A rather exciting week

Our New Zealand Visa application forms have arrived and we have been given the dates of travel out to the other side of the world (dependent on passing the next set of exams).

New Zealand Visa Application form

It's rather exciting that in almost exactly two months we will be embarking on the horrendous 30 hour flight down to New Zealand. Before that though there is the "small" matter of sitting and passing the next seven exams.

This week has been spent looking at factors that negatively effect the performance of pilots. I have found it to be quite an interesting subject and relatively medically based. A lot of it is fairly straightforward, i.e. consuming alcohol before flying is bad and some basic anatomy. I hated biology at school and never thought that I would have to use any of what I learned all those years ago again, but it has actually come in surprisingly handy for some of the stuff we have been learning. Other things that we have been studying are optics, psychology, hypoxia and the depressing air crash investigation videos.

It has been quite depressing watching them, but they have been eye opening to some of unforeseen circumstances and errors that humans can make while flying the highly strung, complicated machines that modern aircraft are. The most famous and harrowing incident in recent times is that of Air France flight 447 which crashed in the middle of the Atlantic in 2009. A tragic incident which shows that it is quite easy for pilots to get into a state of confusion if something out of the ordinary happens. I find it good to watch these videos so that we at least have an appreciation for past incidents and so we can learn from them. It hasn't just been this subject that AF447 has cropped up. It's a good example to illustrate a number of lessons that should be taken on-board by all pilots, in training or experienced, for example why thunderstorms are to be avoided.

Learning from experience is also something for you to think about if you are going through selection processes. One of the things interviewers look for is for you to demonstrate that you have learned from some of your mistakes and feedback you may have been given at times.

On that cheery note, I wish you a Happy Christmas. I hope you all have a lovely festive period.

Preparation is everything

In aviation preparation is nearly everything. Life is made significantly easier if you prepare well for a flight, and as such makes the task of transporting passengers safer. The last couple of weeks we have been studying Mass and Balance and Flight Planning. These two modules really carry on the theme of being able to see the practical use outside the classroom. Admittedly as airline pilots, a lot of this will be done for us, but it is necessary to understand what is done in order to get a flight ready for departure. We will have to do this out in New Zealand anyway, and if we ever do any general aviation flying.

Mass and Balance is another small topic but is a very important one. It is because of this subject that airlines have strict rules on your luggage. Adding weight to the aircraft causes an increase in fuel usage as well as changing the CofG (centre of gravity) of the aircraft. According to the design specifications and safety regulations the CofG must be kept within certain location limits on the aircraft to keep it flyable. There are also more of those horrible looking graphs to learn how to use, but once you understand what's going on it's all fairly straightforward.

Flight planning, funnily enough, involves planning a flight, from routing and navigation to calculating the amount of fuel to uplift.There is a lot of reference material for this one with even more charts and graphs. There is not a huge amount of facts to learn in this subject, as most of it is contained in the Jeppesen manual or the CAP documents, so it's a case of knowing where to find the information. For example we have been learning how to read Instrument approach plates (seen below).

Approach plate for Southampton ILS/DME RWY20

Approach plates show the procedure to follow while making an approach for landing into an airport while flying under IFR (instrument flight rules) normally done in poor visibility, or by Airlines. Above you can see an example of an approach plate, this one being for Runway 20 at Southampton.

For those of you embarking on assessment days in the future, being prepared will help you enormously. My advice on this matter would be to make a list of scenarios and skills they could ask you about and write down everything about yourself, with examples, that could answer their questions. Being prepared definitely helped me with my easyJet assessment days, and I learned my lesson by not being so during my previous attempt at getting into a pilot training program.

There is no rest for the wicked here as there are still three subjects to go, so for now its back to the graphs.

Exam Performance

This week has been a combination of the nerve racking receipt of exam results as well learning about aircraft performance. Firstly, I'm happy to report that I passed all of my exams and achieved a good average, so I'm pretty pleased and as such enjoyed an evening at the pub with my housemates for a celebratory drink, or two! The results of the group as a whole were really good, and it's great to see a few months hard work pay off. Now we just have to repeat that success and it's off to the other side of the world.

