German – Why Not?

I’m shocked at how long it’s been since an update to this, the blog that was supposed to document my move into an airline career. It remains empty in that regard, with good reason as, whilst I’m still with my airline, I am yet to fly. It has been a year and 2 months and I have done the required licence renewals every 6 months and who knows when I will actually begin what I came here to do. For now I’m not too fussed as I’m busy furthering my knowledge in a way only few English people ever properly do, I’ve undertaken language learning. This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time and at first I had a feeling that I would continue with French as I have some form of a foundation from Secondary School and from having lived with a French person for a couple of years whilst training for my pilots licence. In fact, I had started thinking about how I would go about relearning French and I was really looking forward to getting to know the language better however….

A visit to Munich during New Years 2013 saw me falling in love with the country. I’d never visited Germany prior to this but, this one visit, lasting only a few days, sparked my interest immensely and since January I’ve been self learning German by using various websites such as Deutsche-Welle and random grammar books. My motivation has been up and down more times than a student pilot doing circuits to build up take-off and landing experience and 8 months in, I’m still pursuing. There have been periods of about a month here and there where I’ve studied nothing, sometimes due to being busy with other things but mostly, it’s because I don’t know any German speaking people in the country I live in and so I never really get to practice what I learn, thus the motivation trickles off as quickly as any conversation I’ve ever had with a girl I take a liking to.

Prior to taking up German, I had the pleasure of reading Mark Twain’s ‘The Awful German Language’ which, I took to be quite amusing and felt that the rantings contained wouldn’t be an issue for me. I’d just put in a lot of time to learn the difficulties that he rants on about however, little did I know, the difficulties would be far harder than my mediocre human brain could handle on my own.

At first the basics can be very encouraging, a few simple phrases here and there and you start to think, “wow, this isn’t actually too bad.. sure there are some longer words in the language but the sentence structure is similar to English and there are a fair few familiar words here!”. Then of course you get into the harder grammatical points of the language, where you learn, amongst other things, that knowing the gender of a noun is highly important when you start involving the 4 cases that are involved in German but, I’m not writing this to repeat the words of Mark Twain, you can find that particular piece of literature by making a short search on a well known internet search engine. Anyway, with the difficulties I started having, I decided it was time for me to sign up for a German course.

My first thought was to go to one here, in Doha, however, the course was fairly expensive and I felt that I could definitely get better value for money elsewhere. I started searching for courses in Germany and was even able to get some advice from other German learners that I knew and often spoke with. Eventually, I settled on DeutschAkademie in Berlin as, not only were they recommended by friends, they weren’t that expensive. I was also able to find accommodation for a very cheap price with a guy who I would later be able to consider a good friend. People generally say don’t go to Berlin to speak German because nearly every German in Berlin speaks better English than you do German. This is very true and it took a few weeks for me to be able to get a German person to not reply to me in English. I think that, along with my English accent and my poor pronunciation of some words, people were able to tell very easily I was an Auslander and probably thought I was just trying German to be polite. I won’t write about my month in Berlin just yet, I’ll save that for another post, I will however recommend that you visit it when you can as it’s a really great city with lots to do and see.

During my first week I was extremely worried that I was in the wrong level (my entry test placed me at A2.1) because whenever the Lehrerin (teacher) would speak to me in German I would stare back with a blank face and reply – Entschuldigung (sorry) or Noch ein mal bitte (one more time please). Despite her saying mostly words that I knew, I was unaccustomed to hearing them out loud and felt like the class dunce. Eventually my hearing improved and I was able to hear words that I could read with ease and I was able to pick up on new words and ask for an explanation as to what they meant.

It turns out a course in German and being surrounded by German was exactly what I needed to kick me back into learning the language and I’ve actually gotten to the point where I can have a conversation in German, basic, but a conversation nonetheless. Since I’ve been back in Doha, I’ve continued my studies and I’m trying to tackle my biggest weakness at the moment – vocabulary, along with learning the gender. I’ll keep revising the grammar that I learnt during my course last month and try and pick up on some of the new grammar that I expect to learn when I do my next course (in September). I have all this free time at the moment, I may as well get down to things and use it properly. I hope one day I can move to Germany and fly for a German carrier and I also hope that, at that point I’ll have a better command of the German language.

