Very busy in graduation and Christmas times

Hi!

Winter came, I guess, but we haven't felt it much here in Ljungbyhed. We had a fair amount of snowfall one day a few weeks ago, the next day it all rained away and since that the weather has been way too warm for a proper December.

Anyway, the MCC, multi crew cooperation course, has progressed smoothly for everybody, as far as I know. I had my 9th lesson in the simulator the 16th and these last days before the Christmas break we audit the senior grade students' graduation thesis presentations. They are obviously all linked to the aviation industry, and several of them concern human factors, such as cooperation and fatigue. It has been interesting to listen to them!

So the senior grade, TFHS11, are graduating now after 2½ years of completed training. 11 students completed all basic flight training, all simulator training and theory courses, however 2 of them unfortunately weren't able to complete the final practical stage of line training at the airline. All 9 who have now successfully graduated were also hired by Norwegian, like all students who graduated one year ago. They will work full-time as first officer on the Boeing 737-800 being based separately at Helsinki, London and Malaga.

Each simulator lesson is 4 hours long plus up to one hour each of briefing and debriefing before and afterwards. We've experienced a lot during the first 36 hours in the simulator, mainly regarding the cooperation between two pilots, since this is the first occasion for us to practice that. We simulate engine failure, fire, failure of many kind of onboard systems at any time of the flight, again and again. Of course also different kinds of normal approaches and simply complete uneventful flights from point A to point B. It has been highly interesting but also a little frustrating to meet a new fellow student and a new instructor on each lesson, because instructors have different views on some of the procedures, and as students we all have different preferences on parts of the way of cooperation. Unfortunately the instructors have apparently not been given enough information about the current procedures at Norwegian, which we are supposed to exercise. Since they all have quite different backgrounds that leads us to frequently get conflicting instructions.

On the last day of the semester, on the 20th, there will be a graduation ceremony for the senior grade TFHS11 students. It will be followed by a party in the evening which is arranged by our grade, why we're quite busy with the preparations. Three friends rented a car and went to Germany the other day to buy large amounts of cheap alcohol and some other friends have been busy renovating the legendary Iso-bar, our very own bar in the basement of the dormitory, which will be open throughout the night after the party. I'm responsible together with a friend for the rental of plates and cutlery, and for the laying of the table etc. including the seat arrangement.

There is a website called LiveATC.net where it's possible to listen to aviation communication at many major airports around the world. In Sweden it means Malmö and Arlanda airports among others. My communication as callsign University 415, during a night VFR flight a number of weeks ago, can be listened to via this Youtube video that someone probably copied from there and uploaded. Communication from other aircraft of SAS, Malmö Aviation and more can also be heard:

From Saturday we have Christmas break for three weeks. I'll go home and visit my family for Christmas and then soon go to Japan for a two weeks of travel - hopefully my last trip abroad as a student without money. From the middle of January we return to Ljungbyhed for a three week course in Human Factors. I don't know exactly what we'll do, but I assume it's a sequel to the Human performance and limitations course we had as a ATPL theory subject recently. We will make and present a project in the subject, and much of the time is self-study.

After that we'll fly the twin engine propeller airplane PA-31 that the school also possesses. It's a small plane for a maximum of 8 people, and we'll fly in for a total of just 8 hours. Then we'll finish our MCC simulator training with another 4 lessons. Finally we have a two weeks course about the Boeing 737's features and systems before we, scheduled in the last week of March, move away from Ljungbyhed initially going to Oslo for a two week company course learning what we need to know to specifically work for Norwegian. After that, we'll fly the full motion Boeing 737 simulator. In other words, a lot to look forward to!

Merry Christmas and a happy new year!
PS. Please comment, and ask me anything or nothing at all! I know there are a few people reading this...