Hotdog

Airbus

In the summer of 2010 I found myself graduating from CTC Aviation with my frozen ATPL license in hand and several hours on the fixed based 737-300 with no idea of what would happen next. The economy by this time had taken a turn for the worst and the prospect of a flying job seemed so distant for me. The aviation industry was and still is renowned for being one of the hardest industries to get into, specifically hard for budding pilots and aviators. Many pilots take whatever they can get, whether its flying Cessna’s for a few pennies or spraying crops for some small company. I found myself in the CTC Aviation holding pool, number 172 in line for a jet job with one of CTC’s partner airlines. During the wait I started hunting for jobs. I wanted a job in the aviation sector but even these were hard to come by because of the recession. As luck would have it though an internal email came round from CTC saying would anyone want a temporary job working for easyJet head office in Luton doing some ad hoc IT work? I applied for the position on the off chance knowing that this would be a good start for something to do during my time in the hold pool. Graduating with a professional pilot’s license and then trying to explain to companies that you needed a job for a short time was virtually impossible as nobody would want to hire you knowing full well you would disappear at the first whiff of a flying job.

Anyway, a telephone interview later saw me an offer of the job with easyJet and to my surprise on a salary too! I took up the offer and moved down to Luton where I managed to rent a house with another guy from the course who had also bagged the same job as me (Ads). 6 months went by so fast. Working for easyJet head office was such good fun and at the same time it allowed me to gain some extra valuable experience of the industry from another perspective, but of course ultimately for me this was not what I wanted to. By Christmas we were still waiting for news on jobs and then randomly to my surprise one afternoon an email came around with news that easyJet (one of CTC’s biggest airline partners) wanted to hire in excess of 180 new pilots! This was amazing news for us all in the hold pool and we could only celebrate with joy that we would eventually get chance to achieve our dreams. The biggest attraction to training with CTC was simply their track record of managing to place so many low houred pilots with major airline companies that many other qualified pilots work many years for before they can even get a sniff of a job with them.

But of course with all good things there are always negatives. The cost of the type rating for the Airbus was another £8’000 on top of a course that already cost over £70’000 leaving us all with heavy unmanageable debts with no further thanks to the recession, not to mention the random allocation of bases. For me personally this was another hurdle that I just had to find a way around. I looked into personal loans and ways of borrowing money but as always things were never easy. Nobody would lend you money knowing full well that none of us could pay it back in a hurry. This left one option- the same option that bailed me out back in 2009 when HSBC stopped giving unsecured loans to pilots; my parents. My parents had just about finished paying off their mortgage when they offered to take out a new one to pay for my course. This is what saw me through New Zealand and gaining my pilot’s license. Now to find a further £8’000 my parents offered once more to put it on the property, however this time the bank for some reason said they would only lend half, despite the house being up for grabs if we couldn’t pay it- senseless! Again this meant another setback for me and lots more stress knowing that achieving my dream of flying a jet was just slightly out of reach once more. Weeks later my grandparents came forward and said they would put forward the other £4000 as long as I paid it back. I felt as guilty as sin taking this but in my opinion having spent so much and getting so far it was a no brainer to just continue the whole way so I accepted their very genuine kind offer.

In February after much anticipation and suspense my position to start Airbus training for easyJet was confirmed and a start date was given to me. I sadly had to hand in my notice at the head office but it was only for good reason, and I knew it would always come to this anyway. On February the 22nd 2011 I finally started the last push towards becoming an airline pilot- learning how to fly the big jet.

The course was structured over 6 weeks, with around 3 weeks being classroom study and exams and the next few being simulator training sessions. This was all done down in Southampton at CTC’s Nursling hangar. The technical course was all completed on interactive software in classrooms at computers for about 5 hours at a time. This would then be followed by another hour or 2 of ‘homework’ and then brush up classes for a few hours the morning after, followed by a weekly progress test- all very intensive learning. During this time we were taken out group by group to sit on interactive touch screen flight decks to learn all of the buttons and get a feel for where everything was on the flight deck of the Airbus. On top of all this we were each given a nice thick manual detailing all of the company’s standard operating procedures (SOP’s). Each airline company has a set of SOP’s designed to keep all of the airline standards the same throughout regardless of who you fly with on the flight deck, and to make operations safe for each time you fly. The procedures are very in depth covering everything from the ordering of memory items and after start scans to the more technical procedures you must apply in non-normal situations. With the technical course battering my brain, the Operations manual with the new SOP’s destroying my soul and the stress of actually flying the real thing, it all piled up to make the course very difficult. With all of that said it was the most fun part of training as we were all able to start feeling like proper airline pilots learning the commercial operations. Before we knew it our base allocations came out and luckily for me I managed to get the base of my choice- Luton Airport, the same place I had lived whilst working for the head office.

