The last few days have been incredibly busy for all of us. We’ve got the mammoth task of studying the technical manual for the 737-800.
We all enthusiastically got up early for breakfast on the first day, which was on Monday this week. Luckily, there are 3 people with cars on my course, so transport to the Oxford Aviation Academy (OAA) is not a problem. It took around 5 – 10 minutes to get there, and we gathered in the reception, where we would meet our groundschool instructor and be issued security passes.
Soon we found ourselves sitting in the classroom with a pile of books and manuals (on top of what we were already issued) sitting on our desk! Once we were introduced to these books and manuals, which would be our closest companions for the next few weeks, we were given a tour of the facility!
We were shown simulators – Boeing, Airbus and Bombardier! I even got the chance to sit inside an A320 simulator, which I’ve never had the chance to do before. Suffice it to say that I felt like a kid in a fairground – pilot-fairground! After the tour we were snatched back down to Earth and shown our CBT rooms, where we will be spending 2 weeks studying the aircraft technical manuals. We each have our own computer stations with a very comfortable chair and good lighting, which is important since a lot of time is spent there.
Each day we are expected to complete certain sections of the computer based training and do the necessary reading. In addition to that, we have videos to watch and some which we are assessed on. At the end of these 2 weeks of study, we will have a test on the technical side of things, aircraft performance and on the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of Ryanair. I’ve been studying the SOPs in parallel to the technical manuals so that by the time I start with the simulators the SOPs would have sunk in.
I almost feel like I’m in the last year of University again. The day is incredibly busy and hectic. We’re setting off at 7.50am and then we return home by around 6pm. However, today was a very long day, and we only just came back at 9pm!