Hi Ian

Yes mate being type specific gives you the enthusiasm to learn it (and the fact that you’ll be booted if you don’t ;)) so it is nice to learn “non generic” material for a change.

Week 3

Monday 15th

Here goes for another week of stress, no sleep, no spare time to myself and constant ramming of information into my bottlenecked head (this is what it felt like).
Week 3 on last months conversion course was, how can I say it, quite a shambles, so they have got everything sorted for this month haven’t they? I was about to find out.
We were greeted with a line pilot who has been assigned as a GTO, or Ground Training Officer to cover week 3. We, or at least I thought we were going to get a structure to the week, i.e. what we are covering on each day and the timescales for everything, this didn’t happen. We were issued with our folders and some literature to go inside it. We were then told the subjects we were covering this week consisted of:

FMS
Weight & Balance
Performance
Low Vis Ops
Flight Planning
Emergency Procedures.

So to kick us off we started with the FMS, I was looking forward to this because I knew it had the same FMS that is modelled in the PSS Dash 8 for Flight Sim :D, so as it stood I was pretty up together with it anyway, there were obvious bits that aren’t modelled on Flight Sim that are on the real one but this caused no hindrance at all.
This subject was no big deal, it all sunk in reasonably well.

Late in the afternoon we started Weight & Balance & Flight planning, this is where it started to get a bit tricky, and this was for a couple of reasons, the first reason was I had not seen one of these load sheets in 2 years, and they were 737NG specific (generically they are the same). The second reason is that we didn’t really cover the filling out of one of these in great detail, we skipped over some pertinent bits of info. We then had a practice at filling one out but I was still refering to my notes on how to do it. Then he mentioned the LMC or Last minute Changes, but he didn’t go into detail and we didn’t put them on the practice load sheet. Then it came to working out the underload (the excess weight you have available for LMC etc etc), again not explained that well to us but using the notes I got by. This was definitely one of those things I am going to have to practice during the evening.

Tuesday

Today we started with a closure on W&B before moving onto everyone’s nemesis which is performance. I friend who started a month before me stated that this was one of the most difficult subjects he has ever done. With this in mind I was expecting a nightmare.
After the night in the hotel reviewing W&B I was still unhappy with the LMC & underload sections so when he asked if there were any more questions on M&B before moving on I took the opportunity to shout up. I am glad I did or I would have been left wondering, and lucky for me I wasn’t the only one in class scratching their heads, the usual thing is that we all sit there nodding that we understand it when in reality we don’t.
Onto Perf then, The art of this subject is to master reading a myriad of tables and figures. It looked daunting to start with but I must say I found it reasonably straight forward. The graphs looks at finding your Regulated Take Off Mass, giving you a flap setting and if necessary a Flex setting (Derate), also it gives you a V1, Vr & V2 speed but you only take into account the V1 because this is the only one that is runway limiting, the other 2 are dependant on weight, you then have to determine the condition of the runway, whether you are in icing conditions etc and ensuring your calculated V1 does not undercut V1min, (V1min is limiting in the negative sense).
You get the Vr & V2 from a thing called TOLD cards (Take Off & Landing cards).
There are other graphs there for landing weights & distances taking into account of failures, icing conditions, runway conditions etc etc, so there is alot to learn but it seemed to go in fairly easy. I think it helps that it’s a reasonably interesting subject.
This took up the whole of Tuesday so I spent Tuesday evening lightly studying the week’s work so far.

Wednesday.

We started Low Vis Ops in the morning, we need this because we can operate to CAT II, but to be CAT II certified we need to pass the exam and have training in the sim. You then have to be signed off before you can operate to CAT II.
We spent some time reviewing how we have to set up an approach to allow the plane to fly a CAT II approach, this was revision from week 1+2.
This subject was pretty straightforward so nothing else to say really.

Well back to the hotel about 4pm with the dreaded 3 exams the following day, and as usual I always feel undercooked even though I stay up all night studying. But time to bite the bullet, if I don’t know my stuff by now I never will.

