Monday 31st October to Sunday 6th November 2022. My first week in the Airbus A320-200 and to say it’s awesome, amazing, fantastic and so much fun is a lie… because that’s an understatement! It has been the most incredible week and I’ve learnt so much in such a short space of time and can already feel myself developing as a multi-crew pilot and that’s after only 20 hours in the simulator! Myself and Rebecca are beginning to work well as a team with some things to still work on, but that’s only natural at this stage as we’re still new to the whole process. So without further adieu, let me tell you all about week 2 in my APS MCC journey!
Monday 31st October 2022 – 1a – Advanced Swept Wing Flying Training
A good first session in the A320-200! We started at the holding point where I was pilot flying first, so completed a few take offs to get used to the take off profile and what to be looking out for on the take off roll and the initial climb. It took a while to get used to having someone do certain things for me, like retracting the gear and flaps as I’ve been so used to doing this myself. We then looked at some general handing in the air and manual flying before flying a few approaches, again to get used to what to look for and work as a multi-crew as opposed to single pilot operations. We then switched and I was pilot monitoring so my view and perspective had completely flipped, whereas now I was supporting Rebecca as the pilot flying as opposed to being supported on. Really good lesson and so excited to get back in again tomorrow!
Monday 31st October 2022 – VFD Flat Panel Practice
After our first simulator we went into the flat panel to consolidate what we had already learnt in our simulator detail and try to iron out a few things we’d stumbled upon in the sim that we thought we could do better on. It’s this consolidation and continuous look to better ourselves which will make it easier down the line to understand and fly the aircraft.
Tuesday 1st November 2022 – 2a – Advanced Swept Wing Flying Training / MCC
Another good sim. Working as a multi-crew our scans and using each other are becoming more effective and not too scared to speak up if something doesn’t look right and we can share our mental models and therefore enhance our situational awareness. Much similar to the first lesson, but this time I was PM first where we took off, completed general handling in the air and then looked at ILS approaches and how to have a more efficient set up when coming into land. Again, the roles flipped and the second half of the lesson I was PF and my landings were already getting better and improving which is positive too see.
Tuesday 1st November 2022 – VFD Flat Panel Practice
Again, more time for self-improvement in the flat panel. After ironing our the mistakes we were making in the first lesson, we looked to begin to speed things up. Although they hadn’t been too slow, we wanted our initial set-up to be quicker and more efficient so we can spend more time flying, because after all that’s what we want to do!
Wednesday 2nd November 2022 – 3a – Advanced Swept Wing Flying Training / MCC
Another good lesson, and I am enjoying this so much! It almost feels natural to be behind the controls of such a large aircraft (comparatively to what I’ve been flying previously at least!) and having these responsibilities that go with it! I was PF to begin with and we worked on “route” flying but was a SID, en-route waypoint before returning on a STAR to work on non-precision approaches. This required descent management and constant monitoring on what the aircraft is doing, where it’s going and what the next event is going to be. Again, this is all about building situational awareness and communicating with each other, not just ourselves but for others around us too. We then flew non-precision approaches in various ways, both PM and PF, so we could see how they looked when not flying them rather than repeating ourselves and wasting valuable sim time.
Wednesday 2nd November 2022 – VFD Flat Panel Practice
Our set-up was better and we’re still continuously bettering ourselves and becoming more efficient as a crew. We worked on giving each other briefings and working out what standard events we’re going to do and when, such as configuring for an approach so we know what we’re wanting to do and when. This was no different to what was published in our SOP’s but by verbalising to each other what we wanted and when we wanted it will make it easier when it comes to briefing in the air.
Thursday 3rd November 2022 – 4a – Advanced Swept Wing Flying Training / MCC
Another good flight and my landings are very nearly perfect which is amazing at this stage! I’m still flaring slightly too high and applying too much pressure so the nose wheel lands with a thud rather than being smoothly on the ground, I can monitor this by looking towards the end of the runway at about 100 ft above the ground. In the air. We looked at a bit of route flying and ECAM actions, we started minor and by the end we had an engine 2 fire which we handled well between us, this will become more fine-tuned in coming lessons. We looked at descent management again, and flew both an ILS with a go-around into a VOR approach with most of it flown visually and without automatics to land.
Thursday 3rd November 2022 – VFD Flat Panel Practice
Again more flat panel work, and working on our flows and memory items in the flight deck. The synergy between the two of us is growing and becoming more developed which after only 4 simulator sessions is really good, not to mention helps a lot when it comes to actually flying as we can count on the other person next to us.
Friday 4th November 2022 – VFD Flat Panel Practice
A flat panel session before going into our final simulator session of the week, and we spent a lot of time gong through what was going to happen in the detail and how we’re going to mitigate some of the threat that present themselves as well as running through the manoeuvres with touch drills as to how we would complete them in the air.
Friday 4th November 2022 – 5a – Advanced Swept Wing Flying Training / MCC
Another really good sim session, where we took off with a 15-20kt crosswind and then the majority focused on working together as a crew in response to non-normal management. For example, while I was pilot flying, we had a generator failure which we recovered, then we moved onto dealing with an engine fire and running through TDODAR to come to a decision on what to do with our problem – we decided as we were overhead to continue to Manchester. We then landed a few times being repositioned after the first attempt to land single engine. As PM the lesson was largely the same, but this time we had more of a dilemma whether to continue to land at Manchester or to divert to East Midlands or Birmingham but after deciding together we landed at Manchester. I need to make sure to speak up more as PM rather than staying a little quiet if something doesnt look right to me.
Saturday 5th November and Sunday 6th November 2022 – VFD Flat Panel Practice
Flat panels over the weekend where we looked over what we did in the previous week (apart from having a lot of fun!) and what’s coming up in the following week. We build upon what we’ve already learnt, what we’ve been told we need to improve on. Myself and Rebecca both have the same view that we want to learn, we want to listen and we want to improve so we’re both singing from the same hymn sheet and pushing each other to be better.
Next week comes the harder part, and the final assessment. We will continue with the multi-crew focus but this time without the use of autopilot or auto-thrust. Everything is to be done manually which changes the roles of the pilot monitoring and pilot flying somewhat. The pilot monitoring’s workload is set to increase significantly as not only are they monitoring the pilot flying, they’ve also got to monitor the aircraft’s power settings to ensure the speed doesn’t change from the set datum by the PF. With only five days left of training I’m now incredibly close to the end of my training with L3Harris, and what a journey it has been. I’m so close to the end now, it really is within reach!
