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:

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.

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:-

Barry Island

Worms Head, Gower

Colour changing lampposts on the way from the airport Doha

Our living area for 2 of us

West Bay Sky Line

Condom shaped tower

Our Hotel Lobby

Qatar Airways Tower 3

Our Lovely pool

Training to use a door

Dive pool at the national training centre

Our smoke hood for the training.

Under seat electrical fire simulation

Gondola at the 2nd largest mall in Qatar

Torch Hotel, Aspire Zone, Qatar's tallest hotel standing at 300m

The stadium being built for 2022

The floor rotates 360degrees in 1hr 30mins

The water sports building. 

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.

Supercharged 5.0l sport....dream to drive and the growl is ace!

Real smoke in the flight deck simulation...scary stuff!

My workstation trying to revise all SOP's and possible failures for LST

Worlds largest cruise ship

Wandering at Nash Point with my mum.

A view of the centre console from the upper panel

Flying Scotsman

Portsmouth Dockyard

Intermediate Phase Complete

Sorry it's been a while, there hasn't been much to report. Another milestone has passed, we have now finished the intermediate stage and only have one phase left to complete before flying the real thing.

Before the intermediate stage simulators we had to do 2 and a half weeks of type rating ground school and 2 exams. These exams are the same exams that any pilot wanting to get type rated on the A320 type fleet would have to do. These 2 and a half weeks consisted of a lot of late nights to try and learn all of the content required. The type rating course is self taught using an ipad app which has a lot of different sections and you just work your way through them at your own pace. We then had an instructor on hand to go through questions with us and run through the virtual flight deck simulator sessions with us. It's safe to say that after the ground school, we had all had enough and our brains were bursting with so much knowledge that it was hard to recall small specific details on demand. It was a good job we had a few days off before our first simulator session to be able to consolidate and prepare for it. 

The first of our 10 simulator session began and it was clear to see that both me and my new sim partner hadn't been in a simulator for a while, for me it was about a month since I was in one. Overall we both learnt a lot and progress was made. The intermediate phase is similar to the basic phase of flying the aircraft except you start using the automatics more and more. We also start programming the Airbus computer to tell it where we want to go and all the little bits of information you need to get from A to B like optimum altitudes. We also get full motion on for all of our flights from now on. For me, I initially took a while to trust the automatic systems as I am so used to flying manually and trusting my own ability. When you start to see that the automatic systems are not there to try and kill you, it does alleviate some pressure when you are in a high pressure situation. That's not to say you put the automatics on and forget about them, they need constant monitoring to make sure they are doing what you want them to do. Also, an issue could arise and the automatics drop out at which point you need to know what is going on so that you can quickly take control. Just as you start getting familiar with the Airbus automatics, the instructors start failing systems and putting the aircraft in different configurations to demonstrate scenarios. By our test flight we had a bomb on board and dual hydraulic failures to deal with. 

The next phase is more of the same where we fly routes and then we get given more severe failures. I'm quite looking forward to the smoke in the flight deck sim session where the flight deck will actually fill up with smoke to the extent that you will barely be able to see the instruments in front of you. Scary to think that we have 10 sim sessions left to be able to become competent enough to fly the aircraft for real and to iron out any procedures that we haven't quite learnt properly before out skills test on the 11th and final simulator session. The skills test is carried out by a training captain from Qatar Airways and has no relation to CTC, so the only feedback we get is from the previous courses ahead of us. 

On the exploring front a have done a little bit more exploring back at home with some friends around the Brecon Beacons. Other than that not much has happened. The next blog instalment will be after my skills test hopefully with some good news that we have all been working so hard at over the last year and half.

Visit to Warwick

Epic ride at Thorpe Park

Visit to Big Pit

Trek up Pen-Y-Fan

Basic Phase Complete

Time is going so fast in Southampton! The basic phase is complete already after 21 simulator flights. It also marks my mid point through my training in Southampton. 

Continuing on from my last post where we had just completed upset recovery, we then continued to fly from different airports around the UK like Leeds, Prestwick, Manchester and Heathrow to name a few. We were then introduced to single engine operations. First of all we had a flame out during cruise and then we had to return to the airfield and land safely. Having one engine creates a larger yawing moment which we then have to correct using rudder and then to relieve some pressure from our legs you can use rudder trim. Quite a lot of force is required when you make a large change in thrust, quite a few times my leg was shaking trying to keep the rudder steady. The trick on the approach is to try and get the aircraft stable and trim set and only make minor adjustments, otherwise large changes require changes in thrust which requires changes in trim and has a knock-on effect and you are constantly chasing the aircraft. We were then given engine failure during take off which is interesting because you are at full power setting and then one engine quickly cuts out creating a huge yawing moment. 

After the single engine operations we had a high altitude upset recovery and then we were introduced to LOFT (line orientation flight training) which is basically short routes from one airport to another. We then practised the different entries into each airfield like we were doing at the start of training. Then we had to couple that with engine failures. Up until now the fuel quantities had been frozen on 5 tons but the last few flights the fuel was flowing so that we had to manage the fuel quantities left and make sure we landed with the legal requirement still remaining. It's not so easy when you have a lot of things being thrown at you all at once. It is a very busy process for both pilots! 

Then the test came and thankfully it went well. Me and Jack had different routes. I was up first going from Liverpool to Birmingham. A very busy route and everything felt like it rushed up on us! Jack had Birmingham to Leeds which felt a lot less rushed for both of us. Overall the flights were good but not our best performance to date. We had both passed and we have both earnt our first stripe on our epaulettes. The key word that came out of basic phase which we will have to practice in the next 2 phases is ANTICIPATION! Everything moves so fast that you literally have to think that much further ahead. 

The next phases are the intermediate and advance phases. The intermediate consists of 10 sim sessions where we will be practising more failures and emergency situations. I am also paired with Alex for the final phases. The advance phase is then more LOFT flights with the emergency procedures and only consists of 11 sim sessions with the last session being our final licence skills test. Then we will have roughly a month off before heading to the desert to fly the real thing. Scary to think that we are so close!

We have done a little bit of exploring around the Hampshire area. We went to Winchester and explored a bit of the traditional town. We also went to the New Forest for a bit of a walk with the wild horses. Also went to Portsmouth to check out the boat yard.

Next post will probably be after my intermediate test in a few weeks time. If you put your email address in the box to the right it will email you to tell you when I update with a post rather than you check back all the time.

More upset recovery