Week 29: Mass briefs, exams and flight training!

This week has been relatively busy for myself and my colleagues on EZMP03 (i'm no longer part of cp112), a week which irritatingly started with two more days in the classroom. However, the lessons were actually 'mass briefs', an important element of the course. Put simply they are whole class briefings focusing on the specifics of the upcoming flight details, so immediately are significantly more interesting than air law/differences. In these we looked at mass and balance for the aircraft, performance in the Cessna C172, went through a type rating for the C172, and finished with fundamentals of flight which we'd be working on during our simulator sessions.

And so the MPL (multi-crew pilot licence) this week came into its own, the early flight details being flown in the twinstar sim instead of the Katana, but flown using Cessna performance figures. I had my first flight on Thursday, the focus on flying the aircraft by visual means, whilst allowing the opportunity to operate the Garmin G1000 glass cockpit system. It is possible to fly the aircraft incredibly accurately given the displays are digital, and my previous flying experience certainly helped me to get used to the equipment as I was able to fly with slightly less conscious effort than an 'ab initio' cadet (zero experience). My second sim session was however much more eventful as most of it was spent flying in cloud, so all outside reference was lost and the aircraft needed to be flown with sole reference to the instruments, a completely new skill for me. I'd like to think I performed to an acceptable standard, and I'm very much looking forward to my next session (which irritatingly wont be until Wednesday at the earliest!). On the left is Dom and the right Liam, both taking the sim for a spin!

On Friday I had my New Zealand Air Law exam, an exam which is taken in a shopping centre, which is surreal to say the least. I passed so am clear to train unrestricted, and that's all that needs to be said about that!

Now those of you in training will appreciate the importance of a good nights sleep for efficient performance, and those that have completed Human performance have a good understanding of having a disturbed circadian rhythm, specifically being woken in the middle of a sleep cycle. Unfortunately this week the fire alarm decided it would go off at midnight, so we found ourselves dragged from our beds waiting for New Zealands finest to make the drive from the nearest Fire station to effectively tell us it was a false alarm. Fortunately I put a top on before going out, as we were waiting about 30 minutes in the cold to get back to our beds!

In completely unrelated news I have managed to get a car for my stay here, an absolutely tragic hatchback which for those that watch 'the inbetweeners' would probably recognise as Jay's car. Our's honestly isn't much better, but as long as it gets me to the airport and the shops and keeps my head dry, i'm happy. Pictures of 'the beast' to follow....

And finally, this week I had some great news that Alice has managed to get a week off and will be coming out to visit in the first week of June! Although it'll be winter down here so probably pretty cold, it's great she can come at the halfway mark of this phase, and is something to look forward to outside of flying! To the cadets on cp113, good luck on Friday for your ATPL results and hopefully we'll see you soon enough!!