After 16 months of intensive work, countless hours of study, mixed with a huge amount of excitement and a lot of fun, my time in training is complete and I’m delighted to say my training was completed two weeks ahead of schedule. Flying in the ever changing Irish weather has developed my skills to a reasonable standard and given me a healthy respect for northern European weather.
At the end of January I finished my time in AFTA’s 737-800 simulator, completing both the MCC and JOC courses, something I had been looking forward to before even beginning my flight training. What a machine it is! Even though you spend nearly 70 hours in the simulator I could have happily done another few weeks in there! With each session you grow more and more confident in operating the systems and controls of the complex machine. It’s a great experience to go from being quite over-loaded to begin with and then progressing to a stage where you become accustomed to the systems, displays and dynamics of the aircraft. It’s a fantastic feeling operating a full flight from London Heathrow to Amsterdam Schiphol gate to gate with no input from the instructor. Granted it’s a simulator, but trust me it feels like the real thing in that cockpit.
During the MCC/JOC you are paired off with another student so you can become properly accustomed to operating in a multi-crew environment. When I think back to our first simulator flight myself and Shane were definitely still in the single-pilot frame of mind, trying to do it all individually and making life unnecessarily difficult for ourselves. But as each hour in the sim goes by you really do learn to act as a team, supporting each other, dividing tasks and making the whole environment work to your advantage. After finishing it I can fully appreciate why airlines are so keen for pilots or potential pilots to have completed it. Without a firm grasp of the multi-crew environment in your head you would not be able to operate successfully in today’s commercial flight deck. Overall the time in the MCC/JOC has given me even more hunger to get into the flight deck for real.
Without doubt my time in Atlantic Flight Training Academy has been some of the best of my life, even taking ATPLs into account! The knowledge and skills that they have given me over the past 17 months I know will stand to me for the rest of my flying career.
Without doubt my time in Atlantic Flight Training Academy has been some of the best of my life, even taking ATPLs into account! The knowledge and skills that they have given me over the past 17 months I know will stand to me for the rest of my flying career.
Not to turn this in to an ‘Oscars’ style speech but there are people who I want to give thanks to. First and foremost, my family for believing in me and showing me incredible support when I decided to pack in my job and chase the dream and for continuing that support throughout my training. My girlfriend deserves an award for putting up with essentially not having a boyfriend 90% of the time and for her encouragement and support. I want to thank the entire team at Atlantic for everything they have done for me during my training. Every instructor I had throughout my training was fantastic and in particular I want to thank Rob, Seb, Barry, Ger, Matt, Philip and Dan. Thanks to Adrian, Kyle and Linda for the help with everything outside of flying with special thanks to Sharon for being the always smiling, helpful and positive face of AFTA. Finally thanks to Head of Training Mark Casey for everything from the first time I visited the school, to this day for being a true professional, always approachable and always helpful.
The levels of training and professionalism shown to me and all my fellow students throughout training was above and beyond what I had expected. It has been fantastic to see the Academy grow and develop even in my short time there, I know whenever I am in Cork I will always call in to catch up and see the latest developments.
I’ve enjoyed writing this blog as a personal record of my training and I hope anyone reading it found it useful as a snap shot of my experience in Integrated Training.