For anyone wishing to learn German search for Deutsche-Welle deutsch interaktiv – this offers guided learning following the European Standard Framework for language learning and Warum Nicht? – a radio podcast from DW that helped me with my hearing and pronunciation.

One thing I’ve learned during this process is that you cannot learn with just one resource and I’ve found these quick learn books do not help. I also tried Rosetta Stone but I found that too repetitive and slow for me. Keep in mind that German is one of the hardest languages to learn and even some Germans have trouble with it’s complex grammar so don’t give in.

If anyone wants to get in touch and practice their German just post a comment!

Pushing The Boundaries of Human Limitations

Felix Baumgartner (on top of the world), “I know the whole world is watching now, and I wish the world could see what I see, and sometimes you have to go up really high to understand how small you are.”

After a 7 year journey of preparation, Felix Baumgartner has made his jump from 128,100 feet, breaking the sound barrier, the highest manned balloon flight record and highest skydive. Unfortunately the free fall time was not as long as the previous record as Felix was descending at a much faster rate than that of Joe Kittinger.

This amazing feat of bravery and engineering brilliance has proven, once again, just far humans will push the boundaries of our limitations and conquer them. I’m still filled with adrenaline from the anticipation and subsequent witnessing of the jump. The above photo is, without a doubt, one of the most amazing photos I’ve ever seen. I cannot even imagine what was going through his mind, or the feelings he must have been feeling, when he stepped out onto the platform.

Looking forward to the next leap in human innovation and boundary breaking!

Read more on http://www.redbullstratos.com

Congratulations to the Red Bull Stratos team and of course to Felix Baumgartner, his nerves of steal and his giant man parts! You’ve earned some major man points today Felix and inspired the world!

Press Conference confirmed the following figures –

Exit Altitude – 128,100 Feet

Freefall time 4mins 20 secs

Freefall dist 119,846 feet

Max velocity 833.9MPH – Mach 1.24

Wasted Effort

When I left for Doha I promised myself I’d get into shape and eat more healthily and whilst I was in Doha that held true.

I began doing a fitness DVD recommended to me by a friend who is into fitness and health, he advised it was a good DVD to get started with and should help me get in enough shape to go to the gym and not feel stupid. The DVD is called Insanity and is a 2 month course where you did a 40 minute work out every day with one rest day a week. Unfortunately I was so unfit that I had to take rests every 2 or 3 because my muscles ached so much, or I couldn’t walk properly. After a couple of weeks I found I was able to do the workouts as intended and was really starting to see the benefit. My stomach, whilst not flat, was starting to feel very strong, my legs were getting more toned, my arms were getting stronger (I was able to do push ups, which I’d never been able to do), I could see an overall change in my body. I also started swimming at the olympic pool in Doha, 50 meters of pure bliss! I hadn’t swam in so long that it took time to get back into it but I was back to my normal self in no time.

Combined with this I was eating well, I reduced all of my servings, I ate fruit as a snack if I felt hungry and everything I made included vegetables. I ate chocolate maybe once or twice a week and I reduced my beer in take, something that’s easy to do in Doha as you can’t just pop to the supermarket for some. You have to go to a specific place. I practically lived on Mediterranean veg, peppers, red onions, garlic, ginger, tomatoes etc.

Anyway so now I’m home and I’ve not done any of the DVD, any swimming and my eating has become awful again. The only thing I’ve kept doing is press ups as I don’t need my shorts or trainers and they are things I forgot to bring with me. Do I buy some new ones or do I just accept how I’m living now and then work extra hard at Doha? I’m starting to really feel unfit again so I think I should but then a part of me says, don’t waste money on trainers when you have some, ah, dilemmas!

Gift of Time

I was handed the gift of time early last week so I’m back home looking for ways to make use of it.

If you saw my last post you’d have seen some photos from a pretty epic afternoon of sailing which I enjoyed thoroughly. I can’t wait to go again and eventually learn to handle the boat on my own but I’ve come home for the time being. Some may think that I’m rather mad for coming back to a cold, wet and windy country and that the sun was the place to stay and usually I’d agree with you however, in my eyes, if I can get home and resume a normal life for a little bit then that’s what I’ll try to do as when I’m flying I wont have as much of that time as I would like.

