Week 55: The toys just got a little bigger!

For all the delays, irritations and distractions throughout this course, EZMP03 have finally made it back to Nursling for the final stage of training. We had something of a baptism of fire on Monday, getting stuck in straight away to the SOP's (Standard operating procedures) employed by easyJet, which will form the backbone of our course. Initially these were a little dry with a lot of reading through the manual and discussing with our instructor, but there's no easy way to learn them so it's a necessary evil. Once enough knowledge had settled into our brains, we used the virtual flight deck that CTC use as a simple replacement for the simulator, so switches and levers look and location were easier to identify and therefore we had better context. This SOP familiarisation was three days long, but after the initial slog we were booked for our first flights on Thursday.

What I will say for the Airbus is it's a magnificent piece of kit, very clever, and simple to operate. That's not to say i'm flying it particularly well yet as 60 tons of jet respond very differently to the light aircraft i'm used to, but I feel confident that with practice I will improve and feel better able to manage a larger machine. 

To help our home learning of the procedures we've been given a poster so we can run through 'touch drills' without needing the aircraft because they're obviously tough to get anywhere near. They are slightly false as the scale is reduced and nothing can compare to doing the real thing, but Alice has been helping me with my checklists (lucky girl) so hopefully the knowledge is gently becoming more permanent. 

Also this week we've finally been given new items of uniform which match CTC's new branding. I've had my new tie a while but didn't want to wear it as i'd be mixing the two schemes, but with the arrival of my new epaulettes the next thing i'm hunting is my first stripe. This we have been told we will be presented during our visit to Luton, as it will represent the same point on the course as a wings cadet having gone through a CPL/IR. But as that seems a million miles away, for the moment I just need to keep working and negotiate the next 27 details.