Sunshine state

Well here we all are in the sunshine state of Florida for 3 months!!

All fun, just getting that hang of the controls, and the turbulence! Only one scary thing to happen, our traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS) informed us that there was traffic right on top of us!! After a few manoeuvres later, we still couldn't see the traffic, then the TCAS stopped bleeping. It turns out that the system was triggered by a mobile phone, whoops!

Unfortunately no one had a camera on board so no pics :(

However, some I have managed to obtain a camera for our next trip so as promised there will be photos

We do have a facebook group which is open to all to join with a collection of photos already on

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=56465029626&ref=nf

Enjoy, and watch this space!

All done!

Well ground school that is. Just 2 more exams to sit!

All things sorted for Florida. Accommodation, hire car, and the annoying visa application process.

So watch this space for some vids and pics.

Bit of excitement today

Something interesting and different rarely occurs in the ground school students life, however, today was a little bit different

It seems that our resident BAe 146 codename "METMAN" suffered a hydraulics failure whilst doing his usual MET stuff in the air.

Luckily for him, his secondary hydraulics system was working fine so was able to land at Cranfield airport without incident. However, that didn't stop all the fire engines and air ambulances scrambling to assist.

Most exciting thing to happen in weeks.

Oh and the group ahead of us have finished their ground school, so that gives us only 2 months left!!!

Just that little bit closer..

It just seems that Florida is that little bit closer.

Half the ground school is done, weather getting better. Plus our visa preparations are well underway. We are now registered as Alien Flight Students and our fingerprints were taken.

Seems fun, however, some people just can't give finger prints. Not that I have sweaty palms or anything, it is just that I can't seem to roll my finger properly within the small square (plus I think I bust my ring finger playing football the other day)

Then again, I would view someone who is a natural at finger printing with suspicion, if you know what I mean!.

Just 12 weeks to go!

Half-way!!

As the title says, we are halfway through ground school. Block two exams all done. Although we have only done 5 exams out of the 14 required, the worst (debatable) is over.

Block three kicks off this week, topics include:
Flight Planning
Air Law
Principles of Flight
Mass and Balance
Radio Navigation
IFR and VFR Comms

Although it seems a lot, these are rather small subject. The two comms and Mass and Balance exams are a measly 20 questions each.

Flight Planning should get us to really apply our gen naviagtion and met knowledge into practise.
PofF is just maths, Radio Nav, erm, like instruments I guess

Air Law, well ........ZZzzzzz *hits head on desk*

Oh and here is a pic of Block 2 notes. Note the pound coin and the empty bottle!

Some pics

In response to popular demand, I have some pics. Nothing to fancy.

All pics shamelessly stolen from our Facebook group

View from our classroom mainly














































And there is me, all hard at work (at the back that is)

FSX for revision??

It takes some guts to admit that you have dabbled a lot into Flight Sim X, prior and during you flight training. It does sound rather nerdy especially to outsiders that you consider yourself a trans world explorer without even leaving your house.

Well anyway, may people may have this question on their minds, but are too afraid to ask it to avoid the "You are a nerd" look, does Flight Sim X (or other Sims) help you in flight training.

Well after going through the Instruments syllabus I must admit, the answer is yes. If you purchase one of these custom made addons that have been made by people in the know, you could find yourself visualising all those complicated instruments. You could also place yourself at a certain altitude, and see the relation ship between your Indicated air speed, True Airspeed and Mach number. Want to see the effect of temperature changes for "real"? Simply change the temp. Pressure changes? Is it really "High to Low, down you go"?

However, I must stress the need for custom addons. It seems that the default Flight sim x aircraft have a lack of detail when it comes to the more complicated instruments, like the INS and FMS. It seems that the makes think that everyone will be using the GPS these days, when in reality we don't. So avoid. Also do bare in mind that there are no 100% accurate models, but something that shouldn't trouble you in the ATPL ground exams, Type ratings maybe, but that is something that we don't have to worry about just yet.

So hold you geeky chin up high simmers, you are almost "as real as it gets"

Half-way into Block 2

Well we have survived without too many serious incidents into week 5 of our 8 week block 2. Subjects to ram into our little brains include Meterology, General Navigation, Instruments and Human Performance and Limitations.

In comparision with the other 3 blocks of subjects, this is the biggy! Just a lot of info to take in.

Met- Well put it this way, in AGK we were all looking at the planes taking off, just reminding ourselves of what the end-game is, now were spend out breaks outside looking at the clouds and guessing the cloud names! Yup, we be geeks.

