ATPL(A) Training (Part 1)

Hello there,

I want to share my story about my ATPL training of these last 8 months.

All began on the 23rd of November when I started my theoretical training. We were welcomed the friday before by a briefing where all the training was explained, and we were told it was going to be hard, and indeed, it wasn’t easy everyday !

I started the “Phase 1” with : Instrumentation, Electricity, Airframes&Systems, Principles of Flight, Meteorology, Powerplant, Human Performance and Communication. These are very theoretical if you compare with “Phase 2”. There are a lot of things to know, a lot of new concepts to learn about, I’m thinking about the PoF and Meteo course. But these courses are nice as a whole, because, it touched my dream and I felt closer and closer to my dream job. So I did study a lot in the week trying to keep my weekends to empty my mind but it was tough. In march, I took the EASA exams and I passed everything, I was so proud at that moment, but then, you have to come back to reality and think about the seven other courses !

I started “Phase 2” in April with : Mass&Balance, Performance, General Navigation, Radionavigation, Air Law and Operational Procedures. Apart from Air Law and OPs where you have to know basically everything by heart, all the other courses are very practical courses. These are very nice to follow because you really do what real pilot are doing before each flight. I had the exams in June and I also passed everything, so, now, I can really say that I’m proud of myself for surviving all those hours spend studying.

Now that next challenge is fastly arriving as next week on the 14th I’ll be on a plane heading to Phoenix to do the practical part of my training !

To be continued…

Julien W.