Exciting Phase

Following our exams, we had a preparation day to give us some info about the next training phase and we had an exit interview to tell CTC how you think the last 6 months went and also to see what the instructors wrote about you. After the exit interview we went back to ours houses to pack up to leave.

We were given just over a week to go home see family and friends. In that time we also had to find time to pack our cases and try and recover some sleep. Packing for 6 months away from home was no easy task but I eventually ended up unpacking most of what I had originally packed because of the 30Kg weight limit.

So this phase is the flying phase in New Zealand where I will be flying around in a Cessna 172S with a Garmin glass cockpit display (digital instruments for those who don't know). This phase will last approx 6 months if the weather is kind to us. 

Our flight to Auckland was with Emirates from Gatwick via Dubai and Brisbane with a 10 hour stop over in Dubai. Thankfully this 10 hour stop over was made easier because we were given a hotel to stay at which gave us chance to freshen up. The 38C heat at 01.00am in Dubai was intense and I was dressed in winter gear as I couldn't afford more weight in my case. After 40 odd hours of travelling we arrived at our accommodation at Clearways which is 5 minutes from Hamilton Airport where we will be training. The views we get at Clearways are amazing. There is very little light pollution so the stars are easy to see on a clear night. We are also on the flight path so there are a lot of planes buzzing around for the avgeeks to watch.

The weather when we arrived was very warm and lasted for the first 2 days. I am now sitting in my room looking out at the sight of grey sky and rain but we are going to go caving to make the most of our time off before we start another week of ground school. The ground school is Air Law but for NZ which we have to pass before we can go solo flying here. There is also a differences exam which at the moment I'm not really sure what it will be about.

Now that I will have more time I will update my blog more often and I will let the pictures do more of the talking. 

The big beauty we flew on

Gatwick sky bridge

All set for take off

Sunset enroute Dubai

Night over Dubai

Dubai streets

Bang on glide slope and centre line

The A380 flight deck in Dubai

Taxiing in Dubai

Inversion layer over Dubai

Flying over Maldives

Sunrise in Brisbane

The journey was too much for some....

Clearways accommodation

Amazing night sky

Phase 1 Complete

Since my last post, we have been taught the final 6 subjects which were Meteorology, AGK(Engines, Electrics, Airframes and Systems), Operational Procedures, Air Law, Visual flight rules communications and Instrument flight rules communications.

Although I found some of the subjects interesting, module 3 was by far the hardest for me as there were so many more things to remember than the other 2 modules. It became more of a memory capacity test rather than knowledge of the subject.

Met was a subject that I found difficult but I did enjoy learning about the different weather that we will see on a day to day basis as an airline pilot. It covered areas such as predicting what weather you would see on the passing of a frontal system, what happens when different air masses meet each other and also how to read METAR'S/TAF'S which are basically coded scripts which pilots are given to give current and future weather based on actual observations and computer generated predictions.

AGK is everything to do with the aircraft. Learning how the different types engines work, learning about the electronic systems in aircraft like the Airbus and the Boeing 737. I enjoyed this subject the most because I have always been surrounded by mechanical knowledge from my kart racing days and from my degree which helped me grasp the concepts we were learning. The one thing that helped my knowledge the most was my work placement at the maintenance centre at Cardiff airport during my summer time off. The things we were learning about were the things I was working on back then.

Ops was a fact learning subject where we had to learn about things like how many oxygen masks need to be provided on commercial planes, the number of fire extinguishers and a load of other facts which I won't bore you with. Along with Ops, Air law which as the name suggests, we had to learn about the rules of the air. It was another memory capacity test.

Comms was by far the easiest subject. Having a PPL made these subject a lot easier as it is just learning what you would say on the radio at different times.

I'm pleased to say that I not only passed all 6 exams and also beat my overall target of getting over 90% throughout all 14 subjects sat in the last 6 months.

It has been a very stressful 6 months but with ground school out the way, there finally feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel.

More post-it notes than any other module.

Playing with long exposure out the front window

QA09 after final exams

Paperless studying??

Class of CP128

Module 2 over!

Sorry for not posting in a while, there hasn't been much to really write that would be of any interest to you guys reading it and the fact I didn't have much spare time.

So what has happened you ask....well another 4 subjects completed which leaves 6 to go. The subjects that I had in this module were Radio Navigation, Flight Planning, Instruments and Flight Performance. 

