What You Should Know

Most of you who follow or have just started following this amazing blog are either already in training, or at least considering it. I was once in the same situation, but I had never really thought about how life would be on the other end. In other words, what is life really like once you land that first job? This will differ greatly depending on your age, previous experiences, personal circumstances, and also what you're expecting out of it.

It is important to mention that I only base what I say on my own experiences, and I reserve the right to change my views of how things are in a few years, since things change so rapidly.

There are a variety of factors that determine how good or bad this job can be, and one of them is of course finance. Many centuries ago, airlines used to sponsor young hopefuls, and where there weren't cadets, there would be a pool of ex-military pilots that needed a job when they were too old and wrinkly to pull 8Gs in an RAF Tornado. Recruitment was never a problem. However, since the economic downturn, and the relentless growth of Low Cost Carriers, we've seen the pool of ex-military pilots reduce, and a wave of self-sponsored pilots flooding the industry. Pilot recruitment has changed dramatically.

Nowadays, the airlines have pushed the financial burden of training onto their cadets, costing anywhere between £20,000 to £30,000, sometimes more for a Type Rating. And that's not to mention having to cover personal expenses during the training period. The world of pilot recruitment is now an industry of its own. Let's be honest, no one likes this, especially after paying upwards of £90,000 on the Ab-Initio training. Unfortunately, we have to accept that this won't be going away anytime soon.

The contracts are also not what they used to be. I am paid by the hour which puts me in a good position since I am working out of the largest base in the network, but the same can't be said for people in smaller bases where the income can be very seasonal. It does also mean that I am reluctant to play certain contact sports, seeing as a loss of my medical fitness would mean that my bank account would look just as bad as the injury. I almost forgot to mention that joining a LCC will mean that you will most likely have to bring your own food and water to work, and pay for your own uniform. Reheatable food containers come in handy.

But an opportunity is an opportunity. I think that it is only logical to go for an airline that will relieve you of a further £20-£30k for training as your first choice. And if you can go for an airline sponsored Cadet Programme or even an MPL scheme from the beginning, then by all means do it for that peace of mind, knowing that you'll have that job at the end of the tunnel.

So what about the lifestyle? Surely after all that hard work that you'd be rewarded with layovers with a hoard of beautiful cabin crew knocking on your hotel room at 2am, free first class meals, a limo ride to and from the airport, and a free apartment... Well not quite, and believe it or not, these don't necessarily mean happiness at work (although they all do sound quite appealing)

I think that the lifestyle is something that isn't carefully considered by a lot of people, and I personally believe that it is one of the most important factors. I again, count myself lucky to be based in London Stansted; I live at the doorstep to London, where the vast majority of my closest friends are, and I only need to drive an hour and a half further out to see my family and girlfriend. The 5/4 roster makes all of this an ideal situation. But the same can't be said if you have a family at home, and you need to suddenly move away with no idea of when you can expect to return. This is unfortunately all part of the deal. Unless you are very lucky, then you are going to have to accept that being away for extended periods of time, or even relocating permanently is a necessity.

I've met a lot of naysayers, and some extremely negative people already in this industry. You don't exactly need to dig far on pprune to find some horrendous testimonials. For me, I can only think about the positives: The learning and experience building is unrivalled, the roster is great, I get to see my closest friends and family regularly. But most importantly, I have a job!
It's very easy for people to get bogged down and focus on the negative aspects, so much so that they forget how far they've come, and what they've achieved so far. 

I would always say to people that I speak to at open days that this isn't something that anyone should do unless they really want to do this. This isn't a case of just having a go. A lot of sacrifices need to be made, from the moment that first deposit is handed to your Flight Training Organisation, to the day you retire will be years of perseverance. This isn't a debt, it's a mortgage. If you really are passionate enough for the job, then you will deal with any of the challenges thrown your way.

When you do make it through, make up your own mind about how things are. Don't ever let another person tell you how it is, or how it should be. Have an open mind, and enjoy the ride. In either case, whether you like how things are or not, it's all about getting your foot through the door in the beginning. And like with any job, the more experience you get, the more valuable you will become in the long run, and that will only be a good thing. 

Regardless of the politics behind this industry, we can all agree that everything is worth it when you get to experience views like this:

It's all worth it

Good luck and stay positive.

A Day In the Life Of...

