying mainly short sectors with not enough time for even a cruise briefing never mind discuss topics. Stage 3A went smoothly, there was only one landing that I was not able to perform as the crosswind was outside of my 10kt limit. This also meant I had to complete an extra flight so that I could complete the required amount of landings before advancing to stage 3B. Even though we practice so many landings in the simulator, there is no substitute for landing the real plane, especially when you land an A321 which reacts differently because of the weight difference.
In stage 3B, you alternate pilot monitoring and pilot flying duties like a normal flight but you still have a safety pilot at this stage sat behind you. This stage is only short and is to make sure you haven't forgotten the pilot monitoring duties after so many pilot flying duties. After stage 3B there is one check flight which is stage 4 which is to check that you are competent enough to fly with a captain without the safety pilot behind you. I had a good captain for this flight which I had previously had in the simulator so for me it was enjoyable flight even if I was a bit nervous because it was a check.
After stage 4 you have a day of ground school and a simulator session for the all weather operations which we had already previously done so it was just a refresher stage. These were classed as stage 5. Then I had a couple days off before starting stage 6.
Stage 6 is your first flight without a safety pilot so initially it was a weird feeling not having someone over your shoulder watching you. First flight was fine and I had flown with the captain before so was nice. Second flight, same captain and we flew to Dubai, but the aircraft broke down when we arrived so it meant we had to wait for it to be fixed. After 18 hours of being on duty we were in first class heading back to Qatar as passengers as we were well outside of our duty time. Wasn't ideal as we were suppose to be flying to Bucharest that day but couldn't because of that. So crewing had to put more flights in my roster otherwise I wouldn't have the required amount of sectors for stage 6. They added and extra 4 flights with the same captain. Its safe to say that we both knew each other quite a bit after the last flight with each other. So then I had my final flight of stage 6 which is a check flight to make sure you are ready to sit your final line check. It just so happened that I flew back over UAE from Oman a few hours before the airspace lock down which banned any Qatar aircraft from overflying UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. My final line check was constantly changing location because of these restrictions.
My final line check was also the annual line check of the captain. Basically, both me and the captain would perform the flight like we normally would and have a training captain sat behind us but would be silent unless he had to say something in the event we were unsafe. Thankfully the flight to Kuwait was short but long enough to get a breather in the air but uneventful which is always nice when you are being tested. I got the captain to fly there as the winds were looking quite gusty and then I flew back. The flight went smoothly and I was so relieved to know that I had passed after I had parked the aircraft and we got off. A large weight had been lifted from my shoulders and it meant I could take a well earnt break without worrying about having to study for my next training flights.
So after passing the final line check it meant that I would now become a first officer and earn another stripe taking me up to 2 stripes. The day after the check I had a bit of paper work to fill out for the licence, get uniform adjusted and new ID card and I was good to go. I also had to get my medical renewed before I left for the UK so I had to wait a couple of days to do that before I could leave. We were given 2 weeks of training leave to go and relax after 2 and half years of full on study. I decided to go home and take my parents on a holiday to Greece as it had been a long time since they'd been on a relaxing holiday.
The things that open up to you when you get released from training is your chance to bid for trips, you get to pick your holidays and then you also get the privilege of opting for business class travel when travelling on Qatar planes. I naturally opted to use all of them the day I could which meant I could travel home in business class. Not being biased, it's easy to see why they are the world's best airline when you travel business.
Since I have come back and started flying I have done one flight to Budapest which at the moment is my favourite destination. The rest of the month I will be going to places in Europe like Zagreb, Belgrade and Helsinki.
Well I guess it is goodbye for now. Thanks for reading my posts and following me over the last 2.5years in living my dream. I will still answer any questions you have as long as they aren't ones that can be found online.
Monday, 10 July 2017
Friday, 14 April 2017
Progress at last!
Sorry it's been so long since my last post but there has been very little to update you on until recently.
So what is the progress I hear you ask. Well, since my last update I have actually been operating crew for 7 flights. By operating crew, it means I have been on pilot monitoring duties which means I am in charge of making radio calls keeping a monitor on fuel and times in the cruise and also in charge of operating things like flaps and the landing gear.
