Licence issue and onwards to line flying....

Well I managed to get my licence issued by the CAA and now I am ready to start line training with MyTravel. Again, I've got another blog set up for this....

http://frozenatpl.blogspot.com

I hope you enjoyed following my journey over the last 3 months or so, I look forward to updating you on my line flying in a similar way over the busy summer season.

Richard

Video uploaded...

I've uploaded a video to Google Video of one of David's landings. The large amount of shaking at the end should not be taken as indicating a bad landing. There wasn't much to settle the camera with!

Hope that works!

Patrick, all settled into his seat ready to start his circuits. He's having a good look at the PIK airport plate before getting going.

A nice shot of the aircraft parked-up on the taxi way while we swap over crews for another set of circuits.

A full stop landing to allow for a crew change (Zoe > Patrick). As you can see the reverse thrust is active (the engine cowling is open - chucking exhaust air forward rather than backwards).

Touch and go, at about 5ft on the runway prior to touch down.

Full TOGA power being used on take-off following a touch and go.

Zoe, during a touch and go. Seemed like a very nice landing...

I was able to make contact with someone who was taking pictures from the ground of us in the circuit. His name is Alan Graham and his other pictures can been seen at http://www.jetphotos.net.

More general posing....

Patrick, my sim partner, in a rather artistic pose showing the MyTravel tailfin logo.

Patrick just seeing how hot the engines are after about 3 1/2 of flying. Because there were 4 of us doing circuits we had to land to refuel. Hence we had a chance to take a few pictures on the ground!

Just checking that the nose wheels survived the many heavy impacts I inflicted on them during my touch and go circuits. Apparently they can take some pounding....

He's a picture of me, trying to look relaxed next to the left hand engine (called engine 1 by convention). I was surprised that the engines were only slightly warm to touch at the front after some 3 hours of fast paced action in the circuit. I forgot to see if the backend was roasting hot....

The four of us, during a brief stop to full the tanks back up with fuel! The remaining Cadet is Zoe, on the far right next to the engine.

Ehmm, well apparently one of my landings was a little on the hard side! So much so, that a couple of Oxygen masks dropped down from the overhead panel. I did suspect sabotage took place, but do have to accept that there was one rather firm landing!

again, in the turn, this time you can see the instruments more clearly. The main one in the centre (the PFD), shows the aircraft attitude, height, speed and any rate of change of height or speed.

Me in the circuit, turning from crosswind to the downwind section of the circuit using a 25 degree bank turn.

Just clearing through the cloud at about FL120 on the way North towards Scotland

Base Training at PIK

Well, this is take-off from London Gatwick at 6:44am from the Easterly runway. I was backseating for the positioning up to Prestwick for our touch & go circuits

Me, obviously very excited just prior to push back at Gatwick in the 2nd jumpseat (behind the captains seat).

Here's a picture of myself along with two of the other cadets; on the left Patrick and the middle David.

Patrick looking very relaxed and cool in the RHS.

The CTC Simulator Training Centre in Nursling, near Southampton. Inside they have 2 x Airbus A320 sims, and 1 x Boeing B737 sim (plus a couple of older fixed based 737 sims).

One of my simulator instructors just filling in our training records after a 4 hour session in the full motion sim.

Here's a picture of me in the A320 simulator. We had just finished a nasty 4 hour session with lots of failures and diversions...

Here you see two of my MyTravel pilots being let loose with the VFD. It is basically a very expensive computer flight simulator. It uses 7 LCD panels to mimic the cockpit environment of the A320. Each LCD is touch sensitive and thus we use the device to learn and consolidate the company SOPs and understand how each of the systems actually work in real-life.

Here is a picture of the A320 simulator that I am currently using as part of the type rating course. As can bee seen it sits on loads of hydraulic jacks that move around to provide realistic motion inside the sim. As yet we've not had this on, which given the state of some of my landings is quite lucky really.

During the groundschool phase (10 days), where we try and learn how all the complicated systems of the A320 work. Here you see a couple of my fellow MyTravel pilots, along with some A319 easyJet pilots, packing up after a long day at the manuals and CBTs on the computer.

A another snap with a couple more of my fellow trainees during ground school. Apart from Zoe, the other pilots are all destined for easyJet.

Big news....

Well it's just been confirmed that I've been selected to start my Airbus A320 type rating with CTC in Nursling, near Southampton. I start on Tuesday 28th February with the groundschool. All being well I plan to update this blog as I go along so that others can keep up with my progress.