Bournemouth 🇬🇧
- Connor Raven
- Jun 22, 2018
- 3 min read
Arriving back in the UK having spent 5 months as far away as possible was great! I'd really been looking forward to heading home for quite some time. Once home, myself and my coursemate who had come back with me had roughly 8 weeks off. It was really nice to have a decent amount of time away from all things flight school and aviation. As much as it's my passion, having spent 5 months surrounded by people with the same passion 24/7 did become abit much. Especially when that's all most people spoke about! So it was nice to have a break away and think of something else for a few weeks! It'd also been about a year since I'd had a lengthy period of time to just do what I want, when I want!
With having such a large amount of time off however, I could definitely feel towards the end of the 8 weeks the IFR knowledge slowly slipping away. But thankfully, the rest of the course landed back in the UK from New Zealand which meant it was then time to finish off the Core phase in Bournemouth. Which is where I am now...
The Bournemouth phase for us is only supposed to be about 4/5 weeks but due to a backlog of delays, a shortage of qualified MPL instructors in BOH, a lack of working DA42's and ultimately a not so good spring for flying weather wise has meant that that time will most definitely double and probably some on top of that too. Its frustrating but thankfully it's the final push and then I'll be in the airbus Sims!
My course and I, EZMP20, are currently finishing off the Core phase of our training. In short, we complete our UPRT (Upset prevention & recovery training) which is now mandatory since the Air France 447 crash in the Atlantic. Additionally, we also complete an MEP (multi engine piston) class rating. The MEP is completed on the DA42 so is our first taste of flying a twin engine aircraft!
So far, Ive completed two of my three UPRT training flights and one twin flight in the DA42. The first upset flight has definitely been my most favourite flight to date! We managed to finish the lesson objectives in good time meaning the rest of the hours flight was spent doing loop the loops and barrels rolls a few thousand feet above the Dorset countryside. It was awesome!!
My first flight in the DA42 was also an enjoyable one. Being my first time flying a plane with two engines the main lesson objectives were to familiarise ourselves with the aircraft. However, we also had to complete a handful of steep turns, the usual stall practice in all configurations as well as a short period of assymetric flying, which as you may have guessed means shutting one of the engines down mid flight!
It was a really strange sensation purposely turning off one of the engines while flying and watching it come to a standstill. However, engine failures and the subsequent issues that occur as a result act as the main threat while flying any twin engine aeroplane. So before easyJet let us fly one of their shiny jets they ask that we have experience of how to deal with simulated engine failures in a real aircraft before we take what we've learnt and adapt it to the Airbus Sims.
With only a handful of flights left, as you can imagine, we're all getting really excited about finally getting into the airbus! However, with the ongoing delays at Bournemouth, my final eight flights may take a little longer to complete than planned. Hopefully, with my next post I'll have some pictures of the multi million pound simulators I'll be spending the next 6 months of my life in and the Core phase will be complete!
Until then 🛫
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