In the mean time though, the performance subject that we have now finished, has been making our brains ache. It is only four days of teaching, but there is one heck of a lot of information to take in. It's a cross between Principles of Flight and Air Law focusing on achieving performance regulations and calculating the performance of an aircraft under specified conditions. This means that there are lots more seemingly arbitrary numbers to store in the ether of our brains. For example, if a runway is wet, a jet aircraft should stop within 52% of the runway length. This module also contains lots of graphs with which we can work out all manner of things from required take-off distances to ideal flap setting for landing.  The graph below is one of the graphics studied, used to calculate the take off distance of a single engine aircraft with flaps up.

Figure 2.1 from CAP 698

All this means the wholly enjoyable (tedious!) task of reading through the regulatory requirements of CAP698 (the document containing aircraft performance requirements) and learning how to use the multitude of graphs within. The practicality of this subject is often labour intensive, and achieving the required accuracy takes more concentration than usual, but it's quite nice learning about something that is going to be part of our preparation every time we go flying. It's quite difficult doing five months of ground-school with nothing to reference our learning to, but this second set of subjects helps to put some of the theory already examined into practice.

That's about all that is interesting from the past couple of weeks, so until next time, take care.

How to get from A to B

Another week has ended and more knowledge has been consumed. This week we have been studying General Navigation, a topic based on calculations navigating us around the globe from A to B. So it's all pretty important stuff. Now that the topics are more practical, we have been given the Jeppesen Airway Manual. This hefty binder contains all the charts that we need to complete the exams. There is a range of charts in this manual including airway (motorways of the sky) charts and airport charts showing taxiways, terminals and gates.

Jeppesen airway manual and one of the included low level airway charts

The majority of what we have done so far has been learning about longitude and latitude, Great circles (the shortest distance across the globe) and rhumb lines (lines that cross each meridian at the same angle). This involves looking at different types of charts and the various properties of each one. This all becomes of use when working out where we are and where we need to go. In the picture above you can see some thick lines criss-crossing seemingly randomly across the page. These lines are in fact airways and follow great circle lines from radio-navigation aids. In light aircraft with basic equipment these lines and angles aren't the ones displayed on the instrument so we need to know how to convert them to useful headings and bearings for us to navigate accurately. The modern highly automated aircraft that I will be flying day to day will do all of this for me, but during training, in light aircraft, flight planning and when it all goes wrong this knowledge will probably come in quite handy.

The CRP-5

We have also started learning how to use the CRP-5 flight computer. It's affectionately know as the "crap 5", but in all honesty its a brilliant piece of equipment that saves time on numerous calculations such as fuel unit conversions and wind, velocity, track and heading calculations. At first it's quite a daunting thing to use but like most things once you get the hang of it, it becomes far easier and far more useful. It's also known as a whizz wheel because the centre of it rotates enabling the plethora of calculations that it is capable of. Admittedly its not as accurate as a calculator, but its much quicker and the value obtained is close enough to real answer for it to be used in flight.

We have another week of this before moving on, so until then Adios!

Exams are over, for now!

Exams are finished, beer has been consumed and everyone is feeling a lot happier than 12 hours ago. Three months have passed incredibly quickly, which I personally see as a good thing as it means we are three months closer to our rather exciting trip to New Zealand.  It's nice that the exams are now out the way for a few much needed days of relaxation. But a few days is just that, as we are back in the classroom on Tuesday to start the process all over again. According to instructors and previous cadets the next set of topics are much more practical and a little less daunting. We shall see!

Now for a little bit of what the exams entail for those of you that are interested. All of the exams are multiple choice with some exams as few as 24 questions in half an hour to some with as many as 80 in two hours. The timing for the exams is perfectly reasonable as after much practice on the question bank, we soon find ourselves getting through questions rather quickly. The CAA like to catch us out and you can soon find yourself making stupid mistakes, and with a pass mark of 75% there isn't much margin for error! The exams this week havn't been too bad. There were a couple of tricky questions here and there but for the most part, with effective preparation, there wasn't anything too troubling. I now want to forget those for the time being and focus on relaxing. Results should arrive in a couple of weeks and there isn't anything I can do about them now. It, however, is a strange feeling now having to deal with life without four possible options. Give any of us four possible answers and I'm sure we could pick out the correct one. For now though, I'm going to unwind properly and enjoy the time off.

