16 Jan My Flight Training up to Commercial Pilot Licence
Many of you asked me whether I could talk about about my flight training. That’s why I’m finally going to do that today 🙂 If you wanna find out about my current Aviation situation read this blogpost.
I always receive many questions regarding the pilot test or how you can become a commercial pilot. But I will talk about that in another blog post because there are many thinks to tell you guys and I also wanna give you a few tips 🙂
Today let’s talk about my flight training: Depending on the flight school it normally “only” takes around two years. But the time is super intensive. Hence, those two years are very exhausting and extreme.
After passing the pilot tests at Lufthansa I had to wait a bit until I could start with flight trainnig. Read about how I spent my time here. Afterwards I moved to Bremen (northern part of Germany) because the theory at Lufthansa is in Bremen. Here you can see pictures of my apartment in Bremen 🙂
In our case we had the whole theory within one year. I first had to get used to it because I for instance hadn’t had physics for a few years. Besides that I went to university for three years after high school so my school knowledge wasn’t very fresh anymore 😛 But that was ok and I was quickly able to refresh my technical knowledge.
After a full year of theory all student pilots in Germany have a test at the LBA (similar to the FAA in the US) where you have a three day test covering all of your aviation knowledge. And that was a lot!! I was lucky that I passed all tests without any retests. Hence, quickly ater the final test at LBA I started my practical phase in Phoenix, Arizona.
Before starting with flight training I had zero flying experience. This is something I’ve regretted because those that had already flown before had a huge advantage in the practical phase.
We stayed at Goodyear, Phoenix at Airline Training Center Arizona where we did our practical phase. We lived together will all other pilot students on campus. Hence, we also shared a car together, did road trips together etc.
I was in Phoenix in summer. Hence, I had to fly sometimes at 40°C and above, of course without an a/c 😛 Nevertheless, I really loved my first airplane the Bonzanza 🙂 Some of us had the problem in Phoenix that they had to throw up at their first missions 🙁 Such small airplanes are not very stable. That together with the heat was too much for some people. I’m glad I had no problems with air sickness but the heat was still crazy 😛
I was always happy when I had the morning shift. I’m not a morning person but in the morning it was much cooler and the air wasn’t as bumpy 😛
Nevertheless, it was an incredible feeling flying for the first time by myself! We’ve worked for that a full year and finally it was about time 🙂 I still remember that I was even allowed to land by myself 😀 I didn’t expect that… and there was lots of adrenaline flowing through my body 😀
After approx. one month it was time for my first solo flight (hence, the first flight without my flight instructor sitting next to me) 🙂 I will never forget this feeling! The evening before it I wasn’t able to sleep very much and 1000 thoughts crossed my mind such as “Am I able to manage the radios by myself?”, “What if I forget items?” or even “What is when something happens in flight and I’m all by myself?” But when you are really alone in the airplane it is the most incredible feeling ever! Us pilots live for such moments… and that is also the reason why I’ve always wanted to become a pilot 🙂
After your first solo flight it’s a tradition to jump in the pool with your uniform 😛
I had a similar feeling after my first night flight flying over the desert of Arizona. In the evening it was more or less black. But then we flew over an airport called “Mobile”, pressed the radio button for a few times and finally the lights went up and everything was light. You get nothing but goose bumps in such moments 😀
A third very memorable experience was my first cross country solo. Also there many thoughts crossed my mind the night before and then the flight was nothing but…
AMAZING 😀
After passing the final checkride in Phoenix it was a tradition to throw all papers of your operation manual in the air. All those were incredible moments that I will never ever forget in my life 🙂
After Phoenix we had to wait a full year until we were able to fly the citation which was first in the simulator. After Lufthansa I decided to do obtain my CPL (Commerical Pilot Licence). Lufthansa trains up to the MPL which makes you bound to one airline more or less.
I’ve decided to do it at Pilot Training Network (a daughter of Lufthansa Flight Training) where I only had to train two more months until I’ve received my CPL. Also there flying was incredible! My training at PTN was in winter. But since we flew with instruments that was really cool!
My most memorable moment was always starting in Rostock in really bad weather, breaking through the clouds and above there was sunshine 🙂 This was simply a dream! Sometimes we even saw the windmills standing out of the clouds 😀
Other beautiful moments were flying to Ruegen during sunset or approaching Sylt with a stopover on the island. Northern Germany was a nice constrast to the landscape in Phoenix 🙂 In the last phase of my flight training I had such an amazing flight instructor who taught me so many skills that in the end I finished flight training with an A-average 🙂
The end of my flight training was a 10 hour multi crew training on the Boeing 736 simulator at Frankfurt Airport. That’s also where I met my boyfriend 🙂 We were flying together back then and we didn’t have much time to prepare because our final checkrides were only one or two days before it. In the end our flight instructor said: “Your preparation was horrible but you guys are good in one thing: Flying!” 😀 Hahaha
A few weeks later we finally got sent the commercial pilot licence. That was another amazing feeling because it consists of much sweat, hard work but also lots of love 🙂
Even though my flight training was really intense and sometimes also nerve-rackening, there were many beautiful moments that make me never wanna miss and never ever forget it 🙂
Do you have any other aviation related questions? Like mentioned before I will do an entire blog post about the pilot tests. I believe I’ve already talked enough today 😛
To conclude I wanna mention one quote that perfectly describes my flight training: Don’t measure life by the amount of breathless moments but by the moments that take your breath away…
Xoxo
Maddi
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