Week 27: Crossing the globe takes forever!

After the misery of ground-school the week had finally arrived when I would board a flight to New Zealand in order to start the flying phase. Given it'll be winter for part of my stay I had to pack warmer clothes which inevitably were quite heavy, but after a lot of shuffling I managed to get both bags below the magic 30kg limit. My flight case was however a tad heavy at 9kg, but the nice lady at check-in was quite understanding and let me off without charge! So after sadly saying goodbye to a certain person at home then a meal with my parents at Heathrow, I disappeared through security and met up with my travelling companions. Naturally we met in the bar, but no sooner were we there and it was time to find our gate.

Luckily we were travelling on the A380. Unluckily we were travelling on it to the other side of the globe, which took 26 hours, and involved a 13 hour time zone adjustment (which i'm yet to catch up with!). The food was good, the entertainment vast and the transfers (one in Dubai and one in Melbourne) both fairly straight forward, so all in all a pretty good trip. 

We arrived at Clearways on Friday at 6pm local time, and were met with blue skies and temperatures of 23 degrees; not at all bad for Autumn, so hopefully it lasts a bit and I may get some sort of summer this year! I have been accommodated in Trident which is one of the original blocks built here, so have my own kitchenette and bathroom, as well as the large main kitchen. The two gyms here are also pretty good so Alice will be pleased ill not return in August as the human blob :-)

We were given the weekend off so went into town for a few beers yesterday, then 5 of us went kayaking today about 20 miles away. Amazingly we hired the kayaks for 4 hours for the princely sum of 20 dollars.......about 10 pounds! I am however now completely knackered so should sleep soundly tonight ahead of my first day at the airport tomorrow. Yes i'm missing people, but at least i'm here and underway in what I can honestly call the most beautiful country I've ever seen.

Week 26: Results are in and I'm going!

 Loving the fact this chap made a reappearance!

 Finally after what feels like an absolute age, the results of my second module exams arrived and with 7 passes, I am definitely departing to New Zealand on Wednesday! Together with the results from module one, I leave ground-school with an average of 95%, so hopefully I've given myself a nice foundation for the next stage. Annoyingly I let myself down in the mass and balance exam with 87% which pulled down the entire average, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy to be finished!

Given I've got 20 weeks out of the country, I've made my best efforts to catch up with friends and family. On Saturday I went over to my first ever rugby club to watch two of my friends play and enjoy a cheeky Guinness. As luck would have it a third friend was called in at short notice to play, and a fourth also had turned up to enjoy the game with his girlfriend so a good catch up was had by all.

Then on Saturday night Alice and I went for dinner at my sisters, after which we went to watch one of their friends 'Essex John' play in his band 'Under Ether'. Nothing like a few beers and live music to get everyone up and singing at the top of their lungs (even if I did sound like a crying cat!). Tonight I'm off out with the family for a nice dinner, then roll on Wednesday and the adventure begins!

The Qatar boys went out on Wednesday to Hamilton and have already posted pictures of themselves enjoying the sunshine and a spot of kayaking, so I'm salivating at the thought of getting going. By next weeks update ill be on the right side of two days travel, but at least that means I will finally have had a spin on the A380, and I fully intend to get a picture of myself from the flight deck.

Week 25: The end of part one of the Southampton Chapter

As I write, I find myself back in my beloved Essex where I am staying with my parents, nicely relaxed and enjoying a couple of weeks off. That said, my first week off started with plenty of excitement, keeping up with the general theme of my journey through training being anything but dull!

On Tuesday I had my ground-school closing interview with the head of Theoretical training Kevin Maloney, marking what will hopefully be the end of my ATPL studies (results to follow this Friday!). Following my interview I joined my easyJet MPL collegues for a group session with one of the training directors from Luton. It was an enjoyable session as the chap was nothing but honest about which direction our training would take us, and it was also quite pleasant to hear that the company are taking the MPL very seriously, our existence even known by CEO Carolyn McCall. Tuesday also marked my last day sharing a flat with three of my course-mates Andy, Adam and Ashton; I can honestly say the three of them have made the last 5 months of training an absolute pleasure, and it's a shame we won't be sharing as a group of four again. I hope that any of you joining the course are as lucky to get housemates that you can muddle through the tough times as well as enjoy the good!

