IR Test... Passed

Friday 6th Spetember I did my last flight with CTC in a light aircraft during my IR test which took me from Bournemouth to Cardiff and back.

I flew the procedural ILS in Cardiff and I got radar vectored for the asymmetric NDB approach back in Bournemouth. The flight went really well, ATC were really nice with me, thanks to my magic call sign Exam 09... so I don't have much to write about! I'm just relieved, happy and also a bit proud of myself.

The last weeks have been really hard in term of pressure. It's hard to know the truth about all of this but it seems that a first serie, first time pass is very important for your airline placement, so I was really stressed to get even a partial, but fortunately I managed to get it done at the first attempt!

 

I can now relax a bit during 10 more days before my AQC starts. I don't know yet if I'm going to do it on B737 or A320, but it's going to be fantastic and a hell of work in both ways! 

Because it's more likely that I'll get a job with EasyJet, I'd rather to do it on airbus to prepare myself for the type rating but who knows!?

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!

ILS in Wellington Intl' Airport, NZ

Another thing wich will stay in my mind forever... my first ILS.

I always dreamt to land in an international airport with lot of traffics, half a dozen of frequencies, and where your flying has to be really accurate to meet ATC requirements.

All of that happened yesterday in Wellington, the actual capital of New Zeland. The route down there was pretty straight forward, switching from GPS to NDB and VOR navaids all way down to get finally vectored to intercept the localiser for the ILS LOC DME approach for runway 16.

I flew down there at night, so the 12DME final gave us amazing views over the city and all its lights. Unfortunately the quality of the Gopro is not good enough to reflect the reality but still, this video will remind me this fantastic experience for ever!

Last NZ IFR sim

I had recently my last sim session, here in New Zeland. It was an IFR route from Hamilton to Auckland and back. 

The flight sequence was pretty straight forward. Departure from hamilton flying a SID to intercept the HN5A STAR, then get radar vectored by Auckland control to intercept the Loc of the ILS 23L for a touch and go and back to Hamilton via H211 to join the 12DME arc for a NDB DME 18L.

The departure was fine, smooth, I was ahead of the aircraft, but just before I changed frequency from Christchurch control to Auckland control, all stations received a sigmet, severe icing and severe turbulence in Auckland area. 

I then listened Auckland Atis on 127.8 and the weather was deteriorating and the wind was builting up to G45kt. The cloud base was OVC001.

I knew already I wouldn't get visual before and at DA (223ft), but I decided to give it a try. I intercepted the Loc, configured the aircraft as we got closer to the glideslope and flew the ILS App for runway 23L fighting against the turbulences. As expected I didn't get visual at the Decision Altitude of 223ft.

"DA not visual, missed approach", I switched the ILS frequency to the VOR frequency to fly the missed approach, got on track and told the control I was established on the missed approach. Auckland Control asked me my intentions and I took the decision to divert to Hamilton where the weather was supposed to be better. I was then cleared to cancel the missed approach when passing 2000' for a left turn on track to the airway H211.

When I was established on the H211, I changed to Christchurch control on 125.3. They asked my intentions, and I requested a NDB DME approach via the 12Dme Arc. I then briefed my self on both the Arc and the approach. 

While I was briefing I got an ECU/A failure I decided to switch from "ECU Auto" to "ECU B" but my instructor told me at that point to check in the QRH. I realised that I had made a mistake I then followed the QRH for a ECU failure and everything went back to normal. 

Instructor 1 - Student 0 

This process took all my brain resources when I should have checked the DME distance to turn to join the Arc. But I didn't. When I realised how close we were I turn immediately and I ended up at 11.7DME. Not too bad but it could have been better.

I was figuring out a correct heading to compensate for wind and to come back on the exact 12DME Arc when the instructor decided I wasn't busy enough and failed my left engine (the critical engine in a DA42). The most important thing is to fly the aircraft then deal with the engine failure. 

By the time I finished with the EFATO drills I was passing the lead radial. I intercepted the final approach course of 184° and made a PAN PAN call to let the control know that I had an engine failure. I was approaching the Minimum Decision Altitude of 550ft but I was still in IMC.

"50ft prior MDA, not visual, missed approach". We were established on the missed approach performing between 150 and 200ft/min, when I lost the ADF. I made a radio call to inform them that I wasn't able to fly the missed approach and requested radar terrain to join the VOR hold.

Few minutes later I was established in the hold at 3000ft, and briefed my self for the VOR DME approach for 18L. Few seconds after beacon outbound I lost the DME, so I switch to the VOR plate and activated the timer. 

