Back to the UK

Hi all, I'm pleased to say that CP106 arrived back in the UK on Friday after nearly 38 hours of travelling.

Here is the video I have made, summarising just some of the highlights from the 8 months training & living in NZ:

http://youtu.be/aDoUQT0jIaM

New Zealand.............almost finished

This week has been fairly relaxed for me with just a couple of rounds of golf and a couple of nights out; however it has been quite busy for my CP and am pleased to say that after todays result from Christian, all 7 of CP106 have passed their CPL skills test!!!!!!!!!!

CP106 (L-R) - Christian, Tom, Ben, Florence, Sean, Me, Jonny

So, you would think after getting our CPL and completing all our flights in New Zealand there wouldn't be anymore to do - how wrong. Today we had our 'sign-outs' where we get a meeting with our team leader to check all the paperwork, and most importantly our logbooks, to make sure they are all correct and match CTC's records. This was all fine and completed today, however after this we were supposed to have an interview with one of the chief instructors. We were dissapointed though, as after waiting around for 3 hours or so, we were told that the interviews wouldn't be happening until Wednesday afternoon. So the quest for getting signed-out and be free to leave New Zealand continues.

That's it for the blog this week (short but sweet) and for New Zealand. My flight back to the UK is on Thursday afternoon with an arrival at Heathrow for Friday lunchtime. I'll probably update next when I'm down in Bournemouth for the next stage of training in a couple of weeks time. There should also be a video posted here in the next week of our time in NZ.

Hei konā

CPL Skills Test !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After last weeks flyaway, there was only one more thing to do in New Zealand - my Commercial Pilot Licence Skills Test. I'm extremely pleased to say that yesterday (Saturday afternoon) I took and passed this test and have gained my first pilot licence and can now freely go flying !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The test comprises of:

• Navigation leg
• Diversion
• Basic Instrument Flying (in case you inadvertently go into cloud or lost visibility)
• Recovering from unusual attitudes
• Position fixing
• Steep Turns
• Stalling
• Emergencies
• Asymmetrics (1 engine 'failed')
• Circuits

After having 3 mocks during the week, I felt quite confident for Saturday; however when I saw my name on the schedule for Saturday, there was a bit of a shock and realisation that all of the last 7-8 months of training was going to be tested in a 2 hour flight the next day.

After arriving at the training centre quite early, I had a short brief with the examiner before being given a navigation leg to plan, along with his weight for the mass & balance calculations as well as all the performance calculations (such as take-off and landing distances). After all this planning and a couple of hours wait, it was finally my turn. The weather deteriorated throughout the day and with only a couple of hundred feet clearance from cloud, I had to not only aviate, navigate and communicate, but also had to think about the possibility of ending the flight due to the weather preventing me from continuing. I was however quite lucky as the cloud stayed where it was, and I was able to get to my original destination and diversion point, before going over the western coast for general handling where the cloud was higher and more broken. Once the general handling and air work was done, I came back to Hamilton for 4 circuits and then that was it, the test complete.

It was great that I only had to wait a couple of minutes after getting back to get my result - PASS. It feels great that I have earned the privilege of being able to now go flying with passengers (and earn some money from it too!!!!). 

But that is now it for flying in New Zealand. I have no more flights to do, so the next time will be in Bournemouth after we leave NZ on the 15th May. I have no idea what I will be doing over the next week and a half other than catching up on a bit of sleep.