Sul – The Journey of a Professional Pilot

The week started with what was going to be a short day – just a couple of flights to Ireland.  At Dublin we picked up a VIP, with the whole entourage of cars, men with ear pieces (bit like it is in an episode of Prison Break) and a security detail.  Then, just as we were shutting the aircraft down, we were told that we were given an extra two flights to Derry and back – such is aviation and so there’s a need for a degree of flexibility to accommodate anything that can change!

The contrail of an aircraft that just passed us by overhead.

The next day, I flew to Lanzarote with a Captain who’s South African.  It was interesting to know his story and ask about his experience flying different type of aircraft and in different airlines around the world.  He mentioned that he flew the 747, 727, 737 classic amongst other myriad of aircraft.  I asked him some questions about the handling qualities of the other aircraft types in the Boeing range in comparison to the 737-800 and as most people have told me, the other aircraft have better handling qualities, or at least are more stable.  We also had a chat about South Africa, as I also have family there.

I flew to Wroclaw & Szczecin for the first time, and still astounded by how warm the Summers are in Poland!  I’ve only been to Poland in Winter previously, and they’re bitterly cold!

We’ve had some great weather the last couple of weeks, and I hope it continues!  It’s given me nice views of UK as I’ve been flying South towards my destinations during the day, which other than recently is often shrouded by clouds.  The sunsets have been amazing, with different colours in different layers of cloud and levels of the atmosphere.  Many times the views have resembled surreal paintings.

The Southern coast of England and the Isle of Wight in view.

Coming into Malaga was amazing as usual, and the sun was setting just as we were about to leave for UK. Malaga is the new Ryanair base, which opened just a few days ago.  A friend of mine was greeted by a welcome party with full festivities, musical instruments and the press on the day it opened – which was to their surprise, as they didn’t expect it!  As we were taxying towards the runway, we passed the 4 aircraft that are now based in Malaga parked on the stand.  Quite a few new bases have opened since I’ve joined, and the newest one is Barcelona El Prat – now we have 3 airports serving the Barcelona area.

The aircraft parked at the gate with the sun setting behind us.

I did my first SRA this week when returning from Palma –  to aid in controller training.  We were happy to do this, as we fully briefed it and we were fully visual as well, without a cloud in sight! A SRA (surveillance radar approach) is where the controller gives us headings, tells us when to start descending to the MDA (minimum descent altitude) and gives us advice on what altitude we should be at certain points of the approach.  I think if I were to do this in IMC conditions, I would be a little nervous as I’m putting faith into the controller whilst I am quite close to the ground on headings to steer and when to descend! Palma was unusually quiet again, and luckily we had no slots to delay us this time!  The views coming in are amazing, as we got closer, the cliffs and mountains on the northern side of the island began to materialise.  Once we passed them, we were given a right turn for a straight in ILS approach onto 24L – one of the westerly facing runways.  The view on departure is also amazing – we can see the resorts, the beautiful blue/turquoise lagoons and beaches….!

Sunset over the Alps.

The next day, we set off for Bergamo and we began descent just as the sun was setting over the Alps. Needless to say, but the view was just magical!  The clouds turned bright orange & pink and almost looked as if they were on fire.  I have never gone through an orange cloud before then!

About to go through an orange cloud as the sun sets over the Alps.

I’ve got another busy week next week involving destinations in Ireland, Northern Ireland, Poland & Portugal.

The weather has been fantastic lately, and that brings on the opportunity of visual approaches.  This is an approach that is done with visual reference to the ground, keeping the runway and traffic in the vicinity, in sight.  I did my first one in Liverpool yesterday.  We flew downwind of RW27 and then turned onto a base leg and finally over the Runcorn Bridge for final.  Visuals are much more fun and save a bit of time, as we don’t have to go for a longer final that ATC may give you on an ILS.

My roster this month is quite busy, with only one standby.  This week I’ll be flying to Poznan (Poland), Malaga (Spain), Palma and Bergamo (Italy), Dublin & Cork.  I’m flying to Poland later on today – and I just read in the news that they will be holding their first polls since the air crash that killed the President Lech Kaczynski and other officials.

