To the Channel Islands for Breakfast

The Twinstar (Diamond DA42) is possibly the nicest aircraft I have flown. It handles beautifully and is great to throw around the sky to have some fun in. It is also significantly quicker than the Cessna we were flying in New Zealand which means we can get a bit further afield in our lessons. For example yesterday in my last flight, I went down to Alderney for an RNAV (GPS) approach before flying back to Bournemouth. This two hour jaunt to this small Channel Island was all done in time for me to get back home for breakfast. It was stunning though flying through and between the clouds over the English Channel in the peaceful early morning air.

I also had a chance to back seat a course mates flight to Guernsey the other day. Back-seating is a really good opportunity to learn from the other person's lesson and pick up some tips that your instructor may not have mentioned, as well as a chance to take loads of photos. Here are a selection;

Leaving UK airspace and heading to Guernsey

The English Channel

Alderney

The view of Guernsey through the propeller blades

Busy at Guernsey Airport

The return leg over the Channel

This last month of training has been great fun. It has been a chance for us MPL cadets to learn something new and get some valuable experience of the UK, multi-engine flying and Upset Recovery in a no pressure environment. The emphasis of this phase really was experience and fun. The next phase should also be fun, but hard work. The waiting Airbus A320 simulators are certainly an exciting thought to all of us and we cannot wait to get a go in them. Unfortunately it does mean that until February we wont be doing anymore real flying, and the scariest thought is that the next time we take to the skies will be at the controls of the Airbus.

A very significant change in weather

The last time I was in the UK, it was cold and miserable. A fairly standard and predictable English winter you might say. New Zealand when we left was also rather damp and windy for the most part. Now I am back in the UK it is remarkably hot and sunny meaning cold beverages at the beach with my fellow course mates.

The journey home from New Zealand was hideously long and surprisingly refreshing. The flight with Emirates from Auckland to Dubai goes via Melbourne, and for the thirteen and a half hour leg from Melbourne to Dubai I had the three seats by the window to myself. For the first time ever I was able to sleep on an airplane which helped the flight go that much quicker. This was hindered however by a nine and a half hour layover in Dubai, but there we go.

Emirates Boeing 777 ready to take me home

Cumulonimbus cloud somewhere over Turkey

As good as the time in NZ was, it was great to get back home. I never really missed being away, but there are some things about the UK that make it unique. The pubs for one! It's also nice to have some sort of normality back. Life on the other side of the world felt strangely detached from reality, in our little bubble of clearways (CTC accommodation) and the training centre.

Now we have spent two weeks at CTC's training centre in Bournemouth and have completed the Upset Recovery training (UPART) section of the course. UPART consists of two flights in a DA40 and one flight in an aerobatic aircraft called a Bulldog. The idea is to do some advanced handling training and unusual attitude recovery training, so that if we find ourselves in a position we dont want to be in, we have a good chance of dealing with it safely. The bulldog flight also gave us a chance to something a little more fun, such as doing some inverted flying.

Now that UPART is over the next thing to do is multi-engine flying. Here in Bournemouth we will do 5 hours in the DA42. easyJet have said they want us to have some multi-engine general handling experience before starting in the A320 simulator, so that's what we are going to do. This is a really exciting stage of training as now we are all moving onto something completely new that none of us have experience of before, and there is mention of a trip to the Channel Islands which could be fun.

We now only have two weeks left in Bournemouth before we go back to Nursling for the 150 hours of Airbus training. But for now, it's sunny again so I'm going to go back to the beach.