Groundschool is over!

Well, I've now moved out of my New Forest home and am back in West Sussex until I go off to New Zealand for the next part of my training.

My Module 2 exams were last week and hopefully went well. I was surprised how long I spent in the exams as unlike in Mod 1 there is a lot of paperwork/charts to find and then search through, which takes up a lot more time than expected!

We had a great night out on Thursday and we felt that we thoroughly deserved it after all of the hard work!

Some of my CP with a few of our CP107 friends on our CTC night out!

Friday was our second Airline Preparation Day. This was great fun and a great way to end groundschool. At first, we went around the class describing each other - the good and the bad! Of course this was a good laugh and reminded us just how well we have managed to know each other. After this, we had a bit of a chat about New Zealand and found out more on how the training works over there. In the afternoon we had a role play situation, where two 'volunteers' acted as Captain and F/O and had to react in the way they felt appropriate to the situation - a passenger in the cabin who had become threatening. Although it was initially a bit of fun we did realise that this is actually a very real threat and something that could possibly happen in our careers. The end of the day consisted of one to one interviews about the past six months as well as going through our groundschool reports, which was a nice way to wrap everything up neatly.

I helped out at the CTC Careers Event on Saturday which was great fun as always. I was helping in the 737NG simulator for a lot of the day and got to meet lots of people who are hoping to join CTC in the near future. It is funny to think that just a year ago I was in the exact same position! Monarch were the guest speakers and gave a very interesting presentation on current and future plans. As well as this it was great just to chat to various guests about their experiences with aviation. With over 500 people in the building it sure was a very busy day!

I've been home for a few days now and have had my Class 1 medical renewal today. For anyone interested, this was a lot less intense than the initial class 1. The session basically consisted of:
. Urine test
. Blood test
. Eye sight exam
. Hearing exam
. General physical
Luckily I didn't have to go to the CAA at Gatwick for this, as renewals can be done at a certified AME's practise.

After 6 months of intense work I fully intend to enjoy the time off I have before going to start the next part of training, which will definitely feel strange!

Until next time!

Got to play around with this at the Careers Event!

Some shots from my CTC accommodation:

My room was the one at the bottom right!

Excuse the mess - this is, in fact, us trying to clean up!

Excuse the mess! 

The Class 1 Medical

I thought I'd make post on the EASA Class 1 medical, something which is necessary for anyone who wants or has a career as a pilot. I went for this back in September and it is safe to say that I was not looking forward to it. Doctors; blood; needles... we just don't mix. However, I was pleasantly surprised.
The medical was done at the CAA's Aviation House at Gatwick and lasted about 4 hours. They do a range of tests, which I thought I'd quickly describe to give you a feel for the day.

• I arrived at Aviation House dressed for comfort in trackie bottoms and a hoodie at eight in the morning, nice and early for my half eight appointment. There were about four other people who had appointments at the same time, two of who were also soon starting at a flight training organisation. 
• I was called by a Doctor who would take me around many different rooms to do a few different tests. 
• He took me into a room where I was weighed and measured, which can't have lasted more than two minutes. Nothing scary and I began to relax, deciding that the day wasn't going to be as bad as I thought it would be. 
• We then went to another room where I was told to sit in a tiny soundproof booth and put on some headphones. You had a little clicker in your hands, just like a weatherman would and have to push the button when you hear a beep. This isn't as easy as it sounds, as the beeps are barely audible. This lasted about ten minutes.

Not really a fan

• Then there was yet another room, where the blood test was done. I wasn't looking forward to this and had pictured massive needles, many vials of my blood, then me passing out and basically making a fool of myself. However, it was just one of those thimbles where they quickly stab (yes, stab) your finger and squeeze out as much of the red stuff as possible. There was also a urine test here, but I won't go into detail...
• After this, you guessed it, we went to another room. This time for the Electrocardiogram, something which I will now only need done every five years. This was a scary looking machine with wires all over the place, which were soon attached to me. This was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be; I just shut my eyes and before I knew it the beeping noises had stopped and I was unhooked. I could relax again!
• Yet another room, yet another test, this time the lung capacity one. Basically had to blow into an inhaler which was hooked up to a machine with a line graph type screen on it. You have to keep on blowing into the tube, despite there being no air left in your body, until the little horizontal line met the set line along the top of the screen. All the while, the Doctor is saying not to stop and you are actually surprised by how long you can exhale! 
• At this point the Doctor said goodbye and I was asked back into the waiting room for my physical. This Doctor basically asked me a few medical questions, before checking my heart, lungs, joints etc, as well as doing various tests to ensure I had enough strength to control an aircraft. I was in here for maybe half an hour to forty five minutes.
• The final test (and room) was where I would see the optician. This is just a very intense, vigorous eye exam with the usual tests for colourblindness etc being done. After reading a passage of text (in ye olde english) he got right in my face and poked around my eyes for about ten minutes. When he had finished, he took a deeper look (behind my eyes!) whilst I stared through this big metal machine. All in all not too bad, but not too keen on people messing around with my eyes!
• I was then free (well, kind of). I just had to wait around for about forty minutes whilst the three Doctors went through my results to make sure I had passed the requirements for the medical certificate. 

Luckily everything was fine and I was soon issued with a piece of paper saying I am fit to fly! I emailed CTC with a copy of my certificate, and was another step closer to starting training.