I took the 5:45am (UK time) flight bound for Manchester, with a small suitcase and a few essentials. I would be taking the train back to Nottingham and didn’t feel the urge to drag a large case around, especially because I fear getting lost on the train network by switching to the wrong train. I managed to get business class coming back, even though I didn’t really stay seated as I spent most of the time talking with the cabin crew in the galley during which, the guy who did my interview for the company came out of the flight deck. Who’d have thought it, on all the flights, I was on his. I got talking to him for a while and I was invited to join them in Manchester. Who am I to say no, I was in no rush to get back to Nottingham so I made arrangements to meet up with them.

Whilst travelling on the train from Manchester Airport to Victoria station I was fortunate to be randomly sitting next to some girls who I realised, through accidental eves dropping, were cabin crew for Emirates. Of course I made a point of talking to them, one was an English girl and the other, not too sure. They were in Manchester for a lay over and were apparently looking forward to going to Primark of all places. I later found out that the cabin crew from the flight I took were on a mission to go to Primark. Who’d have thought it was such a popular/famous place to cabin crew?

I met up with Alex in Manchester and on walking to his hotel, we walked passed the guy who played Martin Platt in Coronation Street. I was very sad to know this fact but, having grown up being forced to watch it with my mum, it was very easy to recognise him. I had a great night out with them all and soon made my way back to Nottingham at about 22:40. I didn’t get home until 1am. I was exhausted! On the train back I realised I’d actually forgotten my iPad and quickly messaged Alex to let him know of my stupidity. Fortunately he’s taken it back to Doha but, I’m feeling the lose and it’s so harsh!

I’ve got plans to do some sim work in a Jetstream 4100 sim to help a friend out and go for a flight whilst I’m home and of course meet up with mates and have some fun. A friend has recommended a few books that I should read so I’m planning on visiting the book shop to see how much they are or just buying from the iTunes book store, see which is cheaper. I’m not sure when I’m due back to the sandpit but I’ll keep an eye out. If I do get flying it’ll be the first time I’ve flown in over a year, oh well I’ve had bigger gaps in my flying! :-).

Maybe I should learn another language? Hmm….

Sailing The Doha Coast

On my second day back in Doha, a friend and I decided the weather was good enough to go out on his boat. We’d been trying to get out on it all summer but the weather has been so hot that you’d just burn.

This single masted, triple sail, 20 foot boat was our chariot for the day. Depending on wind, the Main Sail and Jib are the sails usually the only those used however, there is a spinnaker available to if the wind drops.

My friend had promised to teach me to sail a while ago so today was my first lesson, he showed me how to set up the sails and prepare the boat to go out. It wasn’t too difficult and within about 10 minutes we were ready to push back from the mooring and get under way. There’s a small 8 horse power engine on the back of the boat that we could use to get out of the harbour however the wind was pushing us along nicely.

He taught me about Jib control and ducking under, also about optimum angle of attack of the boat and sails to the wind. There are 2 spots on the Job that allow you to gauge whether the airflow over the sail is flowing in a smooth and laminar fashion. After a little while I felt I was able to feel it without looking and 9 times out of 10 I was just about spot on. I was allowed the opportunity to change direction of the boat and pull on the Jib lines to get it to inflate on the correct side. It involved pulling on one line whilst releasing another, whilst steering the boat to the other side. I have to say, I need a bit more practise at doing the steering at the same time because whilst changing sides I allowed the rudder to deflect a little too much and ended up having a high rate of turn.

More time at required at the gym? Maybe!

Our approximate track around the Doha coast, our total time out was around 3 – 3.5 hours.

By the time we headed back in, the sun was setting and one thing that is beautiful about this place is the Arabian sunset. It’s absolutely gorgeous. We put the spinnaker up for the last bit as the wind had dropped and made our way back towards the harbour.

All in all, it was an absolutely fantastic day of sailing, I cannot wait to go out again and hopefully soon I’ll be able to sail all on my own. I’ve been told I can take the boat out on my own when I can cope with it so that’s my goal! I hope you’ve enjoyed looking at the photos as much as I enjoyed sailing the boat and taking them!

Home Again!

It’s been a very long time since I last posted anything, besides the rant about today’s media and I know what people are thinking – original dude, find a new topic.

Anyway, the main reason I haven’t posted is because I’ve not had access to my laptop and I prefer having all the functionality of the actual website, especially with adding photos. I’m writing this on the plane as I return to Doha after a really enjoyable 3 weeks at home. How time flies! But wait, didn’t I say I want to write it up on a laptop? Yes that’s correct however, I’ll get this written on my iPad, save it and then tweak it when I get back. Ah the joys of these expensive apple devices. My iPhone is currently sat on my table next to me and of course I’m typing on this so I must look like a bit of an Apple Fanboy! Anyway, here is my view currently!