Alarm blasts off at 04:00Z, on goes the uniform (usually after a 5 minute snooze) I escape downstairs to the bathroom, brush my teeth, splash my face, gel my hair and apply some moisturiser (very important before spending the day in a 0% humidity pressurised tube). I then pour myself a glutinous portion of Nature Valley Cereal, accompanied by a strong coffee, and then sit myself down to eat in front of BBC news 24, or sometimes Sky News to mix things up. I check the weather at Stansted and my destination(s) and alternates for the day, this makes my day a lot less stressful. Once I'm done with my morning routine, I check, double, triple, and quadruple check that I have all that I need, being the work iPad, ID, licence, passport and food that I have prepared the night before, and it's out the door and into my car for the 10 minute drive to the Airport.

After a violent battle to find a parking space, followed by a groping at security, I finally make it to the crew room. I search on a computer to find out where my aircraft is, then sign a register where I also find out my workstation. It is then an Assassin's Creed style walk through the room to find my assigned work station, where I meet the Captain and Cabin Crew. First Officers usually get there first to do all of the paperwork. Personally, I like to leave at least an hour a half just so that I can look through everything and relax before the Captain arrives. The ultimate goal after checking the flight plan, weather and NOTAMs is to decide on the amount of fuel to take. Potential go-arounds and extra holding fuel need to be considered and discussed with the Captain when he/she arrives.

The calm before the storm

We then introduce ourselves to the cabin crew and brief them about the day ahead. After a concise discussion and sometimes a few jokes, it's a brisk walk to the aircraft, which can be conveniently parked outside the crew room, or if you are really lucky, a cross-continental hike to the other side of the airport through wind, rain, sleet, snow.

From the moment we jump on board, it is all go go go. I usually start the day as Pilot Flying, which means that I will do the preflight checks in the flight deck for the first sector. The Captain (Pilot Monitoring) will perform the exterior inspection. Once he's satisfied that the aircraft is airworthy, he makes his way back to the flight deck for me to brief him on the departure and we complete the Before Start Checklist together.

Once all the checks have been completed, and the doors are closed, I grab push and start clearance. Upon our clearance for push and start, the Captain will then liaise with the ground crew to ensure the tug is connected and the pushback can commence.

As the aircraft is pushing back, we begin the elegant process of waking up engine no.2 then no.1 in sequence. There's always a sense of empowerment in being able to start a couple of 26,000lb powered pieces of incredible engineering. 
Once push back is complete, the captain sets the parking brake and clears the ground crew to disconnect the tug, and once clear we begin the Before Taxi Procedure and Checklist. I then call for taxi clearance and we're rolling away.

Eventually we get to the holding point of our departure runway. At some point after a short wait behind departing and/or arriving traffic, we are cleared by tower to line up and wait or take off, We simultaneously line up onto the departure runway and complete our Before Takeoff checks. When we are cleared for take off, the Captain hands over control of the thrust levers, and I advance them to an N1 setting that is just above 40%. When both engines have stabilised at the same N1 setting, the Captain calls "stabilised", I then push the TOGA switches and just follow the thrust levers as they advance to the preset take off thrust, feeling the bottom of my seat pushing onto my buttocks. Once take off thrust is set, the Captain calls "Take off thrust set, indications normal" and takes control of the thrust levers while I place both hands on the control column, and feet on the rudders to keep the aircraft on the centreline as it rockets down the runway. Passing 80Kts, the Captain calls "80kts", I respond with "Check", to let him know that our instruments are reading correctly, and that I am still breathing. Once the aircraft reaches V1, the decision speed, the Captain will call "V1", and at Vr, he calls "Rotate", at which point I pull back on the control column, aiming to lift the nose up at a rate of about 2 degrees/second, until the main gear lifts off and we climb away from the earth. From here, it is a busy period of configuring the aircraft, after take-off checks, and a lot of frequency changes and clearances until we are clear of the London TMA. 

The best departures are southbound on a clear winter morning, when the lights of London are clearly visible. Then the climb and crossing over the English Channel, watching the sky turn from red to orange as the sun emerges on the horizon.

During cruise, the Pilot Monitoring will do paperwork on the flight plan, and the Pilot Flying will monitor the aircraft. This is a good time to have some food and drink. It is also a great opportunity to simply admire the glorious views; from clear sunsets and sunrises, to cruising over the snow covered mountain tops of The Alps. This relaxing period of course varies in length. If it is a Stansted to Dublin and back, then there is just about enough time for a sandwich since the cruise period is so short, and even the paperwork needs to be completed in the climb.

