In September 2020 after 20 years on the Boeing 777 – I commenced a Type Rating training course on a new aircraft type. This series of blog posts (Ha!) tracks my progress (or lack of) through that tumultuous exercise. Having trained (helped) many others through this exercise over the last 20 years – it was […]
So having completed my type rating on the BAe 146, the next step was 5 days of Safety and Emergency Procedures training at the head office in Bankstown. All pilots are initimately familiar with the yearly requirement to complete SEP. Typically it’s a day of briefings and presentation, a re-familiarisation with the cabin emergency equipment […]
With my BAE146 Type Rating and Induction SEP (Safety and Emergency Procedures) and NTS (Non Technical Skills, or Crew Resource Management) training complete – it was time to fly the actual aircraft. Somewhat unusually in this case it requires heading across to Cologne, Germany to ferry back a newly purchase and refurbished aircraft to Australia. […]
It would seem that Graf Helmuth von Moltke was correct … “No plan of operations reaches with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main force.“ In this case, our main enemy is of course … COVID. Our flight to Germany was uneventful in the main, with Victor Pody capturing some magnificent images of our […]
Depending on your version of the plan, we are now anywhere from 2 to 5 days late. But hey – that’s what plans are for – to let you know what you’ve deviated from when things actually happen. Otherwise we’re in a world without reference and that’s just insanity. Rumour has it the last crew […]
After a week of our small but dedicated group working towards the common goal – yesterday we flew our BAe146 for the first time in approximately 3 years. This is the last BAe146 to be delivered by WDL Cologne having operated a fleet of them over years. This was a flight of firsts (my first […]
So after two+ weeks in Cologne, we finally set off today to our first overnight, which ended up being Belgrade, Serbia. The choice of our first stop came down to stopping somewhere just outside Europe (rather than pushing all the way to the Middle East on our first day) and avoiding the Earthquake region in […]
Another long day. Three sectors, 8+ hours flight time, 12 hours duty – or so. While the days are long with moment of frustration and stress – in the back of my mind I know this is (yet another) once in a lifetime experience. Hence … these posts. We now need a moment of Ronnie […]
Once again we foray forth into the wild blue yonder on our sojourn to place our beast of burden in it’s new home in Australia. Yes, I’ve been reading Fate is the Hunter again. I can’t imagine a time where I won’t return to that book and enjoy re-re-reading it. Our departure from Muscat, delayed […]
So finally at 17:37 Local, we touched down in Darwin on the latest, and hopefully second last day of our journey. Still to achieve is the last segment down through Alice (for fuel) and onto Bankstown, where the aircraft will enter the Hanger for some radio upgrades as well as to address the snags we’ve […]
Tonight brings about a parting of the ways and the conclusion of our little Ferry Adventure. VH-SQR is safely in Bankstown even as Jacques, Ronnie and I check into our hotel near Sydney’s Kingsford Smith. The aircraft which has carried us (mostly) uncomplainingly and safely across half the world will now go into the Hanger […]
