I agree with Hand. I think it’s a Caravelle. I had to fly one (a sim) for assessment for my current job!

Andrew – there seems to have been a Flyjet 757 parked in the west park most of the time this week.

Martin – I did the CPL navs, Tech and ATPL navs (under the CAA rules rather than JAR) at PPSC (Professsional Pilot Study Center at Bournemouth) but they subsequently went bust. The owner (an AIH 757/767 pilot comitted suicide while I was on my last bit of training there, although I don’t think it was anything to do with me. I did my Performance A training over a weekend at the Gatwick Hilton with (in my view the god of ATPL training) Alex Whittingham. Alex is a former RAF TriStar pilot who lost his medical and established the commercial ground school operation at Bristol. His ability to teach is second to none. As with most self improvers (I already had nearly 1000 hours) the flying part of my training consisted of 2 sections, the CPL GFT (General Flight test) and the IR (instrument Rating). I completed all my training for both of these at Wycombe Air Center, sitting the tests at Cranfield. Finally, I did a LOFT (Line Orientated Flight Training) course on the rather crude 737 simulators at OATS. I believe OATS have updated these sims since.

Have you got a CRP 5 nav circular slide rule or will they be supplying you with that too? If not, I can help.

Climb derates don’t stay in for long on the 753. Flap 20 take offs are fairly common and need to be exercised with caution as the aircraft will actually descend during the acceleration for flap retraction if you follow the Boeing technique of going straight from flap 20 to flap 5. The aircraft is givem 1 hr 15 for turnarounds in the UK but only 1 hr down route which is tricky. There is a built in conveyor belt in the rear hold to assist loading and unloading! I think a 762 is a better option than a 753.

Martin – go for it but please be ready to accept that people will tell you what you want to hear thinking that they are giving you the desire to succeed.

I spoke to one of the senior personnel at Wycombe Air Center last week. They had one of the very highest success rates of any commercial training establishment in the late 90’s. In the last 3 years they have had one person succeed in getting a job and that includes all of their instructors as well. No doubt OATS are telling you that they have airlines begging to recruit you.

It shows

Moondance – 753 is very different to the 752 when it comes to performance. Its a Cat D and has a lot more inertia than the 752. Friends who have flown the 753 and the 763 say they are very similar. It’s also rare to get above FL350 in the cruise when fully loaded (280 seats capacity). Rotation rate is 2 degrees per second due to the increased fuselage length with a maximum pitch in the flare of 6 degrees. It is extremely bendy in turbulence. Give me a 200 any day!

Spotty M – you Boeing or Bus?

I didn’t reply when I looked at this post last night because I didn’t know how to word my views about Aurigny. I will always support them and fly the flag for them but please, please don’t ever make me have to work there again! To be fair, they do seem to be getting somewhere with regards to getting rid of some of the dead wood from the operations side but there is still such a long way to go. This is probably true of almost all airlines of this type/size. There is one guy there at the moment (the new Saab Fleet Captain) who has the ability to get things sorted out very nicely. The question is will they let him.

Phantom – most people only ever fly one type of turboprop as they then progress to jets so it’s difficult to compare when you haven’t flown the opposition. From coversations with other pilots I believe it is similar to a 100 or 200 series Dash 8 (but even better looking 😉 )

Here’s a picture of the old NWA scheme!