First of all, I realized that can be difficult to understand the whole path which will conduct us to a jet flight deck. So, these are the "milestones" of our route:
GROUNDSCHOOL (Nursling):
5 months and half of lectures, self study, CBT (Computer Based Training) and question bank. All that we need to pass (hopefully) our 14 ATPL theoretical exams.
SINGLE ENGINE FOUNDATION COURSE (Hamilton, NZ):
Having passed all our exams, we are heading to New Zealand to start flying on a C172 or a DA20.
This is the equivalent of the PPL course.
MULTI ENGINE & COMMERCIAL PILOT LICENCE (CPL) (Hamilton, NZ):
After completing our basic flights, we will move onto the twin-engine DA42 after practicing some new techniques in the simulator.
The end of this phase culminates with the CPL exam and ME rating.
INSTRUMENT RATING (IR) (Bournemouth):
After achieving our CPL-ME licence, we're heading back to Bournemouth, UK, to complete our flight experience, by studying and practicing some of the standard procedures that each pilot could face in the every-day work. After passing the (difficult) IR test, we're now Frozen ATPL holders.
AIRLINE QUALIFICATION COURSE (Nursling):
This is our final stage, where we're going to learn the very important "non technical skills" and how to work in a multi-crew environment dealing with passengers, cabin crew and SOPs of our future airline. After some lectures, we will start to practice in the simulators, which means that we'll be for the first time take control of a passenger jet sim for the first time to get our MCC (MultiCrew Copperation) certificate.
Then I'm heading back home, waiting in the hold pool for a placement in one of the sponsor airlines of CTC and to start my TypeRating.
We started our groundschool on the 16th, but actually our first day in the Nursling Training Centre was on the 11th, as we attended the "meet and greet", an opportunity to meet coursemates, fit our uniform and to have a look to the whole building.
Badge and epaulettes given on the Meet and Greet day
We moved into our accommodation, near the centre of Southampton, on Wednesday evening as our house were undergoing some renewals. So we've been in the Holiday Inn for 7 nights. Not so bad, as we were all provided with twin bed rooms and food.
Where I will spent most of my time for 6 months
On Thursday we had our first of the six Airline Preparation Days, useful to get to know more about the students of our CP, having a few ice breaker exercises. We also talked about the very important "non technical skills", which are required for a good pilot.
When our APD1 in our mind and after some pints in the pub the evenings before, we were all ready to start with Groundschool on Monday. Our first instructor, Bob, is very professional and he talked about Airframes, Hydraulics, Flight Controls, Landing Gear, Brakes, Wheels, Pneumatic, Pressurisation, Fuel, Ice and Rain protection and Electrical current.
It's not easy to withstand such a load of information, which ins't very difficult, but it's a lot.
Moreover, as I'm not a English mothertongue, I found useful to read in advance something about the topic of the next day in the CBT.
Our lectures with Bob finished on Thursday and we had CBT training on Friday and some revise in the weekend.
Now we are ready for two more days of lessons and then we're heading home for Christmas.
