I'm writing this entry with about half my brain switched on, after
waking up at 4.30am and reporting at Heathrow at 6am for a four-hour
Operator Proficiency Check in the simulator. As the title suggests I am
now working for an airline as a first officer complete with uniform,
salary (finally!) and
almost all the training completed.
The
six weeks since my last post and we have been kept so busy I have not
had the time or energy to write anything up. Yet despite the lack of
updates, this blog has now been read over 50,000 times, a frighteningly
large figure which I can only attribute to continuing public fascination
with aviation rather than any skill on my part. I feel I owe my readers
an quick insight at the very least.
Type rating part II
 |
| One of CTC's Airbus simulators outside... |
The simulator phase of our type rating course in
Southampton went smoothly thanks in no small part to the hard work of my
flying buddy. Each detail is an action-packed four hour lesson with an
hour and a half briefing and an hour debriefing, plus homework.
As
simulator time is expensive a lot of material is crammed in to each
lesson. As well as covering all the items necessary for the generic type
rating test at the end of the course, the syllabus includes training
for low visibility procedures and British Airways operating procedures
and call-outs.
Thankfully we didn't find the Airbus a difficult aircraft to
fly,
at least in terms of manual handling. The clever fly-by-wire
architecture and control laws means the aircraft will magically hold the
flight path you have set once the stick is released and only tiny
inputs are needed to keep it on track. It trims automatically so there
are no control loads, and the instrumentation is superb both enabling
and encouraging very accurate flying.
 |
| ...and inside. |
But really the line pilot's job involves very little manual flying and a lot of aircraft management.
Managing the Airbus is not so easy.
A
simple aircraft only has one level of control — manual flying. Large
and more complex machines will generally have two — manual and
automatic, where basic data like heading and altitude can be set on some
sort of autopilot.
The Airbus has three different levels of control.
Manual, selected (like a conventional autopilot) and managed, which is
more of a strategic long-term control level.
Managed
control is mostly set up before take-off and gives the aircraft some
autonomy to select speeds and calculate descent points in the interests
of economy. It makes life easy for the pilots while everything is going
to plan, but when things change reprogramming can be complex and
distracting. Using the right level of control at the right time is key,
in fact Airbus call it a 'golden rule'.
 |
| Sorry. Pilot joke. |
The type rating
is focussed much more on abnormal and emergency situations than
day-to-day flying. On the Airbus, most but not all of these events are
dealt with with help from the aircraft's own Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitor (ECAM) which prompts which steps are required to deal
with the situation.
But some situations require a quick
response from memory, some are not detected by the ECAM and others are
done with reference to the paper manual instead. Again it's a complex
system designed to make the job easier, which mostly succeeds but also
causes a lot of complex repercussions. In fact that last sentence, in a
nutshell is my summary of the Airbus!
We had twelve
four-hour simulator sessions covering everything from manual flying to
low visibility operations, non-precision approaches to engine fires,
pilot incapacitation to single engine landings. Finally, it was time for
the dreaded licence skill test.
We had a pretty good
idea of what to expect... a lot of engine failures both before and after
take-off, various other faults and emergency situations, and lots of
single engine flying, approaches and landings, all presented in a
line-flying scenario. Very similar in fact to the
instrument rating test,
only in a very different machine and with two pilots. Although both my
buddy and I had to re-fly one or two bits of the test twice to satisfy the
examiner, we both passed first time and headed home mentally exhausted
to sleep for about a week.
Induction
After
the intensity of the type rating training, the induction period was a
welcome break in the form of relatively low intensity office hours
activity. Lots and lots of admin, of course, and lots and lots of new
names and faces.
We toured around the operation department
and terminal 5, collected uniforms, listened to presentations and were
generally made to feel very welcome in our new workplace.
Those of you that watched BBC's recent series
A Very British Airline
will have some idea of what came next — just like the cabin crew, we
had to train in emergency medical care, learn about all the emergency
equipment on board and how to use it, how to fight fire, security
briefings, how to safely operate the doors and so on. Though we had only
four days to complete everything. And, it almost goes with out saying,
sit more exams.
There was a visit to a local swimming
pool to practice donning life jackets in the water, lifesaving
techniques and climbing into a life raft unaided. And yes, there were
the obligatory emergency slide descents, cue cheesy picture. Fancy
actually being paid to jump down slides for the afternoon... almost as
good as being paid to fly!
Conversion course
But
the easy life did not last long, as next up was the conversion course.
Five days of back-to-back simulator details designed to consolidate our
flying to company procedures, allow the training staff to evaluate us
and complete the operator's proficiency check I mentioned earlier.
Our
first flying test in a professional capacity, the check is a regulatory
requirement that we can look forward to every six months for the rest
of our flying careers. Happily it went well enough, given the lack of
sleep, another tick in another box!
But anyway I must
go and get some rest as it is a 6am report again tomorrow... next time I
post I will have something very exciting to tell you about. Base
training day, a once-in-a-career event and the first time we will get
our hands on a real jet. Until then.