I was rostered to go on a safety course this week.  This is a refresher course that’s done once a year and it was similar to the initial one that I did just before my type rating commenced.  The day involves various presentations on security, safety and CRM topics.  We also had to hand in a SEP (security & emergency procedures) questionnaire that was done in are own time, which tested and refreshed are knowledge on topics such as what to do in the case of a rejected take off.  We worked in groups with cabin crew – they explained and demonstrated the use of various safety equipment in the cabin and where they are located, whilst we did the same for the equipment in the flight deck.  An aircraft visit allowed us to practice opening & closing the over-wing emergency exits, arming/disarming aircraft slides and opening/closing the doors and having a good wander around to familiarise ourselves with the location of the safety & emergency equipment.  The day was quite long and tiring, exacerbated by slot times delaying some incoming crew and finding a spare aircraft to have a nose around in!  I had a day to rest between the safety course and my flying duties, so it wasn’t any bother.

Another shot of the Alps - I never get tired at marvelling at such a wonderful sight.

I flew to Rome Ciampino, Nimes, Carcassone and Seville.  Some of the flights were delayed resulting from slot times due to a go-slow by French/Spanish controllers.  Nonetheless, we managed to arrive on time at our destinations thanks to favourable winds or accommodating controllers along the route.  Flying to Nimes & Carcassonne was a long 4 sector day, and the approach to Carcassonne involved a circle-to-land on RW28 which is only around 1900m in length and has a 4 degree glide path.  On my birthday, I flew to Seville, which was a real treat, as it’s an area where I did my ATPL training.  Whilst we were there, we saw a couple of Seneca aircraft practicing their circuits and I recognised the callsign of one of my instructors.  I’ve flown to Seville twice before – once on the jumpseat and once as pilot monitoring, and this was the first time as pilot flying.  The last time I came into land on RW27 was in a Seneca, so I felt quite nostalgic again as we were coming in to land!

A line of textbook CBs!

I flew to Ibiza, Alicante, Murcia, Treviso (Venice) and Palma this week.  I’ve not visited Alicante for a while – at least not during daylight, so it was great experiencing the gorgeous views again .  I love the views coming into the Canaries and Malaga also, they’re amongst my favourites.  Flying over the Alps and Pyrenees always give fantastic views on clear days as well.

A blanket of cloud partially covering the mountain range.

It was my first time visiting Palma, which is an Island just off the coast of Spain, between Barcelona and Valencia.  It has a rather large airport with parallel runways and though it should be a busy time of the year with plentiful charter flights, the Captain remarked that it was unusually quiet.  Visiting Palma reminded me of my first few times in Dublin – feeling unfamiliar with the more complicated taxi routing and sifting through various arrivals and approaches to get to the relevant ones.  The Captain had visited Palma before, so he was able to save me time in the brief. I think it’s easy to overlook the notion that the Captain is also a resource and it’s good to ask for help when you need it – especially when you’re unfamiliar with a destination. Don’t be afraid to ask the Captain or any other part of the crew for help!  I learnt this lesson during line training when I spent a good deal of time wading through information and charts, all the while confusing myself, when I could have just asked the Captain for some guidance and saved time. We work in a team after all!

Flying to the moon - enjoying a "moon rise"

I love flying in the Summer – it does bring some amazing views due to the extended hours of daylight.  I haven’t seen a sunrise from the air recently, as it’s already light outside by the time I set off for work on the early shift (around 4am), if not then definitely by the time we’re pushing back from stand.  However, the sunsets are beautiful and whilst flying North, we can see that a part of the sky stays alight, and would do all night around this time of the year – almost as if the sun is clinging on just below the horizon.

Sunset at 37,000ft

I reached exactly 500 hours on type on 1st June. A year ago, I was packing my belongings, ready to move to the training centre to begin my type rating. The year before than in June 2008, I was busy preparing for my CPL & IR flight tests at FTE. In June 2007, I was getting ready to move to Spain for a 14 month, integrated flight training course without an idea that I would be flying a 737-800 for one of the largest airlines in Europe today.

