WEEK 61, 62: START OF IR #47

Airline Prep

So I'm now into the final stage of basic training, the instrument rating (IR). After just over a week at home it was time to pack the bags again and head off to Bournemouth. I enjoyed my time off, cramming as much as possible into that time. I think we could've all done with an extra few days.

DJ & I doing some plane spotting around Heathrow during our time off

The accommodation at Bournemouth is... let's say 'well used'. There's now seventeen of us and we've been split into three houses. I'm lucky to be in the smaller group of four and with my good pal DJ again, it seems we are inseparable.

The first two days are spent in the class room going through the standard introductions to important members of staff and a tour around the building. It was then into the briefs covering topics such as UK radio skills, procedures, pre-flight planning, UK laws, weather sites etc. The first day was very very long! We started at 08:30 and finished at 18:00. We just about made it on time after getting lost in the airport due to the terrible map we were given, it's a good job we left plenty of time. When you know where you're going it only takes about fifteen minutes to get in. The second day started at 09:45 and finished at 15:00 and was just an extension of the previous days briefs.

We were also given a new addition to our uniform; our first official bar! It's needless to say I felt extremely proud and am finding it hard to walk around at the moment with all that weight on my shoulders....

The new and the old. What's your preference? 

The new epaulettes 

Most of us then had our first sims on the Wednesday. I had mine in one of the three DA42 sims here and it was the older of the lot so a little different to the others. It was basically a refresher of techniques and having not flown IFR for about six weeks I wasn't expecting much to be honest. As it turns out it wasn't as bad as I was expecting although there were definitely a few cob webs to be blown away. Because the procedures and comms are a little bit different here I found myself having to think about those a lot more, rather than doing it almost subconsciously as I was in New Zealand by the end. It was great to be back 'flying' again and by the sounds of things we are going to rattle through this stage! People have recently been finishing between four to six weeks which works out to about four or five events a week.

The course consists of about twelve sims and seven flights. We also need to do a test to get our radio licence which should be fine but that's not till much later in the course.

Rumour is from cadets ahead that it is a step up from New Zealand but there's nothing unachievable, it just requires hard work and focus. My view is that if thousands of other people can/have done it then why can't I!