First base - Jakarta

Some four weeks ago, with my fellow aviators, Ibu Susi and Christian we were discussing where we want to be based within SusiAir, where we want to be posted for start, what we want to achieve in our flying career etc, etc. Me smart arse partly seriously, partly jokingly noted that I would like to go to Jakarta as my first base so I do not have to go back any more. Well be careful what you wish for is the saying that pops in to my head ;)
Tomorrow morning 1/8 I will be flying my last four sectors from Jakarta base before moving to my next one - Medan.
Jakarta was pretty slow and easy start for two of us new Co-Jo s fresh from the type training. We both flew around thirty hours in last three weeks, mainly on two main routes Jakarta Halim to Cilacap and Jakarta Halim to Nusawiru.
Both airports, Nusawiru and Cilacap are on the south cost of west Java.
We fly Cilacap and back three times a day mainly carrying workers and management from the oil industry based there and Nusawiru is mainly SA corporate transport mixed with some holiday makers and surfers heading to Batu Karas.
Flight that I always consider highlight of the day (or week) is corporate flight to unlicensed beach strip in Pangandaran.
Landing on beachstrip is pretty cool experience itself but this trip comes with other benefits like visit to popular Relax restaurant (check Indonesia Rough Guide) or one of the beach bars if you staying overnight.
I cant say much about Jakarta city because I have not seen much of i t and what I have seen was not that impressive but I have enjoyed flying here a lot. It was a great introduction in to Indonesian ATC, local specifics, customs and line flying generally. On this note, great Thank You goes to all Jakarta Captains for this experience!
So as the locals say - Happy Landings!
F;-)

Line training

As I mentioned in previous post, first two and half week of ground training were pretty intensive but on the other hand second half of the training was much more relaxed and certainly more fun because it was the practical part ;)
Basic handling, circuits, emergencies, un-usual attitudes and more circuits ;)
Highlight of my flight training was as for most of us landing on Pangandaran beach strip. I'm sure that this one is not one of the most challenging strips but it was cool experience to land parallel with the beach ;-)
In the meantime we also did two DGCA exams - well chapter itself ;-)
Radio practical:
bloke with the strongest Indonesian accent pretends to be ATC, you fly from A to B and make appropriate radio calls - so far standard used in Europe - only with one difference - all radio calls and phrases are numbered and written in front of you ;-)
CPL theoretical test:
Two part test with 100 questions based on FAA exams and military phraseology plus C208 knowledge test based on legacy and with strong focus on de-icing - very important for flying in Indonesia bellow 10'000 feet especially considering that our vans don't have deicing ;-)
Well let say it was guess work that worked ;-)

Now to the line training - this is pretty cool experience and awesome feeling to have fare paying paxs on board especially when you look back just before reaching cruising altitude to find most of them asleep ;)
I have started with observation flight sitting just behind pilots with my headset plugged in and taking notes where ground training differed from every day practices - not many tho... Biggest fun comes with ATC - their strong accent, lack of training and laid back attitude is a deadly combination and thats why ATC is always mentioned as a major threat on preflight briefing along side with animals on runway, kites, birds and traffic in congested airspace like Jakarta Halim - just different world...
The other day we received three different squawk codes between start up clearance and lining up - you make the maths ;-)
My first flight was flying some corporate peeps to company HQ in Pangandaran and than reposition aeroplane for maintenance in near by Nusawiru.All captains I have met and flown with so far were very helpful, professional and calming so my eager beaver attitude was not an issue this time. Saying that flying at 10'000 and have nothing to do than monitor the flight gives me itchy feeling "What am I missing? Should I be doing something?"
...but captains answer is always the same, sit back, relax and watch world passing by ;-)

Half way through type rating

If someone told me that we have been here for over two weeks I would not believe it.
This is what you call bloody busy! I don't think that anyone from our group anticipated such a workload...
Good part is that we turned to be very good, friendly and responsible group so all spare time is utilised as a self study in the classroom and we all help each other.
Since our first lesson we covered Standard Operating Procedures, Company Operational Manual, system limitations, memory items, G1000, using weather radar, aircraft system and descriptions, first aid course, ditching excercise, written number of tests and quizess passed DGCA radiotelephony test written and practical and slowly driffted from classroom to sim, cockpit procedure trainer, G1000 simulator and have been given quite a lots of time for self study and preparation for final written and verbal exam. (whoops my is coming in three days)
It was my intension to update this blog at least twice a week and describe in more detail but no chance.

