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.
Showing posts with label Pilot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pilot. Show all posts
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.
Thursday, 25 August 2016
We Made It
So we made it to Qatar!
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:-
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. |
Wednesday, 22 June 2016
A320 Type Rating
The advanced phase of simulator training consisted more of the same in the intermediate phase but refining the techniques and putting in more complex failures combined with flying short routes like between Leeds and Glasgow. In this short space of time we were given a situation like another bomb on board or smoke to deal with and for those 2 situations you basically need to land ASAP! There isn't much time to really brief a normal approach so you just brief the essentials and get the thing on the ground. Other failures included starting engines using different techniques because the apu was inop or the starter was faulty or even if you are doing a hot start there is a technique used. The advanced phase was also consolidation of the things we had learnt in intermediate phase like flying with single engine and then unusual attitude recoveries preparing us for our licence skills test.
I found the advanced phase the most challenging of all of the training which wasn't helped by a few 0615 starts in the simulator meaning I needed to be out of bed by 4am! I think I ended up having 5 or 6 early's by the time I finished advanced phase.
Before we knew it, our licence skills test was upon us! There were only 10 details before the big test. The licence skills test for the Qatar MPL is carried out by a training captain from Qatar so has no relation to CTC at all. We turned up for the big day not knowing what to expect and had been revising all possible scenarios he could chuck at us. He made us feel at ease a little during the briefing by discussing the main things we will be doing during the flight. I was up first with my sim partner monitoring what I was doing and doing the radio calls. The pressure of knowing it was a test got to me a bit and I thought that throughout my flight, I hadn't done particularly well. I can't even remember what my failure was now as there was so much going on. I had to put that half of the test behind me and do the best job I could do as pilot monitoring for my sim partners turn to fly. I certainly did a better job at monitoring than I did flying. I felt me and my partner worked well together. 5 hours later we had finished our test and shut down the plane. Thankfully we were put out of our misery as soon as we got out of our seats and congratulated us on our flight.
Our debrief went well, he was very pleased with how our flight went and the main pointers he had for us were basically things that Qatar actually do instead of what we had been taught. This is because there is a slight disconnect between CTC and Qatar, new information is slow to reach CTC so we are left learning old procedures. However, saying that, there is a new training manager at CTC who came from Qatar earlier this year and he is now updating all the procedures to fall inline with current Qatar procedures which will be good for future people coming through.
On my way home I had organised a test drive in a few new Range Rovers to treat myself and get a feel of what I'd like to get in Qatar. The test drive didn't make my decision any easier because they were both really nice vehicles! Other things that happened over the last few weeks were that the flying Scotsman (steam train for those who don't know) came through town so I, along with thousands of other people stood in the rain to get a glimpse at it going past. Another big event that happened in Southampton was watching the worlds largest cruise ship (Harmony Of The Seas) leave on it's maiden voyage. The ship is huge! I went to Portsmouth with my parents for a couple days to see all the ships
So that's it for me at CTC, I will be helping out at a couple shows for CTC but other than that, my next blog post will be after I have moved to Qatar on 14th August. Between now and then I will be busy trying to sort all the paperwork, vaccinations, medical renewals, deciding what I would like to take with me and of course catching up with family and friends before the big day.
I found the advanced phase the most challenging of all of the training which wasn't helped by a few 0615 starts in the simulator meaning I needed to be out of bed by 4am! I think I ended up having 5 or 6 early's by the time I finished advanced phase.
Before we knew it, our licence skills test was upon us! There were only 10 details before the big test. The licence skills test for the Qatar MPL is carried out by a training captain from Qatar so has no relation to CTC at all. We turned up for the big day not knowing what to expect and had been revising all possible scenarios he could chuck at us. He made us feel at ease a little during the briefing by discussing the main things we will be doing during the flight. I was up first with my sim partner monitoring what I was doing and doing the radio calls. The pressure of knowing it was a test got to me a bit and I thought that throughout my flight, I hadn't done particularly well. I can't even remember what my failure was now as there was so much going on. I had to put that half of the test behind me and do the best job I could do as pilot monitoring for my sim partners turn to fly. I certainly did a better job at monitoring than I did flying. I felt me and my partner worked well together. 5 hours later we had finished our test and shut down the plane. Thankfully we were put out of our misery as soon as we got out of our seats and congratulated us on our flight.
Our debrief went well, he was very pleased with how our flight went and the main pointers he had for us were basically things that Qatar actually do instead of what we had been taught. This is because there is a slight disconnect between CTC and Qatar, new information is slow to reach CTC so we are left learning old procedures. However, saying that, there is a new training manager at CTC who came from Qatar earlier this year and he is now updating all the procedures to fall inline with current Qatar procedures which will be good for future people coming through.
On my way home I had organised a test drive in a few new Range Rovers to treat myself and get a feel of what I'd like to get in Qatar. The test drive didn't make my decision any easier because they were both really nice vehicles! Other things that happened over the last few weeks were that the flying Scotsman (steam train for those who don't know) came through town so I, along with thousands of other people stood in the rain to get a glimpse at it going past. Another big event that happened in Southampton was watching the worlds largest cruise ship (Harmony Of The Seas) leave on it's maiden voyage. The ship is huge! I went to Portsmouth with my parents for a couple days to see all the ships
So that's it for me at CTC, I will be helping out at a couple shows for CTC but other than that, my next blog post will be after I have moved to Qatar on 14th August. Between now and then I will be busy trying to sort all the paperwork, vaccinations, medical renewals, deciding what I would like to take with me and of course catching up with family and friends before the big day.
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| Supercharged 5.0l sport....dream to drive and the growl is ace! |
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| Real smoke in the flight deck simulation...scary stuff! |
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| My workstation trying to revise all SOP's and possible failures for LST |
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| Worlds largest cruise ship |
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| Wandering at Nash Point with my mum. |
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| A view of the centre console from the upper panel |
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| Flying Scotsman |
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| Portsmouth Dockyard |
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