Today I passed the "line check" and by
doing that I finished the line training. It has
been two exciting weeks with plenty of challenges,
even though the weather has been better than expected.
The training was done on the company's "Western
Isles" routes where we fly passengeres and
newspapers (in the morning). The big difference
to what I've flown in the past is that this is a
two-pilot concept which differs alot from single
pilot operations where you do everything yourself.
It also presents some challenges like communication.
That is why we have an SOP (Standard Operating Procedures)
which sets the standards for how we fly and all
the calls that is required in order for everybody
to follow the same procedures.
These past two weeks I've flown 33 sectors in 7
days of flying with 3 of the training captains (One
sector is for example from Inverness to Stornoway).
Each sector varies between 25 and 50 minutes on
the different routes we fly around the Western Isles,
and as mentioned in the previous article there is
plenty to do on the short sectors.
I've flown many of the morning flights (because
getting up early is daft and I'm the new guy I guess).
I get up at 0515 and I'm at the airport at 0615.
Here all the paperwork is ready and the weather
is studied together with the captain before I go
out to the aircraft to pre-flight. Normally the
newspapers are already loaded when I get there,
but sometimes they need a helping hand. I normally
do the internal pre-flight in the cockpit where
I check the different systems and settings, while
the captain does the walk around and checks the
airplane.
Normally the pilot who is flying the sector calculates
the speeds for take off and landing (varies with
weight), gets the lates weather from ATIS and gets
start clearance from the tower, while the other
greets the passengers and do the safety brief. We
don't have cabin crew (only required for airplanes
with more than 19 seats, and we have 19) so we have
to take care of the passengers. The safety breif
was a bit awkward in the beginning, but now it's
fun because it involves more contact with the passengers.
Then we fire up the engines and taxi out to the
runway. On the ground, the captain always controls
the airplane while I go through the checklists.
This is because the nose wheel steering is on the
lefthand side. This makes the take off somewhat
interesting when I am flying because I don't have
any steering until we reach about 70 knots (then
we have enough air flowing over the rudder to use
the rudder pedals for steering). The solution to
this is that the captain starts the take off and
when we reach 70 knots I take over.
In the air the pilot who is flying (handling pilot)
has the responsibilty for the flight and makes the
decisions (though the captain always has the last
word), while the pilot who is not flying (non handling
pilot) takes care of the checklists, paperwork and
communication with ATC (Air Traffic Control).
Down on the ground again at our destination we
off load the passengers and the luggage (and newspapers
in the morning) and get ready for the next sector.
There is normally a turn around time of 25 minutes,
but sometimes we have a couple of hours break (the
schedule varies from day to day).
There are some differences to the rules compared
to the States and Norway, but nothing major. ATC
is in general friendly and none of them has an extreme
scottish accent (fortunately), but the effectivity
and smoothness is far from the States (unfortunately).
On day we flew VFR between Stornoway and Benbecula,
which means that we don't have to worry about all
the rules that apply to instrument flying, but we
have to keep away from clouds. This saves time and
the passengers like it, simply because it is a magnificent
sight to fly at 2000 feet doing 220 knots along
the coastline.
From today I'm checked out as a First Officer on
a passenger aircraft, which means that my goal is
reached. It took me 1337 days.