Indonesia, here I am!!!

Just looking back, Singapore was quite un eventful except the fact I have left my iPhone in the train on my way from airport to hotel. Grrrr what a....
As I arrived to reception of my hotel Econ Inn on Beach Road, receptionist apologised and answered ringing phone - than she gave me puzzled look and asked me: have you lost your iPhone by any chance? Than I gave her puzzled look and in no time I was on my way back to the airport train station! Thank you unknown honest person :)

Stay in Singapore was very short and I managed to see only small part of the town on my way from hotel to McDonalds cafe on Orchard road where i have met SusiAir visa agent and rest of my classmates.

Around 1600 we had our passports back with visas and we made our way to Airport, most of us to catch AirAsia flight to Jakarta. Our flight was about one hour RE-TIMED (not delayed) but very short - only some 45 minutes to landing in Jakarta where we met Ratih, our HR lady who helped us to get transport to our Jakarta accommodation.

Plan for following morning was to be picked up at 0630 and to get Indonesian medical. At 0715 driver turned up with smile and took us to medical centre.
Slightly disorganised, chaotic but friendly place it was. In fact we were given check list and had to walk from doors to doors and ask for specific examination. Surprise for most of us was dental check up and assumption was made that this is for later identification :)
Quick bite to eat in local market, and off we go to Jakarta Halim airport for our charter to Pangandaran beach strip where SusiAir HQ and training centre is located. Nothing happened that evening except shower, dinner, and jet lag interrupted sleep.

Following morning Saturday 2 June 2012 - Day no.1 of our C208 course
As a early bird (not angry) I woke up at five pm and went for swim in the pool that is primarily used for ditching training. Breakfast at six - corn flakes, chocko corn flakes or white bread with jam and coffee that tastes like, like, like - no it doesn't taste at all ;) I thing research needs to be done on this issue ;)
First class starts at 0800 with company tour and history. Than explanation of course structure, highlights and downfalls of working and living in different parts of Indonesia, what to do and what not to and mainly, introduction to study material.
During afternoon we had first Indonesian language lesson - this will be fun but good thing is that pronunciation of alphabet is same like in Czech language so one thing less to worry about ;)
Than it was time to sign our contracts, non competition agreements, training agreements and some more papers followed by chat with Irvino our head of HR about policies, HR procedures and other boring stuff that has to be done.
It was long day and because tomorrow is Sunday (our day off) we decided to finish the day with two beers on the beach;)
Sunday is day off but thee is a lot to study so good night!

Cheers FrankO

You have been selected...

...to train with SusiAir.
Was first line of email I have received 26/4 early morning.
I have to admit I did not know what to do or what to think at least in first few minutes.
Great news I was hoping to receive but when it actually attived it was shocking :)
As the day progressed I started realising how little time I have to prepare everything for my departure.
I hope I did.
Now I am together with my fellow students aviators in Singapore Airport terminal 1 awaiting our flight to Jakarata.
Tomorrow we have Indonesian medical class one check and day after 2/6 we start our Single Engine Turbine C208 endorsment course.
I will try to update this blog as often as possible and make it day by day diary from the five week course...

Cheers FrankO

SusiAir interview Day 3 - the interview...

Again, woke up bit earlier than others around half past five and jumped in to the swimming pool ;-) This contrast is actually amazing. Pangandaran can be considered quite poor community and most of the houses are very small, streets quite dirty and full of motorbikes but as you enter SusiAir compound it is like different world. Nicely maintained garden, well looked after swimming pool, two new built modern buildings, one for accommodation and second three storey office building, partly still under construction with new sim centre being prepared in the ground floor and reception. All training and most OPS and HR is based here…