With the technical course over and all of the exams passed it was time to start the simulator phase. This phase included about 12 simulator details each 4 hours long. We were paired up with other trainees and in each sortie we would do 2 hours pilot flying (in the First Officer’s right hand seat) and switch half way to do 2 more hours as the supporting pilot in the Captain’s seat as pilot not flying. Both roles were equally as demanding as each other as whilst you were the one flying you would have the aircraft to control and the broad decisions to make yet as the pilot not flying you would also be working hard with air traffic control, checklists, doing the actions required by pilot flying and so on. The first session was getting a feel of the aircraft and lots of manual flying, including the first few shots at attempting to land the simulator. The word ‘land’ is probably the wrong word to use here though as the first few times we attempted the landings they could only be described as ‘arrivals’. Flaring a jet was a lot more difficult than flaring a smaller plane to begin with, as for a start you are about 20ft higher up off the ground in the cockpit than you would have been in a small Cessna for example, which made the aspect totally different to the one you were used to. With this said my first impressions of the airbus coming from flying a Boeing simulator and lots of small propeller aircraft was quite simply ‘wow’, and here’s why…

The Airbus as many of you probably know works on a principle known as ‘Fly-by-wire’ meaning a lot of the mechanical rods and cables you would typically see in a smaller aircraft or even a Boeing were replaced by a series of electrical cables which in turn would be coupled to servo motors that would then move the control surfaces of the aircraft. Not only this, but the aircraft had an auto trim feature which basically means that a pilot will never have to manually trim the aircraft after a change of pitch. Overall these two main features coupled together meant that in order to control the plane you would move a joystick instead of a yoke which had no direct feedback like the controls of a conventional aircraft would, and also thanks to the use of auto trim you could pitch to any attitude and then let go of the stick and the aircraft would simply maintain the pitch for you without the need for continuous pressure from your hands on the controls! In simple terms whatever you told the aircraft to do it would do it for you and maintain it even in blustery conditions! Simply magic. The plane also had many other amazing features too, such as the 3 channel autopilot, electronic auto checklists appearing on the lower central display called the ‘ECAM’, auto engine start, completely automatic thrust (meaning you would leave the thrust levers in one detent the whole flight) and not to mention the wonders of no yoke meaning the all-important table could be installed in front of you for eating your crew meals in flight! The airbus was just so easy to control in comparison to anything I had flown before which made the course a whole lot easier- especially with it being my first major type rating.

So after getting to grips with how the aircraft flew the simulator sessions soon progressed onto developing the key skills that were needed on the flight deck- the main one being the ability to manage. I soon came to realise that flying for an airline wasn’t really ‘flying’ anymore and that instead thanks to the heavy use of automatics and the autopilot that it was more about managing the flight and having the ability to think laterally and deal with things when they don’t go to plan. Of course the simulator lessons were not all straight forward, the majority involved dealing with emergencies and abnormal situations, leading us to start thinking more outside of the box. I was once told that anyone can learn to fly a plane. Sit someone down in front of the controls and after enough lessons the motor actions can be learnt to allow someone to physically take off the plane and land it again. Commercial flying however was totally different to this. The main difference being that flying a plane played a very small part in it all and instead having the ability to think commercially in order to make the company money and manage the flight efficiently to get the passengers there safely was now the aim of the game. By the third detail we were finding ourselves getting airborne, having technical problems which had further implications, planning diversions, commencing emergency descents and going around multiple times, not to mention having engine fires and failures to deal with.

After 6 long hard weeks it was time for the test. Like the other simulator lessons we would be put in the simulator with our training partner and told to fly a route given to us whilst being monitored by the examiner. However of course it wasn’t this straight forward, and during the flight we would be given failures, technical problems, go-arounds and all kinds of different approaches. They examined us in our ‘pilot flying’ and ‘pilot not flying’ roles in order to see how we supported each other on the flight deck and how we managed the problems together as a multi crew team, obviously not to mention how accurately we flew the aircraft too. To my delight I had passed the check first time and didn’t need any remedial training at all- same goes for my simulator partner which meant only one thing: we were now on our way to easyJet…

We joined easyJet on around April 26th 2011 and firstly attended a week of induction training. This was brilliant fun and involved everything from jumping down emergency slides, opening the aircraft doors, putting out fires, learning about explosives and terrorists, jumping in swimming pools with life jackets on, feeling our way through smoke filled cabins with masks on and giving first aid to the rubber doll called Annie! The week basically was designed to get us ready and legally ready to join easyJet. The week went by very fast, and before we knew it we were looking forward to flying the real thing for ourselves. Before I could get my hands on the real thing though I had 8 flights in the jump seat, watching other real easyJet pilots fly on normal operations. This was also brilliant fun and allowed us to watch how the real daily operation was run. My first time in the jump seat of an aircraft carrying passengers was absolutely amazing, I remember thinking to myself at the time that it had been a long time coming and that I had always dreamt about being able to get into the cockpit of a jet. The 8 flights soon passed and the next stage was ‘Base Training’.