Before my operating flights I had to do 3 refresher simulator sessions to get back into the groove of flying as it had been so long since I had done any. Since the last update I had done some additional observation flights just to try and keep learning from current operating crew. I then had the 3 simulator sessions at the beginning of March which was to practice landings, some failures and also different types of approaches.
After the 3 simulator sessions I was cleared to be able to be pilot monitoring duties where they sent me to some challenging areas because of the quality of radio language which is quite poor in places like Sudan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The air traffic controllers there like to use non standard calls which paired with fast speaking and a strong arabic accent can be very challenging even for the most experienced pilots. These 7 flights are classed as stage 1 of 6 stages I have to do to qualify as a first officer. The flights were fun and my radio skills have progressed quite quickly, a lot quicker than I thought I would. During the cruise phase, we also have a lot of items to sign off on a syllabus of things like where to find information in the manuals and some memory items for if you get into an emergency situation.
Following these 7 flights I had stage 2 which was 4 days of ground school covering how to navigate the main manuals and provided some helpful tips for using the manuals while flying. Following these days were 2 more simulator sessions called zero flight time training sims which were 2 sims designed to give you landings with different weather conditions on each take off and landing.
That is currently where I am at and I am about to start stage 3A which is the pilot flying stage where I will be in control of the plane for the first time with passengers which is exciting. Stage 3B will be a mix of pilot flying and pilot monitoring. Next update will probably be after stage 4 which will be another milestone where I lose the safety pilot so the 3 crew becomes 2.
Some pictures from when I was observing on some flights and some activities around Doha:
So what is the progress I hear you ask. Well, since my last update I have actually been operating crew for 7 flights. By operating crew, it means I have been on pilot monitoring duties which means I am in charge of making radio calls keeping a monitor on fuel and times in the cruise and also in charge of operating things like flaps and the landing gear.
Before my operating flights I had to do 3 refresher simulator sessions to get back into the groove of flying as it had been so long since I had done any. Since the last update I had done some additional observation flights just to try and keep learning from current operating crew. I then had the 3 simulator sessions at the beginning of March which was to practice landings, some failures and also different types of approaches.
After the 3 simulator sessions I was cleared to be able to be pilot monitoring duties where they sent me to some challenging areas because of the quality of radio language which is quite poor in places like Sudan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The air traffic controllers there like to use non standard calls which paired with fast speaking and a strong arabic accent can be very challenging even for the most experienced pilots. These 7 flights are classed as stage 1 of 6 stages I have to do to qualify as a first officer. The flights were fun and my radio skills have progressed quite quickly, a lot quicker than I thought I would. During the cruise phase, we also have a lot of items to sign off on a syllabus of things like where to find information in the manuals and some memory items for if you get into an emergency situation.
Following these 7 flights I had stage 2 which was 4 days of ground school covering how to navigate the main manuals and provided some helpful tips for using the manuals while flying. Following these days were 2 more simulator sessions called zero flight time training sims which were 2 sims designed to give you landings with different weather conditions on each take off and landing.
That is currently where I am at and I am about to start stage 3A which is the pilot flying stage where I will be in control of the plane for the first time with passengers which is exciting. Stage 3B will be a mix of pilot flying and pilot monitoring. Next update will probably be after stage 4 which will be another milestone where I lose the safety pilot so the 3 crew becomes 2.
Some pictures from when I was observing on some flights and some activities around Doha:
Friday, 6 January 2017
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! I think you deserve a little update as you are probably wondering where I have gone.
Since my last post I had to re-take one of my Low Vis sim sessions because there was a mess up in the admin team meaning the online training wasn't completed when it should have been done. Frustrating but one of those things and meant more time practicing in the sim.
I then did 7 observation flights instead of the normal 5. I had requested additional flights because I was on training standby and it was helpful because some of the crews allow you to do the computer setup and to make the radio calls. The observation flights are really helpful for showing you the day to day operations and seeing how the standard procedures are used. I had flights to a variety of destinations ranging from Saudi Arabia to Eastern Europe.