New office building with sim hall on the right

My interview will start around 1030 so I have bit more time to refresh some figures from POH and rethink what questions I might have answered wrong in the knowledge test from day 1.
Today, the humidity is incredibly high and all windows of air-conditioned rooms are covered with condensation – I am starting to feel that this humidity and AC will result in to nasty sore throat (and it did)
1030 and I am walking with Filipus our coordinator in to the office building for my interview. Do not forget to take your shoes off in front of reception!
Few minutes of waiting and Filipus is coming to tell me that they are ready for me.
I am being interviewed by two people: Mr Wong and Mr HR whose name I did not catch. I did ask for it again but Mr Wong said that I can call him Mr HR so I did J
Mr Wong wants to know how I was treated in terms of accommodation, food, transport, what do I think about the facilities and how did I find all the tests. The fact is that I was impressed with everything from first minute so it was easy to answer.
After that we went through the general tell me something about yourself, background, professional history, hobbies, how did I start flying, travelling experiences, etc, etc – nothing different from any other interview.
Then I have been asked to identify five abbreviations written on the white board – I answered four and I said that I do not recall seeing one of them – later I found that I was moppet because it was MEA – Minimum En-route Altitude… after that I described Caravan in detail – I think I spent at least 20 minutes on PT6 itself and when I started with fuel system I have been stopped by Mr Wong J – this was actually good sign because the way he stopped me was something like “OK you have told us enough, lets change the topic” and he asked me about few limitations and speeds – I was not that confident with some of those so I had to say I do not know at some cases. From that I have been given scenario during the flight and I had to describe all actions I would take and with every answer there was challenging question – after we got aeroplane safely on the ground I have been asked what would I change if he would ask me same question – I have identified three main points and admitted that one of my actions was incorrect and for two situations I could do better. He agreed with me and I noted that we learn something new everyday, even on the interview – that made him smile ;-)
From here we changed topic on to moving and living in Indonesia, reasons why SusiAir is hiring ex-pats, culture differences and company philosophy.
On the end of interview I have been asked if I have some questions so I have asked about my mistakes in tests but this remained unanswered but I have been given recommendation on what else I should have focus during my studies – I am taking it as a positive sign ;-)
Last question I had was how many people are being, interviewed, when we will know the results and if successful, when we will start the training and so on.
We were first of six groups, each with six applicants for ten positions in total, but there are three candidates from previous selection process who were pretty good so they might be awarded three positions and allowance for our lot would drop down to seven.
…either way the chances of getting invitation for training are quite high – something between 18% - 26%
We shook hands, I thanked them for the opportunity to be there and their time and I walked out – tired but happy – happy because I was living the dream…

Now it was beach time, exploration time, boat trip time, food time and Bintang time J

btw: I have added some pictures for Day 1, and Day 2 posts.

SusiAir interview Day 2

Don't know if it was jet-lag or two Bintangs that woke me up after midnight but I did not fell asleep till 0400 so my six o'clock alarm was not very welcome. But what a luxury if you can jump in to swiming pool literally from your bedroom? (OK twenty meters walk...)
So I did and after few lengths had a shower and breakfast :)
Today we were split in to three groups and it was me and another guy from UK who went in to the simulator first. I went second and was surprised how laid back the instructor was. Ohhh don't worry about RT, ohhh don't worry about pressure, altitude, idents just show me you can fly the procedure.
So I gave it my best shot and after short practice I have flown one Haiti VOR hold with no wind and ended up with slight overshoot but corrected it well before half of the inbound and ended up 3:18 over the VOR station.
As I called beacon overhead, I have been informed that there is a wind of 10 kts from 140. This slight tailwind gave me the correction for my previous overshoot and I ended up 3:03 over the beacon. From there I was radar vectored to intercept localiser of 259 and Glide Slope at 1800. I played it safe at 1850 so my intercept was some 0.1 Nm earlier. Anyway I managed to keep both GS and LOC well within the limits and as I was calling 500 to go my sim has been frozen and I walked out with wide grin ;-)
From the sim straight on to COMPASS test but I do not have results as yet...
It contains slalom between flags using joystick, than VSI and ball that move on their own will and you have to cancel this movement by joystick and rudder pedals (they work in reverse), memory test, task manager test and math test.
After lunch I jumped on psychometric test that contains 225 questions. In fact it is about 30 - 40 statements and you have to choose 225 times one statement (from two) that describes you better - i have to admit, sometimes I had to select the one that is the least wrong:)

Last test of the day was English proficiency - I tried to slip through the net by waving my ICAO level six confirmation but English not being my native language there were no escape ;)
Again here I am, living the dream! :-)
Cheers FrankO