Usually at about 100 nautical miles from the Top of Descent, we begin to prepare and brief for our approach to our destination airfield, and of course a nice PA to our passengers. Every airport has its own challenges, some can be straight forward, where you have really helpful ATC, a straight forward arrival with no surprises, and a long runway for that greasy landing. Other times, you could be flying in an area with awful ATC, threats of terrain and obstacles, monsoon-like weather conditions, Non-Precision Approaches, and a runway length which is just within the braking distance required for the aircraft. It is always important to brief the approach, right the way down to the taxi, sometimes even allowing more time to brief if there are a lot of potential threats at the destination.

Approach plate on our electronic flight bag

After a baby smooth landing, its either a short or very long taxi to the stand. Some small airfields, such as Kerry, are a simple 180 degree turn on the runway, then a 10 second taxi to the stand. Some larger airfields like Madrid have a huge taxi route, with multiple frequency changes on the ground. After the engines are shut down on stand, the entire crew is ready to go go go again. Flight deck crews will swap roles between PF and PM to set up the aircraft, and the cabin crew do their magic to disembark, clean, then board the new passengers again.

Everyday is a new experience, and a new challenge. Stansted is the largest base, serving over 180 destinations, so this means that I rarely fly to the same airport more than once in the same month. I still find myself seeing completely new destinations every week, which really does keep my on my toes. For me, I feel truly lucky to have this kind of exposure. The journey continues...

Line Training

After Base Training it was onto the next stage; Line Training. This is where everything begins, where all of our hard work to date is now further expanded on, and where we really become line pilots.

Everyone is given a choice of base for line training. I was fortunate enough to be granted Stansted as my base initially. Not only was this convenient for me (since you have to cover your own living expenses) but it also has the most amount of destination, so the exposure is invaluable.

The training is very well structured. Every cadet is provided with a training file which has a variety of sections that need to be signed off before your line check. Initially, everyone flies with a safety pilot, which is a more experienced First Officer sat in the jump seat to just be there in case you make a mess of things. The minimum required for safety pilot release is 12 sectors, along with certain items to be signed off from the training file. 

There are a broad range of sign off items, such as Altimeter Setting, Approach Speed, Landing and Rollout, and also several important discussion items such as CFIT Awareness and Winter Operations. There is a long and exhaustive list, but it is quite surprising how much can get done in one day of flying. And fortunately I was able to be recommended for my line check at 70 sectors, which took me around a month and a half.

Credit: Artur Bado

The crew room at Stansted can be quite frantic. The 'first wave' as they call it, is what they call the first set of departures which all leave at the same time. So as you can imagine, it's like opening a can of syrup next to an ant's nest. It's all very good learning though, and eventually it's something that everyone adjusts to.

The standard of training at Stansted is remarkable. Although it is just the beginning, I would learn so much yet notice improvements everyday. I really got a full appreciation of how important and effective the SOPs are, and the exposure to the network allowed me to gain experience very quickly. I am very excited about the opportunities and experiences to come.

Base Training

After three glorious weeks of waiting due to a delay in issuing my airside ID, I was finally rostered to do base training back at East Midlands. If you are unfamiliar, base training is essentially where the newbie demonstrates to the man in the left hand seat that they can perform at least six take offs and landings without killing anyone.

Before the big day, every cadet has to do what's called Preliminary Simulator Circuit Training (PSCT), which is an hour in the sim to practice how to fly the B737 in the circuit, pretty straight forward, but at the same time important to get right so that you get the most out of base training. There is a requirement to do base training within 21 days of the PSCT, which is exactly what I had to do. It was fine by me really, since even my incredible flying abilities do deteriorate after a few weeks without flying.

The day I almost flew

The base training is usually done in groups of five cadets. On the left hand seat is the Base Training Captain, who guides you and makes sure that nobody dies, and a First Officer who acts as a safety pilot in the jump seat, and is also there to ensure that nobody dies. The first day was unsuccessful, owing to some rather miserable conditions. The second day, we reported back to the training centre for our second attempt, with even worse weather conditions. However, Il Capitano decided to take us up to Prestwick where the weather was surprisingly better.

