Pre-Flight Checklist

Normally when you do the APP First Officer course, you only get a week off between the end of Ground School and foundation flight training. However this year, many of the classes (including mine) have been delayed by 5 weeks due to a combination of problems, the main reason being the move to our new airfield, which is Falcon Field in Mesa, Arizona. The move is a good thing overall since we will have our own maintenance facilities, rather than having to share with Lufthansa (which is what they do in Goodyear) so that means a big reduction in delays. It also means that we get brand new aircraft all with air conditioning, and as you may know, this will be essential for us returning alive from the soaring temperatures in Phoenix.

New toys for us

At first it was a bit strange to go from studying a full 12-16 hours a day, to suddenly having every hour in the day free to do whatever I please. As well as rewarding myself with some absolutely incredible lie ins, I have nevertheless managed to keep myself busy for the most part. For the majority of the time I've been helping my parents out in their business, which is a Chinese Take-Away. So if you happen to be around Broadstairs then drop by the May King for some fantastic food! 

I am admittedly a bit of a rocker, and if you like me play an instrument then you will know that no other feeling compares with playing your instrument of choice, and mine is the Electric Guitar. I own an Ibanez RG, which in English is a guitar built for heavy rock and metal. The feeling of picking it up and playing it takes me back to being 17 years old again when Punk Rock and Nu-Metal was huge in the late 90s.

At Wireless 2013

Whilst we're on the subject of music I also had the opportunity to head to the Yahoo! Wireless Festival with a few friends, which was probably the highlight of my holiday. I love my music and the atmosphere of a live performance. It was pretty spectacular seeing Calvin Harris and Jay-Z live! If you haven't been before then I would highly recommend going when the festival is back in London again next year.

I have also had an essay to do for Bucks New University, which count towards a foundation degree in Airline Transport Management. The essay was quite interesting and valuable for helping me learn greater depth of what is happening in the aviation industry today. For instance the first essay was a report on the changeable nature of the industry, so it was quite interesting to learn about the economical factors linked to the increasing passenger numbers and decreasing cargo output. 

I have of course had to spend some much needed time doing some of the more boring stuff like: planning out my budget for when I'm in Arizona (I'll let you know how that actually goes) and sorting out bits and pieces like currency exchange and a travel currency card.

Most recently, I took the opportunity to help out for the OAA open day, which I talk about in great detail in the previous post. Over that same weekend I ended up covering 455 miles, made even more painful from the fact that my car has a non working 6th gear, meaning at 70mph my car is screaming at 4000rpm, which doesn't really help the fuel economy. 

My route over the weekend

The problem these days is that the majority of my friends do shift work so it's almost impossible to get everyone together at the same time. It also doesn't help now the fact that I'm staying with my parents who live quite a way from London. But since It was my last weekend to really catch up with everyone and since I was already doing the school open day, I thought it would have been a good opportunity to see everyone along the way.

Admiring the O2

When I first heard about the news of our delay I was a bit disappointed mainly because I wanted to keep the rhythm of training continuous, however after the break that I've had, I'm feeling quite glad now that I've actually had time to catch up with friends and even though I've been working, it's been great to spend valuable time with my family before starting a new life away five months. It's also been a great time to reflect on everything so far and fully take in the fact that I'll soon be given the responsibility of being in command of an aircraft. I think deep down, that last bit is something that I think still deeply worries my parents!

So that's it, tomorrow I'll be flying out from Heathrow to Phoenix Sky Harbor to finally start my lifelong goal of flying. I really can't wait for what's to come; the sunshine, the planes, the swimming pool, and doing many other American stuff like firing guns at a shooting range and hiring pointlessly big muscle cars. I hear so many great stories from students who have come back from their foundation flying, now it's my turn to go and come back with some amazing stories of my own.

I'll be sure to update my Arizona experience whenever I get the time. If there's anything you want to know about the course or if you have some feedback, then don't feel afraid to send me a message or comment and I'll help out wherever I can. In the meantime take care, and enjoy the summer! 

School Open Day and Pilot Not Flying

On Saturday 20th July I offered my services to the OAA open day. Since it was the first time I'd done it, I thought I would share my experience of it. For those who aren't aware, the school usually does an open day every month. It's an opportunity not only for the school to show off the facilities, but also for the potential candidates to come and get many of their questions answered about the course and the school. 

I wanted to do the open day because this time last year, I was in the same position as all of these guys. Since I'd only just successfully completed ground school, it was obvious that the best place for me to place my expertise was in Ground Training which was situated in the main exam room.

Looks like a lonely day ahead!

As you can see in the table above, there was space for a few more volunteers but it wasn't really much of a problem at the beginning of the day. I spent a good hour in Ground Training talking to families and many young hopefuls about my experience and what to expect of ground school. It was nice to see how enthusiastic some of these people were, and it was a great feeling to be able to share my experiences and to actually be in a position to give valuable advice to them. 

