Back to IFR

To begin with, the trip back to Europe hasn't been very pleasant. I had such a great time in NZ, either in flight or during my days off, so I didn't really want to go home. I knew, family and friends were waiting for me and I looked forward to catch up with them but still, I was gutted to go home!

After a week in France, it was already the time to go back to school in Bournemouth to finish the instrument rating phase. The instrument rating phase down here is mainly composed with sim session.

Thomson B737-800 which you can see in BOH.

 We've been told during our introduction day that the partner airlines have raised up their standards meaning that the instructor's expectations have also to be higher. A fail in the test or even a partial doesn't seem to be an option.

The first few sims are called UK Orientation. They are design to get familiar with the UK IFR procedures and the R/T which is slightly different from the Phraseology in NZ. Also, as the airspace is a lot busier here, there are much more frequencies and radio calls to do. It reminds me the French airspace.
Then the following sims are called LOFT. These flights are proper routes between major airports such as Manchester, Birmingham, London Heathrow... The aim of these flight is rather to focus on all the non technical aspects of a flight such as decision making during emergencies, weather diversion...

This part of the training is very demanding, intense,  and not necessary rewarding because when you think you did a good flight, your instructor manage to give you a massive list of points to improve, but it's very interesting! I love it!

CPLised

This is it... I'm now a commercial pilot!

My CPL flight test has been the most demanding flight I've ever experienced. I had already cancel one flight test due to weather, and the second day, even if the weather was still really bad I decided to go to get it done.

The ceiling was about 1000ft lowering to 800ft at some points so I had to do diversions after diversions to get to my destination, because I obviously had to remain clear of clouds but also keep 500ft from the terrain, which often rises in New Zealand forcing me to make track adjustments to fly over flatter terrains and maintain VFR.

I had hard times during this navigation leg, but I managed to do it safely and legally. The rest of the flight was more conventional with all the general handling exercises and the circuits. I had only two emergencies. One engine fire in flight leading to a full engine shutdown, and one alternator failure.

I did four circuits, one normal, one flapless, one asymmetric go around and the last one was the asymmetric landing for a stop and go with a rejected take off due to a bird strike.

After 2.2hrs, I finally parked the aircraft on the "bravo" stand, took all my belongings and jump into a briefing room to get the good news that I had passed my CPL!

My GPS trace of this flight

I'm leaving NZ in two days, I wish I could stay here a bit longer, but everything has an end... 

The IR training in Bournemouth starts in 14 days so the break will be quiet short. I know it's gonna be really stressfull, but I really look forward to fly in the English's busy sky!