Base training was the single greatest hour of my life. Even as I write this, I can clearly remember l how amazing every aspect of the flight was, from advancing the thrust levers for take off, to manually flying the thing down the glide path and touching down. This is also the first day where everyone gets to put on their shiny new uniform, which made me feel a lot more professional.

It was remarkable how much easier the aircraft was to fly in comparison to the simulator. In the sim, you only really need to breathe on the controls when making the corrections to remain stable during an approach, but in the aircraft, you really get to man handle it to get it to do what you need, and this makes it more forgiving. The simulators are generally designed to be more sensitive, so the transition is much easier.

The next stage for me and my fellow comrades was a visit to Airline's newly built head offices in Dublin for a wings ceremony. Apparently this is quite a new thing for pilots who have just completed their type rating or operator conversion course. It is pretty cool getting to see it, and it does make you feel a sense of achievement, as well as being part of a humongous company.

After the HQ visit, it was onto the supernumerary (SNY) flights. Before being rostered for line training, every Low Hour First Officer has to complete at least 12 sectors of these SNYs, which is simply sitting in the jumpseat as an observer in order to familarise with the operations of line flying. These are very useful as it is the chance to practice radio calls, do the paperwork, and even getting to do the preflight setup and shut down in the flight deck. I see it as a way to ease everyone into the line training, without directly throwing people in at the deep end, so it is in everyone's interest to get as much out of these flights as possible.


I'll be posting my next update as soon as I can, in the meantime good luck with whatever you are doing, and happy flying!

Type Rating

I know it must have been tough to wait such a long time for another post from me. Well the good news is that I am back! And now I am fortunate enough to have a little time off in order to update you all on my latest endeavours. 

As you may or may not know, I was fortunate enough to be accepted onto Ryanair's Type Rating Programme, and started on the 26th January 2015.

The first introductory week takes place in sunny East Midlands Training Centre, and covers admin and paperwork, plus SEP (Safety and Emergency Procedures) in the classroom, which includes dangerous goods, smoke and fire equipment. We were also the first Type Rating class to be provided with iPads as an EFB (Electronic Flight bag), which has something to do with saving loads of paper and trees, and also made me feel rather cool and down with the kids. There are also three tests that take place, but all are relatively straight forward as long as you pay attention. The last day of this week was actually held at Stansted, this was where we did the final two tests and learned how to operate the doors and slides, and yes we could have a go on the slide! Shame we don't get to exit like that more often. Overall the SEP week is pretty relaxed and interesting, with a lot of important lessons to be learned. 

Like being a kid again Like being a kid again

After the intro it was over to CAE Amsterdam (which is actually in a town called Hoofddorp) for the ground school and simulator sessions. Before the start of ground school, everyone in the type rating class is assigned a simulator partner to form a crew. The simulator partners or crews would then have to work with each other during the simulator sessions right up to and including the LST (License Skill Test).

The technical ground school lasted around two and half weeks, covering the B737NG systems, performance and Ryanair's SOPs, which are taught both on CBTs (Computer Based Training) and in the classroom. There is an incredible amount of material to get through, and the learning curve is pretty much like a learning vertical wall that starts curving backwards. The way that I structured the learning during this stage, was to spend up until around 17:00 during the weekdays completing the CBTs and necessary reading, and then staying behind with my flying partner for an extra couple of hours to learn the memory flows in the B737 mock-ups. 

After two and a half weeks of intense studying, revision and various tests, it was the end of technical ground school, and of course a couple of days to relax and do some sightseeing around Amsterdam, of which there are many interesting sights. Of course, as is the case in any kind of flight training, time off is very short lived and it is back to more studying and preparation.

Amsterdam by day and night

The training centre at CAE Amsterdam is open 24 hours a day, and provides students with bookable mock-ups, an FMC trainer room, and most importantly a machine that provides free coffee and hot chocolate. I was fortunate enough to be with a flying partner who was also willing to do a lot of preparation for the simulator sessions to come.

B737 mock up, you'll be practically living here

The simulator sessions are split into fixed base and full flight sessions. The fixed base sessions are pretty self-explanatory; you are in the simulator that doesn't move, and the main focus here is to learn all of the profiles and procedures according to Ryanair's SOPs, and how to deal with non-normals and emergencies, so there really isn't much hand flying apart from the take offs and occasional landing. After ten fixed base sessions, it is then onto the full flight sessions. This is where the motion is switched on and of course where it starts to become really awesome. 