Thursday.

Exam day today as stated before, but for some reason I wasn’t nervous, it was more of a resigned feeling than anything else, I think this is tension release because it’s been pretty intense, at least I hoped that’s what it was.

Exam 1 was W&B, first of all we had to fill out a load sheet which takes a while (if you’re not used to it), so I had better ensure the figures are correct and the CofG plot gives me the correct %MAC or none of the answers will be there HA.
Anyway all that time spent in the hotel practicing the load sheets seemed to pay off, all the answers were there. I finished the exam before everyone else but I didn’t want to get up and leave because I was convinced I must have done something wrong. I waited another 5 minutes and then left.
Once everyone came out the room and had a cuppa we went back in and went over the answers, luckily I came out with 100%, or as they say in aviation – 25% wasted effort then haha (the passmark is 75%)

We then sat the Performance exam which was coupled with the flight planning exam.
To cut a long story short I came out of the exam thinking I had to resit it. You just know when you have done ok and you know when you haven’t, my feeling was the latter. This was confirmed when one of the skippers came out and we were reviewing the questions, he told me his answers to at least 4 that differed from mine.
Anyway all back in, we marked it and to my amazement I only got one wrong, so a nice healthy 94%, wow, 2 down and 1 to go.

We had lunch then did the 3rd exam which was the FMS, Low Vis Ops & Emergency Procs.
This exam seemed a breeze, I was out of the room after 15 minutes with the result that I had got 100% in this too.
This all equated to a massive relief, groundschool finally out the way woohoo.

The late afternoon was spent with a Stewardess going through their role in the cabin and showing us how to operate every bit of safety equipment that is on the plane. Certainly worthwhile.
We could actually relax back at the hotel now, so much so we even went out for dinner, we found a great restaurant that served the best Tiramisu on the planet, marvelous 😀

Friday

Today was spent doing CPT or Cockpit Procedure Training, we had an early release which meant I was home by late afternoon.

So what did I think of week 3? it was ok, some things can be improved like it would have been nice to get some questions set for us to complete in the evenings to further our understanding of a couple of subjects, but on the whole I am glad to have come through groundschool unscathed which is something I thought would never happen.

I have 4 days off now, it’s back to Farnborough next Wednesday for a day of CPT then the sim sessions start, back to full on pressure then 😉

Thanks for reading

Dean

Hi Darren

Yes mate, ,1 week left, but we only get 1 day plus a few hrs for CPT, then straight into the sim the following day for 10 sessions

Thanks chaps 🙂

Ok, well the next installment is here.

I left home last Sunday night en-route to our company hotel in Surrey only to be met by a 40 mile contraflow from Swindon to Maidenhead on the M4, this obviously meant arriving quite late in the evening.
Got to the bar and met a few others from last week who decided to have a drink, we were all rather concerned at what was to greet us the following day.

Monday 1st Oct

We travelled to Flight Safety, got our security passes and then all met up in the rest room area, Flight safety is bloody marvellous, free chocolate muffins all round, NOT good for the waste line.
Our groundschool instructor met us and lead us to the room we are to spend the next 3 weeks in, and to all of our great horror was a folder on each desk that I can only describe as being as thick as a suitcase. The trepidation & fear was evident amongst the whole class, I made a light hearted joke to the instructor, “just this?” which lightened the mood.
I must say it has to be common for everyone doing their first conversion to feel like this.
We were joined on the course by another 4 people who didn’t come to the induction week, they were joining as direct entry captains which evened up the ratio of captains & f/o’s (for the simulator section evidently).
One of the guys there only has one arm, and he flies, I find this an extraordinary achievement, fair play. More of him later.

We started off doing the usual introductions, as I said 8 of us already knew each other so it was a good opportunity to meet the other 4.
We then started the conversion which was to follow a set pattern, the first thing was to have a look at the aircraft in general, so all the bits attached to it, the walk around etc.
We then did the oxygen system, Doors, and the lights to finish the day off. So theoretically we have started to put the bones of the aircraft together.
The downside is that now we had lots of work to do in the evening. All the subjects we covered we had questions to answer on each, and this involved tracking back through the suitcase manual to find the relevant bits, quite a balls ache I can tell you. So off to the hotel, a quick evening meal followed by a few hrs in the books, bed time was midnight.