So on the 6th of September I finally received my multi exit permit and my staff travel. Happy times and the beginning of a very long day. I woke up that morning at 6am, got ready and went out the door to sort out the exit permit. That took around an hour, I then went and informed them that I’d be away for a week or two, this took another hour. I then got a taxi back to my apartment for 10:00, booked my flight which was to leave at 12:30 and then got a lift with a friend to the airport to wait around for another 30mins whilst more people checked in. I was disappointed to find that I hadn’t gotten my business class seat as I was tired, having not slept much and awoken at 6am. I was pleased to find that I did mange to get on the flight, despite it being economy, because I was eager to return home. I was missing England and reasonable temperatures. You may even go as far to say that I was missing my family!

The flight was wonderful, as I expected from Qatar Airways and as I approached England I was getting ever more excited. The first glimpse of cloud was a wonderful sight for me, I hadn’t seen one cloud since arriving in Doha and then came the greenery of the various countries we over flew. Such sights I never thought I’d miss. As we approached England, from over the Channel, I felt home. My stepdad and mum were on their way to pick me up but I had an extra couple of hours wait so first things first, I walked outside terminal 4 and stood in the cool temperature of the UK. Second, I set myself up on a comfy sofa in Costa Coffee, killed some zombies on COD:Zombies and got in touch with people that I hadn’t spoken to for a while. The 2 hours flew by and soon I was sat with my mum and stepdad, having a bacon panini, which was oh so heavenly, and then I was on my way home.

I was treated to a couple of bottles of Ale, a back garden BBQ in the rare heat of the British Summer and was extremely happy to be home with my family. It’s funny how you notice the safety that being at home brings and instantly, any anxieties I had about my up coming adventures in my new home had faded. I arranged plans for the coming week, seeing old friends, seeing my nana and going to stay with my dad. I even crashed a leaving night out for one of my old bosses at Boots which turned out to be a fantastic night. I’d forgotten how much fun it was to hang out with the Boots lot, as one of the guys said on the day it was 224 days since I had left. I couldn’t believe it. 9 months had passed since I left Boots and since I’d seen my old friends. Time certainly does fly and it’s moments like these that bring about realisations just how precious time is and how you have to try your best to live in the present so that life doesn’t just pass you by. The day after arriving home we went to a local village to check out the scarecrow festival that they do every year, there were some extremely impressive creations as you can see here.

My dad lives in the countryside just outside of Grimsby, it’s full of greens, yellows and browns of the different fields and of course, many many trees and plant life. It was extremely refreshing to be back in the countryside, surrounded by these different colours and everyday we went for 6-8 mile walks around the area. We made a point of including the local pub in our trails so that we may sit outside, in the sun, with a pint of fine ale.

A good friend of mine had been working on a sculpture for a little while and on one of the days we took a road trip to Birmingham to a foundry to get the sculpture cast. Typically it was raining and miserable outside, the roads leading into Birmingham had a bit of flooding that was causing the traffic to build up but once we got there we were shown around this foundry that was basically a shed with a few tools to create moulds and carry out the casting procedure. It looks like the sculpture won’t be ready for a few months as the foundry has massive orders to fill but looking at the work the foundry has done in the past, it is set to be pretty spectacular. The sculpture is of a woman kneeling down with her arms spread out in a pose. It’s taken him around 5 weeks of work to get right and it’s certainly been worth it as she’s turned out beautiful.

It’s difficult to know what to put into posts like these; the ones you know that are going to be long essays of stuff that only I would care to read about because it’s always nice to look back and read about times that were good when you’re going through tough ones. I think that last sentence has spurred me on to include more.

I met up with a couple of really close friends that I hadn’t seen for 9 months, one of which I hadn’t heard from for a while as she had spent the year busy sorting out wedding plans and moving to London. We went into a local village and had a cup of tea and cheese cake, certainly a winning combination, and she told me all about her husband, who I haven’t met and all about the wedding and honeymoon. I’m sad I wasn’t able to attend the wedding due to being away in Doha but she seems so happy now and throughout my time knowing her, she’s worried and stressed more than I! It seems her husband keeps her grounded which is fantastic, i’m so happy she’s met someone that is deserving of her as she’s such a wonderful person. I met my other close friend for a pint and some food at a pub in Nottingham where, I was able to get Hob Goblin on draught! This made me happy beyond belief as I’m a huge fan of Hob Goblin. It was great to catch up, unfortunately 3 hours was not enough time but hopefully, when I’m back next, I’ll be able to meet up for another catch up.