The simulators at CAE are CAT D, which means it has six axis or something like that. They are simply amazing; you can even feel the runway centreline lights! The full flight sessions focus more on the handling of the aircraft, with a lot of single engine work, along with continued practice with emergencies and non-normals. As fun as these sessions are, they can get mentally exhausting at times, especially when it came to the single engine work. These sessions last four hours split between PF and PM time, with the starting PF usually getting more flying time.

Simulators at CAE

All of these sessions lead to something, and that something is the extremely long and stressful LST! I'm joking; it's not really that bad. The course prepares the students very well, and the teaching quality is phenomenal so the cadets usually make it without any problems. There are also several progress tests along the way to ensure that everyone is performing at the required standard. You will be extremely happy to know that we successfully passed our LST!

If I were to gauge the difficulty level of the Type Rating, I would say that it was intense, but very doable if you put the time in and plan your studies and preparation efficiently. For me the first week was particularly difficult because of the sheer volume of work, however soon after I found my stride. The next spike in difficulty was the preparation for the first fixed base sessions, but here it was just a case of going over procedures and profiles in the mock-up a million times. After learning the flows and profiles, it was just a case of learning how to deal with emergencies and correct QRH reading. As time went on, I felt more comfortable with the procedures, which helped me relax as I progressed through the course. 

B737NG Flight Deck

I want to stress the importance of sitting in the mock ups and going through the profiles and procedures with your simulator partner, both of you have the job so you may as well help each other get through. All of the early preparation on the Type Rating is only going to make life easier towards the end and even during Line Training. If you are fortunate enough to have all of your Type Rating in Amsterdam, then do make use of the FMC trainer to familiarise with the setups and briefings. Another word of advice for the Type Rating is to sleep, loads and loads of sleep! Forget the cramming you did up until 01:00 during ATPL ground school, it is much more important to relax during the evenings (or mornings if you have a late sim) than to continually hammer at it when you are exhausted. This is particularly the case for the full flight sessions; you really want to be fully charged if you are going to sit in that rocking white box for four hours at a time. 

My time during the Type Rating was challenging, but also very rewarding and enjoyable. I mean, I've learned how to fly a Boeing 737! The next stage is for me is Base Training, so stay tuned for my next instalment in this incredibly epic blog.

Is Newer Better?

During my time in flight training, I had this rather unique opportunity. OAA currently have a mix of new and old aircraft in their fleet as they make a transition over the space of several months to completely replace their aging Warriors and Senecas. So me and my fellow classmates were in a rather unique and somewhat interesting position; we all started on a Piper Archer TX which for those that don’t know, is completely glass cockpit, and doesn’t even have standby instruments! And after completing our required single engine hours in the Archer TX, we had the option to move onto either a Seneca II, or a new Piper Seminole (glass cockpit) for our CPL Skills Test. Since I knew that I would definitely be flying the rather aged Seneca IIs back in the UK for my Advanced Flight Training, the Seneca II was a no brainer. It was a rather shaky start to begin with, and to be honest, I didn't really perfect my instrument scan until I got back to the UK.

With the Garmin G1000 system, you have everything you need directly in front of you, with this magical purple diamond, which shows your magnetic track, and therefore no drift correction is required. On the right screen you have the MFD which can show an array of parameters such as:

• Up to date Jeppesen Navigation data
• Traffic Alert
• Terrain data
• Engine indications

All the information you need as a pilot is only ever a glance away. The positive of having this set up is of course the ease of use, the workload is severely reduced, and although we weren't supposed to, that purple diamond we had on the PFD was always used to indicate immediately whether we were drifting off a planned track. Also, learning in a glass cockpit closely matches the environment that we will/may step into once we land our first job in an airline.

There are cons to this approach though, for instance the over-reliance on the instruments, particularly when using the track diamond on the PFD and the traffic alerting system on the MFD. When I used to fly around in the practice area, it was very easy to reduce the amount of traffic reports on frequency and just assume that you are safe by seeing where the traffic was on this lovely nice display. This problem became much more pronounced for me when I made the transition from the shiny new Archer TX, to the prehistoric Seneca II. For those that don’t know, the Seneca II has been in production since 1971, so as you can imagine, it did smell, and there were quite a few INOP placards stuck around the flight deck. A lot more needs to be thought about, especially since all of the dials are now completely different with their own source to show the necessary information. Then you have the fact that there are absolutely no indications of air traffic, your eyes are the traffic alerting system.

