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Saturday 14 March 2015

Type rating so far

Photo from airliners.net
So it has been an extremely busy few weeks! I have now completed the A320 technical groundschool and have flown 2 of the 12 simulator sessions.

The groundschool is learning all about the systems of the A320; fuel, hydraulics, powerplants etc, with a final exam at the end. There is an awful lot to cram into the two week course, meaning for the duration my head was stuck in books 24/7!

The sims are now underway which is very exciting. 6 of them are motion off, 6 motion on and all are at the Nursling training centre - where my journey through pilot training began! We pair up with another person on the course and have 4 hour sessions, each split in half to make sure we get time as pilot flying and pilot not flying. I am loving the A320 so far and cannot wait to get into an A321 for real in just a matter of weeks!

The first sim involved a flight from Gatwick to Liverpool, the second Gatwick to East Midlands, both with a full start up and shutdown. The first few are more of a familiarisation to the aircraft - it is later on that we begin dealing with failures and abnormal scenarios. We spent a lot of groundschool time learning the SOPs, and it is beginning to all come together nicely.

Sorry for the short update, but there is lots to be doing! Until next time...
During groundschool we prepare for the sims using virtual flight decks