Monday 7th November to Friday 11th November 2022. One week remaining and after a total of 1019 days in flight training, I have finished! At times it never felt like this day would come, but here it is! I now hold my APS MCC and officially I’m a fully qualified pilot which feels bonkers to say at the moment! I hold a fATPL(A) for both my U.K. CAA and IAA EASA licence which means the next stage for me is the job hunt and landing that dream job in the flight deck of an airline. But before I come onto this, let me tell you all about my final 5 days as an L3Harris Cadet and all the handwork that’s gone into me earning my APS MCC.
Monday 7th November 2022 – VFD Flat Panel Practice
Another flat panel session before we started in the simulator this week. After being in over the weekend, we now looked forwards to what we were going to do in the next lesson and began by preparing for it the best way we could and talked through what would happen in certain problems/malfunctions as well a touch drills in the flat panel.
Monday 7th November 2022 – 6a – MCC
A good simulator session after the weekend and was great to be back in the sim, even after only being away for 2 days! We looked at rejecting take-off for abnormalities, namely engines failures below 100kts and above 100kts. We then looked at the failure occurring after V1 and taking the problem into the air. Once in the air, we then looked at more engine failures and engine fires, dealing with these then running through TDODAR to come to a decision in what was best to do including briefings to ATC, crew, passengers and each other. We then set up the aircraft for a single engine approach and a single engine go around which went well for both of us before being given radar vectors to land single engine.
Tuesday 8th November 2022 – VFD Flat Panel Practice
Again, and with the theme of these flat panel simulator sessions before our simulator details, we work on what’s to come up in the lesson and iron out anything from the day before. The more we do them, the more practice we get and therefore the greater synergy between the pair of us and that therefore allows us to be more responsive to each other in the air.
Tuesday 8th November 2022 – 7a – Advanced Swept Wing Flying Training / MCC
This sim was a lot more eventful looking at what could go wrong in the aircraft! On the ground we were shown hung starts and hot starts where we’d shut the engine down and communicate with the ground crew about possibly restarting. We then flew at FL390 and had a play with flying the aircraft and the response, or lack of response by increasing thrust for more speed. We then had an explosive decompression which involved putting on the crew oxygen masks. I’m not claustrophobic, I’ll get in lifts, crawl down tunnels, but wearing that on my face was really quite claustrophobic so please I hope that never actually happens in flight! We initiate an emergency descent to FL100 or MSA and set up for an approach at our diversion airport. While I was PF I flew a VOR approach which was offset by 8 degrees so when visual had to correct onto the centreline to landing and while I was PM, we flew a LOC approach to landing for both.
Wednesday 9th November 2022 – VFD Flat Panel Practice
We ran through the attitude and power datums so we both know what to look for when we’re going to be flying manually later. Not only does this need to be known by the PF but also by the PM so they can effectively monitor what the PF is doing and therefore call the necessary amendments if they deviate from the datum setting.
Wednesday 9th November 2022 – 8a – Advanced Swept Wing Flying Training / MCC
A good simulator session where the majority was focused on flying manually and without the automatics of the aircraft. We flew a SID which was difficult at the best of times requiring a lot of close in turns so to do this on raw data required a lot of monitoring and calls when PM. We climbed to FL080 and briefly flew with the autopilot on to watch how the aircraft responds to different power and attitude datum’s then repeated ourselves, which included steep turns at 45 degrees angle of bank. We then diverted back to our departure airfield and flew a raw data ILS into a single engine go around. We were then repositioned for a LOC approach into a circling approach to land which would be very useful in places such as Chambery, France or Kathmandu, Nepal. I’m sure there are a lot more but these are 2 I’m aware of! We then flew this to land and because we had time to spare while I was PF, I was then able to practice 4 more landings from 3 miles and consolidate my landing technique.
Thursday 10th November 2022 – VFD Flat Panel Practice
Practicing for our second to last sim where we looked at the fundamental principles of whats to come in the lesson. Because we’re so close now to the end, we also ran through the initial set up and start up of the aircraft just to make sure this is still going smoothly and without nay major faults as well as still being done in an effective timely manner.