As ever questions about the training, selection, CTC etc are more than welcome. I know a few of you are probably wanting to ask a few things prior to the British Airways FPP opening on Monday. I know I'm on the easyJet MPL but the skills required during selection are fairly common across airlines and the ground-school training is the same.

Please switch off any electronic devices and stow your tray-tables in the upright position!

This time last week we had finished our mock exams and were settling down for a week and a half of revision. Well that was the plan! Having done well in my mocks I find a week and a half a long time to sit about going through the question bank. For some people too much preparation can be a bad thing and I have found myself slotting into this category. So in my boredom (ok, a bit of an over-exaggeration) I try and keep my mind distracted now and then with aviation news and walks to the beach. Which brings me onto the point of this post. In recent months there has been a lot of talk about allowing the use of electronic devices throughout commercial flights, including take off and landing. A news article yesterday announced that US Airlines are finally going to introduce plans to allow such use of smartphones and tablets etc. You can read about it here. Fortunately the use of mobile phones remains banned, so poor cabin crew will still have to deal with that one (there's always one) passenger who hasn't switched off their phone!

Now this topic is very open to discussion and many will disagree with me, but I don't agree with this proposal for two main reasons. The first being that once everyone is sat in their seats the cabin crew give a rather important safety demonstration, as I'm sure you are all aware. Frequent fliers can probably recite this to you in their sleep, but for most, listening to it might actually save your life in the highly unlikely event of a crash. Allowing the use of electronic devices will inevitably distract many people from the safety demonstration, especially children immersed in computer games and I personally disagree with airlines and regulators even considering it.

The second reason, which will lead you to think I'm older than I actually am, is that I can't understand why people can't go without their gadgets for ten minutes during take-off and landing! For some people it might be a welcome distraction to their anxiety of flying during the most critical stages, but I hardly feel that is an acceptable reason to suddenly change the rules. I am also aware that being stuck in a metal (or composite) tube for a number of hours to most seems incredibly dull and tedious, but aircraft are designed with very modern in-flight entertainment systems with some airlines providing more films than you can watch in a lifetime. Conversely, you can always read a book.

I know that I am writing from a very biased point of view having loved air travel my entire life, and every time I'm on an aeroplane I like to enjoy the experience. I'm probably being overly cynical but I will be interested to see if this is a success.

Air Law, Comms and Mock exams!

Eight weeks have flown by (pun intended!) which means that our mock exams are literally just around the corner. CTC require us to pass a set of mocks, starting on Monday, before they let us take the real ones. It's all good practice though, so there isn't much inconvenience to us and it gives us a chance to find out where we are with our learning. The real ones are in two weeks, so still plenty of time to iron out the creases in our knowledge.

International Rules of the Air

Today brought to an end the taught aspect of the first seven topics, having finished Air Law in a flurry of seemingly random numbers and letters. I have heard it referred to as Air Bore, and I can see why as it is just a lot of facts to learn. There is no rhyme or reasoning to it either so it is just a case of going through as many practice questions as possible. Studying for ATPL exams is made considerably easier by the existence of "question bank", various online databases of actual/similar questions to the exams. It's a great tool for us to pass our exams but it isn't the best way of truly learning the material. There are differing opinions on the use of question bank but considering the short space of time in which we have to learn it all, it's unavoidably invaluable to us.

Next thing. We finished both VFR (visual flight rules) and IFR (instrument flight rules) communications last week. They are both very small topics with only 150 possible questions each in the question bank and two timetabled teaching days. Very important none the less and impossible to fly without communication, especially with the number of aircraft flying through our skies. It is also something that has to be demonstrated to high standard to get onto a pilot training program, so if you want to be an airline pilot learn how to communicate effectively.

Unfortunately, due to them being fully booked with cadets in their final stages of training, there has been no trip in the simulator. Having a background in Aerospace engineering, and a relatively large amount of flying experience, this doesn't bother me so much as I can relate what we are doing to the flying I have done. For the less experienced on the course it's a pretty important thing to do so that what we have been learning in lessons can be seen in practice, rather than just theory written on a piece of paper. It would also have helped to make sense of the more complicated principles. It's a bit late now as we have to revise, but hopefully we might get a go after our exams. Speaking of which, I'm going back to revision, so wish me luck!

Rest and Relaxation

Unfortunately I haven't been here!

