Type rating groundschool and intermediate phase

Almost exactly a year ago we all agreed that the ATPL groundschool was hideous and that we all hoped we would never have to go through it again. One year on there we were cramming away, spending our evenings with our heads buried in the four thousand page Flight Crew Operating Manual (FCOM). Fortunately this period of study only lasted three weeks and, although a chore, was quite interesting. Having spent the last couple of months in the A320 simulator it was nice to finally get some technical knowledge behind the buttons we were pushing to get the Airbus to do its wizardry. It is a remarkable aeroplane that's capability is incredible considering it was designed and built in the 1980's. Anyway, back to the groundschool. The course took us through all of the major systems and many of the minor ones giving us a very comprehensive overview of the aircraft. In this short space of time it is very difficult to learn everything there is to know about the Airbus and to consider how many of the systems interlink and talk to each other. After all, the airbus is essentially one hugely expensive collection of computers.

The intermediate phase consists of 13 lessons including one competency check. The idea of this phase is to introduce us to management of the automatics and an introduction to various failures before starting our type rating in January. So far we have looked at hydraulic failures, engine failures and flight management computer failures. The basis to all of this has been ECAM (Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitoring) handling. The ECAM comprises of two screens in the centre of the flight deck that provide information on all of the major systems and help the pilots to monitor status of the aircraft. It also has the benefit of telling what has gone wrong and how to deal with it in the event of a failure. I feel that this intermediate phase really puts us at an advantage for the type rating as we are already quite comfortable with the aircraft, freeing up capacity for us to tackle any abnormalities that the instuctors want to challenge us with. Plus it gives us a chance to build on our newly founded technical knowledge and see some of the practicalities of the various systems we learned about three weeks ago.

Upper and Lower ECAM screens with the engines shut down and the doors page on the lower screen

With just under a week now until Christmas all that is left is for me to wish you all a Happy Christmas. I hope you enjoy the festive period.