Thursday 10th November 2022 – 9a – Advanced Airlines Operations Scenario
A really good flight and managing the flight effectively as a team. We took off and flew a raw data departure before engaging the autopilot at FL080. We then had to divert back to our departure, but on the way encountered TCAS TA’s and TCAS RA’s which are the avoidance manoeuvres for possible collisions with traffic. We then were radar vectored into terrain, as a crew we saw this threat and asked to climb, but for the purposes of the detail we then looked at the EGPWS warnings. We then flew ILS’s encountering windshear on the aprroach resulting in a go around and we did this a couple of times. Finally, when on the approach, we encuntered windshear but the PM had become incapacitated so then had to fly another approach but as a single crew operation and managing the effects with ATC, cabin crew and ground crew where I started the APU in flight so the engines could be shut off quicker and get emmergency services onboard to deal with the emergency.
Friday 11th November 2022 – VFD Flat Panel Practice
One final time in the flat panel simulator before our final simulator and we looked at the small amounts of information we were given prior to the flight We pre-empted where our en-route diversions would need to be if we encountered a problem and ran through touch drills what we would do in certain scenarios that we’d practiced over the previous 9 details and felt we needed a little bit more work on. Overall, we felt ready for it and neither of us was too nervous. We both were but as we learnt back in our first week, having nerves and some stress is good so that can only heighten our performance in the simulator to come!
Friday 11th November 2022 – 10a – Advanced Airlines Operations Scenario / Final Assessment
Final assessment complete and pleased to say I have passed my APS MCC! Firstly, I was PM where we routed from EGNX to EGPH and enroute had a generator 1 failure so turned on the APU and came to a joint decision to continue onwards. When we arrived there was a maintenance vehicle on the runway so forced a go around, looking at our fuel we agreed we had enough to perform one more approach before needing to divert. We landed off this and was a successful flight. As PF, the situation was a security threat at EGPH meant it was closed, we decided as a crew to either divert to EGCC (our nominated diversion) or EGPF (a closer alternative) but we took this decision out of our hands and asked company what they’d rather we did. We diverted to EGPF and landed off the ILS, taxied onto stand and performed the full shutdown checks to secure the aircraft.
And that concludes my flight training journey as a cadet with l3Harris! Its been one amazing journey where I’ve been to some amazing places, met some even more amazing people and had more laughs than I could even dream of trying to come up with a number for! Over the 1019 days in training, I’ve completed my 14 ground school exams with all first time passes, no deferrals and 86% average, I’ve passed my U.K. CAA and IAA EASA CPL and ME/IR both with first attempt one attempt passes, completed my AUPRT and now completed my APS MCC on the A320; all of which I’ve never failed a lesson, never had to repeat a lesson nor have meetings with members of staff regarding my performance being unsatisfactory.
It hasn’t been easy, I’ve had my fair share of delays and bumps along the way, but I’m so glad I’m at the end of this part of my journey now. The next stage looking forwards is for me to land that dream job with an airline, so sadly I can’t give a timeframe on how long it will be until I land this job and therefore write another blog. If any of you reading this have any opportunities that I’d qualify for, or could put me in touch with someone you know or a family friend, anything to please help me land this dream job that I’ve been craving for so many years, please do email me at pilotpowling@gmail.com or use the contact form at the bottom of the page. I’d be so incredibly grateful!
Thank you to everyone who’s liked, shared, commented and passed on my blogs for more people to read, and an even bigger thank you to everyone who’s helped me along this journey. I really cannot express how grateful I am to all of you and the support you’ve given me along the way, all the friends I’ve made, and all the support from teachers, instructors and members of staff at L3Harris and Atlantic Flight Training Academy.
I hope it won’t be long until I post again, but until I do, please take care and I’ll catch you all again really soon! For now, that’s me done. This serves as the final blog post of my training but by no means my last blog post, there’s still plenty more to come. As soon as I’ve a career related update I’ll be sure to update you all!
