Back With a Few More Qualifications

As my millions of fans know, there has been a huge gap in my writing and it is now time for me to fill this void and once again continue with this blog.

Setting bugs

First things first, I'm sure that you are all dying to know how I am doing, so I'll fill you in with the main important milestones since my last post; Yes I am now an MEP-IR rated Commercial Pilot, and I have officially completed the APP First Officer course! Although it has been several weeks while since I moved out of Oxford, I can still look at my Flight Crew License and be proud of what I have achieved, and I know that many others will feel the same when they get theirs.

Southampton looks better from up here

The first thing I'll talk about is my experience during the Instrument Rating. In my last post many many centuries ago, I talked about the initial stages of advanced flight training and how much was expected of anyone who goes through this part of training. Progression was fast, and the learning curve didn't get any shallower, however there are a few things that make the Instrument Rating a little less scary than people might think. I did rather quickly get used to the structure of the flight. After around the fifth flight, I was already doing full IR flight profiles which go in this order:

• Instrument departure from Oxford
• Clearance and entry into controlled airspace
• Radar vectors onto Precision Approach
• Establish on the ILS/DME at destination airport
• Low approach and go-around at minimums (Simulated low cloud base), start diversion
• EFATO on go-around
• General Handling (limited panel)
• Timed turns
• Unusual attitudes
• Possible climbing and descending (examiner's discretion)
• Continue with planned diversion
• Track inbound towards the Hold at diversion airfield, using only the NDB
• Hold and commence non-precision approach when cleared to do so
• Asymmetric non-precision approach, followed by a go-around at minimums into a visual circle to land 
• Land and breathe a sigh of relief

Ok, I realised as I was typing those out that it does look a little bit scary, but it's something you quickly become accustomed to... Of course it is a lot easier to say from where I'm sitting now. It is vital to also remember that this conventional profile is not set in stone; for instance the ILS could be out of service at the destination, so a non-precision approach at the destination followed by an asymmetric precision approach at the diversion airfield is entirely possible. Therefore it is very important to prepare for 'what if' scenarios.

Flying partner Stefano turning onto final

Of course you are expected to prepare everything yourself since you are the PIC. Me and the three others in my group worked on a system where we would all help each other out for the pre-flight preparation. For me, I wanted to be there as much as possible not just because it helped me to become more familiarised with the pre-flight, but also because it enjoyed it and I knew that my fellow comrades would do the same for me. 

About to practice some procedures

We also developed quite a good relationship within our team, and also with our instructor too, which as I've mentioned before is quite important during the stressful parts of flight training. Although the task is serious, I do believe that it is essential to also have light hearted banter wherever it is sensible to do so.

Finding sometime to enjoy spring

Before I knew it, my 170A was fast approaching. Just a quick explanation; the 170A is an internal progress test conducted by the FTO before you go up for your IRT. It's pretty much a way for the school to see whether or not you are ready to go for the test, and to iron out any potential creases they may find. It goes without saying that if a student makes a complete mess of his 170A, the school examiner isn't going to sign him off, only for the IRT examiner to turn around later on and ask the school some questions as to why the student was so bad.

The route for the 170A is decided by Operations the day before the exam, and it is up to the student to check and prepare accordingly. My route was to Bournemouth with a diversion back to Oxford. This was the most popular route for 170As and IRTs so luckily, I was already familiar with a lot of it so there shouldn't have been many surprises.

On the day, my flying buddies Stefano and Joe came in to help with the preflight early in the morning whilst I did the flight plan, weather, performance and checked the NOTAMs. Everything was looking fine, however 30 minutes before my off blocks time, the ATIS began reporting towering cumulus forming in the vicinity of the airfield. I quickly checked the rainfall radar en-route along with simply looking out onto the airfield to see if we would be affected, and decided that it was safe to go. Winds, visibility and cloud bases were also all within limits at both departure and destination airfields.

Everything went as smooth as it possibly could have gone, my examiner Kevin Scrase who was pleasantly mannered all the way through, told me that I had passed just after I shut down the engines, which of course I was extremely happy about! In the debrief he had very little to say, and mentioned how he only wrote down a couple of lines which was about asking for the ATIS a little early at Bournemouth, and also for my slightly long winded initial call to Oxford Approach on the diversion. Overall I was more than pleased, the ILS and NDB approaches actually turned out to be my two strongest areas, which were actually the areas I was most worried about before the test!

So now I was left with an hour to fill before taking my IRT, unfortunately my instructor was on holiday so I had another character named Pete Waters who did my final lesson in the Seneca, very entertaining and amusing character who mildly resembles Yogi bear.

Posing for my last IR flight with an instructor

So then of course came the big day; 4th June 2014 and once again I was off to Bournemouth.

