are you being served?

well folks..... service week is over and im proud to say i passed with flying colours.

now, i have boeing to learn, but more practical and written exams before im finally graduated. hard to believe that in 4 and a bit days i will be finished my training and ready to fly!!!!!

Photos from the training course

Me signing my certification to fly


Gordon and I in the service training rig


Having some fun in the rig


Learning how to set up the dinner cart


My Smoking Buddies

Dancicle

its bloody freezing here. last night driving home at 5pm was 3 degrees. ive heard it got down to -6 overnight. woke to to see frost on the roof opposite our flat.

And its not even december yet. looking forward to warming up when i go down south to miami and orlando!!!!

Coffee? Tea? or Me?

You for coffee?? You for tea??

spent yesterday learning how to set up the trolleys and what goes in what box and cart in the galley, and how to use the trash compactor. today is day for of service and we still havent learned how to actually serve anything. i do hope they give us a practice run before our assessment on tuesday. our assessment is having to searve each other ona pretend flight, and having to set up carts and meals. they have told us service flows and where to find things but have given us so practice..... so i hope i do ok in my practical. although really how hard can it be??

today i learn how to use the duty free computer... all day... how fun!

poor scott is sick with the flu.. so he is home for 5 days. luckily... as in december he and i have horrible rosters and i think we get about 4 days together in december.... but at least we have xmas together...

Im certified

today has to be one of the most stressful of my life so far. i had my safety and airbus finals today. 120 questions and 194 pieces of equiptment to place on 3 different aircraft.

amazingly i passed.

which means i am now leagally certified (or certifiable!!!) to fly in an airbus. i just have to pass a conversion course for boeing and im certified on that too.
only 2 weeks to go until i finish my training. 5 days service training, 2 days self defence and 3 days boeing conversion. then one day of exams and im online!!!!

well.....its not paris, first class, international but its just as good

hey!!!! mt roster came out!!!

obviously for security reasons i cant say my exact roster. what i can tell is the destinations i got. my first flight is going to be New York, then Orlando, LA, Miami and then Nairobi. luckily (unheard of for a junior) i got xmas and NY off!!! but scott is away for Ny so i will try to get onto his flight.

how exciting!!! its all very real now. we have finally finished the training for safety and airbus, i have the weekend to study a plethora of information and memorise locations before the 2-3 hour exam on monday and thats safety done and dusted for a year. before i have to resit again next year... no rest for the wicked.... its constant study and testing here!!! safety is our prime concern!

spent the last 2 days running around from pane to plane having a look at all the bits and bobs and buttons and whistles (well chimes and lights really)

its bloody freezing now it is. today at the base, there was frost on all the plants outside and front on the cars and smoking shelter....been 0 degrees some days... and well.. new york is just going to be mega cold so i may as well get used to it.

miss aussie summer but at least miami and orlando should be warmer.

bitchin ditchin

well....survived ditching day.... barely.

had to be at the base at 0515.... onto a bus to the pool. was the coldest day here yet. rain.. still dark.... you can imagine this is not the most inviting morning for a swim.

we get to the pool and my stomach is so tied in knots. i hate the water.. totally hate the water... having almost drowned twice as a child, i guess i have a good, if not unneccessary fear for the water. im not the strongest swimmer. another bloke in my course..darren is exactly the same. we would just look at each other across the aisle of the bus..and the look in our eyes said volumes, but tried to be supportive of each other. was a great time for scott and i to be having a disaggreement, and this was adding to my stress. (things calm now tho)

we get to the pool and change, and all too soon im standing at the side of the pool. thankfully the indoor pool area is heated...and the water seemed quite warm.

the drill seargent of an instructor lead us through an hour and a half of hell. first of all we had to get into the pool at one end and swim to the other end, without touching the sides or bottom. 25 metres. now normally im not a strong enough swimmer to make that without going thru panic. i got about half way and felt the panic rising. so flipped onto my back and did the 2nd half in backstroke.. the look of sheer horror i was to find out, was seen by one of my crewmates. but i did it. then we had to get out, and put on a life jacket, and pull the toggle to blow it up. and roll into the pool and make our way to the centre of the pool.. which was fine since i had a flotation device, there was no fear or panic and i felt quite comfortable. we did various exercises basedon water survival.. and then i had to be dragged one length of the pool...i teamed up with darren so we could support each other. and then i had to drag him back the other way.. was totally exhausted by this stage.. hes a big hefty muscle boy. then we had to remove our life jackets and swim to the centre of the pool and retrieve a rolled up life jacket floating on the water, and tread water while putting it on and manually blowing it up using the tube. amazingly i just aced that.. had it on and blown up quicker than some guys who are good swimmers.
last but not least we had to swim to a life raft in the centre of the pool and haul each other in, and row to the side of the pool. great fun in the end. glad i never have to do that again.

