25 October 2017

Becoming a 737 airline pilot

Jonny Lowther

So it's been a long time since my last aviation post. I just created my new website and thought it's probably time to start blogging again. A lot has happened since I came back from Phoenix, AZ and I wanted to write about it all here.

So, kicking off from when I came back to England having finished my initial flight training in the States. The first thing we were thrown into was the First Officer Fundamentals course at Oxford. This week long course basically just consisted of learning about different CRM topics, how to be a good supporting First Officer in the flight deck, personality traits airlines were looking for etc. etc.

I'd be lying if I said it was the most fun and engaging week I had during my time in Oxford, but I learnt a lot of valuable lessons which really do apply to my day-to-day job in the industry.

After this week was completed, we were thrown straight into the Instrument Rating. This was by far the most difficult few months of the course.

The Instrument Rating

I did my IR on a Piper Seneca II. This was an aircraft that was built in the 80's - and you could tell. It had the old round dials - completely different from the glass cockpits we were used to in the States. I say that it's completely different, I mean it is, aesthetically, but the basic information is the same, just presented in a different manner. Only a few of us from the course were put onto these old Seneca's - the reason being that there weren't enough of the new Seneca's to accommodate 20 of us.

The Instrument Rating, for those who don't know, is basically learning to fly IFR (Instrument flight rules). During the entire course, the only time you could see outside was takeoff and landing - they put shields over the windscreen once you were up in the air so you couldn't see anything. We were now learning how to fly not by using visual landmarks, but by using purely our instruments and radio communications. We were shooting VOR approaches, NDB approaches, ILS's, holds, steep turns etc. It was a great experience and I'm certainly glad I got to do it on the old style aircraft. It was extremely challenging. A general lesson would be taking off from Oxford, flying to East Midlands, performing an ILS approach with a go-around, then navigating to Coventry, doing an NDB approach with a go-around and then flying back to Oxford to perform another non-precision to land. All using paper charts. To say it was challenging would be an understatement - having to navigate using tiny little charts, whilst being bumped around in clouds, talking to busy London air traffic control. I'm glad to say I passed my IR first time after 2 or 3 months of training. It was the biggest sense of relief I've ever felt!

The Multi-crew co-operation course

The next and final stage of our Oxford training was the multi-crew co-operation course and Jet Orientation. This basically consisted of us learning how to fly in a 2 person crew. Up to this point every bit of flying we had done was effectively single person. This was undertaken in Oxford's in-house 737-400 full motion simulator. Looking back on it now, it was a bit old-school but it did the job. The first time I stepped into it I just remember a huge feeling of excitement and anticipation.

We were given posters of the flight deck to study at home, checklists, approach charts etc. So that when we came into our first lesson, we were as prepared as possible. Flying in a 2 man crew is a lot different to flying single pilot. 1 big difference is the way you handle checklists. Instead of reading the challenge and response to yourself, the pilot monitoring would be the one reading the challenge, whilst the pilot flying is the one who gives the response. It's basically a way of ensuring both pilots check the same system.

The MCC/JOC was great fun. Every lesson had a steep learning curve. You finally got the sense you were reaching the end of your initial training and ready to to apply to the airlines.

After every lesson, you are debriefed and have a report written about your performance. At the end of the course these reports (along with all the reports filed about you during your entire time at Oxford) are compiled into a final-report which are sent off to the airlines. You can see why it's so important to perform well during every stage of the course - everything about you is written down.

Oxford and beyond

So having finished my MCC/JOC, that signalled the end of my initial flight training. I now had a commercial pilot's license with an IR and an MCC/JOC certificate. What now?

The next thing to do was apply to the airlines. Oxford has an in-house graduate supervisor who helps you to write a CV and basically helps with finding you a job. The jobs you could apply for depended heavily on your performance during the course. Some airlines wanted more than 90% ground school average, some were picky about first time passes etc. etc.

I was lucky to come out at a time when airlines were hiring a lot of pilots (they still are!). I secured 3 job interviews with major airlines within 3 months of leaving Oxford. Admittedly, the first one didn't go so well. I ended up not getting the job which was disappointing, but I learnt from the experience - it was my first ever job interview after all! Soon after, I secured my second and third interviews. Both of those went well having learnt from my first interview.

Both of these interviews were scheduled within 3 days of each other - slightly nerve-wracking and a lot to prepare for. Oxford is good at guiding you and giving you advice though. I'm happy to say I got offered a job as a First Officer at Ryanair just 3 months after finishing flight training. Probably one of the best days of my life so far.

So the next post will be about the lead up to starting at Ryanair, the type rating and everything that has happened since then.