My sister started university last week which was a great moment for us all, she’d been so undecided with what she wants to do with her life that I don’t think any of us ever saw her actually choosing and going for it. She seems to enjoy what she’s doing and hopefully she works hard to achieve what she is capable of achieving. She’s also moved to student halls so she can participate in the student lifestyle. Her student halls are filled with many good looking girls so I think I’m going to go to university and enjoy myself! I spent a fair bit of time getting her new laptop, printer, wifi etc all set up for her because I’m nice like that!

I went to see Paul Carrack from Mike and The Mechanics at The Glee Club in Nottingham which was a fantastic night out! I’ve long been a fan of Mike and The Mechanics and Paul Carracks voice is just spectacular, he sounds exactly the same live as he does on his records.

Before long it was time to fly back to Doha, the 3 weeks had flown by!

That’s enough rambling from me I think, until next time.

Journeym4n

Media Reporting

Since I began flying I’ve noticed that the medias interpretation of aviation related incidents as extremely flawed. The basic understanding of how a passenger aircraft is operated, amongst other things, leaves a lot to be desired or just isn’t there.

Whilst some may argue that these journalists aren’t pilots and therefore wouldn’t have a clue about the intricacies of flying or being a pilot, I would argue, how can you write an article that is supposed to be informative and factually correct if you don’t understand what you are writing about? I’m no journalist as you know from reading this post or any of my others however, I wrote a number of articles whilst doing a music journalism course alongside my Music Technology studies at college and I relied on my knowledge of the subject to help me to write my articles. To ensure my articles weren’t a load of nonsense, I also researched my subject further and gave my article to people that may have more insight than myself so that they may offer me pointers.

All too often I hear comments such as, “there are reports that the co-pilot was flying” or “the pilot only had 3500 hours on type”. First of all, co-pilot is an incorrect term, there is no co-pilot on the flight deck, there are 2 roles and a number of ranks. A flight deck environment is split into Pilot Flying and Pilot Not Flying. Sometimes items to be completed, such as signing the tech log, are labelled CM1 and CM2 but there is no co-pilot. Something that may shock a few people is that the Pilot Flying and Pilot Not Flying roles are swapped nearly every flight so the person in the right hand seat may well be taking you from A to B.

Second, if the media understood how long it took to accumulate “only 3500 hours” on type they may realise it’s no insignificant feat. A pilot is only allowed to fly a maximum number of 900 hours a year but it’s a rare thing for someone to get to 900; it really depends on the airline and type of operation. Flying a maximum of 900 hours a year a pilot would need just under 4 years experience on one particular type of aeroplane.

Knowing the degree of inaccuracies when it comes to these reports has had me thinking for a while, just how accurately do they report on everything else. Outside of my profession and the subjects I’ve studied in the past, I am general Joe Public, I don’t have much knowledge on a lot of things that get reported. Were I naive enough, I would base any conclusion I may make about a subject based on the medias interpretation without giving any thought as to whether what they were reporting was 100% accurate or even the truth. We all know the media like to shine a certain light on events to bring in viewers or readers, twisting facts to make stories sound even more shocking than they may be, for example, “there are reports that the co-pilot was flying”. To tell people that the co-pilot was flying is to say that a less able pilot was at the controls and that it’s such a shocking thing that someone other than the captain (or “pilot” as the media like to say) was at the controls. Both pilots undergo 6 monthly testing and are both as capable of flying the aircraft as the other, the difference is that the captain is generally more experienced and the aircraft is technically his or hers as they have signed the documentation saying they are happy enough to accept it to fly. It’s all about ratings and they know that making a mountain out of a molehill will draw people in. This is not to say that they do this with everything, there are certainly events in the world that are absolutely shocking and terrible but to reiterate, how much of these events is told accurately or by someone who actually specialises on the topic.

