After a seemingly never ending dark and gloomy winter, welcome back to summer and the continuation of my blog! My name is Heeral Poria and I am a Ryanair mentored cadet with The Atlantic Flight Training Academy.
You can read my first blog post here, and second post here.
I have been quiet as I was working through the remaining ATPL exams and am overjoyed to announce that I have all ATPL’s passed, with my final 4 exams passed in April. The exams have a notoriety for being an academic mountain that needs to be climbed and I can confirm this is very much the reality; however it is not unachievable and the only advice I can pass on is for the exams and study to be your prime focus. Be prepared for your evenings and weekends to be consumed by revision, and if you are happy to accept that, it’s only a temporary sacrifice. You will soon get back onto the flight line and back in the air!

After having not flown for 6 months, there was some nervousness around getting back into the aircraft, but this quickly went, much like riding a bike. The previous finesse and knowledge of checks and procedures soon returned, having been not nearly as daunting as I thought it might have been! My next step was to prepare for the Private Pilot’s License (PPL) skills test. The test itself consisted of a ground and airborne element, the ground element checked my understanding of the theoretical aspects of knowledge of the aircraft, how the flight was planned, why I made certain decisions in the planning process and a general understanding of what would be required and expected of me as a potential license holder. The airborne part consisted of a navigational element, general handling and circuits, which lasted around 1 hour and 30 minutes. Prior to the test, I completed a full mock test, which helped me to both prepare and helped to calm the nerves of knowing what was expected.

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) issues the license itself and once that came back, I was able to move into the next stage of training which is “hour building”, this has been one of the most enjoyable parts of flight training. For me, it was an opportunity to explore parts of the country I had never seen before including the coastlines, midlands, and everything in between! I was lucky enough to complete the “Lambay Transit” within my first few hours, which is a low-level transit route underneath the Dublin Airport approach and departure paths. For anyone flying this route, you fly over the water next to Lambay Island, an isolated island about 5km away from the coast at a height which you typically would not be able to fly over the land.

After being lucky with some incredible weather and some long flying days, I completed my hour building and moved into finishing my Single Engine Instrument Rating (SEIR) flying. This was very different from what I had flown so far, spending all of my time looking outside the aircraft and taking in the great views flying VFR (Visual Flight Rules). For SEIR I would be completely “heads in” flying IFR (Instrument Flight Rules). It is a strange concept to those who have never experienced it, the focus moved to flying the aircraft without using any external visual cues and focussing on the instruments inside the cockpit. It is a great introduction to what will be expected of me in the coming phases where I will be expected to fly in poor weather, at night, following special instrument routes, etc. As with anything, there is a learning curve as instrument flying has considerably more procedures and process driven but it is nice being able to fly an aircraft down an approach and only look up at minimums to see the runway in front of you!