I'll give you a brief description of what each subject entailed.

• Radio Nav(RNAV) - This was an interesting subject which was taught by one of the best ground instructors. It was about the different navigation aids which are used in aviation for both small planes and large planes. These aids included the radar systems, GPS, transponders, and different approach aids to name a few. We basically had to learn how these systems operate and the frequency bands in which they operate along with the range of each system. I thoroughly enjoyed this subject because it was taught in a way that made it interesting and understandable.
• Flight Planning - This subject was also taught by the same instructor. We had a Jeppesen manual which contains a load of different type of charts for both visual flying and instrument flying. The picture of the Jep is attached below. This subject I found the easiest of the 4 because as soon as you learn the basics of identifying different items on the charts and reading off graphs you can pretty much do the whole subject. It is a very time consuming because you have to find so many locations on giant charts and you are limited to a small computer booth for the exam so you cant open the whole chart. 
• Instruments - Wow, was this a boring subject or what! As the subject title suggests, we learnt about the instruments. These instruments included basic attitude indicators, directional indicators rate turn indicators which all use gyroscopes for operation. These are used in conditions where you cannot see where you are flying and you have to rely on these instruments to tell you what the plane is doing when you make a movement. We also then went onto advanced instruments where we learnt about traffic collision avoidance systems(TCAS), weather radar systems and ground proximity warning systems. While these are relevant to what we will be using next year in the simulators, we felt it was a bit early to be learning about them in so much depth.
• Performance - For this subject we had a pretty poor instructor who just killed us all with powerpoints. I now fully understand why people say the term "dead by powerpoint". I felt like this subject I was just learning by myself at home as I felt the lessons where completely useless. Nice person but just cannot teach. Anyway, about the subject.....we had to learn about the take off and landing performance of a single engine plane, multi engine plane and a small jet. We learnt about the different factors which are used to tell you what length runway you need in certain conditions for both take off and landing. We had a book full of graphs which when you have a take off mass and some other location parameters like wind or temperature, you can then work out how long the runway needs to be to accommodate failures.

Hopefully I still have your attention...so that was the basics of what I learnt in the last 2 months. I'm pleased to say that I passed all of the subjects despite having a brutal instruments exam because of all the new questions the CAA are using. I had an overall avg of 92% in mod 2 which I am over the moon with.

I can now understand why everyone says the next 6 months will be the hardest of your life. They weren't wrong! Not so much with the technical content but the shear volume of information you have to learn! A lot of the information I have learnt will never even be used again in real operation.

We started the first of the last 6 subjects today after having all of 18 hours off after our last mod 2 exam. We are applying for our NZ visas this week....it's getting very real very fast now! Oh and CTC decided to bring our fly out date forward by a week too so we will be there before I know it! 

That's all for now, next update will probably be just before I go to NZ.

A typical day of looking at powerpoints all day. There are no windows
in the classroom to the outside world!

The Mighty Jeppesen Manual

An instrument flying chart with airways.

A revision break in the woods near our house.

Stone skimming in Southampton

Trying to revise flight planning and struggling with lack of space!

First BBQ of the year

One of our many BBQ's we had in the nice weather

Portsmouth harbour

Portsmouth Sky tower

After exam treat!

Module 1 over!

It's been a while since my last post, mainly because these posts take a long time to create and it was time that I didn't have spare.

A typical day for me would consist of the following schedule:
0700: wake up, get ready, have breakfast.
0815: leave house to go to training centre
0900-12ish: lectures with at least 1 break of 15mins (depending on whos teaching)
12ish-1ish: have lunch.
1ish-4ish rest of lessons with another break or 2.
5ish-11pm revise and have dinner then sleep.



Since my last post we completed the last 2 subjects of Mod 1, Principles of Flight (POF) and Human Performance and Limitations (HPL). POF was taught over 6 days and there was so much content covered. Thankfully a lot of the content covered I had already learnt in my degree so I was basically just refreshing it. That said, I still found it difficult and confusing at times because there are so many relationships to remember, e.g. increasing the aspect ratio of a wing does what to lift coefficient and the induced drag... I won't bore you with all the content because most of you who will be reading this won't have a clue what I am talking about.
HPL was taught over 6 days too. This subject was interesting and there wasn't so much content to cover so it was easier to learn. This subject involved learning about things like the effects of hypoxia which can happen to pilots when flying above 10,000ft in an unpressurised cabin. Another example, if you are flying at 40,000ft and you suffer a decompression, you have approx 12 seconds of useful conciousness. This not because of the lack of oxygen (because oxygen content (21%)is constant up to a certain height) but because the partial pressure of oxygen is lower. At 34,000ft the partial pressure is approx 1/4 than that of sea level. There were quite a few Air Crash Investigation videos which help us to learn from the mistakes made in the past. I could go on but I have probably already lost your attention. Some funny questions from the bank are shown below which are from past exam questions. Also for this subject we got the chance to experience disorientation through the use of reversal goggles. They use prisms to make your left hand appear on the right. My course mate Dom gave us all a good demonstration in the video below. 