Tuesday.

When we arrived the first thing we did was go through the review questions we did the night before and then had chance to ask any questions on them.
Today’s subjects were Electrical Power & Air Systems, so alot tougher than yesterday.
Once we started Electrical Systems it was apparent how indepth this is going to go, you literally go through the whole system, but it’s not necessarily the content that is difficult, it’s the sheer volume of the content coupled with what each system does which affects another part in a certain way, and if there are faults what caution lights come on and what else does it affect, so it is getting quite mind boggling now. It’s one of those where you daren’t drift off into a state of daydream, not even once, because if you do then you may miss a vital piece of information. I found taking notes keeps the mind focused.
Air Systems covers the pneumatics, air conditioning & pressurization, which again is a large subject with no let up in content.
Daily review questions done (80 of them) it’s time for bed at 12:30am.

Wednesday.

We were hoping for an easier day today but it wasn’t to be, the subjects were Ice & Rain Protection plus my nemesis, Hydraulics, again the subject matter is large, and I am having trouble remembering yesterday’s content let alone today’s as well.
Anyway without going into too much detail we can see why they cover it comprehensively, there is simply alot to learn.
Home for the daily review questions, only 40 tonight, but they still take eons, bed time was 11:30pm

Thursday

I thought there was going to be a lull today with the nice “easy” subjects of Landing Gear & Brakes plus Flight Controls, how wrong was I? again massive subjects and a surprise at how much there actually was.
At this point we are all knackered and it’s only the middle of the week, we still have the practice exam tomorrow which we were all dreading, luckily tonight we only get to do the Landing Gear review questions, we can do the Flight Controls over the weekend, woopee, more homework.
We actually had time to relax in the bar a bit tonight, not being a big drinker I limited my alcohol intake to 1 pint plus a bootfull of diet coke. Best not have a bad head for the practice exam.
The evening was spent revising during the rest of the spare time we had, bed time was 11pm.

Friday (today)

Usual morning ritual of answering the review questions first, then we had the dreaded exam. Question 1 – Which of the doors can be xxxx blah blah blah, ooo that’s easy, it’s this answer, and the usual thing with multiple choice is that you can “normally” eliminate 2 answers leaving a further 2, the only problem is that they are both correct but one is more correct than the other, go figure :rolleyes:
Anyway exam out the way, I left the room whilst the others finished, 3 of us finished first which gave us chance to discuss the answers, well great start, I got the first one wrong it seems. You’ve all heard of the phrase RTFQ? well in my case it was RTFA (Answer).
Once we’d all finished we went back in to go through the answers, luckily I came out with a 92% pass mark which I was happy with, it could have been better had I read the answers properly to 2 of the 3 questions I got wrong, but there we go. The pass mark is the usual 75% so anything above this is wasted effort anyway HA.

Once lunch was out the way we went through 3 reasonably small subjects, The APU, Fire Protection & The Fuel System. This left us all with alot of homework to do plus trying to go back over the previous week’s work to ensure it is instilled on the brain.

I travelled back up the M4 to be greated by my children who I’ve seen a couple of times in the last few weeks, it was a welcome sight.

I guess the main thing to come out of this week is that I can see everything coming together now, mentally the aircraft is taking shape quite nicely, and once we’ve added Instruments, Communications, Navigation, Autoflight & Limitations into it we should have a fully built aircraft (in theory).

So after week 1 how do I feel? well, I have been through alot to get here, PPL exams, PPL GFT, ATPL exams, CPL/IR test etc, but this is by far the most difficult of the lot of them, by a long way, I think this is backed up by the fact of knowing that if you fail you will be booted off the course and out of the company, no pressure then 😉

Dean