Week 14: Rest and recuperation

After a pretty intensive few months, it was a welcome relief to get 6 days off from lectures to enjoy the Christmas holiday season. For the first time in a long time I was able to stay in bed beyond 8am without feeling guilty for getting behind on my studies; that's not to say I didn't do any during the week off, but the pace was a lot more leisurely, more to keep my brain ticking than anything else.

Unfortunately for most the time off didn't start brilliantly, the terrible weather Britain experienced being the main culprit. The drive to my parents normally takes about 2 hours, but 4 became 6 due to the high winds/driving rain closing the QE2 bridge at Dartford, forcing 8 lanes of motorway traffic on the M25 onto just 4 for both directions. For some of my course mates journeying further afield, their flights were cancelled, a trip up to Heathrow their only hope. Not the best start!

Meanwhile, on Christmas eve Gatwick experienced a major power loss due to flooding, which inevitably caused chaos for anyone trying to get away before Christmas day. Fortunately for Gatwick the loss was restricted to the North terminal, but given easyJet's significant presence at the airport and the fact they have to split their operation between the two terminals, just over 80 flights had to be cancelled. Apparently at one point there were Police Officers manning the information desks in an attempt to achieve some semblance of order, as customers became increasingly frustrated (as is expected) as some had lost out on flights the previous day due to the adverse weather. Not a good day to be in the firing line at Gatwick airport!

This week the MPL students received their first Ops newsletter that goes to all crew at easyJet. For the moment a lot of it goes well above our heads, but a section about the various anti-icing scenarios at airports was quite interesting, and it gently demonstrates the number of factors a crew balances when chasing an on-time departure. 

So back to lectures tomorrow where cp112 continue with Radio Navigation, chomping into another big module 2 subject. This week we're fortunate to have New years day off (Wednesday), but given the fact we've just had a week off most are staying in Southampton, and by the sounds of things the majority of the course will be in Oakmount Avenue to celebrate the end of another year. I'm a big fan of that plan.....my walk home will be a matter of metres! Happy New Year all, and you'll hear from me early in 2014.