There was a CTC open day on 28th Feb which I volunteered to help out at. This gave me a chance to speak to people who were in my position a few years ago and give them advice. The main reason I wanted to do the day was to get some time in the simulators to keep my motivation up because you get so stressed about exams that you loose focus as to why you are really there. I managed to get in the big A320 sim while all the guests were having a presentation and while it was only an approach and landing, it was still a motivation booster. When the event was over at the end of the day, we managed to get on the Boeing 737 fixed base simulator and have a bit of fun. We did all sorts of scenarios which included doing an automatic landing in complete white out fog. It was that thick that I could only just about see the runway lights after we had landed, it was quite scary to think that the plane landed itself where a pilot would have had to divert to somewhere else because you literally could not see 60ft in front of you. When you think you are approaching at about 15,000ft/min you do kind of need to see further than 60ft. We also tried high cross wind and instrument approaches. The best scenario we had was to try and do a fast circuit. The clock starts when you release the brakes and stops when the wheels touch down (when they finally touch down for those who had a few bounces on landing) The video below shows 2 of my course mates attempting to do a quick circuit but failing to do it in a quick time and buzzing the tower in the process. It was a great end to the day along with pizza and a beer to say thanks to us for helping.

One last bit (sorry its a long post), I had my exams Monday and Tuesday this week which I can thankfully say that I passed with an overall average of 87%. 4 exams down....10 to go.

If you put your email address in the box on the right it should send you an email when I update this (I haven't tested but it should).

Click on the pictures to make them bigger.

Week 2 & 3

3 weeks down and we have already completed 2 of the 4 subjects in module 1. We finished GNAV last week and we have just completed Mass and Balance which only lasted 3 teaching days.


A summary of what we covered in GNAV. To put it simply for those who do not know about GNAV, it teaches us how to plot on different types of charts (we learn 3 types) and the differences between all of the charts. Many of you probably wonder why the planned route on your planes screen is curved when you go on holiday. It is basically because of the curvature of the earth and the curved route is shorter than drawing a straight line. Takes a while to get your head around it but it makes sense eventually. We also covered how to work out distances on different scaled charts.

Mass and balance is as it suggests. We work out the moments of aircraft and work out where you can place weight in the aircraft to get the centre of gravity to a desirable location which is around the mid point of the wing cross section. If you move the CoG too far forward then the plane becomes unresponsive to control input and increases the chance of stalling. Too far back and the controls become too sensitive and also increases the chance of stalling. That is basically it for the subject, so it is a fairly easy subject to tackle.

Other than the teaching, I haven't really got up to much because I have been revising most of the time. 4 of us are still in the hotel but we are hoping to move into our accommodation soon. Also, there is a new course starting on Thursday so we will no longer be the new guys. These last 3 weeks have flown by! It is intense but as long as you keep working on it, it is manageable.

A320 Flight simulator

Sunrise on way to school

Sunset on way home




Week One

Happy New Year! My first week is over already!

Last Monday was the meet and greet day which gave my parents a chance to see the training facility in Nursling and to ask the CTC staff any questions about the course that I am doing. It was also a chance for me to meet the other cadets in CP128.

Class and families of CP128

Normally on the meet and greet days, the cadets would have their uniform fitting while the families have a tour of the flight sims. Unfortunately the uniform hadn't arrived due to the Christmas break so we had to stay in our own clothes for a few days.

After a couple of hours of presentations and chatting it was time to depart to go to our accommodation, which for 8 of us was a hotel until accommodation has been found. Before heading to our hotel, the guys on the Qatar course decided to head into town to grab a bite to eat at 7bone burger restaurant which was great. We then went to the hotel and it was time to say goodbye to my family. The hotel is great, no cooking or washing, the hotel do it all for us and with the added bonus of use of the spa and gym.