During the approach my instructor asked me to check the circuit breakers, and two of them were popped out, my ADF and my DME.

Instructor 2 - Student 0

I became visual at 700ft and waited my committed altitude to select the landing flaps. Over the threshold I got a left engine fire warning. I tried not to get distracted by the warning and landed the aircraft, and then dealt with the fire.

The screen freezed and the instructor told me to shut everything down. That was it, a very intense 2 hours sim session!

The instructor was pretty happy with what I did. He told me I could have been more fluent with the electrical failure though.

I remember few years, or even few month, ago when I was reading some other blogs I had no idea about all of these specific terms to IFR, what were all the procedures, how mentally busy you could be in a N-1 approach... But know I'm so glad to get the big picture. I know I still have a lot to do and a lot to learn, but there are some flights or sims after which you can't be more convinced that you really want to become an airline pilot.

IFR training

Nothing much to say these days, except that the training towards my CPL/IR still continues...

The last few weeks have been dedicated to IFR training either in a DA42 sim or in a C172 G1000, to learn the basics of IFR, ie, R/T, procedures, in flight managment... 

The last news is that the single engine phase is over. I've done my last IFR Cessna flight yesterday. I was flying with another cadet so we did a 5hrs flight. I flew from Hamilton to Whakatane for an Rnav approach, did a touch and go there, and flew to Gisborne for a VORDME approach. Then the other cadet flew from Gisborne to Napier and back to Hamilton. 

As the instructor said at the end of the flight, we felt like we had done a Sydney-Singapore...

The next few flights are going to be in the DA42 VFR to learn how to handle it in normal operations and with One Engine Inoperative (OEI), also called asymmetric flight.

The DA42 is a more complex aircraft with a lot of electronics, so the challenge in the first place will be to learn the systems, but also all the checklist and all the differents speeds. There are about 20 speeds to remember.

I reckon that, "Flaps up, Gear up", "Dead leg, Dead engine", "Approach flaps, commited to land", "Gear down, three greens" are going to be my new leitmotif.

Napier

8000ft, on top

Knitting...The art of dealing with needles!!

I started the IFR phase 3 weeks ago withs 2 days of grounsdchool followed by the first 6 sims. What can I say about it except that there is a massive gap between VFR and IFR training. At the beginning I was struggling about the sequencing of what to do and when... Now it's getting better, but there are still a lot of stuffs to do. It's really hard, but in the mean time very interesting...Basically I'm enjoying it!

I'm really happy to do the IFR before the CPL, because as we need to be more precise with the checks, the paperwork and the actual flying of the aeroplane, I think it's a good way to reach the CPL standards.

The first sim has been design to get familiar with the Garmin 1000. No more conventional instruments, we can now watch the last episode of Game of Thrones on these two screens while flying!

DA42 cockpit fitted with G1000

So far, we learnt how to fly a SID, a STAR, a VORDME approach and a RNAV approach, adding on each flight something new like the checks, the radio calls...

The Standard Instrument Departure, or SID, is basically as we can guess, a published standard departure using a navaid. We can also see wich climb gradient we will have to use to stay clear of terrain... In Hamilton, the TAYLA 2 and BUDEN 1 departure are the most commonly used as they correspond to the active runway QFU, 176° and 356°, so we have to fly straight when airborne.

Hamilton SID

The VORDME and the RNAV approaches are pretty similar except that they use differents nav aids. In the first case it's a VOR and a DME and in the second case it's the GPS. All the approaches seem similar because obviously they've got the same aim, make the aircraft descending while clearing you from the ground and obstacles such as mountains, hills...

Because they are non precision approaches, they take you down to a certain altitude, the MDA (Minimun Descent Altitude) where you should be able to see the runway to finish the approach visually... 

If you're not you shouldn't go below this published altitude and initiate the Missed approach procedure (basically the IFR name for a go around, but following a specified track up to a certain altitude)

A STAR, or STandard ARrival, is the transition between the en route phase of the flight and the final approach. It's only a sequence of waypoints you have to fly by or fly through. I only practiced a RNAV STAR, and in this case the hardest part of it was to load it on the G1000 while flying the aircraft...

Rnav STAR for 18L

I still have a lot to learn, but I really like IFR. I don't know wich one I prefer between VFR and IFR, because there are too many differences, but when I remove the hood in flight to fly the aircraft visually for few minutes, it's like holidays...