A new FO's story part 1
For the guys thinking of flying, and the ones who have asked for my story. I was one of the very luck few. My father was and airline pilot and I had always wanted to be one to, but unfortunately I am short sighted. My parents gently steered me away from flying since at that time you needed near perfect eyesight.
I did my A levels in the Isle of Man, didn’t get great results but still passed them and managed to get a place at Uni to study electronics. During the summer before I was due to start a good friend of mine asked me to go along to an RAF interview with him for moral support so I did. While I was there a hairy old Sergeant talked me into doing some tests to become electronics tech since at the time as he put it experience was the main thing and the qualifications could be gained whilst in the RAF. I passed the tests with flying colours and was told I really should have been trying to be a pilot with those results. I told them I was short sighted but they said that was their call, the hook was well and truly baited again.
I went to Biggin Hill, took the tests and passed the aptitudes well but was called into the medical office with the bad news that I had failed the eyesight test, funny old thing! The only flying branch that was open to me was as an AEOp basically a flying radar operator on Nimrods, 'A good mixture of both electronics and flying' my two loves I was told. So too cut a long story short I joined the RAF and spent the next 15 years sneaking into the cockpit to watch wishing I was in the seat. I even tried to blag my way through the eyesight tests a few times but it never worked. I came into some money 5 years ago and decided that this was my chance finally to make my lifetime dream come true, or at least give it a go. I have seen so many 'Whatifs' around the bars in the RAF, 'What if I had done this....', 'What if I had done that........' I was never going to be one of those with my own bar stool reminiscing about what could have been. My wife and I had a serious chat that lasted several months based around the pros and cons of leaving what was a well-paid job for a complete uncertainty. I believed that I would pass the course and get a job, but that’s allot of belief when you have a wife and child to support. One thing that I really didn't realise at that time was the difficulty in getting a job, I had the rosy glasses that said he with the CPL gets job. I didn't even research the job market I just thought I would be able to get a job!
I put my notice in with the RAF and they insisted that I stayed on another 18 months in a crappy desk job before they would let me go, the longest 18 months of my life. I started to research the flying schools but at that stage thought that I would be going to Cabair since they seemed to have the shiny brochures. I went to Cabair and wasn't very impressed, the equipment was old, the aircraft all had non-standard fits and the simulators were a joke, one Frasca in an old portacabin. They did give me a good free lunch though!! I had an appointment at OATS that I missed completely, a mix up with the days. I went down the next day on the off chance and was shown around what looked to be a modern professional outfit. The classrooms all had computers in them and the simulators and aircraft looked fabulous. I stopped on in the coffee shop and had a chat to some of the students who seemed pleased with their choice, so OATs it was to be! Now just to get through that 18 months..... I wrote a letter to Easyjet, to Stellios himself saying that I was off to Oxford and would fly the Easy flag for him in return for a job at the end, didn’t hear anything back, and was I naive or what!! I did some flying lessons to really make sure of my career change, only about 20, I thought any more would be a waist of money since I was to do it all again. Yes I had made the right choice.
The 18 months slowly ticked by, I didn't do much work, just spent the time reading aviation books and dreaming of flying. My wife moved to Cornwall a couple of months before I left the RAF, that’s when it hit me, the reality of what I was to do. I was now living in the mess halls in a single bedroom with a tiny TV and no home comforts and my family 300 miles away! Too late now.... I left the RAF and started at Oxford less than a week later, I really didn't want to waste a second since it was all money draining from the bank account and little coming in.
Oxford was another shock to the system, suddenly I was back at school head in the books, something I hadn't done for 15 year now. The volume was something I was completely unprepared for, I had a pile of manuals that stood as high as me, I know I checked! Still 50k in the red and I was determined it was going to be no more so I stuck at it. Off to the States for six weeks C152 flying what a buzz! It was at the time when the air show program was on the TV with all the BA students being followed through the course and I couldn’t believe that I was going to be doing it for real. We did about 40 hours in a C152 basically to PPL standard, plus the CPL qualifying cross-country. My first skills test was so basic looking back, a few stalls steep turns and circuits, but at the time I was bricking it! My examiner was sat there, four gold stripes on this shoulder, and I was sat there sweating like a pig shaking like a leaf. I passed, just, he must have taken pity, I vowed I wasn't going to be so stupid again, and after that flight test all the others were fine, I knew what I was in for.
Back to England and the vagaries of the English weather and charts that looked like people had thrown up all over them. Flying in the UK was so much harder, you had to talk to 50 different people, juggle your plog, dodge the clouds (since there be devils there!) and weave through the virtual minefields of airspace. God it was impossible, but slowly it came together and my next flight test comprised a cross country and diversion and engine failures. Wasn't nearly as nervous this time and passed well. Unfortunately this marked the end of flying for a while since it was now back to the books and the JAR techs. I can honestly say that I have never worked so hard in my life, most nights I was up till past midnight studying so that I could have the weekend off to go home to my long suffering family. I was missing seeing my little girl grow up and that was a sad thing but I now had to ensure her future. By the exams came I was studying 12-14 hours a day but still didn't feel well prepared since we were some of the first to take the new JAR exams and had little feedback, except for the usual horror stories of everyone failing. Generally we didn't do too badly as a course and most passed most of the exams and some passed all, I was one of the lucky ones. Back to flying, hooray...
The CPL skills test was the next great hurdle; I wanted those little gold wings soooooo badly by now! Yet more cross country but this time with a diversion under the screens and more stalls etc but all under the screens this time. I made a stupid mistake on the first navigation leg and identified the wrong village! The thing that really annoyed me was that the nav side had generally been my strong point. I had to continue with the rest of the test knowing that all I could manage at best was a partial. I waited another two weeks for decent weather so I could do one navigation leg. I managed to pass it this time and the examiner then asked me if I wanted to fly back, I declined politely since I didn’t' want to cock something up on the way. I now had those coveted wings, I had looked at people when I first started with their wings and though 'God they are real pilots', I now realised how little I really new, it was quite scary really. Now back to ground school and onto the JAR nav phase.