Day two consisted of APD1 (Airline preparation day) which was a day where we had to introduce each person with what skills each person has which would benefit the course. We had to work in teams of 4 to come up with ideas for the scenarios we were given e.g. what qualities do airlines look for in pilots etc.  

Day three was the official start of our modules. Our first module is GNAV (General navigation) which is basically working out changes in latitude & longitude, working out distances and the types of navigations using different charts. We also learn how to use the CRP5 (also known as the wiz wheel or crap 5) which is a flight computer. It is used to work out wind drift on one side and the other side you can use to work out many calculations like times, distances and Mach numbers to name a few.

Our uniform arrived on Thursday. We now feel like proper cadets.

That is all for now as I had better get some more work done for tomorrow. The pace is quite fast. GNAV is only due to last 2 and a half weeks before moving on to the next subject so it means a lot of night time reading and using the question bank to get a feel for how well you are coping.

Farewell

Time is ticking away quicker than ever. In less than 2 weeks I will be starting the next chapter of my life and working towards my dream job.

I have now completed my last day at TIMET and for all my colleagues who will read this, I would like to thank you all for making my last 2 and a half years a memorable time. I have really enjoyed my time there and that was mainly because of the people that had the pleasure of working with who were always willing to help me. During this time I have become a more confident person, I have gained valuable industrial experience and most importantly I have met some really great people who I will stay in contact with.

I have also had my final flight from Swansea Airport before my training commences. I'd like to thank all of the guys at the Cambrian Flying Club, I'm going to miss not going to the airport every weekend and hearing all the aviation stories from the past. They have all supported me throughout my flight training and have shown a keen interest in my future career ahead. A big thanks to my instructor Dave Jones who taught me to fly and get me through to my skills test to pass first time. We spent about 32 hours side by side in that small 2 seater cockpit and he told me many great stories which I will always remember. 

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year. I will do another post after my first week in Southampton.

Finally have the medical

After an agonisingly long wait due to some complications I have my QCAA class 1 medical and my notice has been given in.

Just some pointers for future cadets looking to do the Qatar MPL, when you are budgeting for the medical, you need to have a chest X-ray and an eyesight examination before you arrive at Aviation Medica. The chest X-ray can vary between locations. My X-ray cost £100. Specsavers occasionally do vouchers for you to have an eye test for £5, just make sure you take the QCAA eye test form with you so they can fill it out for you.

Next post will be after my first couple days of the course.

Got the Job!

It was just over 2 months of waiting to hear about when my final interview with Qatar Airways was due to take place. The two months were long but it gave me chance to learn a lot more about the airline and decide if it is what I want to do. I was given about 2 weeks notice and that I was going to be interviewed by a captain for the airline.

Just like for my assessments, I decided to stay at Dibden Manor where the interview would commence at 11am the next day. I happened to be put in the same small room that I was in back in June. I had the evening meal sat with a few of the students that were doing the AQC (Airline Qualification Course)and it was good to mingle and listen to some of the stories of the things they have done throughout the course.

After breakfast, I brushed up on a few of the airlines facts & figures before heading up to the main building to wait for my interview. Interviews were lasting between 10-30mins each. There were 6 people who had come from all around the world to be interviewed, one person who I have kept in touch with is from Australia.

The interview lasted 10mins for the guy before me. I was up next. I was introduced to two captains of the airline. They made the atmosphere feel relaxed as they were just trying to get to know me. They asked the normal interview questions of tell me about you etc... That all went well and I taught them what a metallurgist was which they were very interested in. As I left, I was told I would hear if I had got through later that day.

It was about 17:00 when I had the phone call to say that I had been successful and that Qatar Airways had offered me a place on their course. I was so pleased to finally know that I will soon be doing what I have always dreamt of doing.

Next up, the QCAA class 1 medical which in the UK can only be carried out at Stansted Airport.

The application process

While I was at university, BA decided that for the first time in a long time, they would be offering a sponsored scheme called the FPP(future pilot program). I applied for this which CTC Wings when the applications opened in December 2011. Unfortunately I did not get past the first stage which was a bit gutting but it could have been because I was still at university and wasn't due to finish until May 2012. As there are so many applicants, there are no opportunities for feedback.