After a lot of waiting, I finally did my base training at the end of November. The weather wasn't ideal because there were storm clouds brewing. Turning up at the ops centre just felt like another observation flight. The only point that it felt real was when I was lining the aircraft up on the runway and advancing the thrust levers to takeoff power. Before I knew it, I was pulling back on the joystick and the aircraft was airborne. Ok so that was the easy bit done. We went straight into cloud when we took off and climbed to 2000ft. Luckily with the help of the Air traffic Control pointing us in the right direction around the incoming traffic we found the old airport where I would be doing my landings. The weather was clearer at that airport despite only being a couple miles away. The captain let me jump straight in the deep end and land the plane with only verbal guidance, normally the captain would demonstrate the first landing. The first landing was a little firm but it was safe and I didn't break anything. The feeling of landing it and getting it right was like nothing I've felt before, not even my first solo matched that feeling. 11 more smooth landings and a go around soon followed. The weather made the conditions trickier than it should have been for that exercise. We had a 9/10kt tailwind on landing which for the exercise should be a max of 5kts but because I was coping with the landings I was allowed to continue.
Since that flight I have been on standby ever since because there is a shortage of training captains. This wasn't such a bad thing as I was able to spend my graduation, Christmas and New Year at home with my family and friends. Other than that I have no further update on progress as I still remain on standby.
Going back for graduation was great. I was able to see some old faces from throughout my training and also caught up with some of my coursemates who have jobs with other airlines. An interesting fact for you; there were 321 pilots who graduated with CTC in 2016 which was the highest they have had yet.
Signup in the menu on the right and you will get a notification when I next update as I'm not sure when it will be. Hopefully won't be as long as it has taken for this post.
Photos to come soon.
Since my last post I had to re-take one of my Low Vis sim sessions because there was a mess up in the admin team meaning the online training wasn't completed when it should have been done. Frustrating but one of those things and meant more time practicing in the sim.
I then did 7 observation flights instead of the normal 5. I had requested additional flights because I was on training standby and it was helpful because some of the crews allow you to do the computer setup and to make the radio calls. The observation flights are really helpful for showing you the day to day operations and seeing how the standard procedures are used. I had flights to a variety of destinations ranging from Saudi Arabia to Eastern Europe.
After a lot of waiting, I finally did my base training at the end of November. The weather wasn't ideal because there were storm clouds brewing. Turning up at the ops centre just felt like another observation flight. The only point that it felt real was when I was lining the aircraft up on the runway and advancing the thrust levers to takeoff power. Before I knew it, I was pulling back on the joystick and the aircraft was airborne. Ok so that was the easy bit done. We went straight into cloud when we took off and climbed to 2000ft. Luckily with the help of the Air traffic Control pointing us in the right direction around the incoming traffic we found the old airport where I would be doing my landings. The weather was clearer at that airport despite only being a couple miles away. The captain let me jump straight in the deep end and land the plane with only verbal guidance, normally the captain would demonstrate the first landing. The first landing was a little firm but it was safe and I didn't break anything. The feeling of landing it and getting it right was like nothing I've felt before, not even my first solo matched that feeling. 11 more smooth landings and a go around soon followed. The weather made the conditions trickier than it should have been for that exercise. We had a 9/10kt tailwind on landing which for the exercise should be a max of 5kts but because I was coping with the landings I was allowed to continue.
Since that flight I have been on standby ever since because there is a shortage of training captains. This wasn't such a bad thing as I was able to spend my graduation, Christmas and New Year at home with my family and friends. Other than that I have no further update on progress as I still remain on standby.
Going back for graduation was great. I was able to see some old faces from throughout my training and also caught up with some of my coursemates who have jobs with other airlines. An interesting fact for you; there were 321 pilots who graduated with CTC in 2016 which was the highest they have had yet.
Signup in the menu on the right and you will get a notification when I next update as I'm not sure when it will be. Hopefully won't be as long as it has taken for this post.
Photos to come soon.
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