From about 11:00 onwards I was put on rotation for making sure people crossed the airfield zebra crossing safely. Admittedly it wasn't as interesting as being in Ground Training, however safety is vital and since they were pretty short on volunteers that day, I had to make sure that people weren't wandering off and into some live propellers, which wouldn't have done much good for OAA's reputation. I rotated crossing duty with two other Easyjet MPL cadets who were on the CRJ-200 simulator. The lady who was leading the open day had very kindly arranged for me to have a go on the simulator at the end of the day! 

When someone took my place on the crossing, I would be in the CRJ simulator talking to groups of visitors and watching other students perform some STARs and ILS approaches which was fascinating to see. I also met a few more Easyjet MPL cadets and an instructor who was with them at the time, so it was a very good opportunity to find out about them and what they did.

Couple of Easyjet MPL guys on the CRJ-200

Being responsible for the crossing wasn't all bad, I did manage to get the opportunity to shout at a few people who did decide to wander dangerously off the path, but more importantly I still managed to offer some advice to people who were walking past. I remember meeting a guy from London, who is in a similar position as I was where he is currently working, saved up the money over a few years, and is ready to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming an airline pilot. When he told me his story it reminded me about how I was before I started at OAA, about how excited and enthusiastic I felt, and it also made me appreciate that I've passed all of the exams and that in a few days I'll be flying over to Arizona to do what I've been longing to do since I was 8 years old. Best of luck to him. 

At about 14:45 I got the all clear to shut the gate to the crossing, I then dashed over the the simulator where I was soon offered the chance to have a go! I sat on the left hand seat and acted as 'pilot not flying' with an Easyjet MPL cadet on the right as the 'pilot flying'. Behind us was another Easyjet cadet who briefed me on what to do as PNF. It was an interesting experience particularly since I'd never even considered what it was like to be the PNF prior to this occasion. It was a pretty steep learning curve for me since the last time I was on that simulator was on my skills assessment, and even then I didn't use any of the buttons or nobs. I did end up having to ask him to guide me for much of the flight time.

Acting as the PNF was an amazing experience, I got to do the checklist, speed call outs on take off, and setting the required speed and headings on the MCP for the PF. It was also a remarkable feeling to know that much of the theory that I had covered in ground school came back to me, which definitely made much of what I was doing a lot more relevant.

I think the most important thing that I took away from the experience was just how vital it is to monitor as the PNF. It's fairly simple to follow headings and speeds as a PF, however it is a different skill and at times very difficult to spot if the PF is making any mistakes. As the PNF It is important to make the PF aware of corrections that need to be made, as well as being able to monitor the other parameters that are presented in front of you.

It was a shame that due to the lack of volunteers I wasn't able to stay in Ground Training because I was quite passionate about sharing my experiences and offering advice to the new hopefuls and their families that were there. Nevertheless the day went very smoothly and from what I gather, all of the visitors had a great time. The day also reminded me of how much there is yet to learn in this profession, and that thought alone is exciting. A successful day altogether.

Emirates Aviation Experience

The other day I had the pleasure of visiting the new Emirates Aviation Experience in North Greenwich so I'd like to share what I thought about the whole thing. So what is it exactly? I only really found out about it last week from a news article.

The experience offers an insight into the wonders of modern commercial air travel. As the name suggests, it was Emirates who funded the £4million attraction. It opened on Friday 5th July 2013, costs £3 to enter for adults and £1.50 for children. They also have a Boeing 777-300ER, and an Airbus A380-800 Simulator, which costs £45 if you want to have a go for half an hour (£35 before 10am). Since I used to work in simulation and knowing what the going hourly rates are for these things, the additional cost for a ride doesn't surprise me.

The experience is next to the North Greenwich Airline Station, which are the cable cars linking the O2 Arena and the ExCeL London. Me and a couple of friends arrived by car and parked in the O2 Arena car park which is actually right next to the Aviation Experience. The only thing with this is that the parking charges are ridiculous, it cost us £5 for an hour and I believe it goes up to something astronomical after 2 hours. Otherwise the best way is probably via North Greenwich tube station which is also very close-by.

The attraction has a few cool things for the customers to play about with, most of which is educational. The first thing we played around with was the interactive Principles of Flight screen, where you had an animated aerofoil with air particles. You could adjust the shape of the aerofoil and the speed of the air and see how efficient or inefficient you were making it in real time, which was pretty fun and I think very useful in helping people to understanding the theory behind flying. My friends tried giving me a hard time by asking how it all worked, but fortunately I managed to sound clever and dug out all of that good stuff about Bernoulli's principle from ground school.

Changing the shape of the aerofoil

Brings back memories of Ground School

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On top of the principles of flight screens there is a 1:2 scale replica of a Rolls Royce Trent 800 engine made entirely of Lego. I have to say, this thing is a masterpiece and I salute whoever made it, even more impressively the fan blades actually move!