It was last year in October that I was in the same position as the newly-rated pilot for whom I was sitting in as for safety pilot, yesterday. It felt a little out of routine for me, as I usually organise the paperwork, and this time I only had to print out the voyage report, which has details such as the names of the crew, number of passengers booked on the flight and flight schedules. I read through the flight plans and weather once he was done, and helped out where he asked me to and answered any questions he had.  I hadn’t been in the jumpseat since October, so it was nice to take a back seat for this time and observe procedures from there.  The session was useful to me as well, as I picked up some additional tips from the line training Captain and also refreshed my knowledge as I followed through the discussion topics in cruise.

As I watched the first officer, it reminded me of the similar, if not, the same challenges and teething problems that I faced when first starting.  A lot of the procedures and flying skills are taught during the type rating, so the challenge then is to combine all of this with working in a live environment where you have to complete paperwork, communicate with various people such as ATC, cabin crew, the dispatcher, fueler and other ground staff.  The biggest challenge that I found was the time pressure, which you quickly begin to manage by being better organised and experienced as time goes by!  The aim is to stay ahead!  This is especially important with sectors as short as Liverpool to Dublin, where we could be airborne for less than 30 minutes – where we have to squeeze in completing the flight plog, getting destination & alternate weather, notifying handling of any special information, setting up & briefing for the arrival and approach… We do the route quite often, so after becoming familiar with it, it’s become a lot easier!

I had the pleasure of visiting Marseille for the second time and was flying from there over the last few days.  Unfortunately there’s no direct connection to Marseille from my base, so I had to travel to Stansted Airport to pick it up.  I opted to take the train this time, and the journey was far more pleasant – no waiting in traffic or having to concentrate on the road and it took 2 hours less in time to get there!

The first day of flying involved a flight to Eindhoven (Holland) and then to Malaga (Spain).  The winds were quite light in comparison to the strong winds I had encountered earlier in January and the temperatures were much more pleasant – around 20C or more by mid-day.  I had never been to Eindhoven before and there were some other destinations on my roster that I had never been to either, so it was quite exciting to explore these from another base.  Eindhoven is in the South of The Netherlands, near the Brussels and Germany border. The terminal looked fairly new and it has a viewing deck with seating areas, binoculars and a restaurant area behind it for aviation enthusiasts/spotters!  I wish we had something like that in the airports in UK.  Despite this facility, we even caught well equipped spotters/photographers perched up on step-ladders by the airport perimeter so that the fence would not be caught in between the aircraft and the lens!  Malaga’s new terminal is now open and we were connected to the air-bridge of this new terminal, which looked significantly larger than the older terminal.  The passengers had a good view of the flight deck and crew as they board the aircraft and we got quite a few waves from children (and some adults) and their teddy bears!

As soon as I thought I had gotten away with it, the mistral gave us a sudden visit!  The mistral is a strong northerly wind and often gusty as it reaches Marseilles.  Here are some metars (weather reports) from the days and times I was flying:

LFML 151230Z 32030G41KT 9999 FEW046 17/07 Q1004 NOSIG
LFML 161500Z 33029G39KT CAVOK 19/04 Q1013 NOSIG
LFML 171330Z 32024G37KT 9999 FEW040 20/05 Q1019 TEMPO 33025G35KT
LFML 180730Z 34018KT CAVOK 17/08 Q1022 TEMPO 34033G45KT
LFML 181300Z 32025KT CAVOK 22/07 Q1019 TEMPO 34030G50KT
LFML 161500Z 33029G39KT CAVOK 19/04 Q1013 NOSIG

The reported winds were often a little tamer than what we actually encountered and winds of over 30 mph gusting to over 50 mph were common, and it made the landings challenging – especially with the addition of a 4 degree glideslope and the turbulence that the wind brought along with it!