So after working at Timet for a few months, BA opened their applications once again. I applied again, but this time I applied for Oxford as a FTO (flight training organisation). To my amazement I passed the application process and was offered a place on an assessment day. I attended the assessment day along with about 20 others. We were split up into 3 different groups. First up for my group was the group exercise. For this we are given a scenario where you have to work as a team to think up a solution within the given time. You are marked on how well you work as a team, not so much on what solution you actually come up with. Next up for our group was the COMPASS test which consists of a maths test and the aptitude test. There are various tasks you have to do for this test. If you want to see the type of tests then you can see them on either latestpilotjobs.com or pilotaptitudetest.com After that test I had my interview with a BA HR manager and a commercial pilot which I felt went well.
A couple days later, I had an email which gave me the bad news that I hadn't made the cut. This time I was offered a call to get some feedback which of course I did. During this call I was given feedback on the areas that I had not passed in but was told that I could reapply in 3 months time for the Oxford course.

I had heard that Qatar Airways were accepting applications with CTC Aviation for an MPL (basically a slightly different licence which is tailored to Qatar) programme. This course has a slightly different layout to the integrated course which is detailed on their website. I was given good news a couple days later that I had made it through the first stage and the next step for me was the assessment day. The assessment day was in January 2014. I decided to stay the night before at the Dibden Manor where I was given a pretty big room which was great.

There were 12 of us in total at the assessments. We were all given a lanyard with our names which already made me feel like I was a step closer.

First thing we did was sit down for a presentation to give us more information about the course and for a chance to ask questions. After this, we were split into two groups. While my group did the group exercise, the other group did the PILAPT test. Again the group exercise was similar to Oxford group exercise where you are given a scenario and you have to work as a team to come up with some answers. There are no right or wrong answers for it as they are only looking to see how you communicate with each other. Next up was the PILAPT test which can take up to 2 hours depending on how quick you make your way through it. It is a series of tests which you can get an idea of on the websites above. It is normal to finish that test and feel like it went rubbish because some of the tests are really challenging. Next we were given lunch and we had to wait for an hour and a half before we would be given our results. The longest hour and a half ever!! The time came and 3 people were taken to another room while the rest of us went into the room we started off in. We were all given bad news that we hadn't made it through to the interviews in the afternoon. Again, very gutting news to take in. We were told that we would have an email later that day that would let us know if we were eligible to reapply in 6 months time.
Later that day I had an email saying I was close enough that I could reattempt in 6 months time.

During this time I could have gone for another assessment with Oxford but chose to wait the 6 months and give CTC another shot as I'd prefer to train with them and have the chance to work for Qatar Airways. So I decided to revise the PILAPT tests every night for the next 6 months so that when I went back I would be ready for it. I contacted CTC in June for some feedback and to rearrange a reassessment. I was given news that I had actually passed the PILAPT tests and had actually failed my maths test by 1 mark (gutting to know I was so close) and the group exercises by a couple marks. So I booked my assessment for 4 weeks from that call. Every morning and night I was practicing my mental maths to improve my speed as you only get 15 mins for 15 questions.

The day before the assessment came. This time I decided to travel to Dibden earlier in the day so I could spend my day practicing my maths and preparing for the interview. My room was a bit smaller this time, so small in fact I didn't need panoramic view and I could just about fit a whole A4 piece of paper on the desk:

 The day came. This time there was only 3 of us who turned up so the group exercise was going to be a little easier to involve them both. The day format was the same as before but obviously we weren't split up. Group exercise was first which I felt went well. Then for me it was just the maths test to sit and then wait in the dining room for the other 2 to finish their aptitude tests.

After lunch we were separated, I was taken to one room and the others taken to another room. I was nervous at this point. I was given good news, I was through to the afternoon session of a one on one interview. I was so pleased and relieved that I had finally got another step closer. I was told that they could see that I had worked hard over the last few months as it showed in my results.

I was given 15/20mins to compose myself and get rid of my nerves and read over my notes. The interview just consists of your normal interview questions which are trying to make sure what you have written down in your application is true and then to gauge how passionate you are about flying. I thought the interview went well. I would find out the next day if I was through to final stage interviews.

The next day came. At about 2pm I had a call to give me good news that I had passed the CTC requirements for the course and that I was short listed for the final interviews with Qatar.

Now its just a waiting game until the interview. In the mean time I am trying to start sorting out the loan and the QCAA medical which I have to get.