G-Nav, in the begining our CRP-5 (wizzwheel) seems like a very clever piece of kit, not as much now, a bane for some!

Instuments- Just info info info info. After getting our heads around altimetry (oooh that's fun!) we be learning all about how the various instruments actually obtain the info they're displaying. However, it ain't type specific, I guess that is the reason why today we had to endure the facts about the inertial nav system (INS), a bit of kit that was made obsolete 20 years ago! Go CAA!

HP&L- Coming from a strong biology background, I was initially given a gagging order by our intructor, cos lets face it, the CAA lock themselves into a room and convince each other that they are right. CAA facts and reality don't mix well. So we have to learn all about how the CAA view the limitations of your average pilot. Did you know that humans can function as pilots with a body temperature of 40C!!!?? No me neither........

1st Exam Results In

Well finally the CAA got their finger out and decided to publish the exam results. Better late than never I guess.

Out of 14 people, 14 passed, with good marks.

Here at Cabair, the 14 subjects that the CAA examine you on were divided into 4 blocks of subjects. The first block consisted of Engines, Electrics, Systems and Emergency Equipment, all examined as one Aircraft General Knowledge (AGK) subject. Not the easiest of the 14 subjects but not the hardest. So a pass mark here, makes a good start.

Well done to all. Lets hope the next block yields similar results.

Ground School

The Cabair way

So starting 3rd March 2009, class 09/02, 14 people (4 sponsorsored) begin theit journey through Cabair.

Basicially, the boring bit gets over and done with. I.e. The ground school is done within the first 6 months, with no sniff of plane fuel.

So thats it up till now. 6 weeks in, one exam down. 13 to go....stay turned for this...and more

Journey to flight school-So then now what?

Well despite my progress through the Flybe sponsorship, I was still offered a course at Cabair of which I would have to fund the entire lot.

So I took it.

End of post.

Journey to flight school-Cabair selection

Selection, for this course was in 4 stages.

Stage 1:

Well this stage was simply the application stage. Nice and easy. If you have the qualifications to become a pilot, then generally you should be okay to pass this stage. But.....nowt as queer as folk. Some people still managed to fail at this stage?? Huh, what they applied with no qualifications? Perhaps, but some still had the required minimums, which to be honsest is GCSEs in maths, with A-levels to help, but still failed. So how did they fail? Quite simply, they had a scruffy application form. "They must have filled it out whilst eating their dinner off it" was one quote I got.

About 100 people applied for this stage, about 50-60 got through

So lesson here wannabees, for Gods sake, take time to fill out your application and make it look nice. You can get a new one if you spilled coffee/curry/bodily fluids on it. Perhaps this was the real reason that it done by hand.

Stage 2:

PILAPT and Maths/Physics test.

Now for the real cutter, can you answer GCSE maths and phyics questions, with a calculator, and demonstrate good aptidue? This is generally the point of stage 2.

So overview, well questions on Maths and Physics were generally non-challenging, but considering that it has been about 10 years since I have seen these questions, I should have revised a little more before this day. Generally, GCSE level. Revise it!


PILAT, pilot aptidue test. You get a joystick, a mouse and a keypad with coloured buttons and ABCD on it. Can you hold a set of crosshairs in the middle with random drifting? Can you identify which hand the square is being held in when the chap in either unsidedown, backto front or both? Can you spot when the audio count down rate changes, while looking out for a coloured shape and keep those crosshairs in the middle. If so, then you shouldn't have a problem.

Stage 3:

Well despite my aging brain, I passed Stage 2 and was invited to Stage 3. One of about 16 people who got through the pilapt tests. This generally consited of an introduction to the school followed by a group discussion on a variety of topics and an interview with Cabair.

Stage 4:

Well I must admit I thought I did okay in Stage 3 but not good enough. They wanted 8, I was 9th, apparently. Oh well... Stage 4 would have consisted of an interview with Flybe..

Journey to flight school-Sponsorship

Towards the end of 2008, for obvious reasons, sponsorships generally didn't exist. In a knee jerk reaction, many airlines pulled any near future prospect of student sponsorships.

Generally these programs will part-sponsor your flight training through an integrated flight training course, via an interest free loan. When you finish training, you pay back this loan by working for the company for about 3-5 years. Although you still have to fork out for the remainder of the course fees.

