New Zealand Life Begins!

Hello from New Zealand! Sorry for the lack of posts over the past couple of weeks but everything has happened pretty quickly and I’m finally in New Zealand! We got our exam results a week ago and I managed to pass all but one of my module 2 exams. It was quite a tough exam and a few of us found it difficult but it just means I have to re sit it in February next year out here.

We got an email on Monday last week telling us we would be coming out here on Wednesday 30^th October. It was a bit of a rush to get everything packed and sorted for eight months away from home. It was a very long journey to Auckland from London and we all arrived very tired and ready for a good nights sleep! I’m staying near the airport in Clearways which is a really nice environment to be in, we are staying in one of the new blocks that were just finished three weeks ago so everything is brand new! We went out on Saturday to buy some essentials and to check out Hamilton itself which is a really nice city.

Emirates A380 to take us to Dubai! 

My view for the next 14 hours to Sydney and Auckland 

First NZ sunset 

Hamilton

Today was our first day back in uniform, but this time on the other side of the world! We had our orientation and then this afternoon started study for two exams we have to sit before we can start flying – The New Zealand differences exam and New Zealand Air Law. We have the differences exam on Wednesday and then Air Law next Tuesday – wish me luck! I also found out that I will be flying the Diamond DA20 for the single engine phase which I’m really pleased about; we will hopefully start flying at the end of next week. I can't wait to start all of the flying! 

Bye for now... 

Not Long Left Of Ground School...

It’s been a while since my last update and as you’ve probably guessed, quite a lot has happened.

Firstly, CP107 have almost finished groundschool! With only eight more days of teaching before we enter the exam period again, the end of groundschool is well and truly in sight! Module 2 seems to have gone a lot faster than the first, it doesn’t seem like 5 minutes since we were sat in that exam hall wondering whether to pick A, B, C or D! Since we only sat 6 exams in module 1 it means we have 8 this time round, which are Performance, Mass and Balance, Air Law, General Navigation, Radio Navigation, Flight Planning, Human Performance and Limitations and finally Operational Procedures. The work has been quite different in comparison with many of the subjects requiring you to actually perform calculations to work certain things out rather than just wordy type questions, however I have found it more interesting.

GNav

I also helped out at the last CTC careers event. It was a very busy day but highly enjoyable, I also managed to get into the 737-800 simulator to help out with the running of it throughout the day which was an added bonus!

We recently applied for our New Zealand student visa which definitely means it getting close. In fact, it’s just dawned on me that it’s now next month that we are due to go! I can’t wait to get out there to fly, but for now I am just focusing on passing all of the exams!

A few of us had a trip to Cardiff last week to visit the General Electric engine maintenance facility nearby. It was very interesting to get an insight into the maintenance side of things and the work the engineers do with the engines if airlines report that they have been having problems with them. Throughout the day we saw the engineers working on engines off A320’s, A380’s and 777’s. A wide variety of airlines get their engines maintained by GE Wales including British Airways, easyJet, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines and Emirates. We also managed to see the engine casing off a GE90, which is the largest engine in production. It is hard to imagine that one of those hangs off each wing of a 777 producing 115,000lbs of thrust each; they are easily over 20ft in diameter!

GE90 making the fuel truck look small!

As part of our Radio Navigation course, we got time in the simulator again, we were split into groups and I had my turn today. It was an excellent session where we were putting into practice the navigation aids that we have been learning about in class such as VOR’s, NDB’s and ILS. We took off from Belfast in the Boeing 737-300 and then tuned in the Belfast VOR to look at the instrument readings, this could tell us how far away we were from it and what course we had to turn to intercept it. We made an ILS approach and let the plane perform an autoland while we watched the instruments, then we had a turn landing it ourselves which was great fun!

On another note, just been looking at cars in New Zealand, and found this bad lad. http://turners.co.nz/Cars/Search/Toyota/Starlet/1151714/

Exam Results!

We got our module one exam results last week and I'm pleased to say that I passed all of them with an average score of 93.5%. I woke up on the morning of the results day quite nervous and they kept us waiting until midday before the emails slowly started coming through, it turned out to be worth the wait though! Still on a high from our scores, we all decided on the next logical step - CP trip to the pub. Well that was the days work out the window and we had a good afternoon in the sun enjoying a few well deserved pints.

Enjoying the weather at the pub 

That means I can focus all my attention on the module 2 subjects, of which we have 8 to sit in just 10 weeks time, then it's hopefully onto New Zealand and all of the flying which is what we're really here for! So far module 2 hasn't been too bad, all of the subjects are more practical and involve things we'll probably use throughout our career. There are a lot of calculation questions, I find it a bit more interesting than just learning facts although there are a lot of formulas to memorise. For General Navigation, or GNav, we got a copy of a Jeppesen airway manual, its quite interesting to look through all of the charts contained in the manual and we will be looking at them in more detail next week. Another piece of kit used in GNav is the CRP5 flight computer, or whizz wheel as its known. It looks a bit intimidating at first but once you get the hang of how to use it, it doesn't seem so difficult.. I just need to have a bit more practice with it!

Load and Trim sheet used to work out the mass and balance of the aircraft.

