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.
