Almost flying!

There hasn't been an awful lot happening in terms of flying since coming to NZ.

Last week we had a few mass briefings which were to teach us the differences of flying in NZ compared to UK and also the NZ PPL Airlaw. Theses exams had to be passed by 70% or more before we can be let loose solo in the sky. 

The differences exam was an internal CTC exam which we sat during the first week. The Airlaw exam was done through an examining body called ASL. This exam was held in a local shopping centre. It was a bit strange walking through a shopping centre dressed in uniform. 

Most of the class passed first time (thankfully so did I), for those who didn't they will have to resit before going solo.

For the two days following the exam, we had a few more briefings to sit through before anyone would be booked to start flying.

I have now completed 2 of my 4 simulator sessions which I have to complete before getting to fly the C172S for real. These simulator sessions are teaching us the basic general handling and also to teach us how to use the Garmin glass cockpits which we will be using. As I already have some flying experience, I completed the lesson objectives quite early in the lesson which then allowed us to have some fun trying different scenarios. The glass cockpit computers are so advanced it is just mind blowing what they can do.

During our days off, a few of us have been making the most of exploring. The first place we explored was Waitomo caves to see the glow worms on the ceiling of the caves. This experience was really good, I just wish it had lasted a bit longer. After the caves we had a walk up a a viewing point at the top of the hill next to the caves. The scenery was breathe taking. There is a picture included below. Other activities included visiting Bridal Falls which is a big waterfall. We then went to Raglan which is a bay known for surfing and fish and chips on the Wharf. The fish and chips were amazing, definitely one to go back to and it was a huge portion! We have also been tramping (kiwi talk for hill walking) which was a good trial of fitness but we all made it to the top in one piece. On the last trip we went on, we went to Ocean beach in Kawhia where you dig a hole just before low tide and if you're lucky, you get hot water heated by the volcano below. We managed to find it and it was so hot! It is a surreal feeling running down and laying on the beach in your swimming trunks in the middle of winter. We lasted about an hour and a half in the pool we dug before the tide came in and put an end to our hot pool. The sea was FREEZING! We ran in there to wash off, lets just say I ran out quicker than I went in! 

That's about all up to date. I have 2 more sim sessions then I will be let loose in the real plane next week weather permitting.

Qatar Airways boys

Garmin G1000 Glass cockpit displays

C172S which I will be flying. Picture taken on a beautiful sunny day.

Twin star which I sadly don't get to fly

A view from my room

Local river next to my accommodation.

The resident wild cat Bobby likes to go in everyone's room

Enroute to Ocean beach

Before Glow worms cave

Glow worm cave exit

Viewing point after the caves

The Team pan from the viewing point

The view at the summit of our 2 hour tramping trip 

The tramping team

standing on an old dam

Having fun with the camera while watching shooting stars

top of Bridal falls

Add caption

Bridal Falls

Raglan bay while eating fish and chips

Watching a plane land and take off at night.

Ocean beach hot water

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.