Slightly off topic from the training today, but taking time off every now and then to recuperate is very important no matter what line of work you are in. Flying especially when a Pilot's ability to safely handle the aircraft are hugely dependent on his, or her fatigue, or lack of! My logic here brings me to the conclusion that it's only right, that even during intensive studying during this ground-school phase, that I too take a break every once in a while to rest and generally recharge the batteries, as well as let the material settle.

Anyway, there have been a few instances reported recently of Pilots falling asleep at the controls, one flight subsequently overflying it's destination by 150 miles. Worrying isn't it that the safety of potentially a few hundred people is being compromised by pilots having long working hours.  Fortunately, thanks to the help of our MEPs, in the last week, plans to change the rules on pilot working hours have been rejected. The plans, which according to the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) would "almost never happen", would see a potential for pilots to be landing after 22 hours awake. I'm pretty sure that you as the passengers wouldn't be happy with that, let alone the pilots. Here is the link if you wish to go and read about it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24327366

As much as us trainee pilots like to think that we aren't going to fall asleep at the controls, reality and statistics suggest that we might! The result of this vote was certainly a good thing to safeguard the relatively high safety standards we currently enjoy.

Well that's my break over, it's time to hit the books (computer software) again! Until next time, Adios!

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The Great British weather

Disclaimer: Not representative of normal British Weather!

The weather is a peculiar thing that us Brits never seem to be happy with. We love to complain about it but in reality there is absolutely nothing we can do. We can however learn how this planet throws up such contrasting conditions and use this knowledge to try and provide the passengers the smoothest and safest ride possible.

Meteorology, arguably the most important of the topics covered, is a monster, with the longest exam and six days to get through a list of learning objectives the length of an Airbus. It, like the other topics, is actually fascinating, but without a geography degree this very full on crash course in Met seems pretty complicated. Topics covered include altimetry, cloud spotting, humidity and wind among other things and once you sit down and get to grips with the content I find it surprisingly straight forward. That said there is still a lot of it and by no means to be underestimated.

Admittedly I have acquired some knowledge of meteorology from the amount of gliding I have done, which makes things a little easier. It also means that I have seen a few of the plethora of charts that can be used for deciphering the weather conditions at particular times. It's great now being able to understand these (and more), be able read them properly and do a little amateur weather forecasting in my spare time! The weather conditions are a very important part of gliding, and aviation in general, so having a good understanding not only makes you a better and safer pilot, but can make for some very enjoyable experiences. More on that another time! I am often asked about the best conditions for flying gliders. Well the picture above is just that! Lots of fluffy cumulus cloud and lots of blue sky for the sun to shine through. Just beautiful!

As the nights draw in and the day gets noticeably and depressingly shorter, the reality that our exams are only a month away is starting to hit home. I have definitely started to feel the pressure, even being on top of it all. Slowly but surely everything seems to be falling into place which is helping to carry that motivation through the long hours of study. Don't let that put you off though, as if you have a passion for aviation you will find ground school really interesting and actually rather enjoyable. Enough from me today, so Au Revoir!

Ps. Quite a few people asked me how they can follow the blog, so there is now a facebook page www.facebook.com/cwbpilot where you can follow the blog and where I will put additional interesting stuff. So please go and "like" the page to keep updated!

My soon to be office

Flight deck lit up at night (dawn to be pedantic) Photo courtesy of Bristol Ground-school

This is where, all being well, I will end up working in approximately thirteen months time.  Now it may look like the Starship Enterprise and with all the electronic and automatic systems in modern aircraft, comparisons to Flight Simulator computer games can be drawn, but this is the office window I have dreamed of for many, many years.

Yesterday brought an end to the Instruments topic, pretty much covering the entire inner workings of the flight deck and getting to grips with how all of those computer screens work. All of this electronic gubbins is actually quite incredible. The flight management system controls the autopilot which can fly and navigate the entire flight, even down to the landing, so us pilot's don't have to do anything more than read the paper and talk to Air Traffic Control! On the face of it, it all seems fairly straightforward, but I dread to think of the complexity of the electrical systems behind the scenes. The two large square screens on the very right of the picture are two of the three most important instruments. The one on the right with a blue top half and brown bottom half is called the Primary Flight display (PFD), and the one left of that with the big splodge of red in the middle is called the Navigation Display (ND). The PFD gives the main flying data, airspeed, altitude, vertical speed and an attitude indicator known as an artificial horizon. The ND, as the name suggests, provides aircraft navigation. It's the flying version of a Sat Nav which can also display weather obtained from the on-board radar and collision avoidance from something called TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System). The majority of the other lights you can see in the picture are autopilot controls.

