Well the trip to England was a great experience and an eye opener.The Training basically broke down into 3 phases, classroom 5 weeks, CPT (Cockpit Procedures Trainor) 1 week and then a trip to RAF Benson for the FLT Sim 11-15 DEC. Engineers left on Friday 27th Oct and pulled into Heathrow Airport 11am Sat.Pilots left a week later. We all hooked up at the Half Moon bed and breakfast In Sherbourne which we called home for 6 weeks.
The course went very well but was very intense with alot of information that came at us fast and furious. We all passed the course but all found it a challenge and staying in the books was critical as this aircraft seemed to have system after system. The student books were broken down into 3 volumes so that just gives you an idea how much information had to be absorbed in the 5 weeks of classroom training. The list of subjects that we had to learn (and get tested on by the way) was very extensive and included;
The Westland plant is a small city and we did have a tour of the production facilities. They had a few Mark 1 Merlins and 4 RAF Mark 3's already to go and we got to check out the finished product. THings we're delayed cause the Navy just ditched one of the brand new Merlins off the coast not far from here..haven't heard much about it right now as they are just starting the investigation. When we work on the Maintenace rig here you get a very good appreciation just how big this aircraft is..very very impressive..and big.