Unfortunately for me, I couldn't disappear home after we finished on Tuesday as I had a wisdom tooth extraction booked for Wednesday, and therefore needed to hang about. Annoyingly the surgery was cancelled at 10.30am due to an x-ray machine breaking, but after going to talk to the clinical manager and explaining how vital the surgery was before heading to Hamilton, I was able to get the x-ray sorted in a different department and get the tooth pulled that afternoon. Asides from feeling the pain halfway through and needing a top-up of anesthetic, the procedure was fairly straightforward and I avoided the dreaded facial bruising which is so common! Phew

 

Finally (and because I hadn't been for years) today I visited the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. For those of you that have never been it has an incredible collection of aircraft from the awesome Spitfire right up to one of the Concorde flying test-beds. At 28 years old I can't help turning into the worlds biggest child, and any of you living anywhere near Cambridge I advise you enjoy a day up there. And if your partner's not into being dragged around a museum full of aircraft, the amount of walking's good for anyone!

So I find myself with a little over a week until I leave for the other side of the world, and also 4 days until I find out how I performed in my last 7 ATPL exams. Still with plenty of people to catch up with before I disappear, this week will be busy I'm sure!

Week 24: ATPL examination time

Finally after months of hard work I sat my final 7 exams, and it is nothing but a relief to be finished. The seven exams were:-

1. Mass and Balance
2. Performance
3. Flight planning and monitoring
4. Operational Procedures
5. General Navigation
6. Radio Navigation
7. Human Performance and limitations

Unfortunately the first two exams were absolutely hideous and it would appear the CAA are really pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable to be tested on within the learning objectives. The performance paper for me was particularly challenging and one of the questions (which was previously successfully appealed) still has me completely dumbstruck! It seems the CAA adjusted the question after the appeal but failed to adjust the answers, and no-one arrived on the exact answer, so it was a case of "closest answer works". So now I have the torture of waiting until the 21st for my results. That said i'm sure time will fly by, as my journey to Hamilton starts two weeks on Wednesday! 

Two of my housemates and I were really fortunate to be invited in on Friday for a simulator session, and as beneficial as it would have been during ground school, it was nice to learn something in a practical environment. Above is one of the videos I took of the Boeing 737 performing a complete auto-land.

Finally on Saturday the sun made an appearance, so a friend and I went down to a spot called Hengistbury Head near Bournemouth for a wander. It was just nice to not have the irritating feeling at the back of my mind that I should be at my desk working away! Annoyingly the warm weather also brought quite a bit of haze so the views from the top of the hill weren't quite up to their normal selves, but a walk on the beach in the sunshine put me in the best possible mood! And the following day some of my course-mates took the opportunity to enjoy the England vs Wales match, which we preceded with a few ciders in the sunshine. 

Then finally (as the blog's a day late) I had Airline preparation day 2 (APD2) today where we got more into the nitty gritty of flying in New Zealand and what sort of skills we'll need to achieve success. I have a visit from the easyJet liaison pilots tomorrow, then I find myself free until the 26th when ill be jetting out of Heathrow. Rooms packed up, house is tidy, and ground school appears to be at an end! YEEEEESSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!

Week 23: Ground-school....the final push!

For those of you who've been following the blog you'll be aware that tomorrow afternoon I start a four day brain drain session, which will see me having attempted all 14 ATPL theory examinations. Obviously i'm hoping that there are no additional attempts to that magic number, so hopefully the knowledge sitting in my brain as well as the past 12 days revision has been beneficial! 

might get some use out of these this week....

Unfortunately my week has been rather dull as it's consisted of 12 hour days either at my desk, or in one of the classrooms at Nursling. And I am not alone with that level of commitment; on a daily basis there were quite a few cadets from cp112 (as well as cp115 who have their first module exams) all working away putting in Herculean efforts to ensure they're best prepared for the exams, and those that didn't venture in I can guarantee were working just as hard at home. So for those of you that think ground-school is just a bit of a hurdle and that the only area of importance is pinging a Cessna about, THINK AGAIN! Ground-school is tough and has taken a vast amount of self discipline from every cadet who successfully completes, so if you don't think you're up for the challenge, perhaps take a moments pause before piling into an application! 

All I can say now is good luck to all my course-mates on both cp112 (as well as the guys already in Hamilton taking their exams 12 hours earlier!) and cp115 getting a taste of the real thing. By this time next week it'll all be over, ill probably have had too many glasses of grandpas cough medicine on Thursday after my final, and for once ill be able to watch the rugby without the overwhelming guilt it shouldn't even be on in the background! Here we go....