On my second day of flying, we returned to Eindhoven and everything was going as planned and was routine up to the point a baggage belt was driven with some force into the aircraft by mistake!  We were told that the brakes had failed on the truck and so it ploughed with force into the aircraft.  I was setting up the aircraft for departure at the time and felt the aircraft shake and heard a startling bang!  I stepped out to investigate, and saw that one of the VHF radio antennas had been damaged and other than that the structure of the aircraft seemed in-tact.  We called operations with the help of a very apologetic head of the airport authority and they sent an engineer over from one of the bases to investigate and fix the aircraft. After a few hours, we were on our way back to Marseilles, once the engineer had fixed the aircraft.  However owing to the technical delay, my flights to Madrid were cancelled as a result of duty time limits and standby crew were called in to take on those flights.  A shame, as I was looking forward to visiting Madrid for the first time – I still got that chance on my fourth day though!

New Airbus aircraft still with covers on in Porto

The third day went without a hitch – we flew to Porto (Portugal) and then to Tanger (Morocco).  The flight to Porto was pleasant and on arriving we noticed brand new Airbus aircraft, still with covers on!  The weather was brilliant – clear blue skies and the yellow colour theme of the airport services brightened the airport up even more.  The way to Tanger was quite scenic – we passed Valencia, Barcelona and were flying along the Mediterranean coast, then  passed Gibraltar and were quite literally flying between Europe and Africa!

Gibraltar - visited many times during my time in FTE for its curries and British food products!

Africa on the left, Europe on the right.

On my 4th day of flying, we visited Beauvais (just outside Paris) and Madrid. The controllers gave us a very early descent to Beauvais to keep us out of the congested Paris control area. Would have been far more fuel efficient if they would have had the capacity to be able to handle us!  I did eventually get the chance to visit Madrid Barajas Airport.  It has 4 runways and very long taxi times – up to 15 minutes!  We requested 33L since that runway was closer to the terminal, which would give us shorter taxi times and less fuel burn.  Unfortunately the controller could not accommodate us due to other traffic inbound, and so we were given the parallel runway, 33R.  They were conducting parallel approaches into Madrid using 33L and 33R, leaving the other two northerly facing runways (36 L & R) for departures.  The Captain remarked that the airport was unusually quiet and could be due to the aiport/airspace closures due to the volcanic ash.  I was lucky enough not to be affected by it, as I was flying from Marseille – I had heard that some airports in UK had been closed at the time including London Heathrow.

Nador Airport, Morocco

On my final day of flying, I visited Tours and Nador (Morocco).  I once again enjoyed the beautiful views on the way down to Morocco and for the last time I enjoyed a challenging landing into Marseille.  Runway 31R was out of use, so we had to establish on the procedure for 31R and then side-step onto 31L.  This was quite challenging with the weather conditions and the approach itself – we break off soon after we establish, so there’s not much time!  I had a great time in Marseille, visiting new destinations, having a go at landing in windy & gusty conditions and spending time with friendly crew.

I recently visited Seville – the first time I’ve flown back myself since flight school.  I have sat in the jumpseat whilst observing flight deck procedures to Seville during my training and it felt equally nostalgic.  During flight school, we used to visit Seville often on our training flights and my IR exam involved flying down the same ILS that we did on our scheduled flight a few days ago!  Unfortunately I didn’t get to bump into any former instructors as there wasn’t much training activity going on at the time, as it was a Spanish holiday.  Coincidentally, a friend of mine, who had also trained at FTE landed just a few minutes behind me, and only a couple of years ago we were doing the same in Warriors or Senecas!

Sevilla Airport

I do miss Spain – I miss the laid back lifestyle, the beaches, the weather and even seeing the orange trees in the street!  I do get to fly over, or at least the vicinity of Jerez on my way to Morocco or other parts of southern Spain, so it’s nice to admire the familiar view from a few thousand feet up in the air.

Unfortunately, as soon as I thought the volcano wouldn’t be causing much trouble anymore.. it did! It hadn’t caused as widespread chaos as it did last month, but it did cause to a fair few cancellations again, including my flight to Tenerife, which I was looking forward to!  I’m hoping that someone thinks up a better way of managing these volcano ash events!  I’m working out of Marseille again next week, so I should escape any disruptions!

