Back in the south

My pilot training is finished...
I'm back home in the south of France, looking for a job, hiking in the nice countryside, and preparing for the ENAC exam which would be the easier way of securing a good job as pilot in Air France for next year...
Near my parents place is LFTZ, nice small airport tucked in a valley. The traffic there is very nice due to the proximity with St-Tropez...which is THE jet-set vacation place on the french riviera.
Whenever I got some time, I usually hang out near that airport, shooting pictures of the traffic coming in and out, listening to the coms on my Icom, and breathing in that wonderfull JetA1 smell that I love so much !

MCC Beech 200 Training ...

MCC (Multi Crew Coordination) is the last part of the training ... We learn how to work with two pilots in the cockpit. It's not as simple as it might seem at first !
First of all, it's a much more complex aircraft than the ones we trained on previously : Super King Air 200 ; and it's a lot of work to learn new procedures and actions for that new plane in a small amount of time.
Secondly, we have been trained all along as mono-pilot ; Dispatching tasks in the cockpit and constantly checking the PF or PNF (Pilot Flying or Pilot Non Flying... i.e pilot or co-pilot) actions, all of a sudden, requires some time and training ...
I finished that training on March 16th, but my former flight partner finished it yesterday, so I went "backseating" the sim to shot some pictures.
The ones with the O2 mask on and googles are quite funny, we really looked like some nuclear specialists wandering in tchernobyl rubbles ... :-)
Enjoy the show !

"Rallye des routes du nord" rally.

This WE there was a rally near the place I live at. That was nice to see. Here are some of my best shots...

JAA CPL IR-ME. Training is almost complete !

Feb 23, 2009. I'm back on the apron after the IR-ME checkride, the examiner says to me that it's OK !... I'm now officially able to apply for a job in airlines and to be a First Officer in "big jets", after a type rating of course...
So I'm going ahead and I'll change once more time the title of this blog.... From now on it's gonna be BinouZe, pilot .
Within the next weeks, I'll be doing the MCC training course on Beech 200 simulator. And after that the ordeal of finding a job will begin. Wish me luck !

Shoreham, UK

Feb 21, 2009. For our last training flight before the IR-ME checkride, we decided with our flight instructor to pick up a "nicer than usual" destination, abroad if possible. We choose Shoreham, UK.
It's on the southern coastline of Great Britain.
It was a nice flight, at FL90, with London Control and all the "speedbirds" coming in and out from London... We almost felt like we were in a liner as well.
Shoreham itself is a nice little airport, with some cool stuff on the aprons and with a restaurant where we had an english breakfast : fried eggs, toasts and bacon. A little heavy on the stomach tough !
As usual, I post some pictures from that flight to share with you some of the beautiful sceneries we can see up there...

Mr Fillon (french first minister) landing in Merville

Today we had the visit of Mr Fillon, our first minister in Merville. He landed in a falcon 50 "COTAM 003". Pictures are not from me as I was about to take-off myself in a DA42, but from my friend O.C. that shot these pictures from the school parking (I hope he'll forgive me because I posted them without asking for his permission).
That's also the first shot that I got of me in control from outside of the plane...
I've never seen so many cops in Merville ^^.

Hanging out with F-GOKA on valentine's day...

We went to fly this saturday, as we expect our checkride to be in barely more than a week. We took off in the morning, just after sunrise, with the ground covered with white frost. The In-Flight scenery was quite wonderfull ! Fortunately I took my camera !