Our job as a pilot is to monitor this bank of screens and make sure that nothing goes wrong, and deal with it when it does. It has been really interesting to learn how all of the computers work and finally understand what is going on when watching videos on youtube or playing flight simulator. It's also been pretty motivating to be honest. It really feels like I am close to getting my paws on the airbus!

Ground School

Apologies for the lengthy and boring nature of this post, but I was asked a question about what I actually have to learn during Pilot Training. I'm now three weeks in and havn't actually revealed what Pilot training entails, so I thought that I would give you a run down of the course here at CTC. 

There are 14 ATPL (Airline Transport Pilots License) theory exams, the material for which is taught during the ground school phase over the first five months. The material is delivered via the classroom and the previously mentioned CBT (computer based training).  The topics are:

• Aircraft General Knowledge
• Principles of Flight
• Instruments
• Air Law
• Meteorology
• IFR communication
• VFR communications
• Mass and Balance
• Flight Planning
• General Navigation
• Flight Performance
• Operational Procedures
• Radio Navigation
• Human Performance 

Yesterday we started the Instruments topic, but only after we had all filled in our exam registration forms.  It's quite scary thinking that in six weeks we will have completed half of the ground school.  It's also amazing to think that in that time we will have consumed all of this knowledge.

Time for some more advice, when it comes to academia, always try and do things that you enjoy.  It will make a massive difference to the outcome of your learning.  I spent three years at University and really didn't enjoy my course, and as such I achieved a relatively poor grade at the end.  Now I'm here studying for what I have wanted to do for such a long time, I find it so much more enjoyable and as such I find it significantly easier to study long hours and learn all of the material.  That said, ask me again around exam time and I will probably tell you otherwise.

How do aeroplanes fly?

Not a lot has happened since last time, but we have now completed the Principles of Flight material. One exam's worth of material in five days. To put this into context, in those five days we have covered the majority of the Aerospace-y stuff in my degree, which took three years.  Well, two if you take into account the ludicrously long holidays! So in answer to my question, some strange airflow causing pressure differentials over the wings. Its all very complicated, so I won't bore you with the long winded scientific explanation and just call it magic.

Proof of my magic explanation

Having done Aerospace engineering at University this topic doesn't cause me any undue anxiety, especially with all the abbreviations to be learnt.  Having said that, it is perfectly manageable even if you don't have a background in Aeronautics. The majority of people on my course don't have scientific degrees, so don't be put off by this seemingly complicated subject and the technical knowledge that needs to be memorised to pass the exams. Now, top tip number 2; if you are thinking about a career in aviation make sure that you learn to love Maths and Physics as soon as you can. It will make life for you a lot easier! When I first wanted to be a pilot I hated Maths and Physics but I learned to love them and they became my favourite subjects at school, hence the degree in Engineering.

So last night a bunch of us went for a curry! It was a great evening with good food, good company and a chance to spend the evening away from the books.  True free time is hard to come by here, so it is wise to make the most of an evening off. Plus, studying 24/7 will make you soon want to throw the books out of the window. It really is a case of work hard, play hard. But hey, I'm still loving it. To be honest, I have been given such a wonderful opportunity that I just want to make absolute most of it, do as well as I can, and set myself up for the best career possible.

It has been mentioned a few times that we are going to get a go in the Simulator before too long. So hopefully in the next update I will be able to tell you how CP111 got on in our first attempt at flying an airliner.  Until then, bye bye!

Oh, and feel free to ask me any questions you wish about any aspect of the training, CTC, flying, or even career advice. You can use the Contact me form on the right  --->

1 down, 23 to go......

Not that I'm counting! The first week is over and I am settled into life here.  The early mornings took some getting used to, but it's been great so far. 

