A Pilots Diary chapter 8

A Pilots Diary – Chapter 8 London May 22nd – May 26th

 

This week has been a long but great week! Here´s a look at what my schedule has looked like:

Day 1: London to Bydgoszcz in Poland and back to London. 
       London to Genoa in Italy and back to London. 
Total duty time: 11:20 h

Day 2: London to Verona Italy and back to London.
        London to Genoa and back to London
Total duty time: 11:20 h

Day 3: London to Chania in Greece and back to London
Total duty time: 09:45 h

Day 4: Standby day, not called. 

Day 5: London to Brindisi in Italy and back.
Total duty time: 07:45 (short day ;))

 

How I set my alarms, do I need to mention that I am the one to the left 😆

Its been a long week…

It´s been long days but nice ones, the kind where ´time flies´. I prefer flying two sector days, meaning that we fly to the destination and back again, normally that would be two longer sectors (like my day 3 and 5 above) rather than four short sectors (day 1 and 2 above). Two sector days are less tiring, fewer ups and downs. Some, however, might prefer four or even six sector days as it is more to do and time goes faster, you get more landings and takeoffs if that´s something you prefer. When I was based and operated from Palermo, Sicily we did almost only four sector days, so I feel that I´ve done my share of that haha

My food preparation, read more about that here: https://pilotmaria.com/2019/05/12/food-prepping/

During a sunny walk around in London, isn´t that funny, that London that is famous for being rainy have had the best weather in Europe this week!

Day 2 I flew with a female Captain.

On my second day, I flew with a female Captain, I don´t like specifying it female and male, were simply ´pilots´female or male, but here I am, still doing that. It was the second time in almost five years that I flew with a female Captain, and guess what, same Captain, she is absolutely lovely and so talented. Even if it was a long, tiring four sector day it was still a great day. The flying skills are the same regardless of female or male, but its the conversations in fight deck that are different. I like to talk, sometimes too much, and the conversations are just different when you talk to another girl, it´s hard to pin down exactly what it is but I like it. I am not saying that I don´t like having long conversations with my male colleagues because I do, a lot, and sometimes it´s great to get a male perspective of things, it was just different, and I like different.

The same day I did an Instagram quiz about airplane types and guess what…I put the answer wrong haha! Thanks, everyone who corrected me, I guess it is true that we learn something new everyday haha

 

Day 3 Chania in Greece and back.

On my day 3, we flew to Chania in Greece and back, it´s a long, but beautiful day, as long as the skies are clear you get a beautiful view over the Balkan Countries. The photo below is over Croatia, I was fortunate to sail twice in Croatia last year, first time with a group of friends who sailed their boat from Sweden (I joined them in Dubvronik) and the second time with @GoPro and The Yacht Week (link) so flying over here brings back great memories and a huge smile for me. Second photo is from joining the DME arc intercepting for the VOR approach in Chania, they later cleared us for a Visual Approach, as you can see the airport is located on a kind of an uphill which gives illusions of being lower than we really are on the approach, with PAPIs not visual before just over the threshold it is important to teamwork and cross-check altitudes, it was the Captains sector down there and he did a great job.

Avoiding some CBs and build-ups on our way back to London. 

 

Day 5, Brindisi

On my day five, I flew to Brindisi and Back and guess what!? My friend @diegone1992, @pilot_lindys boyfriend writes the weather, METAR there. So cool he came out to say hi quick during our turn around, it is always great to see familiar faces! Other than that, I flew with a really nice Captain and the two and a half hour down there and the same flight time back felt like rocket speed. Now I have a couple of days off and headed to Sweden to celebrate my mom, it was Mothers Day in Sweden yesterday.

Diego and I facetimed Lindy quickly during my turn around in Brindisi. 

Under my umbrella ela ela raining in Brindisi. 

 

 

Until next time! 

xx Maria

 

See my ´A Pilots Accessories´video here, link: youtube.com/pilotmaria

Read more about my food preparation here, link: pilotmaria.com 

 

It´s ´time´ to wrap up this week 😉 Wearing my Breitling Navitimer 1 in Mercury Silver. I work with Breitling, this blog post itself is not sponsored but I still want to mention that I have a relationship with the brand, link: https://www.breitling.com

I fly with Bose Aviation, the new Pro Flight noise-canceling headset. This also has been gifted to me. Link: https://www.bose.co.uk/

Also, a huge thank you to the absolute sweetest flight attendants family who brought pastry to the whole crew! xx