1. Include at least one t-shirt per flight in your flight bag - In this current heat you end up sweating like a walrus. It was 23deg on the ATIS this morning at 0930!
2. Don't go waterskiing the night before starting asymmetric flying. You leg starts shaking violently.
3. Do not underestimate MEP/CPL/IR training!
I started training on Wednesday morning. Back to ground school for the Multi-Rating was the first thing (yawn) - ironically you cover the same things as in ATPL theory, but in less detail - figure that out if you can...
Day 1 - We climbed aboard the Duchess for lesson 1 - Aircraft Familiarisation. I tell you what, I was mentally overloaded even by the time I got the hold... I had memorised all these checklists, but I couldn't even remember the radio calls I have been using for 2 years! Very strange. I likened this first lesson to trying to climb a mountain in roller-skates - very difficult.
After a comedy weaving takeoff (in the video below) it felt like learning to fly all over again - lesson 1 was climbing, descending, turning, effect of flaps, stalling etc. Luckily the GoPro ran out of memory by the time we came to landing because we bounced so high, tower nearly passed us back to radar!
Day 2 started with an IFR flight, breaking cloud at 700ft on the ILS, just to get into Bournemouth for my lesson. Nerve racking, but being real IFR all the way from takeoff to landing is great fun! At least my IMC licence is still getting used.
After all this excitement, it was back into ground school to learn some more things I forgot from ATPL, and to brief the next lesson - Aircraft Familiarisation 2. Guess what; this lesson was still as hard, but I started to feel like I got a grip on things towards the end.... but more stalling and a bouncy landing followed.
Part of the training process is to 'backseat' other students so you can learn from their mistakes. I was fortunate enough to get a ride down to Alderney. The weather was truly awful, but when all you are doing is go-arounds and holds behind a screen, this really doesn't matter!
Day 3 started with guess what.... GROUND SCHOOL. I then had 30mins to practice my engine failure drills on the cardboard cockpit before the lesson, as today's lesson was Asymmetric Flying 1. Finally, today I felt like I got a handle on the aircraft, after 2.5hrs of flying. We practiced engine failures, and even stopped the left engine and feathered it - that was certainly interesting. However, after flying for 5mins on one engine I was regretting my Thursday night's waterskiing antics as my left leg was starting to shake, almost uncontrollably. Quick - get the restart checklist out!
We then returned back to the airfield, via a practice emergency descent, which are a lot of fun, and then another bouncy bouncy landing. I expect I am providing quite a bit of entertainment to the other airfield users, but hopefully I will sort these landings out in lesson 4 - circuits.
My basic take on the first 3 days is that this training is not to be taken lightly. The work is seriously intense, and unlike PPL, you don't have a week between lessons to let it all sink in, nor do you get the opportunity to perfect things. As soon as you have feel like you're getting on top of something, a new thing is introduced. I have become so tired, and my mind is constantly going through checklists and procedures at all times of the day. When the training is so expensive, you really need to make the most of every airborne minute, which is why I am only flying for one hour a day.
I am really looking forward to next week, and getting some more hours, and hopefully smooth landings, under my belt!
Below is a video of some of the highlights from the last three days. Unfortunately I didn't get much footage due to a memory card which was far too small for HD video. Expect a bit more video, and improved audio, next week....
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