Bored_Z

Finally! I've finally managed to complete my aircraft training. Now I'm considered a Second Officer, endorsed to fly a 777. On the 27th of February, 2007, I completed my aircraft training.

I was actually quite nervous thinking that I'll be flying the actual plane. The two captains who took my friend and I for the training were quite nice, dropping little pointers to help us become better pilots, and to uphold a professional image. Walking to the plane felt a bit weird as I wore my cap but without my jacket and no bars on my shoulder. This is because I wasn't a second officer yet and hadn't earned the right to wear those items. At least I got to wear my wings proudly on my chest!

As we got to the plane, I still couldn't really comprehend that I'll be flying this behemoth of a machine. The safety checks were quickly done with the Captain who pointed out items to take note of. Pre-flight preparations done, and we're off! My friend took the right seat first. He taxied the plane to the runway, and soon after, with clearances, took off! I couldn't imagine what it must have felt like. He flew the plane the short distance to the nearby airport where we'll be doing our circuits.

After an hour of observing him complete his circuits, it was my turn. The captains exchanged seats, then I exchanged seats with my friend. What struck me at first was how light the plane felt. Now, at that time, the plane was around one hundred and seventy five tonnes. Minor adjustments in the controls were all that was needed. Sitting there on the right seat, aware that I was in control of a big chunk of metal hurtling through the air was exhilarating! The sky was clear, the winds were slightly strong, but there wasn't much turbulence. My first landing was a bit rough...with some tips from the captain, I managed to get my landings smoother and smoother. After a few more, I managed to do three good landings back to back, and the captain said that he was satisfied. Clearances were gotten, and he let me fly back to our main base.

At the beginning, it felt daunting, but once I was in the cockpit, especially when I was in the right seat, everything felt fine. This is because of the great training programme that all cadets had to undergo.The simulators helped a lot as the real plane didn't feel all that different from the sims. Looking forward to start flying to proper destinations.

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My hard drive is dead. After coming home from watching "Rocky Balboa" (which is an awesome movie!) I switched on my laptop, and having it suddenly hanging and restarting on me. After several failed attempts, I decided to format my partition. This didn't work either as the installer gave me a message stating that it couldn't access the partition. A quick call to a tech savvy friend suggested a hard drive failure. So I replaced my laptop's hard drive with my backup hard drive. This time it worked. Unfortunately, I lost all my recently taken photos, my training notes, my music, and all those favorite websites. This'll teach me to do back-ups more often.

:P