FINAL eXAms - British Airways Virtual

Airways magazinefeaturefailure, as the pressure pumps also supplyair to the wing de-icing boots.Entry back into Goodyear was smooth,probably kept the power on a little too longon the landing as we floated slightly. Butcoming off the runway and doing the afterlanding checks, your mind starts to wander.The other examiner Tom tells you if you’vepassed or failed as soon as you exit the“Paul debriefed mefor about half an hourbefore he told me theresult.”runway, but Paul doesn’t. This plays havocon your mind. Taxiing back listening tothose beautiful six-cylinder turbos putteringalong I started to wonder whether anythingI did below average would cost me a fail ora partial pass. I think that’s strangely when Iwas most nervous – the taxi back. I parkedthe plane up, shut her down and breathedout. Paul said he would see me upstairsand that he would finish filling out the fuel/oil and Hobbs time numbers in the aircrafttechnical logbook. As I chained the planeup and put the chocks back in, I got the hotflushes and butterflies again. Nothing youcan do now matey, I thought.Got back upstairs and Paul debriefed mefor about half an hour before he told me theresult. Excruciating. As he describes thethings that could have been a bit better ordifferent techniques, you’re wondering howserious those could be to the result. Healso finds it a bit hard to compliment anything,so if I did something well, for example,my navigation and diversion, he won’tsay so, he’ll only say, “Not too much of aproblem with that”. Anyway, after thirtyminutes of this agony he said that it was agood flight and that it’s a pass. I filled in mylogbook; he stamped it, thanked him for histime and walked out. Obviously I left mybag in his office because I was elated andwanted to go and bounce off some walls.Embarrassing. After collecting it I walkedoutside to meet my mates who high-fivedme and gave me some pats on the back.And now I’m back in the UK, with a CPLin hand. Next up comes the instrumentrating done back at Oxford airport in Kidlington.That’s about 20 hours in the Senecaand 30 hours in the simulator. Followingthat I start the multi-crew cooperation andjet orientation course which can be completedin either the full motion 737-400 simulatoror the fixed base CRJ-200 simulator.There comes the award of the frozen ATPL.There is light at the end of the tunnel!I hope that this has been an interesting,if slightly long winded read, for those whoare after a CPL or ATPL, or for those whoare interested in the process. I would like totake this opportunity to thank the managementfor protecting my account while I wasin Arizona, and hope that the photos of mytime there in the forum and this summaryof the CPL flight test show my appreciationof being a part of the team here at BAVirtual.