Harry Clark - EasyJet - A319/20
- First Officer
- Jan 5, 2017
- 3 min read
1) Tell us what made you want to become a pilot?
My Grandad was in the RAF so there's always been aviation around me and it's always fascinated me. For as long as I can remember I've wanted to fly planes. I didn't consider it as a career until I was 15/16 years old. After a few trial flights and a bit of gliding, along with research into the profession I was hooked and knew being an airline pilot is what I wanted to do.
2) What aircraft did you fly for your initial training?
Initial training was in the DA20 (Katana), then onto the Cessna 172 for initial instrument training and finally the DA42 (Twinstar) for the remainder. AQC was in a 737-300 fixed base sim.
3) What was your hardest part of your training?
For me the hardest part was either ground school or AQC. To pass the ATPL's successfully the was a large amount of information to learn in a short space of time and required a lot of work, dedication and complete sacrifice of social life. The AQC was also a lot to learn in a short space of time and each sim is marked and full reports written. Although it's a learning experience, it's important to perform well and show improvement, otherwise it can potentially write off several airlines for you when you go into the pool, or even mean you're not put into the pool. So bearing that in mind, suddenly you put a lot of pressure on yourself to perform well and that's obviously very stressful.
4) What advice would you give to aspiring pilots?
My advice would be do as much research and preparation as possible for everything you do. Don't ever go in with the mindset of winging it. Be prepared to sacrifice your social life for a few months and work extremely hard with the knowledge that if you do that then it'll make landing a job in the near future much easier. Expect to get out what you put in. Accept there will be a few lows along the way but also many highs. Try to go by the very simple rule of 'don't be a d***' and most of all, enjoy it!
5) What is your favourite destination to fly to?
My favourite destination so far would have to be Split (Croatia). Beautiful views and a perfect length sector.
6) Where did you train, and describe your experience training there?
I trained with CTC Aviation. The overall experience was good and after just 1 week in the hold pool I had passed an interview with easyJet, which ultimately I why I chose to train with CTC. I thought the facilities and training was generally very good. Ground school was very hard work and I was very relieved when that was finished, the flying stage in New Zealand was incredible, the IR in Bournemouth was intense but good fun and the AQC in Southampton was excellent training but very intense with a great deal of pressure to go with it.
7) Was there something you wish you did prior to starting your flight training, that would be beneficial for aspiring pilots to do?
Perhaps to have a bit more time off to travel rather than going straight from school to training.
8) What has been your best moment in the air?
My best moment was probably getting at the controls of the Airbus for the first time. Suddenly the dream had become a reality and all the hard work had paid off.
9) What is the biggest misconception people have about your job?
The general consensus is that airline pilots don't do anything because it's 'all done on auto pilot' and the plane 'just flies itself'. To put things in perspective, when you send an email, the computer doesn't just send it, you have to turn it on, select the right program, decide who the email gets sent to as well as write the email. Yes a lot of the flying is done on autopilot but if it wasn't for us programming it, the plane wouldn't go anywhere. A computer can't make decisions either or adapt to varying situations such as weather, failures, ATC instructions etc. So saying the aircraft just flies itself is a huge injustice to the responsible 2 who are operating it.
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