My first flight as operating crew!
Norwich – Alicante.
I had seen this route a couple of times now so it gave me that little more confidence to take along. I have studied the SOPs, aircraft limitations and performance like mad over the last few weeks so I guess I am as ready as I will ever be.
Today’s flight is the early service to Alicante, the report time being 5Z, 6 am to you and me.
I got there about 5 30 am and sorted out the paperwork as best I could before meeting the training captain and safety pilot I would be flying with
A little word on safety pilots for those wondering. For your first 4 or so sectors it is a CAA requirement to have a safety pilot in the jump seat to make sure you don’t do anything stupid. I guess the thinking is that it allows the training captain that little more flexibility to train knowing there is someone there as an extra pair of eyes and ears.
I was designated as the pilot flying for the outbound leg, the captain saying he would get me to do as much handling as possible on both sectors.
We got on board the sleeping aircraft (dark and un-powered) and I entered the flight deck to start the safety check. This involves putting the battery switch on then ensuring everything is in the right place before the aircraft is connected to any main electrical source. Safety check complete I remained in the flight deck while the safety pilot did the walk around. The captain carried out most of the prep work and I was just to prepare my bits of the cockpit and think about the take off and departure.
Once all the necessary work was completed I gave my first live briefing for a departure.
The departure briefing for the first flight of the day covers every action I will take as pilot flying, from engine start up to the departure, including the emergency briefings.
Whilst not fluid I got all the relevant bits in that I needed to, which was confirmed when I asked at the end of it ‘any questions’ to which he replied ‘no that’s all understood’.
Before start checks then I spoke to the ground dispatcher to inform him we were cleared to push back and start engines.
I started both engines on the push back and then completed my after start scan putting the engine generators on line and pressurizing the aircraft.
The captain taxied out and we were cleared to line up on the runway.
Once lined up and cleared for take off I was given control to start the take off roll. Here goes I am finally doing what I have worked all this time for!!!!!!!!!!
Slightly quick on rotation, but away safely on runway heading.
At Norwich there are no published standard instrument departures, so I would flying on runway heading and then expect a turn on track to a VOR called BKY., a beacon in East Hertfordshire.
About 1000 feet ATC gave us the instructions we had expected, to turn and track towards that VOR, and I followed the flight directors as we climb away towards controlled airspace.
About 4000 feet I select the autopilot and we continued on up to FL160 in Vnav, Lnav.
Once up into the cruise we passed over the English coast on route to Alicante.
The feeling was as good as I think it gets, I am doing it, flying a Boeing 737 300 with passengers, taking them to their holiday destination.
My brain was still working over time as I monitored the Flight modes and kept on top of things. In fact when the cabin crew brought us up our first cup of coffee, I was so into the flying that I forgot I had it until it was cold.
I think we had only got to cruise about 10 minutes before, when I began getting the approach plates out to start planning my descent and approach.
A note about the training captain at this point. Fantastic, on top of being a really nice person he seemed to be able to read my mind and was able to judge almost supernaturally what I would be able to absorb or not. I must say that if I was ever over loaded it was my doing, not his.
Now then, setting up that approach. Those of you reading this who are going to be doing a type rating at some time in the future will get to know the 5Bs .The five Bs are a guide for setting up a departure or arrival, the first letters of 5 things you need to get done before you brief for that stage of flight. The Bs done and the weather obtained from the ATIS I gave my approach briefing, which was pretty crappy really. The captain gave me a few pointers and explained that in time I would develop my own style of briefing. (Mental note, practice practice practice).
I think someone must have told everyone involved in my trip that I was a novice as ATC were really good to us and gave us a nice early descent so it was all doable, even by me!
An ILS approach to the runway and I was really pleased with the handling, the comment from the captain to the safety pilot was that I was going to show them both up. Well may be, had I not flared a little high and floated a bit. Bugger!