Spinning blades

From the side-ish

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There was also a cool video presentation which shows how the luggage is transported from when they're checked in to entering the cargo hold along with some interesting facts being flashed up through out the video such as the distance the baggage travels.

This luggage has travelled further than I have in the past few months

Baggage about to fly

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The main attraction for me was the 777 and A380 simulators upstairs. It didn't really make sense for me to pay for a half hour ride in these sims since I've already paid a considerable amount of money towards my training anyway, of which will consist of training in a 737 sim during my MCC. Nevertheless I asked the person who was supervising if I could have a sit down on the 777 sim to get some pictures. It's quite a feeling to sit there and think that one day (hopefully) I'll be in this seat for real, so I did savour those few minutes.

On the 777 Sim

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The only criticism I have of the attraction is that it is a bit short on content, and I'm not sure if the general public would really appreciate what Emirates are trying to show here. It isn't something that's worth travelling a long distance for, since you can't really spend more than an hour there, however there is plenty to do in the area with it being right next to the O2 Arena so it would be wise to make it part of a day out. When I went, there were pretty much only 3 other people who came in after us, all of which left before we did so I'd say a bit more advertising is needed. For me it was a great experience since I am naturally an aviation enthusiast, and both of my friends enjoyed it too. If you like your planes then I would recommend a little visit if you're around London.

Check out the rest of the photos:

Excuse the pillar

A380 from upstairs

Economy class seats

 

Hologram of an A380 in flight

A380 at the gates

Attitude Problem?

What I want to write about here is how my attitude has changed throughout my life and how it can help some of you think about whether or not you are ready to get into flying commercially.

Back when I was an infant I was tough to control. I remember being sent home and suspended from primary and secondary school on several occasions. I was very easily distracted, and when I was in secondary school I had a big problem fitting into a particular friends circle. I wasn't the best at talking to others and I had a massive problem with self-esteem at the time. As I mentioned before, my GCSE and A-level grades were rubbish and I'm pretty sure that my parents were thinking about giving up on me.

This was me for about 15 years

As I grew up, my parents were pretty strict on me, my father in particular. They had come from very tough beginnings. There was even a point in their childhood where they couldn't even afford shoes, and my father had lost his parents when he was very young, so they had to grow up much faster than I did. This meant that they always had something to say about me, and naturally I was a bit of a handful. Sorry mum and dad!

The start of University was when things started changing for the better. I chose Kingston University in particular because I really enjoyed the mix of different backgrounds. I said to myself that I would try to hang out with as many people as possible. I ended up meeting a wide variety of people, most of whom were absolutely amazing and 10 years on, many of them are still my best friends today, and it's an experience that greatly changed my behaviour in different social situations. This was also the point where my attitude changed with my studying, I suddenly started to knuckle down and get a lot of work done. This was a stark contrast to how I was several years before!

When I became more independent and started dealing with problems on my own I suddenly realised that there was no short cut to life. I started to realise why my parents were strict on me and realise how fortunate I was to even have the privilege of higher education. The problem was that I couldn't accept that you needed to work hard to be successful. I wanted things there and then, I didn't want to drive from A to B using the roads, I wanted to plow through the buildings and people. Now of course, this doesn't apply to everyone, it wasn't like everyone else in school did as bad as I did, the majority in fact got very good grades and went to good Universities. Everyone is different, and some people (like me) do take longer to mature.

After graduating from Kingston, I went onto work at XPI Simulation for just over five years as a 3D Modeller. This really helped me in terms of working and behaving in a professional environment. All of the work here was project based and at times involved a lot of pressure with deadlines, so naturally I learned how to keep calm and get the task done whilst at the same time, keeping things smooth with my colleagues.

When I went for my skills assessment at Oxford Aviation Academy, I realised that had I tried to do between the age of 18 to about 22, I would have failed it miserably, and they probably would have told me to to wake up and stop dreaming.

At this stage I can't give a 100% guarantee that I'll make it through training and get a job (though I will stay optimistic) What I can say though is if you are indeed thinking about making a big move and taking a risk of going into flight school to seriously consider not only your collateral, but how you are as a person. For me, I knew the time was right, not only because I had saved a sufficient amount of money, but also because I felt that I had finally gone through enough of my own challenges to make me responsible and wise enough.

This is how I see myself in a couple of years...

I will probably want to change most of what I've written here as I progress through my training since my experiences are always changing. What I can confidently say now though is that ground school requires serious discipline (read my blog post on Ground School) It is not something you can approach if you simply have the passion, you need to also responsible for your own actions and be incredibly disciplined. The training is relentless, and you need to be not only up to the task, but also demonstrate the ability to deal with the stress effectively and set your priorities properly. This is particularly important when you begin your actual flying and even more important when you start flying with passengers.

Be consciously aware of your mistakes, and don't be ashamed to admit them. Self-improvement doesn't just apply in Aviation, it applies in all aspects of life, and this is how I made it onto this journey that I'm currently embarking on.