There will be people out there that buy into every word that is said by the media and if they feel strongly, a negative reaction may follow based on what could possibly be over hyped and inaccurate information. I am aware that journalism is checked for factual errors however, do the people who are checking for errors even have a clue on the subject themselves? Perhaps more rules need to come into force to better regulate the news to ensure it is factual and therefore provide Joe Public, such as myself, with an educated and professional take on the days events.

To Dubai!

So what is a pilot to do when a friend asks him “Hey, do you want to come to Dubai with me for a few days?”

The hotel was cheap, the flights weren’t too bad and the activities that we planned to do didn’t amount to much of a cost so, to my surprise, I found Dubai to be quite a cheap trip compared to what I thought it may be.

We travelled on a United Airlines 777 out of Doha and touched down in Dubai 45 minutes later to weather a little more humid than our point of departure. Getting through the airport security was surprisingly painless, compared with previous transits through Dubai, and making our way to our budget hotel was just a short taxi ride away.

The Royal Falcon Hotel, the name sounds rather grand and you might expect high quality rooms; or at least you would if you hadn’t just paid £60 for 3 nights! There was mould in the corners of the walls, the shower was an absolute state and the bed was as hard as a rock. It was all expected and we shrugged our shoulders, dumped our stuff and went out to find food. With it being Ramadan at the moment the only time you are able to find any food shops that are open is after sunset and we found a lot! There was plenty to choose from with many different shops serving many different types of cuisine…. We settled for KFC in the end which is quite an awful choice but we made up for it over the next few days with our willingness to explore strange new foods.

The first day in Dubai we booked a Desert Safari and City Tour and decided to go for a walk around the large Souq that was just a metro ride away. The metro is really nice, you can tell a lot of money has been spent in its construction and in its upkeep; the cost of a day rider wasn’t too bad either. Having only ever visited London once, I had very little experience on underground trains so I left the navigating to my travel companion and we were able to arrive at our destination in no problems. The Souq was extremely large and we quickly found we had no idea where we were. There were many various shops around the place selling all sorts of things from all sorts of different cultures, and every 5-10 steps some random person asked if I wanted to buy a watch. One of my favourite shop filled alley ways in the Souq was filled with various spices, I had no idea what most were but if I could have bought some and taken them home I would have done. Upon walking down the alley I was overcome with the overwhelming influx of smells, many I had never encountered before and I spent a long time leaning in to get a better smell of single spices that took my fancy. The shop keepers were very keen to sell to me however, as fun as it would be to try and get them back to Doha I decided against it.

After walking around the Souq for many hours in the heat of the day, maybe 50 degrees or more – with no water as it was ramadan, we headed back to the metro to make it back to the hotel in time for our safari pick up. Of course, we were lost but, with the help of a few friendly locals we were able to get back to the station in time.

 

 

 

 

If I can recommend anything whilst in Dubai it is to get yourself on a desert safari, I enjoyed myself thoroughly and so did the rest of the people it seemed. One thing, it’s not for a weak stomach because you are thrown around so much. The contrast of the desert against the sky was beautiful, it looked like something from a windows default desktop background and the various dunes made for some unusual attitudes which, I had previously only experienced in an aeroplane. After a while the car came to a camp set up out in the middle of the desert where various wooden huts had been constructed for eating, cooking and entertainment. It was a really lovely location and myself and my travel companion made our way into the camp. I had been talking to a girl from Ireland for a long time and she came to join us as we went up stairs in one of the open huts to find a place to sit down. We were sat on cushions on the floor talking for a very long time whilst my friend broke the fast and generally enjoying the moment. The desert is such a quiet, peaceful place and all that could be heard was the wind as it passed through the hut and the laughter of nearby people. It was incredibly soothing, in the absolute dead of night, being able to gaze up at the stars, more visible than I had ever seen them due to the lack light pollution and feeling a warm light breeze blowing over me. We forgot that food was available downstairs and almost missed it, the food was various different things that I had never tried before, one looked like it might be a tongue from something but after daring to try it I realised it was most likely fish. We were later called upon to go back to the hotel by the driver, I waved goodbye to tranquility as I had never known it and vowed to return soon. Upon returning we retired to bed as we had an early start for the city tour the next day.

As with any city tour we were taken around many of the landmarks that made up Dubai, it was pretty much a drive by photo taking opportunity, I’ll just post the photos here as I had no clue what the guide was saying about the buildings!