I spent some of my month off touring USA.  I had never been across the pond before, so decided to reward myself with an 18 day adventure touring Arizona, California & Nevada.  We visited various cities and beautiful locations, taking my DSLR camera with me to shoot a record of all the amazing places we visited.

A whale caught playing in the Pacific Ocean, just off the coast of Santa Barbara

Sat on the edge at the Grand Canyon... 4000 feet vertical drop!

Unfortunately, I ended up catching a cold soon after I arrived in UK, and so had to reluctantly take a couple of days off work whilst I recovered.  As if that wasn’t enough, I ended up having to take some more time off due to me requiring root canal treatment.  An infected cavity is incredibly painful – definitely not a condition you would want to fly with, as flying makes the pain worse due to the pressure differences at altitude and would certainly incapacitate you to some extent at the very least!  Nonetheless, I am back in the air and happily flying again.

Other than the disruptions to my flying schedule caused by my health, a volcano erupted and sent airline travel into chaos!  Many of my friends had been left stranded at airports that they had just landed in after being forced to stay there due to widespread airspace closures over Europe.  I was lucky enough not to be one of those left stranded.. and hoping it stays that way!

I was pleasantly surprised when I found that it was quite easy to settle back into the flow of things after a month of no flying. I’m looking forward to the Summer months now – not necessarily better weather since there can be quite a few thunderstorms around, but more day-light ours means I can enjoy the view.  I’m looking forward to the approaches to airports such as Malaga and Alicante which take you out over the sea and give you a fantastic view, which cannot be appreciated as much at night.  Having said that, the view at night can be quite majestic over large cities such as London – provided it’s a clear night!

I started the month of with a line check. Line checks are usually done on an annual cycle, however an initial line check is followed up with another one 3 months later. I’ve had so many checks or assessments in the last few months during the type rating and line training, that I’ve gotten used to being poked and prodded with them! The line check was during the last 2 sectors of the day – a flight to Limoges, France and back, with a Captain who was also being line checked. This meant that a line training Captain was sat in the jumpseat behind us assessing our adherence to and knowledge of SOPs and line flying. I passed the line check and was told that I will now be checked on an annual basis. We were given a piece of paper noting the check and given grades on the check and some notes on our performance, which I keep with my license.

Once the line check was out of the way, it was time to concentrate and study up on my first simulator check since the LST, which I did at the end of the type rating! For each simulator check, we are given study guides, CRM modules, and technical & CRM questionnaires which we must complete. I used my time wisely in the longer sectors to study for the check, and whilst I had nothing to do in my hotel room when I was flying away from base, I focussed on studying for the check also! I found studying in the flight deck ideal since all the manuals are there and I could do touch drills to refresh my memory items and certain maneuvers. The CRM modules involved reading through notes that were made available to us, and CBTs – after which we were to complete some questions to test our comprehension. The technical questions tested our knowledge of the aircraft and SOPs. I found that using the longer sectors on one of the days out of the block of 5 days that we work at a time, to refresh my memory & other QRH items, technical knowledge (reading a chapter), and a few pages of the ops manual, goes a long way to lighten the load when it comes to a sim check!

The sim check was at the East Midlands Airport training facility, and was scheduled early in the morning and was over 2 days. This was for 2 simulator sessions, each session lasting 4 hours with a break after doing half a session. The first day was with a simulator instructor. The first 2 hours involved LOFT (line orientated flight training), which was a flight from A to B without input from the instructor – so as if we were on a line flight without anyone else in the flight deck. After a break, the next 2 hours involved flying through different scenarios such as dual engine failures, windshear on take off and recovering from unusual attitudes with input from the instructor. The LOFT involved a flight in winter operations, dealing with a malfunction in flight and pilot incapacitation – which I really enjoyed (in the sim only of course!) since I got to be the hero!

The sim check went well on both days and I passed, and so was happy to get it done before my month off (March)!

A fantastic view of the Alps on the way to Italy.