I found it more difficult to go from glass to steam gauges because your eyes pretty much go from being used to staring in a small area, to suddenly needing to look all over the place. 

Piper Seneca V - The New

Piper Seneca II - The Old

Eventually all the large FTOs (Flight Training Organisations) around the world will clear out their aging aircraft to make way for a fleet of newer ones, which will be easier to fly. I do however feel to some extent that this eventual transition paints a pretty sad picture, in that the art of aviation is slowly beginning to disappear. Take the Diamond DA42 – Twinstar, it is one of the most advanced training aircraft in the world, which is not only glass cockpit, but also has a FADEC (Full Authority Digital Engine Control) system which alleviates any need to prime, do engine run, prop cycle etc.

Whilst having a glass cockpit and FADEC system is all good for saving time and thus money, and even preparing us a bit more for the airliner roles, I do believe that it runs the risk of taking away certain skills that our aviating ancestors were so incredible at. When I prime an engine, cycle propellers and check the mags, it reinforces what I learned in ground school. The same applies in the air; I know that when I get to cruising speed, I take the props from 2400RPM to 2200RPM because it makes the propellers more efficient at that speed. Even when making the mixture more lean or rich when climbing or descending to adjust for air density. And going back to the instruments, I know that if my planned drift doesn't work on a route or in a hold, then I have to do a bit of mental dead reckoning. Even having to sync the RPMs together manually by ear was a satisfying feeling on it's own. All of this comes together to make flying a true art form.

I seem a little sentimental, I guess you could compare it to the same way I hate how many cars are being released now with electronic handbrakes. Yes the crusty Seneca II smelt funny, and yes some of the instruments were slightly inaccurate, but that's the magic of it, sometimes it became about feeling the aircraft as you flew it. 

The newer tools will be great for future cadets, and I do want to make it clear that I don't want to slate the large FTOs since it is in their interest to keep up with their competitors. However for the reasons already stated, I do really hope that the large FTOs around the world continue to create pilots with the same airmanship, and for newer cadets to take responsibility so that they do not become over-reliant on these newer toys. I do feel though that the newer generation will miss out on something.

Employed!

On the morning of 7th October 2014, I was informed that I had my efforts on my Ryanair Assessment had been successful, and that in January 2015 I would begin my Type Rating with CAE on the Boeing 737-800!

The start of the application process with OAA is rather straight forward. As an integrated student, I was able to simply submit my CV, IR, CPL and Ground School Exam Certificates to the careers department who would then send them onto the airline (it's actually CAE who conduct the initial recruitment process). Around three days later I was informed by email that I would need to go through a telephone interview. I received a call on the next week, which wasn't really an interview, more them asking questions about my licenses, total hours, number of ATPL exam attempts etc. So after this, I was granted an assessment date at a place called Simtech, near Dublin Airport.

The process from here onward then suddenly increases speed to Mach 2; the payment for the interview needs to be made rather quickly, and in my case, it was by the next morning. Then you are responsible for your own travel and accommodation, so that has to be booked quickly. And then there is the paperwork side of it; application form along with several written references, updated CV, and Flight Training Report. Of course, this was all completed without a hitch and I was ready to go. 

They recommended a hotel called the Metro which is located around a 15 minute shuttle bus journey away from Simtech, so this was where I stayed. I arrived into Dublin at 15:10 and was checking into the Hotel at around 16:15, which gave me plenty of time to settle in and relax before the most important day of my life.

My luxurious room

The hotel isn't bad, however the area is a bit strange in that the view from my room were some stables on one side, a retail park on another and a sort of nice looking council estate further round. The room itself was pretty nice, although the TV looked like something my family had in the early 90s (not that I'd be watching much TV).

Eventually I needed some food, and fortunately as I was in the hotel restaurant, chowing down on my lamb hotpot, I managed to spot a German guy (who I didn't know was German at the time) and asked him if he was also at the Ryanair Assessment, to which he replied yes. So after initial introductions, he informed me that he had already met a few others who were also doing the assessment, and that they had already arranged a meeting later that evening. Of course I went down later to have a mingle since it seemed a good idea for us to all get comfortable before the assessment, and they all seemed like very nice guys who all came from different flying academies. After a small discussion about the next day, we headed up to get an early night.

