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Sunday 14 December 2014

Graduation!

Friday was CTC's event of the year - the pilot graduation 2014! All pilots who graduated this year were invited to attend, though unfortunately a lot of the guys and girls can't attend as a result of being in airliners at 36,000ft...

The first part of the day involved an open morning at Nursling, with opportunities to show our friends and family around the training centre and perhaps get the chance of having a go in the sims (it is amazing how many parents show up their pilot child when it comes to landing an A320 or B737...).

After this CTC had coaches take everyone to Dibden Manor for the graduation ceremony. Before this there was an opportunity for a catch up with coursemates over some champagne and lunch! The ceremony itself always involves a guest speaker from the aviation industry; this year was Willie Walsh, which was very exciting! After Rob Clarke's (Group Chief Executive Officer of CTC Aviation) speech, Willie took centre stage and gave a talk. He gave us an insight into his background and his own experiences through pilot training and how he progressed through the industry.
He was very funny and also extremely nice! Each pilot was then called one by one to go up on the stage to be presented with their graduation certificate and a commemorative ornament engraved with each persons name, CP and graduation date by Willie and Rob. At the end of the ceremony, there were group photos taken of all of us graduates and then some with the senior management of CTC and all of the airline representatives. This marked the end of the afternoon's proceedings!




Caught unawares - photos were being taken all over the place, naturally!!





The evening was the part we were all looking forward to, the famous black tie ball. This year it was hosted at Dibden also, in a big marquee that had been constructed for the event. There were drinks, a band, a DJ and a very nice meal. The senior staff were all there too and it was great for whole 'CTC community' to get together and have such a lovely night together celebrating the completion of our training and the beginning of our very exciting careers. Thank you CTC, it was great!




No party is complete without a photobooth!

Tuesday 9 December 2014

Airline Qualification Course

Playing around on the -700 NG, though I was 'flying' the -300 Classic model
So I have just finished the AQC at CTC, which is the three week long 'intermediate training' here at CTC, involving both ground school and jet simulator training. During the course we live at Dibden (or a hotel in the New Forest), with training taking place back at the Nursling centre. 
Dibden Manor
'The barn' at Dibden where I was living
The first week is the five days of ground school, the first two of which are technical. The course normally takes place on the B737 Classic, although the New Generation model/A320 may be used depending on availability (and luck!). During the technical days, we go over the flight deck layout, flight profiles, memory items/checklists etc. Our instructor for this was an ex easyJet training Captain with plenty of experience on the 737 and A320, which was a great help. We also got an hour in pairs in the simulator to practice our checks and try to gain a better understanding of what is where amongst the forest of switches, knobs and buttons. 
One of the 'bombers' we use to help us practice our checks
The non technical three days are the MCC part of the course. We had three pilots leading the days, all from different backgrounds with various experiences. This part of the course was extremely interesting and brings home just how important non technical aspects of flying are. The days consisted of lots of discussions, role plays, videos, poster making and presentations; some case studies were aviation related, although some weren't. On the final day, we did a mini project on the Piper Alpha oil rig disaster and how human factors played such a large role in it; this is so that we actually concentrate on the non tech stuff, instead of studying an Air Crash Investigation, where as newly qualified pilots we would go into too much technical detail! 

The main simulator hall at Nursling. CTC currently havee 3 full motion A320s, 1 full motion 737 NG, 1 fixed base 737 Classic and a fixed base 737 NG
The second two weeks are the simulator sessions - we complete 36 hours in there, with 18 hours Pilot Flying, 18 Pilot Monitoring in our pairs. The PF would be in the right hand seat, meaning the PM acts as Captain. The sessions are four hours long and the first five primarily revolve around the MCC aspect of training. We had full use of autopilot/autothrust, which frees up lots of mental capacity to deal with the various malfunctions and problems we would encounter.
Airports such as Edinburgh, Gatwick and East Midlands were used and the weather became progressively worse as we went further through the course. The fifth session was a LOFT (Line Orientated Flight Training; like the ones we did in the DA42 back in Bournemouth) MCC assessment flight, involving a flight from Manchester to Stansted and back again. At some point enroute we were told to expect an abnormality, whether it be technical or non technical who knows! When I was PM, we were asked to go around on the approach due to an aircraft evacuating on the sole runway at Stansted, resulting in a diversion to Luton. As PF, flying back into Manchester we were unable to go visual on the approach due to the ILS being localiser only (resulting in a higher DH), so we diverted to Liverpool; oh and I suffered an engine fire on the go around! The engine fire drill is one of the few memory QRH items we have to learn, others being rapid descent/depressurisation and APU fire. 

The final four sessions are manual handling - bye bye autothrottle and autopilot! The trick to these were learning the aircraft pitch/power couples for both two and single engine operations.
The inertia of the aircraft is also something we had to get used to, as a jet flies very differently to the DA42 we are used to! I would say the hardest part in this part of training were the single engine non precision approaches - we would receive printouts of our approaches showing the approach in the vertical and lateral aspects, then the path of our own approach; it was really rewarding when we would see improvements in our flying with each one. There is a lot of emphasis on single engine handling with two LOFT flights thrown in there at the end - the final sim also being the final assessment. This was a flight from Manchester to Prestwick and the return with more abnormalities to be expected. On my leg (outbound) we were asked to go around on the approach due to the airfield closing as a result of a security threat. With the weather deteriorating in the area, we had to make a decision on where to divert to and also suffered an engine fire in the go around. We headed for an approach at Glasgow, where I had to do a localiser only approach (again!). On the inbound leg with me as PM, we had a medical emergency and diversion to Leeds and the ILS was actually fully functional there!
Being back at Nursling meant I was back where it all began with groundschool, as well as being where the "wall of fame" is - a corridor full of photos of CP group photos. It was great to finally see my group on the wall! 



The course is a massive step up from the previous parts of training, with a very high workload both in the training centre and back at Dibden. It is really good fun and the amount I learnt it crazy - I was very sorry when we finished. I am now at home waiting for the next step, which is my intermediate training report. Once this is sorted, I should be going into the CTC hold pool where my career will hopefully kick off! 

Until next time...