So, new to the idea of flight schooling? What the hell is integrated? Generally there are two ways to train to become a pilot, modular and integrated.

A ball park figure is that about 90% of pilots trained via the modular route. Generally, you get yourself a Private Pilots licence (PPL), then upgrade to a commercial licence (CPL) then get yourself an instruments rating (IR, in lamans terms flying from A to B then back to A using instruments only) Following that, you get yourself a MCC (sort of team working course) and a jet orienteering course (JOC). In addition to the practical side there are 14 CAA ATPL examinations to take, within 18 months, to pass. Like the name suggests, its modular. You control the rate of learning, and the amount of money to spend, and where you do the various bits of training

Integrated? Well all of the above via a CAA registered integrated school, within about 12-18 months. A lot more expensive but you do get dedicated training and sometimes airlines favour the integrated student over the modular.

So veering (or is it backing?) onto topic, sponsorship.

Towards the end of October, the airline Flybe, formally British European, offer £20k sponsorship for 4 lucky chaps via the Cabair flight school, although you had to fork out the remaining 43k or so towards the training costs. So, without further ado, I went for it.

So here we are, firmly in the 21st century, with fast(ish) internet access, websites, email etc. etc. so why did we have to fill out the application by hand? In fact all correspondence was via the good old fashioned Royal Mail, huh? I must admit, typing out all that I had to say over the many years has resulted in a deterioration of my handwriting skills, they were crap to begin with!!

So I still applied, making sure that I crossed all my t's and dotted i's. Next thing I know I get an invitation to go through the selection process.

Journey to flight school-A head fook

It doesn't take a genius to see that the recent slump in the world economies has hit many companies and sectors hard, and the aviation industry is not exception. Unless you voluntarily ignored the news towards the end of 2008, a few airline companies have gone under suddenly, XL is a good example, releasing all those trained experienced pilots into the jobs market. So is it wise to train as a pilot in this day and age?

Well type a quick search in pprune.com (professional pilots rumour network) for pilot training and about 80% of the post replies are accusing the wannabee pilot as MAD and ARE YOU INSANE?

Well perhaps we are. There is no denying that there are unemployed pilots out there, looking for jobs, competing with cadets coming out of flight school with low hours and experience. And hours count in this game!

But numbers? Can anyone quote accurately the numbers of pilots in the hold pools and applying for jobs, accounting for pilots that have moved on to greener pastures? Perhaps, perhaps not.

But even so, can they say what those numbers will be in April 2010, when I might be out of flight school? Difficult to say, if could be good, it could be worse. All I can say is that no-one, no matter how qualified they think they are, can predict how likely getting a job will be. These crystal balls just don't exist.

So is this a good time to train?

The schools say yes, the airlines say yes (some of them). But you could argue that they would say this to get bums on seats and notes in their pockets and a good supply of decent future pilots should they get a shortage. In April 2010, or there abouts, I shall reflect on my current thoughts, and see if I was indeed INSANE!

Well in the end of the day, what does a wannabee pilot want? Simple, a job in right seat of any aircraft. Some do aim for the top airlines, complete with a nice pay package, but frankly I would be happy with any job, even one, to quote Top Gun, a job flying rubber dog shits from Hong Kong!

So how would one get into flight school with an increased likely hood of securing a job in the end. Simple answer, either sleep with the HR department of all the airlines (both sexes) or, if you butt can't handle it, get a sponsorship.

First Post-In the beginning

Well I promised certain individuals to start a blog all about my transition from academic training to pilot training. So here it is.

Just a little about me:- I grew up in the rural town of Whitby, North Yorkshire, famous for Captain Cook, Dracula, Goths and Fish and Chips. Not forgetting the lovely picturesque North Yorkshire moors, where one could easily get lost!

Despite the lovely scenery, there is absolutely no private aviation in Whitby, except some nutters on a grass strip. Most likely reason being the giant radar station in the middle of the moors that will jam any instruments that you have and arrest you if you fly within 1.5nm of the station. Lovely fellas those MOD/DOD chaps!

Anyhoo, I left this sleepy town for a life in academia, first going to Edinburgh Uni for a Bsc (Hons) then Strathclyde Uni for a Masters of Research in Biomedical Research and finally a Gastroentorology PhD at Nottingham Uni.

So then, "Am I on the right blog?" you ask. Well I had one of those "Where do I see myself in 10 years?" thoughts, and I didn't want to be sat in a stuffy lab with experiments that don't work.

:(

So plan B has always been pilot.