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Published: November 13th 2006
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For all of you who were hoping, begging and preying that I will never make into the cockpit of a real life aircraft... you should have tried harder!!!
About a week ago I past my final check in the simulator- which means I will soon be flying real life people in real life aircrafts all around europe.
Its a scary thought- I know.
Now, the highlight I want to write about this time is our landing training. For one weekend they gave us one Airbus 320 to try and land it a couple of times. Preferably using the main landing gear...
If you now think „What? They gave you an aircraft and let you fly it for fun?“ Yep you are right.
Of course we had some training captains sitting next to us giving us some helpful advise from time to time.
A conversation would sound something like that:
Cpt: Do you see the runway?
Alx: No- what runway?
Cpt: Well that huge piece of tarmac right in front of you!!!
Alx: Uhmm- I think I do- I guess...
And personally speaking- I really welcomed those comments! 😉
But not to get to far of the
track I will start at the beginning of our weekend.
We, that is Florian, Marc and guess who else, met early saturday morning (4.11.) at around seven at the airport in Frankfurt. Checked in for our flight to munich and got on board. Sounds pretty unspectacular so far, right? Well for us it was THE thing to do and we were totally hyped about it.
What we weren't hyped about in the beginning was the place we were supposed to spend our landing session.
Not Munich! But the almighty and worldfamous Rostock/ Laage!
Now where exactly is that?- some or possibly all of you are asking yourself now.
Its up north in germany, pretty close to the shores of the baltic sea. It has once been a military airfield in the GDR and is now being used by military and commercial jets alike.
We arrived in munich only to be embraced by a cool sunny morning and the A320 was waiting for us.
Ready to be challenged by some pilot wannabe's.
And it really tried hard to get rid of the job- a mechanic found an hydraulic leak.
But it was fixed after about an hour.
Then we got
some 19000 liters of fuel into the tanks and off we went!
Arriving in Rostock (RLG) the weather was fairly good. The wind was about 20 knots on the nose and the clouds and visibility proofed to be no problem at all. At least for today...
One of us had to go first and we decided Marc would be the first to take the plane for a round. Flo and me got up into the tower and got the chance to get a good look at all the moves Marc would make. It was orsm to see and especially hear the sounds of the roaring engines speeding up to full take off power and accelerating the light aircraft quickly along the wet runway.
Some 3 minutes later they were established on final, which means the nose is pointing towards the runway again and the aircraft was descending. We prepared to see a hard touchdown- but Marc managed to make it a smooth and gentle one!
And so the aim was set pretty high for us (or so we thought). He did 7 more landings and returned to the parking position.
Now it was our turn.
Nervous? Not at all!!!
- Yeah right...
I made Flo fly first so I could watch and enjoy that part of the training. All went very quick- we stood on the runway and the next thing I remember - we are flying at 1700 feet above ground and are working according our procedures. Then we turned onto final and I was eager to experience how Florian would land the machine. And he as well did a very good job.
Shit! That means I have to try hard as well!
Again- some 7 take off's and landings later we stopped the aircraft and now it was time for me to change seats and sit on the righthand side of the aircraft. In the very, very, very front.
On the runway the captain asked if I was ready- and I said „ well I guess I dont have many options right now, right?“
He just smiled and pushed the thrust lever into take off position. Screaming along the field he said rotate at some point- so I did and ...surprise- lift off. Fuck me I am flying a jet- a bloody fast jet!!!
What to do now???
But the training seemed to have worked
and I managed to handle the situation- sort of. And not before long I see that earlier mentioned huge piece of tarmac. Yep, right in front of me. And it was coming closer -fast- getting bigger and closer and... adding a bit more thrust- the nose a bit higher and ... smooth touchdown! Yes I did it! I just landed that bloody fast jet!
Wait a minute- what are we doing now? Thrustlevers forward again and lift off. Thats how we did it for the next 45 minutes. And it felt really good, awesome, unbelievable, sureal, fast, exhilarating, breathtaking and sexy!
In the evening we had a great diner and got a chance to chat with the senior training captains. Who welcomed us to the A320 fleet of Lufthansa.
After a pretty good nights sleep we had a decent breakfast.
Looking out of the window our spirits weren't high. The clouds where hanging really low and a nice steady tornado-like breeze was bending the trees towards the ground. To round thinks up it rained a little. But no complains- not yet.
Not before long we were standing infront of our a/c and since I flew last yesterday
it was my turn to fly first this day. A couple of dirty swear words were crossing my mind but in the end- there is absolutely nothing a german officer cannot do!!!
I just sat there awaiting the thinks to come. But to be honest- I couldn't wait to get up in the air and see/ feel what its like. Preparing everything for take off was quickly done and before I could waste another thought about anything else we started the engines and were ready for take off.
It was pretty rough and we flew thru clouds almost all the time. We got radar vectors from the air traffic controller since we couldn't see anything. And at some point we followed the ILS (Instrument Landing System) down towards the ground until we could see mother earth again.
The wind was playing with the a/c and it was a bit of a challenge to keep all the parameters (like speed, attitude etc.) within limits.
Anyway- making a long story short- it was a hell lot of fun and I really enjoyed it! Landings did work out as well and that meant they had to sign me off for duty.
First thing Flo and me did afterwards was downing a beer! What did it taste like? Victory! 😉
Well I guess thats it for now.
Its time to move on have a good one!
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Hansi
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Coole Sache Alter
Es macht echt viel Spaß das zu lesen.... Echt geil! Übrigens hab ich in Laage auch mene Platzrunden gemacht! Happy Landings