It was one of those landings he said that the passengers love, nice and soft. However soft is not the aim of the game, it’s better to put it down in the right spot than grease it down outside the touchdown zone.
We taxied in and on his signal (the speed break down to the detent position), I commenced the after landing scan and started the APU.
My turn for the walk around which I enjoyed doing. It was great walking around this large machine knowing that I had just flown it 1000 miles and got it here. (And it was all in one piece!).
Back into the flight deck and again I set up for the departure, this time loading the departure into the FMC.
Once the load sheet was on board I got the speeds from the performance book and cross checked them with the captain, along with agreeing with the fuel figures, which I am still getting to grips with.
Thirty minutes after I shut the engines down, I was starting the up again for our trip back to wet and windy Norwich.
Managed to under rotate this time, pausing at the dead spot the 737 has, as the tail goes into ground effect at 10 degrees. I think I was trying so hard not to over rotate that I managed an untidy 2 stage rotation.
Still nothing that the training captain had to grab the controls for, just not very satisfying when I know I can do better.
Up and away northwards towards the Bay of Biscay. Once in the cruise this time it was my turn to speak to the passengers.
I had bought a pilots atlas from transair which had proved to be very useful so far with regards to spatial awareness and also enabled me to pinpoint all the places we would be passing over.
I made a note of those and the other bits people like to know, speed, height, ETA and the like.
One nice little thing I had heard is that if you divide your mach number by 10, that gives you roughly your miles per minute. I.e. mach decimal 8.0 is 8 miles per minute. Something nice to tell them. It went something like this
‘Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, from the flight deck your first officer speaking (loved saying that bit). We have now reached our cruising altitude of thirty six thousand feet an are on schedule to get you into Norwich on time. The wind is in our favour today and we are currently travelling over the ground at about four hundred and sixty miles per hour which is about seven and a half miles a minute. Our routing will take us over Bilbao then track up the western coast of France with Bordeaux and La Rochelle on our right, then over the Brest Peninsula, with Jersey coming into view on our left. From there we will then cross out over the channel towards Bournemouth and begin our descent, we then pass to the west of London, and descend on down towards Norwich. So for now sit back and enjoy the flight and I will come back to you with the weather for Norwich when we get a little closer. Thank you’.
The cruise again seemed to dash past and on this leg it would be non standard in that I was going to fly the approach and the captain was going to land back into Norwich.
This meant setting up for the approach once again and making sure I kept ahead of the game getting it all done on time. So after a quick bite to eat and a hot coffee this time, I prepared my descent and approach and gave a little more professional briefing.
The weather although not near limits was pretty rough, with a thick layer of cloud, rain and a gusting wind. That said the aircraft handles the weather very well and I guided it onto the ILS before giving control to the captain who had to work really quite hard to ensure a perfect touchdown (glad he had to do that one).
We taxied in, parked and shut the aircraft down before going back to the crew room for my debrief and report.
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Pleased with today’s report, which read
‘Excellent start. Handling overall very good for this stage
Points- rotation rate a little fast ex Norwich
Flared at Alc hi at 30 feet
He did the whole of the first sector plus T/O, CLB, CRZ, DES and initial approach on 2nd sector to give as much handling as poss.
Over all very good.
Before I left today, I took a few sample bits of flight paperwork, so I can practice at home with spoof details over and over again; so far I have learnt you can never have enough practice.
During the drive home other motorists must have thought me mad, a pilot cruising along with a smile wider than his bumper. How did today compare as a highlight in my flying career so far? The best yet without doubt !
As I am still working full time my availability is more limited than I would like and the next slots available, when I am, are all from Manchester. The course coordinator, at head office has helped me out as much as she can in getting me Norwich, but law of the sod has got me driving 4 hours each way for the next few flights.
The real pain here is the hotel bills, as I will need to drive up the night before so I am fresh for the trip.
One plus is that I get to try my hand at the NG, the 737 – 700, a true glass cockpit.
I am rostered in two days time to fly to Sharm El Sheik in Egypt.
