Firstly, an apology. I realise that I’ve somewhat neglected
this blog – I make it just a shade under seven months since last I posted – but
oh well, better late than never…
Somewhat unsurprisingly, quite a lot has happened since the
last instalment. Just after Christmas we had our first seven EASA exams and
then two weeks of much needed leave in which to recover from almost four months
of hard work. Results came out at the end of the second week of leave and
having passed all my exams, the next Monday brought the start of phase two…
So, phase two. If we’d thought that phase one was intense,
phase two was nigh on insane! In some ways there was less to learn than in
phase one, in as much as the first phase was devoted to learning shed loads of
facts while the second phase was devoted, on the whole, to learning principles
that could then be applied in many different ways. The subjects covered were
radio navigation, general navigation, aircraft performance, flight planning,
mass and balance and the two fact learning subjects; air law and operational
procedures.
The first five of these are mostly maths based – the ability
to do long division and work out the angles in a triangle is invaluable. Air
Law and Ops, on the other hand, are very much a return to the phase one method
of learning lots of facts and reciting them. There was also not a lot of time
to get a grip on the basics before examinations were upon us in the form of
test twos after only three weeks. The same frenetic pace applied to the rest of
phase two as there were only thirty one teaching days from beginning to end,
followed by a revision week, school finals, another revision week and then
EASAs. Our EASA exams also marked the end of the paper era – from now on all
the exams will be done online.
Aside from the academic side of things, late March also saw
us all undertaking the obligatory trip to the US embassy in London in order to
get paperwork sorted out. This was just the start of a long list of other admin
tasks; the US requires you to have not only a visa but also Transportation Security Administration
(TSA) approval to undertake
flight training – to make this even more arduous you need separate approval for
each different type of aircraft you’ll be flying!
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| My future office |
I was also lucky enough to get a chance to have a jump seat
ride on a BA airbus going out to Stockholm and back. This came the day after
finishing my phase two EASAs and so was a fantastic treat/way to
celebrate/chance to see the practical application of some of what we’d learned.
The process of setting up an airbus seems rather daunting at the moment, as
does managing to get a word in edgeways on Heathrow Ground frequency and then
actually managing to follow their rapid and complicated instructions, although
no doubt both of these will become less daunting with time and experience… After
an easy two hour flight the descent into Stockholm was made through thick
clouds that only gave way to clear air about eight hundred feet above the
ground, prompting the captain to make the wry comment as we passed a thousand
feet that “a runway would be nice any time now.” An hour and a half on the
ground was spent chatting with the whole crew and then being taken through the
process of setting the aircraft up; with so much time available the first
officer was able to show me the ins and outs of the system slowly enough that I
could actually follow it! And then we were off again for Heathrow, although not
before a small delay at the end of the runway as the crew resolved an air con
issue that had sprung up on engine start. That sorted, we took off into the
clouds again and headed back to the southwest. Not long after getting established
in the cruise another aircraft passed under us heading south and although the
magic box on board told us that they were the mandated thousand feet below us,
when you’re seven miles up there’s nothing to give perspective and that
separation seems pretty small! Arriving back over southern England the weather
was perfect for a bit of hand flying – a rare treat for a commercial pilot in
today’s crowded airspace – so the first officer flew the approach before
handing over to the captain for his landing, which can only be described as a
greaser…
The flight back was the captain’s flight so the first
officer handled the radios, apart from during the initial and intermediate
approach when the roles were reversed. BA is one of the few airlines to persist
with this monitored approach concept, which is where the non-handling pilot
flies the approach and assumes that the landing will be aborted and will result
in a go-around. This way, not only does the non-handling pilot keep his eye in
for if he does need to take over for any reason but he’s also ready with all
the information needed for the go around and can talk the handling pilot
through it to save any confusion. Assuming that the approach isn’t discontinued
for any reason, the non-handling pilot hands the aircraft over to the handling
pilot at about 1200ft so that the aircraft is completely set up in time for the
1000ft stable call – for an approach to be stable the speed, height and power
must be right and the aircraft must be on track for the runway with the flaps as
required and gear down. If any of these criteria aren’t met then it’s mandatory
to do a go around and have another go at the landing.
Anyway, suffice to say that the entire flight was not only a
fantastic learning experience but also great fun. The next instalment of the
blog should be up soon (I promise not to leave it as long as for this instalment)
and will cover the trip out to the states and the start of flying!