Base training was the final stage in getting the Airbus rating stamped on my license and involved taking to the skies in the real thing for the first time and doing 6 take offs and landings. 7 of us boarded an empty Airbus 319 where it was flown to Doncaster airport. One by one we disappeared into the cockpit to do our 6 circuits- all of us were very nervous as you can imagine. For the first time in our lives we were able to get our hands on the real thing which felt simply amazing. I was third to go into the flight deck and do my circuits. Between the 7 of us we had plenty of go-arounds and discontinued approaches and had a fair share of firm landings, whilst we all got a feel for how to land the plane. Doing it in the simulator was one thing but doing it for real was a different story as the weather played a large part in it and this time we couldn’t afford to mess up the landings as lives were at stake! 11 hours and multiple refuelling stops later we had all completed our circuits and the day after we one by one went to the CAA office in Gatwick to pick up our new ratings page for our licenses, this time with “Airbus 320 – 200 series” stamped in it. We were now ready to fly passengers as legally qualified crew members.

23rd of May was the biggest day of my life so far. It was my first flight as an airline pilot carrying 150 passengers to Copenhagen. I had about 3 hours sleep the night before and reported for my 5 hours of duty as nervous as I have ever been before! Anyway we eventually got out to the aircraft and it was my turn to fly them down as the captain elected to fly it back. After watching over one hundred passengers board the aircraft we were soon ready for taxy and takeoff. As I went to take-off thrust the plane began to hurtle down the runway and it wasn’t until this point where the sudden realisation dawned upon me that I was responsible for 150 lives sat behind me- not a great reminder when you are already extremely nervous. The flight surprisingly went well and my landing in Copenhagen was also good enough to get a compliment from one of the cabin crew members during the turn around. The captain flew it back and all in all I disembarked the aircraft in one piece having successfully flown my first commercial flight from A to B.

During the first 8 sectors of line training it was compulsory to have a safety pilot sit behind you in the jump seat in case you couldn’t handle it and he needed to take over. These sectors soon flew by (excuse the pun) and it wasn’t long before I was released to fly with just the training captain in the left hand seat. After the 8 sectors were completed I then had to do another 46 sectors minimum flying with authorised captains. My line training saw me fly out to Milan where I did three weeks of intensive flying from Malpensa Airport- easyJet’s second largest base. Italy for me was a huge challenge as it is known to be a tough place to fly from thanks to the high terrain (the Alps) at its threshold, the endless amounts of thunderstorms, the last minute runway changes and the hard to understand accents of the Italian controllers. I often asked myself “why do I have to have to come out here to train when all of my other colleagues get nicer places in the UK where flying is generally easier?” but then I figured that it was probably best that I had it tougher in Italy because it would make me learn faster and experience things that I may not otherwise have experienced flying from my Luton base. After 46 long hard sectors it was time for my line check. The line check was the first flight with a normal captain with the examiner sat behind in the jump seat. The aim of the check was for the examiner to see that I could conduct a flight from A to B safely and efficiently with a normal crew member. They didn’t expect miracles knowing full well that I had less than 50 sectors on a jet but they were just looking for potential and safe flying. Unfortunately for me my check was to Madrid- a chaotic airport with complicated taxi ways and difficult Spanish controllers to contend with which made things more difficult than I would have liked.

Overall though the line check went well (with the exception of forgetting to retract all 4 stages of flaps after the landing was completed!) and once we landed back in Malpensa my examiner said “do you want the good news or the bad news?” He then continued to say “well the bad news is you won’t have to go back to working in an office anymore, the good news is that you have passed the check, so welcome to easyJet!” This was it. The very last stage was complete. I was now fully signed off as a First Officer with the ability to fly with normal crew as an airline pilot for easyJet, quite literally a dream come true. The 2 and a half years of stress, intense training and financial struggle had finally come to an end, and at the age of 21, having left sixth form to chase a dream career, I now find myself doing a job that so many people around the world could only dream of doing. With thanks to my family, my grandparents and all of my friends that supported me throughout my training, including Paul- the administrator of The Pilot’s Club who often managed to bail me out and keep me going at the toughest of times, I can now finally tell people that I’m an airline pilot and for me this is just the beginning of an incredible journey to the rest of my life…


Structure of my training starting in 2007 then integrated training commencing in January 2009 finishing by June 2011:

Private Pilot’s License 7 exams
Private Pilots License Issue (PPL)
CTC Aviation Training (Wings) Selection process
PPL fast tracked
Hour building towards CPL
Skills test
Commercial Pilots License (CPL)
Hour building and training towards IR
Skills test
Instrument rating (IR)
14 ATPL exams
Multi Crew Cooperation course (MCC)
Frozen ATPL License issue (CPL/IR)
Job offer
Airbus A320 Type Rating
3 technical exams and technical course
Airbus Skills test
Company induction
Jump seating (supernumerary observation flights)
Base training
Airbus Type rating issue
8 sectors flying with safety pilot
46 further sectors with training captain
Line check
Fully qualified First Officer