The next day, we all met up for breakfast, and we all seemed rather relaxed which definitely made eating the breakfast easier. I ordered just the Continental which only includes the cold stuff, since I wasn't really a fan of how dry and frazzled the bacon looked. After stuffing my face with a few croissants, and washing it down with coffee I was ready and we made our way to the shuttle bus.

The shuttle bus dropped us off at around 08:15 at Simtech, which is pretty much in an industrial park in the middle of nowhere. The place is also a training centre for Cityjet and Aer Lingus so there are a few other people there just doing their Type Ratings and MCC courses. The people there are really friendly and let you their drink tea and coffee etc, so straight away I felt at ease.

Inside Simtech

The day starts just after 09:00 with a brief about the sim and Health and Safety. The guy makes it clear at the beginning that they’re there to take all of us, and that if they say no it’s nothing personal as they have a responsibility of not making people waste €28,500 on a type rating when they aren't confident that they’ll make it, which is a fair comment. After the introduction and Health & Safety brief, we were all provided with a departure and approach plate for the sim, and here we were put into pairs. On my day they put people who had previously flown a 737 sim for their MCC with people who had never flown it. After that, we were briefed quite thoroughly about the sim; what was required, power settings and even some useful tips about the departure and approaches that we'd be doing, which was a lot more than I was expecting.

Afterwards we all went downstairs in a classroom where we all briefed each other on the sim, I was up first with my flying partner and I went first as PF. The sim itself is fixed base, and is supposed to represent the Boeing 737-800, however the general handling of the aircraft was tough, and I found it particularly difficult to get the thing in trim. At first I was doing well to keep the aircraft within +/-200ft. That said, by the time I'd finished the departure, I did get pretty used to it, and the assessor does make allowances.

The sim didn't bring any surprises really; SID, speed changes, climbing and descending, entry into the hold, emergency in the hold, followed by a procedural ILS (which turned into a LOC only) to land. It is a very busy time, so teamwork here is vital. I was a bit more current than my flying partner, who had also done his MCC on a different aircraft, so I had to do a bit more in the way of leading the flight. The emphasis here is on CRM, especially since they know that the sim is rather difficult to control, they want to see that their cadets do what they can to work and help each other.

Immediately after the sim, my flying partner went up for his interview, giving me around half an hour to eat a few snacks from the vending machine and catch my breath a bit.

My time eventually came, and soon enough I was escorted into the interview room by my sim assessor who was also one of my interviewers that day. The Interview Workshop which OAA run for all of their integrated students played a huge role in the success of this interview, as I found many of the techniques useful here. To some who are inexperienced, it can seem intimidating at first, and I say this because there is this kind of good cop, bad cop feel to it. Looking back on it, it's pretty obvious that all they were trying to do here was to see if I could put up with the pressure that they piled on. 

As surprising as it sounds, I rather enjoyed the day, and I left the assessment centre feeling rather satisfied with how everything went, all that was left at that point was to wait two weeks for an outcome.

Preparation is the key to any interview. I started preparing pretty much soon after I had moved home from Oxford (3 months), which involved reading through my OAA Principles of Flight and Performance books, Ace the Technical Pilot Interview, Handling the Big Jets, and a host of feedback questions which were supplied by the school. However I would say that the most important part of that interview is how you come across as a person, and although that may seem like common sense, it is the most important lesson of the interview workshop and I think something that is often overlooked when preparing for an airline interview. When I prepared for the HR style questions, I had written out and practiced out loud my answers so many times that I was dreaming them. Sound mental? Maybe, since I had prepared to the point where I thought I was going to go insane. But it made my interview quite enjoyable as I was able to just naturally fire out the answers that they were looking for, and it also landed me the job. The interview also costs £260 plus expenses, so I don't really need to emphasize here that you want to make sure that you succeed!

It is also particularly important to note, especially for the Ryanair assessment that the end of school report (which every flight school should write) is probably one of the most important assets a cadet can have with them in that interview. I remember Mr Bad Cop having a thorough read through mine before he started asking me questions, so it pays dividends to really put in the work throughout the course.

And that's the end of one chapter and the exciting beginning to another with many more tales to tell. Words cannot describe how excited I am to know that in a few months, I will truly be living out my dream of becoming an airline pilot. Stay tuned, because there is a lot more to come...