That night we went to the Burj Khalifa, the worlds tallest building! This was one of the things I most wanted to do when I was asked to go to Dubai as it’s such an amazing feat of engineering. We went down stairs to the entrance and bought tickets to go up. My friend wanted to walk up the stairs however the staff said no, we had to go up the lift. Phew! I’m not a lazy person, I don’t think, but 220 od floors… I’ll give that a pass. The downstairs section was minimalistic however gave a lot of information on the construction of the building and had some memorabilia from the Mission Impossible film that had the Burj Khalifa in it.

When we got to the top, I was pleasantly surprised to find the observation deck as being an open deck. The feel of the wind coming up through the decking and through the gaps in the windows was really great and of course the view was spectacular. We sat down next to one of the windows for a very long time, just taking in the breath taking view, I felt so at peace. We spent around 3 hours up on the observation deck, only leaving when it closed and then we spent some time looking at more information on the construction of the tower on our way out.

After the Burj Khalifa we decided to take a walk around the gigantic mall and have a look around. We looked at going to the aquarium there however by the time we had come down from the Burja Khalifa we were too late. We did get to view some of it from the mall, apparently through the worlds largest single glass pane on an aquarium. I’m not sure of the truth on this but it was rather large.

After this my friend had the idea of walking to the beach, looking at the map it didn’t seem far so we decided to get our walking shoes on and go. It looked like it might possibly take around 30minutes to get there, which wasn’t too bad.

1 and a half hours later, my feet killing and my back aching; we gave up. We got a passing taxi and he asked us, in conversation, what the hell we were doing out so late (it was around 3:30am), we explained and he laughed his head off whilst informing us that if we’d have carried on it would have been another hour. Oh dear. It’s a good job we gave up!

Our last day in Dubai we made our way to another mall, this one with the indoor ski slope, unfortunately we didn’t have time to use it but we wanted to have a look and see what it was about. Next time! It was soon time for us to catch our flight back, we were given Qatar Airways on the way back, which was a nice surprise, as the United flight was a couple of hours late. I got home and went straight to bed. All in all, a great trip! It’s taken a while to write about it as there was so much to write, I’ve actually condensed this down a fair bit just because of the word count. I certainly recommend Dubai and apart from the flights you can certainly stay there and have a good time without spending a fortune. In total I think I spent around £250-£300 with hotel, food and activities included.

I’m looking forward to my next trip but I’ve got a lot of work to do before that happens. Roll on flying!

Observation Flights

Things have been rather stagnant for a month or so here, it’s meant a fair bit of money spending to keep occupied as there isn’t much else you can do. I’ve met many nice people and had a really good time whilst spending said money.

I recently asked for some observation flights so that I could focus my studies better and get to know the way the aircraft is operated so that when I finally get flying, I’ll be in a better position and hopefully with have learnt exactly what I need to learn.

My first flight was Doha – Dubai and back, this is a relatively short flight and there isn’t much time in the cruise before you are descending to land. It was good to see how the pilots operated in such a short space of time and I learnt a great deal about how they manage their time. This flight was scheduled to depart at 11:45 so I arrived around 2 hours before hand so that I was able to get involved in the preflight planning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was shown which documents needed to be collected and what needed to be checked. We looked at the weather and NOTAMs (notices to airmen) and decided on fuel requirements for the flight. After the paper work was signed and everyone was briefed we made our way to the aircraft.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got on board the aircraft, got ourselves settled in and met with the cabin crew to have a briefing with them before the Captain and I stepped outside to do the walk around whilst the First Officer set the flight management system up for the flight to Dubai.

After take off we climbed to FL250 and before we knew it, it was time to come back down. The departure and majority of the flight was over the water although you wouldn’t know it as there was a thick layer of haze in the air blocking the view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The approach into Dubai was a little bumpy but the F/O, who was pilot flying, handled the aircraft nicely and the touch down was very smooth.

On the turn around we had something to eat, had a nice chat with the cabin crew and an hour later were taxing out for take off to return to Doha. In all it was a great day, my first time ever on a flight deck whilst flying, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The next flight was to Kuwait and back, this was a night flight, departing at around 2030 and arriving back in Doha around 0100. The captain and first officer were very helpful, again taking me through everything on the preflight and also asking me questions on the various manuals that I have been reading through. To my surprise there were only a few questions I didn’t know the answers to, which means that somehow, the stuff I’ve been reading has actually been making it into my long term memory.

