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....

Week 22: Mocked for a second time!

Common to module one, cp112 this week had their mock examinations ahead of the real exams (which I will unfortunately be sitting one week tomorrow), so we had the opportunity to once again discover where there were gaps in our knowledge, as well as the hideous feeling of time pressure that only exams can create! Most of the course did pretty well and i've come out with a good average so it's a relief to know my brain is retaining knowledge, but I still have some areas that need work. Accordingly, I've spent the last few days going into Nursling for study and as much as I hate sitting there for 8-10 hours at a time, I can honestly say it's working! So next week my blog will mostly consist of me describing how much i'm cacking my pants before my first exam, and how adult nappies aren't a bad thing.....be warned!

This week I had some interesting (but as yet unconfirmed) news concerning my course, specifically the length of time I will be in New Zealand. easyJet requested that the MPL students got some time flying in the UK (so I will get to zoom about in the twin star!), and this was mostly due to the specifics of the course being slightly different. Whereas the wings students get time in Bournemouth to get acclimatised to the busier, faster-paced radio activity in the UK, MPL students would get very limited practice and may be a little overcome on their first day at Gatwick when the controller is firing instructions like a machine gun. However, given we need to work through all of the Airbus stuff prior to March as well as spend a few weeks in Bournemouth, the only way we can achieve this is by spending a month less in Hamilton, which means our flying schedule is going to be a lot busier to say the least! But then more time at the airport means less opportunity to spend money doing silly things, money which is rapidly running out!! 

So thats it from me, another week of revision to keep me occupied and another week closer to getting back flying. yippeeeeeee!!

Week 21: Sods law is a real thing!

Finally I have finished all instruction required for the ATPL ground-school element of the course, and I can honestly say it is a huge relief to be in the home straight! The week ended with a really interesting lecture from the UK's leading mind on pilot disorientation, tying together our knowledge from both the physiological as well as psychological elements of human performance. The day ended with an exercise involving reverse glasses to prove how quickly the body loses it oritentation, and how the mind can be readily tricked by confusion from the visual cortex. In essence, the glasses have two prisms which reverse each eye, so what you see on the right is on the left, and vice versa.....

And on to the more entertaining part of the week.....as our mocks start tomorrow, cp112 were given the rest of the week off to study, so in a similar vain to module one I went in to make use of the quiet classrooms at Nursling. I had woken on Wednesday with something of a sore throat, thought nothing of it and went into CTC armed with a pack of Halls Soothers (which solve everything!). However, by about midday I was struggling to concentrate and found myself reading questions more than once as apparently my brain didn't pay attention the first time. This continued throughout the afternoon, and by 7pm my sore throat was giving me problems swallowing, and on closer inspection my tonsils were covered in white spots, a red flag for tonsillitis. Sod's law had decided to join the revision party!

I decided to go to bed around 10pm with the intention of taking myself to the Doctors the following morning, but at midnight was rudely awoken by my throat being completely closed as the two tonsils had met and stuck together! This seemed reason enough to see some sort of medical professional a bit sooner, so I went to Casualty only to find I was running at 39.6deg which needed sorting before anything else. After an hour enjoying a saline drip to sort my dehydration and various bloods being taken, my temperature was going in the right direction and I was confirmed as having tonsillitis which unfortunately for me had come on quite rapidly so my body didn't know what to sort first!

So for the weak stomached among you, try to concentrate on this side of the page, because I took that picture in my bored state whilst plummed in. Eventually I was released to go home at 4am, so back to bed for me and there I stayed all day trying to catch up on sleep and recover a bit! Proof enough for me that if something is going to go wrong, it's going to happen at the most inconvenient time!

Thanks to those that came and chatted with me whilst I was studying at Nursling during CTC's Career event yesterday, and i'm glad to hear the blog's of some use. Unfortunately after losing a days study I couldn't volunteer, but was able to chat during breaks so not the worst day ever! For now, back to study ahead of my mock tomorrow!