lundi 22 juillet 2013

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!

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