With that in mind, I am at home trying to find a cheap hotel and revising the different limitation/performance the 700 has.
£49 bed and breakfast at the Holiday Inn, Manchester, which was pretty good I thought.
The hotel was pleasant as was the breakfast and I felt fresh for my mid morning report in the crew room at Manchester.
Once again, I got there well before the rest of the crew and got familiar with my new surroundings.
The captain appeared first and straight away he put me at ease. We ran through all the paperwork for today and the little bombshell he dropped on me was that we had to do our own load sheet in Egypt. I held my hands up and told him that I wasn’t practiced enough to do it myself to which he smiled and told me not to worry. Damm, should have practised those at home last weekend when I had the chance.
Once all the prep work was completed we made our way through security and onto the aircraft.
Today I was to be the pilot monitoring on the way down and would be the pilot flying in the way back. I learnt a lot from the captain’s brief and his tips on how he did things.
So far today with the exception of the load sheet issue, things today have slowed down for me a bit; they all seem a little more manageable.
The big thing for me today was radio work I would be speaking to radio controllers from across Europe as well as in the busy London area.
Manchester is huge, full of large long haul aircraft and the first time I had experienced a traffic jam. We were number 4 on the taxi way behind a couple of airbuses a 757 and a Cathy cargo 747.
Something else to discuss here with the captain, wake turbulence separation.
We were lined up on 24 at Manchester and cleared for immediate take off as today it was single runway ops, meaning there was another 747 breathing down our necks on the approach.
Safely airborne and a HON1R departure out of Manchester.
Not far into the SID, we were given direct routing and a climb towards our requested level.
We were heavy today, a full load of passengers and as you would imagine a large amount of fuel to get us all the way down to Egypt, so our requested final level wouldn’t be until we had used some of that fuel and lowered the weight.
I carried out all the radio work almost without error and made sure I kept the captain updated with en route weather. A good long cruise meant that I could get to know the FMC better, putting in abeam fixes for the fuel checks and exploring the pages I hadn’t seen as yet.
None of the cruise was wasted, the training captain giving me pointers and teaching me things that make it all run a bit more smoothly. We were fed and watered by the cabin crew who do a great job checking if things up front are all ok. You do get to realise that the whole crew are a team, and that constant communication between flight deck and cabin is hugely important.
The time flew by and I had made copious amounts of notes to write up later.
Before long as I was struggling to understand some of the foreign controllers it was time for the descent and approach into the airport.
The captain completed his briefing and called for the descent approach checks.
The visibility was appalling all the way down to about 4000 feet, which was good for me. No sight seeing to distract!
A perfect landing and we taxied off to our stand.
I was pleased to do the walk around this evening as my legs needed a good stretch and the 40 degree heat was nice to feel, if only for a few minutes.
Back on board and I checked the route that the captain had loaded, then once happy with that I loaded the departure that I was planning to fly.
Multi crew is just that, everything that is done with regards to the flight is checked by the other pilot. Despite the fact I have about 10 hours on the 737 and the captain has thousands, I am the other operating crew member and as such will check any decisions the captain makes and if I don’t like them, then it will be discussed until we are both happy.
This is another important learning point for me. The captain has a way of discussing items and bringing me into the loop in a relaxed and easy to absorb manor. I will take a lot away from today other than the flying.
We were soon off again, 40 minutes after arriving, another full passenger load; and I had control to start the engines.
Another consideration, it was now night time. This was to be my first take off and indeed landing at night in a jet, I hadn’t even seen it in the sim.
With all the weight and the heat the rotation speed would be fast, 158kts, 20kts or so faster than I am used to.
I advanced the throttles to 40 per cent N1, once stabilized press the TOGA.
I call for the thrust to be set and place both hands on the control column.
