Wednesday 26th July 2023, Wednesday 2nd August 2023 & Saturday 19th August 2023. Although it may seem that line operations training day and wings ceremony don’t mean anything on paper, to me they meant a great deal, and I am now completely ready to begin flying on the line and commence my line training with Ryanair which I am so excited to start! I have also completed my Boeing 737-MAX differences training which allows me to fly the 737-8200 series aircraft and the 737-MAX10 when they arrive on the line. So without further adieu, let me tell you all about each of the 3 days individually.
Wednesday 26th July 2023 – Line Operations Training Day
It was back up to East Midlands for a day that was pretty much a day of admin based tasks, and some of them were quite exciting which I know sounds stupid! We began by applying for our 737 300-900 type rating to be added to our licences, which is a tedious tasking reading and filling out forms, it is the final step to getting it on my licence and proof of all the hard work and determination has paid off while I was in the sim in Stansted only a few months ago. We’ll be picking our licences up at our wings ceremony in a weeks time. We were then told about what to expect during our line training, things that need to be done and learnt before then, and then how things typically work for a Ryanair flight including our 25 minute turnarounds. In the afternoon, a few things were clarified from the morning and then we looked in more detail how some things work on the line, such as refuelling and our jobs as pilots when the aircraft is being refuelled. Overall, although I know I haven’t made it sound particularly interesting, it was an interesting day and a lot of knowledge to take on board ready for when we begin to fly on the line.
Wednesday 2nd August 2023 – Wings Ceremony
This time it was over to Dublin and back to Ryanair HQ where we had our assessment. I arrived the day before, as did many from FR2333 which meant we managed to have the evening together in Dublin. This also allowed time for myself and Stepan to raise a pint of the black stuff and congratulate ourselves on passing our LST just under a month ago. The morning of our wings assessment and walking back up to the Ryanair HQ building gave me quite a few mixed emotions, especially when I saw the cadets waiting for their assessment sat in the main reception. I still remember my own feelings of nervousness and excitement for my own assessment, and here I am now, a type rated Boeing 737 pilot who’ll shortly be flying passengers across Europe for Ryanair! We were given numerous presentations, including from the newly appointed Chief Pilot Captain Senan O’Shea. We had some congratulating us on where we’ve got to, what we’re to expect going forwards with our line training and thereafter, how Ryanair is performing as a business and plans for growth and expansion in the future, you’ve only got to see the order of 300 Boeing 737-MAX10 aircraft to know that there’s a lot of growth planned! We then had the actual wings presentation where we were presented with our course completion certificate and got to meet Deputy Chief Pilot Captain Andrew Elbert. This was brilliant and the moment that nearly 3 and a half years of flight training has been leading up to. We then had pictures as a group and said our goodbyes to all those who we’d been training with. As we’re all likely to be based in completely different places, it’s unlikely our paths will cross too frequently, so it was good to get these in now and wish each other well.
Saturday 19th August 2023 – Boeing 737-MAX Differences Training
Due to the accidents with the Boeing 737-MAX on flights Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, to be able to fly the -8200 series and MAX aircraft we’re required to complete some differences. As I mentioned in one of my earlier blogs, Fixed Based Simulators 1 to 8, there are differences between the -800 and -8200 series aircraft. We spent the session looking at what caused the two accidents above, namely the MCAS system, we took off and were allowed to ‘play’ with the aircraft and get a feel for it before recovering from a full stall, experiencing a runaway stabiliser, demonstrating cross-FCC trim motor activation, and finally unreliable airspeed due to a high angle of attack – namely caused by a bird strike. We completed these both as pilot flying and as pilot monitoring. We then had time to spare at the end of the session, and rather than wasting it, we practiced engine failure after take-off’s which was good to practice again, as these hopefully don’t happen on the line!
After arriving back from Dublin from my sim, I have found out some exciting news… for my line training I will be based out of Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) starting on September 1st 2023! This starts with 8 sectors as a supernumerary, meaning I’ll be sat in the flight deck jump seat and watching, observing and learning about flying the line for Ryanair. Next is approximately 12 sectors flying with a safety pilot in the jump seat while I take the right hand seat seat and fly my first passengers across Europe. Once I have been deemed competent to warrant a safety pilot release, I’ll be flying with just myself and a line training Captain in the flight deck, being monitored and assessed every flight. There are further progress checks at approximately 20, 50 and 80 sectors – these vary depending on scheduling. I will be in line training for a very minimum of 66 sectors, usually it’s completely around the 80 mark, but its not uncommon to be into the 100’s, we’re all different and learn at different speeds. After line training I’ll find out my permanent base.
I’ll be bringing you more blogs in the future about my supernumerary flights, my safety pilot flights and periodic updates throughout my line training, as always to keep you updated with my progress. Until next time, where I’ll come to you from Leeds Bradford airport flying across the European skies, take care and I’ll catch you all real soon!
