Stephen

3 months, endless CBTs, 12 procedures trainers, 14 full flight sims, 52 hours and 6 sectors of line indoc, one line check and I’m officially, and finally, a line qualified Airbus A330 Captain.

DONE

That’s the plan!

Off the boat and onto the jet for line indoc trip 2.

30 minutes under sked on NAT U makes for a quick flight to MAN/EGCC: 6:01 air time, 6:33 gate to gate.

48 hour layover gives me lots of time to explore and even have a couple pints!

Nice to be excited about work again!

We decided to move to the boat for the summer. Miranda’s first week commuting from the marina (45 mins) has been good so far and my commute only happens once per week. So far it’s a resounding success! Kids are floating between the boat and the house with Jeremy. Best decision ever!

My plan was to go but we were 3 hours delayed and didn’t get to the hotel until 16:00

Got 12,000 steps in roaming Old Town Stockholm, and had an amazing meal and a couple beverages. Let’s see if I can sleep right through the night 😂!

13:15 TOBT for home tomorrow.

First A330 line indoc pairing tonight, and my first flight since April 6! Off to ESSA/ARN for a 24 hour layover! Very excited for my first Atlantic crossing as an operating crew member, and calling myself “heavy” without it being a reference to my weight 🤣. Hoping I don’t say “rouge” on the radio 😅

‪Indian Harbour was empty but pretty exposed to the wind today and the water temp a chilly 61F. So we are pushing another 90 minutes north into the Massasauga hoping our “secret” anchorage known to us as “Kid Island” is free. It’s got great shelter and hopefully warm water.‬

And we’re off. Supposed to be a 2 ship but the wingman is having engine issues so they’ll form up later hopefully.

15nm to Indian Harbour. Wind is SE at 15G20KT which will give us a push and 2-3’ following sea. They shift to W 15G20 overnight so gotta find a tight anchorage.

Espresso martini to kick off boating season 2025. A late start and shitty weather today but it’s better than the couch at home. 🛥️⚓️🍸

Officially A330 type rated!

So glad to be done sim. Long course. My sim partner was great, smart kid, worked his ass off and it showed.

8 days off to finally enjoy some time on the boat.

Line indoc starts July 2 with a trip to Stockholm! Very excited to get in the airplane.

Toda!

LOFT 3 complete. First leg GVA-LHR diverted to ZRH after our flaps locked during retraction. Second leg DUB-YYZ, diverted to BFS and landed overweight after we discovered ENG1 was leaking fuel and needed to be shut down to stop it.

Last sim tomorrow. Our final check ride (LOE)!

LOFT 2 done. LHR-YUL, got just shy of our ETOPS entry point when we had high N3 vibes on ENG1 and diverted to SNN.

Leg 2 was DUB-SNN with the L/G unable to retract plus a dual FM fault resulting in the leg being flown in NAV B/UP.

Last LOFT tomorrow with a 5am brief 💀

Third concert in 3 weeks - Counting Crows and The Gaslight Anthem last night.

Final 3 day push in the sim starts tomorrow with a 9am LOFT, then a 5am session Sunday, and our final check ride, our LOE, on Monday morning at 9am.

The end is in sight!!!

First LOFT done. Was neat, made it all the way to LHR in just over 3 hours 😂. Good intro to Oceanic and ETOPS procedures, and the first sim in a long time where an engine didn’t fail or catch fire.

Off for 2 days before the final sim push starts on Saturday. 3 more to go!

Yep. We will sort of fast forward to the important “gates”. Oceanic clearance, oceanic entry, exit, and top of descent.

Haha just discussed that this afternoon. Better get my CDA nailed down.

Back into the sim tomorrow. LOFT1 is YYZ-LHR. Full OFP review, ETOPS planning, MELs, etc, then full taxi and dep up to ToC. We will practice all CPDLC and oceanic procedures and fly a full arrival and taxi in to LHR. Few repositions to keep the script to 4 hrs. Lots of learning!

Successfully completed our MPV. Saved my best engine failure at V1 for the ride! Couple days off now before our Overseas Briefing day on Tuesday, then 3 LOFTs and an LOE.

Nap time at the hotel then my wife arrives later for date night in the big city. Dinner and a concert!

MUC is with @yyzbound.bsky.social should be fun!

MT8 done, our last MT. Tons of approaches today for RNP(AR), ILS CAT II SA, and PRM quals.

Tomorrow we do our Maneuvers Proficiency Validation (MPV), a check ride of sorts, similar to a traditional PPC ride.

My July A330 sked is out, not bad. VIE/BOG/MUC/VCE. Can’t wait!

Best sim session of the course so far. Amazing what a difference a great instructor makes. We are check ride ready.

One last MT tomorrow. RNP(AR) and CAT II SA approaches. Same script as my last A320 sim in March, so good review. Hopefully get a couple last V1 cuts in too 😂.

7 of 14 sims complete.

MT7 tomorrow. A dress rehearsal of sorts for our MPV on Saturday. All the typical check ride stuff - RTOs, eng fail after V1, holds, diversions, non-precision aprchs, go-arounds with/without eng failures, ILS CAT I/II/III, low viz, cargo fires and evacs.

Apparently the MIA and YUL sims are similar. Both are -200s and have boosted rudders. I was mashing the rudder on my first V1 cuts, looked down and the Beta target was almost fully deflected 😂. Now I need to unlearn that, awesome. 🤦🏽‍♂️

3 days off done and back into the sim tomorrow with a 04:30 brief. MT6 of 8 introduces emergency descent, engine failure at high altitude cruise, engine fire/failure in the go-around, and TCAS RAs. Non precision and precision/CAT II approaches. First session in the company sims.

Heading home.

Back in the sim Wednesday with a 4:30am briefing time. Disgusting.

A super busy final sim session in MIA. Smoke/fumes with emergency elec config, B+G HYD fail and use of summaries, and more of the usual engine out stuff. Glad to be done here and headed home tomorrow morning. 3 days off and then back at it with 8 sims left until type rated.

Another MT session done. Winter ops today, contaminated runways and RNAV approaches using FPA and cold temp corrections. Also worked through fuel leaks, stab jams, and ended with AC ESS BUS 1 fault with a NAV/FPA approach to mins with no A/T. Busy!

Last MIA sim tomorrow!

MT4 today. RTOs, V1 cuts in low viz, RNAV approaches with go-arounds, and slat/flap faults to landings. Cleaned up my V1 cuts with smoother rudder inputs and a bit more bank. Things progressing quite nicely. Sessions are getting much busier now.