Intermediate Phase & Bases! 🌍

Welcome back,

I've now completed the Intermediate Phase of the easyJet MPL meaning that I only have one more phase and approximately 4 weeks left of training!

Intermediate has been my favourite part of my training so far. The phase acted as introduction to full easyJet SOPs as well as an introduction to the autopilot, failures and emergency procedures. The first few sessions were spent getting used to using the autothrust system and flight directors while practicing our takeoff and landing technique with the motion on. It was my first experience in a full motion flight simulator!

I'll be honest, my first few landings with the motion on weren't the smoothest and we touched down with a bit of a bump... And i'm being kind to myself with that as well haha! But once I was used to the motion and got over the initial feeling of quezziness my landings progressed nicely!

After the first few sessions we moved on to engine failures and single engine work. Again, it was all new to both me and my sim partner, so we made sure to practice all of our procedures in the procedure trainer before we went into the sim. Our efforts were rewarded not just for single engine lessons but for all sessions of the intermediate phase. As we were well prepared and consistently meeting the norms (and in lots of instances, exceeding the norms) we were able to complete the lesson objectives early, meaning we had spare time to practice our procedures, or even learn procedures that are slightly more advanced than what we needed to know at the time.

For instance, on one of our sessions, we flew a normal operating route from Stansted to Manchester. Shortly after takeoff we had a hydraulic issue which we dealt with in good time and made some wise team decisions. That was the lesson plan, but as we'd handled that relatively swiftly we were pushed harder by our instructor which meant before we knew it we had a dual hydraulics failure - which is a major emergency! The hardest part about Intermediate phase and emergency handling is the decision making. Should we continue? Should we divert? In this instance with a dual hydraulics failure, it was after we'd set up and briefed for the approach into Manchester and only about 45 miles away from touchdown. So we were initially go minded. We had Birmingham to our left and East Midlands to our right. Manchester has 2 runways of sizeable length, Birmingham and East Midlands only have 1. The passengers also want to be in Manchester... we were discussing all of this along with how the affected aircraft systems would impact how we fly the approach and any potential go around.

After a punchy DODAR we decided to continue onto Manchester and we landed safely about 10/15 minutes later. Our instructor said that this was a wise decision as 1). We needed to lose our altitude. So cruising at FL180 we needed approximately 50 miles to get down to the ILS platform altitude of 3000ft and 2). If we had of diverted we would need to re-set up and re-brief which would have added to the time to get down.

During this phase we also practised a number of emergency manoeuvres such as emergency descents, TCAS RA, GPWS and windshear. The emergency descents, although a serious event, were quite funny initially... due to the rather horrendous oxygen mask that we had to wear. We both sounded very similar to Darth Vader on the intercom put it that way! But once the laughs were out of our system we were able to somehow keep a straight face and take it seriously!

The intermediate phase concluded with a final CA check which ended up being a rather non event of a flight. I flew from Edinburgh down to Manchester but had a SEC 2 fault on push back. Without going into too much detail, a SEC (spoiler elevator computer) is a flight control computer that controls the spoilers on each wing and acts as backup to the elevator actuators incase of a dual ELAC failure (another flight computer). In short, It was an off and on again reset. From there on, the flight went smoothly, being such a short flight I made sure to set up nice and early as we only had, maybe, 10 mins in the cruise before the top of descent.

We were then radar vectored south overhead Liverpool before being cleared a VOR approach which eventually led to a go around (as per the lesson plan). We then re-positioned on final for a fully automated decelerated ILS to land... I turned the autopilot off at about 3 miles from touchdown, softly landed and taxied to stand. That was me done!

On another note, we've also now started our referencing/background check process so we can obtain our airside passes! It's been an exciting few weeks now that easyJet are in contact with us however it's also been a stressful few weeks trying to get everything sorted as well as stay ahead in the sims - which are demanding to say the least! To add to the stress we found out not to long ago that easyJet would no longer be able to cover the Advanced phase (Type Rating) costs, so the last month or so has been tough trying to sort that out as well! Thankfully, everything has now been sorted and I owe a lot to my family for helping me out!

We also received our base options about 3 weeks ago now. Something which had been on everyone's mind; something that has caused a lot of stress for everyone in the group was finally about to be decided. We all believe that with Brexit looming in the new year our options we're swayed because of it. There are 10 of us on our induction day in January, 8 MPL and 2 ATPL. Our options were:

- 2 x Gatwick

- 1 x Stansted

- 3 x Luton

- 2 x Liverpool

- 2 x Edinburgh

I'm pleased to announce, as of January, I'll be based out of Luton! Which I'm delighted with.

So that's it for now. I've had the majority of November off which has been a nice break away although I was back in Southampton yesterday for a refresher CRM day and brief A320 tech revision session. As I've got a further week off before I start the Advanced Phase I headed back home this morning. I'm really looking forward to finishing now and with only about 4 weeks left of training to go, I can't wait to finally get started flying the line... and earning some money again!

#airbus #a320 #easyJetMPL #L3AirlineAcademy #Pilottraining #Southampton