Nearly in the air…

This week, I will hopefully have my first flight in Bournemouth as I only have one more simulator flight left. Since my last update, I have had 4 more sims and have also done a Limited Panel Exam.

In the sim on CTC's apron

The first 2 sims were the last couple of LOFT flights. The first one was from Heathrow to Birmingham, but I ended up diverting to East Midlands Airport; After losing one of my engines in the cruise I then lost both alternators during a go-around in Birmingham (due to weather below minima), which left me with about 30 minutes of electricity from the main battery. Unfortunately this ran out before I landed, but luckily I had the runway in sight so I was able to continue visually to land. The second flight was from Oxford to Manchester but again resulted in a divert to East Midlands as I had to shut down an engine because of low oil pressure.

Lined up at Bournemouth (RWY26)

The last 2 sims this week have been IR prep. In these we have flown routes which are possible for the actual IR Skills Test – Alderney and Exeter. These 2 haven’t been too bad, so hopefully the rest of the routes which are possible will be good too.

As part of our training, we also have to do a Limited Panel Exam which we do in a Duchess aircraft simulator. This test allows us to only use a select few instruments and our ability to read and fly from them. The actually principle is relatively easy, but flying an aircraft which you have never flown before and which is quite sensitive, certainly makes for a fun 20 minutes of testing.

Ground checks

On Wednesday, I should be scheduled for my last IRT preparation flight before I then go into the actual aircraft, it has been way too long…….