UPART & THE DREADED SIGN OUT PROCESS #54

Airline Prep

Two weeks after passing my IR and I've now completely finished the Bournemouth phase of my training.

All I had in the first week was the brief for the UPART phase so I took the opportunity to spend some time at home. The second week consisted of three UPART flights in the Slingsby Firefly. These flights are great fun and it's a perfect way to finish because there's no pressure. The instructor does all the radio, checks, take off, landing etc. All you need to do is sit there and do a bit of flying once up in the air. They let you do the take off and landing if you wish on the second and third flights though.

It's all fairly similar stuff to what we've done in the twinstar, just a little more extreme because the Firefly is aerobatic approved. The instructor will demonstrate a few stalls, steep turns, unusual attitudes etc and then get you to replicate or recover. The second lesson is the best of the lot. You do a bit more of the same from the first lesson then have about twenty minutes at the end to do some proper aerobatics. I did a loop, aileron roll, barrel roll, stall turn and derry turn (a manoeuvre used by fighter pilots to escape the enemy in a dog fight). It was so much fun! I personally did a loop and aileron roll and sat as a happy, excited passenger for the rest. It really is a unique experience seeing the ground disappear from view and then the next time you see it is when you look up whilst hanging from your straps! I was absolutely gutted I wasn't allowed to take my camera with me because it's a view I'm probably never going to see again (not unless something goes horribly wrong).

Firefly

I was also trying to get my sign out process rolling this week. It really is a painful, frustrating process. You need to go through a number of staff to get various things checks and then signed off. The logbook is the main pain. You need to make sure that your hours match with that on the system and meet the minimum requirements for the licence. If there's a slight miss-match then it can be an absolute nightmare trying to rectify. The logbook needs to be checked by about three different people and it takes a long, long time to gather all the relevant signatures. It took me about four days to get it all done. It's all topped off with your PR1 (exit interview) with the head of training, Brian Haigh. He goes through your training report which is written by the chief flying instructor, Phil Bell and a summary written by Brian himself. It's based on what they and the instructors have seen from you and incorporate your results too. I was absolutely delighted with my report, I thought it was very complimentary indeed and I just need to keep up the hard work for three more weeks for the AQC.

I've got a week off now to wind down a little bit but also get the required pre-reading done for the AQC.