Personally I really enjoy flying at night, there is something so peaceful about it and of course there is the beauty of the lights all around. The approach into Kuwait was very beautiful, we were brought in over the sea and over the sky scrapers along the coast. I tried to take a good photo of them however the photos were blurry. I was only really able to grab one photo which looks half decent.

And another not so great one on the approach.

As with Dubai, we landed, ate between the turn around and then departed again to come back to Doha. Another great flight and a lot of good information gathered for me to come back home and revise in preparation for when I start flying.

The next event should be me doing my base training, I’m not sure when that is but I got a phone call from the UK CAA saying that my licence verification had gone through so it shouldn’t be too long now. If it isn’t base training then I’ll be doing more observation flights through August. I might even go to Dubai for a few days whilst I’ve got the chance.

Remember to keep those seat belts fastened until the aircraft has come to a complete stop and the seat belt light has been turned off!

Journeym4n

Sleepless in Doha

Tonight has been one of those nights where, no matter what you try, you just cannot get to sleep. Anxiety, thinking, poor sleeping patterns etc all contribute to not being able to get to sleep and this evening I am affected by all of these.

I’ve almost completed 2 weeks worth of leave that I was given due to operational reasons. Whilst I’ve been moderately busy, splitting my time between trying to learn the ops manuals and going out with people, I’ve found myself with a fair bit of free time to think about things. Especially whilst trying to go to sleep at night.

A couple of days ago I was filling in a form and under “age” I put down 21; it was only after I handed the form in that I realised, actually I’m 23 and I’m only 2 months away from turning 24. Later on I started thinking, where has the time gone? How has two years past so quickly? Then I started thinking about when I started at my flight training school and I was overcome with a strange feeling in my stomach, I just couldn’t believe that it had all come and gone. I’d been to New Zealand, I’d learnt to fly, had some incredible experiences, come back to the UK, completed the end of my training, gained all of my flying licences and then it was finished. The effect of this sudden realisation was like being dragged violently through time to present day.

The two years following the completion of my flight training I spent a lot of time in Sheffield, living a semi student life whilst my girlfriend of those two years attended university. At this point I was certain that no job offers for flying would appear for at least a year or so and thus felt determined to relieve the stress I’d felt throughout my training by living this student life. Having never been to university myself, I was so glad I got to experience the social side of it for that period of time. I fell in love with Sheffield and with the lifestyle of a student. I enjoyed partaking in the intellectual conversations of minds that were growing through education, going to student events, having long nights out without worrying about flying exams and many other things. Also, I’d never been anywhere, where you step off the train and the place somehow feels friendly.

When I finally got a job in Nottingham, 5 months later, I was very sad that this little break had to come to an end. Fortunately I was able to get back up to Sheffield at the weekends and I used my holidays to spend time there with my girlfriend. Over that two year period I got to know the place very well, I got to experience what it was like to be part of the university social experience, I got to experience a deep love for someone and sadly have it fall a part towards the end and I was able to completely get out of my own head, where I so often find myself.

Flash forward four years from the beginning of my training to now and I’m looking at the past with a great sense of longing and I find myself holding it on a pedestal. It wasn’t that those years were amazing, there were amazing parts and there were awful parts – it’s that I became so secure in those years, with my surroundings and with my life, that this huge change has left me reaching out for that familiarity. It has left me craving the old times.

Right now I’m still on the cusp of the unknown. I’ve just moved to a new place, to start a new career, with many new people and it’s miles away from home. It’s a massive shake up and that’s why I’m feeling like this. I’m extremely lucky to be here, I would not be anywhere else and I’m looking forward to the adventures and experiences that await me with my new life. At this point I’m still going through the grieving process because as humans we aren’t always as instantaneously adaptable as we would like to be and we need time to adjust. You feel a loss because you’ve lost that security, that stability, those familiar things and you need to allow yourself the time to let go and embrace the new. I guess this is where the need to long for the old comes into things and eventually that will pass as I get settled in here.

The realisation of just how quickly time can go by has me thinking of ways I can try and hold onto the moments that matter. I know one thing, that the value I place on these moments will increase substantially because of this.

To anyone older than me thinking, this guy is only 23/24 and he’s talking about how quickly time flies, he has absolutely no idea. You’re right I don’t and I’m sure in years to come I’ll look back on this and think wow I really had no clue.