The speed builds up but it seems for me not fast enough, the temptation to rotate early is strong, we are blasting down the runway and the end is clearly in sight. Eventually, the V1 and then rotate calls come and I pull the control column back to lift the aircraft into the air. The rotation is a little bit too rapid, but I got it back to a more normal rate before long.
I hand fly it for a little while and boy it feels great, it really does feel fantastic holding all this precious stuff in my hands. I try my best to keep it all nice and gentle and follow the flight directors as they lead the way.
Once we were cleaned up I set the auto pilot into command and called for the after take off check list.
We were now climbing up to an initial FL180, as we head north towards Cairo.
Once in the cruise and everything’s settled, the captain suggested I make P.A. passengers, sooner rather than later as people are likely to want to dose off before long.
The trusty atlas came out again and after comparing it with the FMC routing I was able to give the passengers the route in ‘layman’s’ terms which included such exotic places as Alexandria, Budapest, Vienna, Frankfurt, Dunkerque and Southend !
In addition it’s Frank in seat 9Ds 70th birthday at midnight so I add a congratulations and best wishes to the mix.
As we passed over Vienna there were some thunderstorms in the area which I kept an eye on, on the weather radar. Anything horrible shows up as red and is avoided by making a turn around it, preferably upwind.
The thunderstorms had moved from our track as we got close, and as we were upwind there was no need for a heading change. As it was dark though we did get the most amazing light show, WOW !
Past Frankfurt we were handed over to Maastricht control who kindly gave us direct routing to a VOR called TNT not far from our final destination, an almost straight line from Germany to Manchester.
As the time got closer to our descent point I set up the aircraft and prepared my briefing. The captain got the weather for our arrival and I gave my briefing.
We were to expect an ILS to runway 24 R at Manchester, something I was quite familiar with from the sim, so that aided the ease of the briefing.
The weather was similar to the weather on my first flight into Norwich wet and windy, only this time I would be flying the approach and landing. The approach went well, VOR LOC armed, localiser established and approach armed. I disconnected the autopilot and selected auto throttle speed off as we got stabilized on the ILS. I was working hard flying the approach keeping the speed nailed at 138 kts. The runway came in sight and I began to transfer my attention between instruments and the visual perspective outside.
100 feet, 50 30, 20, 10, thump! No greaser this time, I flared a little too late, and made what was referred to later as a ‘firm’ landing, BUGGER! One day I will get these landings nailed.
My apologies if you were a passenger on that flight, I hope the dentist bills are not too expensive. I’m joking, it wasn’t that bad.
Shut down checks completed and it was back to the crew room for my de brief and for the captain to write up my report.
It was 1 am when I left the airport car park, and 5 am when I got home. I was shattered both mentally and physically.
It was a great day though, I have learnt a lot today, and although it’s early in my line training, I can feel it coming together in some way.
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Report read for today’s flight.
Very good for such an early stage of line training, keen and enthusiastic approach to the job. Company SOPs good, a good deal of effort and study is evident.
Rotation rate and technique needs some work, initially snatched before continuing to rotate at a normal rate.
En- route good spatial awareness.
Nicely controlled descent/approach.
Insufficient flare resulted in a firm landing.
Overall very good.
That’s it; you’re up to date on my line training so far. I won’t write up every flight because it will be much of the same I would think, but I hope you get the idea as to what to expect.
As for my career, I have been fortunate enough to secure a position at Flyglobespan on the 737 and am awaiting the start date. I was called for interview to attend their headquarters in Edinburgh, shortly after my base training, where I met with the chief pilot and a training first officer. Not 30 minutes after the interview which was a wholly pleasant affair, I was told I had been successful. I am still smiling now! I know I would have been happy to take any job to get me on the first rung of the ladder, but I really cannot believe my luck to have been offered a position with such an airline, somewhere where I hope I will be for a long time. The future is looking bright for me and I am really excited about joining them. They are an expanding, successful airline and I am truly humbled that they have given me the chance to join them.
I will let you know how it all goes.
Good luck to you all.
Flyfish.