My preparation started with my usual routine I had for the day before a flight:

• Mass and Balance
• Check Aircraft Documents
• Plot route on VFR Chart
• Print out AIPs and Approach Plates
• Check weather forecast and NOTAMs

With all of this done, I was off home for a relaxing evening. I opted to just relax since I'd already done revision leading up to that day, and to be honest, if there are things that you don't know by that point then there really is no point in attempting to add stress by cramming it in. The weather was forecasting a lot of rain showers between Oxford and Bournemouth so it was looking rather touch and go as to whether or not I'd actually go up, but nevertheless I kept a go-minded attitude which was something my instructor always stressed to me and my flying buddies.

The next day came, and to my surprise I slept incredibly well. With that incredible start to the day, I went and drew my blinds to see what the weather had in store. Surprisingly it was calm, merely a slight drizzle with overcast, things were looking good. When I arrived in school, I was greeted with all of my flying buddies. I assigned two of them to help me with pre-flighting the aircraft and the other to help with any paper work I needed such as getting NOTAMs and checking helping me to print out different parts of the weather. The TAFs indicated that the conditions were due to get worse at 11:00UTC. However all of the conditions were within minima, rainfall radar showed little precipitation with a steady trend, and since my off-blocks time was at 08:00UTC, I decided that it was good to go.

After a quick walk around and a double check of the aircraft exterior and interior, I was back inside to meet my examiner for the day who was Steve Oddy, apparently a long serving CAA examiner at OAA. After an initial greet, I went to gather my IR folder and there began the brief. He laid out very clearly what would happen during the flight and then asked me to brief him on the weather, NOTAMs and asked me a few questions about the aircraft. Overall it was nothing out of the ordinary, in fact my 170A brief was a little more probing.

The brief finished at about 07:15UTC so I had a bit of time to relax and take that all important cautionary toilet visit before the flight. My flying buddies escorted me out to the aircraft like I was some sort of celebrity. I was the last person in our group of four to take the IRT, with the others all passing first time so in a sense, it felt like a bit more pressure to do the same! It was nice to have them around to calm the atmosphere, however as I saw the examiner emerge from the double doors and open the gate to walk onto the airfield, my heart rate increased quite a lot and that is what I remember to be the scariest part of the whole thing. 

Once he was in, that was it, show time. As soon as the left engine was fired up and running, all the nerves disappeared and it was time to get on with it. The flight went pretty well, we ended up with icing as forecast on the airway so I ran the appropriate icing drills to deal with it. ILS was at runway 26 at Bournemouth, wind was 280/11kts, overcast conditions with some rain, and it was a smoothly flown approach, probably one of the best I'd ever done. EFATO went well, and then it was straight into the general handling. He asked me to demonstrate another Vne dive, but was happy on my second attempt so we swiftly continued back to Oxford. After the diversion, I tracked towards the Oxford NDB, did one hold, then an asymmetric approach, followed by an asymmetric go-around into a circuit which all went well. I had to be careful though since the cloud base was at 700ft so it was an unusually low circuit. Nevertheless, I dealt with it and made a nice positive landing onto a wet runway 19 at Oxford, after all three wheels touched down, Steve took the controls (not because of the positive landing).

As he taxied off the runway he said "so...", at which point I glanced over like a dog with its face on the floor looking up at its owner. Then after a pause, the words "You've passed" came out of his mouth, at which point I said "I would kiss you if you were a woman". Probably not the response he expected from me, but the test was officially over and it was rather difficult to contain how happy I was.

Once parked and with the engines shut down, I went to gather all of my belongings before meeting Steve back inside for my debrief. A few friends came out to congratulate me, also helping me to take that marvelous photo below.

IRT first time pass feeling

The debrief was good with just a couple of points about the general handling and about being careful when doing a visual go around when the cloud base is low. When I walked out of the debrief with the signed IRT pass certificate, I remember very clearly the overwhelming feeling of relief, and this great feeling with all of my fellow AP344 classmates congratulating me on what I had just achieved. We all do it, but I think it's really important to remind myself at this point of how much hard work went into that two hour flight. Any aspiring pilot out there who reads this can do the same if they have the passion, dedication and discipline. 

An important thing to know too, is that no matter how seemingly lenient the examiner is, if you are out of limits then you are out of limits, and that would automatically tick the box for a partial. However, a perfect flight is not expected. So long as you demonstrate that you are safe, and can deal with the challenges appropriately without cracking under pressure, then it will go relatively well. Even if something doesn't go according to plan, or even if you know that you've made a mistake, the most important thing is to show resilience and concentrate on the remainder of the flight.

Looking back on it now, I absolutely loved the IR stage. That was when I felt like a real pilot, especially when sharing the London Control frequency with the big airliners. My advice to anyone out their on doing their IR at this point in time is to simply live it and enjoy it. It's both difficult but extremely rewarding at the same time, and when you get that pass certificate in your hands, it will be one of the best feelings you ever have.