Last week during APD 1, a bunch of cadets that are further down the road than we are had a chat with us, and they all told us that the difficult thing about the ground school is the quantity of material not how difficult it is to learn.  Well they were certainly right. This week has been spent doing the first half of AGK (Aircraft General Knowledge) and while the subject matter is really interesting and I have enjoyed it so far, there is a lot of it and my brain is now overloaded with aircraft hydraulic systems, flight controls and de-icing systems among other things. To those with a sweet tooth like me, that's not cake icing unfortunately!

Motivation or Procrastination.....?
 

Flybe Embraer departing Southampton

Today was a scheduled "day off" for us to do some CBT, so Darryl, Josh (two of my housemates) and I went to Southampton airport to do some study while being provided with some motivation.  They didn't seem keen on providing viewing areas, so after a bit of discussion of where we could get cheap flights to and subsequently through the security barriers, we decided to go home. So in conclusion a bit of both!


Right enough of that, we're off to the pub!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Now I apologise in advance for the title of this post because I hate any mention of Christmas before at least the start of December, but today it did feel like Christmas.  We all received some rather important goody bags! I say goody bags, flight cases with some rather important items that we are going to use for our training, and later on in our careers, meaning that we all left the training centre today feeling a little more professional than we did this morning.

Flight case and it's contents

So in this case of tricks we have; a calculator, a pair of dividers (compasses), a knee board, a ruler, a logbook and a flight computer.  The flight computer is the white item on the left of the picture that is used for various maths problems that are encountered on the flight deck.  But we will get taught how to use it properly at a later date.


Right, I'm now heading back to the CBT (computer based training). There is one heck of a lot of material to cover and its only been two days! Oh well this is what I signed up for. Just keep thinking about New Zealand.  Ciao!

First Day at School

So I find myself wandering along a beach (admittedly a fairly scruffy pebble beach), watching some sailing on the south coast having moved house and all my worldly possessions for the third time in as many years.

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to train to be an easyJet Pilot down here in Southampton at CTC Wings and yesterday, with a smile the width of the Grand Canyon, saw me finally start this hugely exciting 18 month course.  Becoming an Airline Pilot has been a dream of mine, like many people, since I can remember and has been something I have tried to prepare myself for my whole life.

What I shall be flying in 18 months time, all being well.

Having spent three years at University studying Aerospace Engineering, hating it and spending most days wishing I was at 35,000ft admiring the view, watching youtube videos for motivation, it is a very welcome change for me to be here about to embark on the mammoth task of learning 14 ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot's License) ground school subjects in 5 months.  The thought of flying that jet and the trip to New Zealand in February is definitely helping to get settled down and ready to crack on with the classroom based learning.  I only hated my course, the friends I made, the people I met and the things I did made for a fantastic time in Liverpool.  The course, and social life, gave me a lot of life experience and having gone through a few Pilot Training and airline selection processes in the last couple of years, I don't think that I would have done so well without my time at University.  So I can't complain too much, and I do now have a degree, which can't be a bad thing.

Anyway, how did I get into flying?  At the age of 15, I took up gliding.  It was the easiest way for me to learn to fly, it was also relatively cheap.  I was also a member of the Air Cadets, giving free flying.  One of the best pieces of advice I can give anyone thinking about a career in Aviation as a Pilot is to join the Air Cadets.  As well as it giving you the chance to have some free flying, it starts to instil many non-technical, interpersonal skills that are vital if you are to succeed as a pilot, such as teamwork and leadership.  So I flew solo (gliding) at 16 and have continued to do as much gliding as I can.  I now, 6 years later, have just under 200 hours, a Silver badge and fly competitions when/if I can, such as the Junior National Championships.  I love the challenge of cross-country flying and competitions and I'm sure that some of this will help with my flying and training later on!

Me Finishing a task at 2012 Junior Nationals, in Discus SH3

Yesterday was the first official thing on the agenda, Airline Preparation day 1 (APD 1).  It was the first day in Uniform, which felt great, with a chance to meet all of my fellow course mates, CP111 (our course number), and start to prepare and equip ourselves at this early stage with some of the skills needed to work well as a crew.  Everyone seems really friendly and the different backgrounds we have all come from should make for an interesting discussion and some fun times ahead.  Last night we all went for a few drinks in Southampton, so now just having a lazy weekend getting ready for Monday Morning.  I will try and keep you up to date with progress and anything interesting that happens, and please feel free to ask me any questions you wish about the training, gliding, selection etc. 

So until next time, Cheerio!