Whizz wheel

Jeppesen 

We started Air Law today which is basically just learning facts off question bank from what I've heard. Exciting stuff.  After Air Law, there's only 4 subjects left for us to complete the 14 ATPL exams! Still can't quite believe how fast it's all gone so far!

Exams Over For Now and Starting Module 2

Hello again!

Well after exam week finishing last week, we headed out on Thursday night. It was a really good night and we all enjoyed a much needed drink, exam week seemed to last forever! It was very tiring sitting the exams, coming back home and then getting into the mind-set to prepare for the next one. The best way to prepare in my opinion was just to do practice exams over and over again. I ended up doing over 13,000 questions by the end of the week! Hopefully they have all gone okay, we will find out the results in just under two weeks time.

I also headed up home last weekend, it was really good seeing all my family and friends as it was the first time I've visited since being down here in Southampton. Just one problem.. It went over way too fast!!

With the intense nature of this course, we were straight back into module 2 on Monday morning, starting off with Performance, which is basically an extension of Principles of Flight. It adds onto the knowledge we can (hopefully) still remember, with some graphs thrown in to work out certain things such as landing distances, climb rates and headwinds/tailwinds.

Performance planning

We also have a four day weekend coming up.. result! We’re finishing off performance next Monday before moving onto Mass and Balance which is a short two day course and finally onto GNav by the end of next week. 

My next post will probably be when I find out my exam results, which may or may not be worth reading depending on the outcome! Bye for now…

Exams are coming...

Well that’s it for module one groundschool, it’s absolutely flown over and I can’t believe we are almost halfway through the groundschool phase! We have our mock exams next week and then we’re off for 10 days of reading over notes and trying not to go insane off intense question banking before the real things start on July 1^st. Our first set of 6 exams consists of Aircraft General Knowledge, Principles of Flight, Meteorology, Instruments and IFR and VFR Comms all crammed into 3 days.

Trying to remember everything! 

Since my last post, I’ve also been to CTC’s training centre in Bournemouth which is where we all end up after New Zealand to do our Instrument Rating. Me and James went, it was an excellent day and we got a flight in a Diamond DA42 Twinstar! The pilot flying was training for his IR, which meant the windscreen on his side was blocked out for the majority of the flight. This is done so that we have to fly solely on instruments, not visually. We flew to Cardiff, did a missed approach and then flew back to Bournemouth. In total we were in the air for about 2 and a half hours. It was excellent to see where I will end up in around one year’s time and it definitely was another thing to keep to motivation up for these upcoming exams.  

Flying past Cardiff Airport

We even got a sneaky look in this beauty! 

Thanks G-CTCD!

We also went into the simulator again the other day. It was an excellent two hour session, simulating things we have been learning throughout mod 1 such as trimming the aircraft, the effect of flaps and spoilers in straight and level flight and we also conducted a full auto-land in fog conditions at Bristol. 

 
Anyway back to revision for me...

3 Subjects Down And The Open Day

Evening! First of all apologies for the lack of posts over the past couple of weeks!

We only have one day left of our third subject; Meteorology. The time is going so fast! Met has been quite an interesting subject and certain aspects have been slightly easier to understand due to A Level Geography... it actually came in useful! We move onto Instruments on Thursday, have a week of that and then finally onto Comms for three days. Then it’s on to the mock exams and the real things. Scary!

Becoming Weather Nerds!

CTC had an open day on Saturday which I helped out with. It was a good day and I enjoyed chatting to people about the course and giving advice. It doesn't seem like 5 minutes since I was looking around, it felt like it would be so far off back then; how things change! Unfortunately, I didn't get to fly any of the simulators but there’s always next time! I'm going over to CTC in Bournemouth on Wednesday to have a look around the facilities and there is also a possibility of back seating one of the DA42’s over there. Looking forward to it, just hope it is nice weather.

Basically my life right now consists of question bank, eating, sleeping and question bank. But mainly question bank. 

Bye for now...

First Week Of Ground School Complete

Thought I’d take a break from working right now to update you all on the first week of ground school here at CTC. We started off last Monday with Aircraft General Knowledge (AGK). We had three days of AGK covering topics such as Airframe stress and fatigue, Fuel Systems, Landing Gear, Hydraulics and Pneumatics. Thursday was a computer based training day (CBT day, we get one every week) to make sure we understand everything and to do some question banking. We moved straight onto the next topic, Principles of Flight (POF) last Friday, however we will be coming back to finish off AGK next week. So far in POF we have covered how lift is created over a wing, different types of drag and how wing vortices are created, it contains a lot more maths and physics and is basically just a load of formulas! Over this weekend it has taken me a bit of time to understand everything but I think I’m almost there, they like to confuse us by having a lot of different names for one thing.

CP107 

Boeing 737-800 Full Motion Simulator

Basically how the day works is we leave at 8.30am for a 9am start and finish around 4pm; then I get home, have a break for an hour or so and then continue working until around 10pm. It’s important to make sure you stay on top of the work as it is such a fast paced course and every lesson is something new. Falling behind would just make it 10 times more difficult! Most of the work is quite interesting, there are some not so interesting parts as well though; however it’s quite amazing how much I have learnt in just a week!

Doing some work outside today