we all passed !!!

then we got taught PELDS.. portable equiptment location diagrams. we have 3 types of airbus and we have to learn 194 specific locations on them by monday. from memory. fudge fudge.. its hard. this is the one section i think i might actually fail. some girls in the class are saying they can already plot them all. im about half way. and its just not sinking in.

today we took a trip to heathrow to go visit an airbus a340. a real aircraft. we got to open and close a door. arm and disarm a door (oh yes and lets not forget that all important crosschecking!!)

we gto to go down to the crew rest area, and practice climbing out the escape hatch. i think this was real fun as we were on a real plane. got to see a few things that the average punter doesnt know about.

going to a hanger tomorrow to spend more time on the plane, and im hoping i wil have more time to explore all the drawers and stowages so i can picture these bloody locations.

tomorrows test.... doors and exits... how to open and close, how to arm and disarm.. pre flight checks and how to evacuate each of them (there are different specific phrases to say for each)

sigh.. im exhausted and weary and my brain is pretty full. if i can survive it all., i have 2.5 weeks left til graduation.

thankfully next week is service week.. now im not saying its easy.. but certainly less of a brain strain than the last 2 weeks.. its not so cerebral and is more based on customer service and our personalities than facts and figures. plus, we get to serve each other meals and drinks for a few days so free lunch!!

danny - do what you have to mate.

my slide descent

caught it on video. shame we could only do it once.... man it waqs scary though, it doesnt look like youre going fast, but you really fly down those things. my stomach was still at the top as i reached the bottom

Half Way There !!!!

WHOOOOOOAAAA we're halfway there
living on a prayer !!!!


today marks the halfway mark in the training course, and today has been the most exciting so far.

started off mega nervous and stressing over whether i would pass todays exam.. managed to get 100% so the stress of the day was over and done, and we got down to the serious business of those unspoken unlikey events of an emergency incident.
then... today i finally fulfilled on of my lifes little goals.

I GOT TO JUMP DOWN AN EVACUATION SLIDE !!!

then we spent all afternoon in the rig... this mock plane cabin with doors and lights and sound effects. and we got to practice our evacuation drills. my god that was so much fun.. weird really since in a real event it would be anything but fun.. but has really brought home the fact im working for an airline as cabin crew. my throat is sore from yelling all afternoon for people to open their seatbelts and get out.

all from no notice emergencies to short notice and long notice and all the differences we have.

bit nervous about ditching day on tuesday.. being thrown inthe pool and having to put on life jackets while treading water and manually inflating but hey... ill do fine.


anyway... loving this song right now.

lucky streaks cant last

sigh.. knew it was too good to be true. tried my best but the 100% run just wasnt going to last.

the last few days have been hell!! so fucking much to learn, and remember.. facts and figures going around in my head so much, its all a blur.

last 2 days i have only managed to get 96%. got one question wrong in each exam.

so far we have been lucky and everyone has passed all exams (pass is 88%)

today, we saw one girl fail an exam. means she has to take a resit exam tomorrow. hope she studies because if you fail that, they will give her a verbal exam tomorrow after lunch and if she fails that, she is out. eeek.. and we dont want to lose anyone.

mind you , yesterday was a bit of fun, where we were in a mock up cabin and went through all the stages of flight, pretending to be real trolley dollies. i got to do from take off until disembarkation. got to sit in jump seats.. secure cabins, and play with all the bells and whistles. was dead exciting..even if i did catch my finger in the jump seat... mega-ouch.

today was fire safety day and we got to go out to a fire training facility in the middle of no-where. got to put out an over fire with a BCF extinguisher. and also had to don a smoke hood and make my way through a smoke filled cabin, and grab an extinguisher and fight a pretend toilet fire.

was really eerie walking through this cabin which was the back section of a real 747. what you are used to seeing, looks totally alien when filled with smoke.. the light (of which there was only 2 small ones at the back of the cabin) was dim and spooky. the only sound is your breathing in the smook hood. im vaguely aware of my 2 crew mates with me shouting out if im ok, as part fo the standard checks..but really easy to feel freaked out as everything seems so closed in. but wish i coudl go do it all again.

easier night fo study tonight.. just have to study fire drills and elements and types of fires. should only take an hour of study, plus by pre flight checks and durations of fire fighting equipt.

scott went to LA today... will be back saturday. hopefully i can surprise him with a nice 100% result for the next 2 exams. he is very proud of me but im gutted i didnt get 100% i have very high expectations of me, and although most people have been getting one or two wrong in most exams... i want to exit the course knowing i achieved what i set out for and that i know is all confidently. 2 more days and we are half way through the course. phew. the group are bonding even closer which means the dirty talk is becoming more and more prevalent. tee hee.

been discovering the joys of facebook. most of our group are in there and slowly finding people i knwo and havent seen for eons on there.

missing my friends back home heaps