Having this apprenticeship with Aero Alliance has the following main advantages (and no disadvantages): Professional flight training, The opportunity to fly larger aircraft such as the Piper PA34 Seneca and Piper PA31 Chieftain,  visiting different airports and even different countries, working with some great people where I am currently learning a lot (which is an understatement).

Fig 1.0 - Andy Checking the Weather pre flight In our new office

Those are the advantages of working for such a busy and experienced company, but let's focus on some of the advantages for our customers.  One of the reasons our customers travel with us is time.  We offer a time saving no other large airline can possibly offer due to the fact we do not ask our passengers to waste 2-3 hours checking in before their flight and then putting delays on the flight.  A larger airline is more prone to delays due to the aircraft being used on the inbound flight to maximise profit.  If it's late getting to your airport, it will be late departing with you on it!  Also at larger airports, such as Gatwick and Heathrow larger airlines are given more strict "slot times" which, if missed can again cause delays.

Fig 1.1 - Abeam Farnborough to pick up our passengers from Blackbusche 

 I mentioned above that we will never be late, on this example we were just over 30 minutes early for our passengers, as if our passengers want to turn up early and leave early we want to be able to give them that flexibility.  After we picked up our passengers and the Captain gave them a safety brief on how to use the doors and the position of the lifejackets etc we were lined up on the runway within 5 minutes and shortly over Bournemouth, in controlled airspace ready to coast out over the channel to Jersey.

 Fig 1.2 - Piper Seneca cockpit - had an added engine management task (overboost as the turbo's don't have wastegates unlike the Chieftain)

AERO ALLIANCE does not have any of these delays as it's a complete personalised experience being that, when we pick you up from your airport of choice we will not be late, and we most certainly will not inflict any delays on you!  This comes to reflect on our latest trip to Jersey.  We picked up our passengers from Blackbusche, near Farnborough and whizzed them over to Jersey in just over an hour, in comfort.  The captain even made sure our passengers were so comfy they could put their feet up on the facing club class seats...now that's service - try that on a 737!

 Fig 1.3 - Climbing to 5000 feet over Bournemouth 

The flight was very smooth, despite me thinking it would be turbulent due to the scattered cloud around.  The multi engine aircraft we use are very stable machines, and not like any light aircraft.  The Piper Chieftain we use on most charters weighs in around just over 3 tonnes, therefore in the sky its a stable, quick aircraft.  After the climb out the Captain switched on the autopilot and switched off the seatbelt signs.  We use the autopilot as much as possible as it makes for a very comfortable flight for the passengers, and it allows the pilots to monitor the engine, navigation and radio better, as well as making sure our passengers are OK. 

 Fig 1.4 - Jersey Final to land 

Being my first time in Jersey I was surprised at the amount of heavy aircraft operating, as we were on final we had a Speedbird (British Airways) 737 taxiing to the hold to depart, as we were taxiing over to our VIP parking area we passed a FlyBe Embrarer with passengers boarding, looking bored (probably due to the long wait in the terminal!).  We turned around in approximately 10 minutes, which included loading on 160 litres of fuel in both wing tanks, having a cup of coffee, couple of biscuits ready for our return leg.  I actually learnt something on the ground from the handling agent that all roads in Jersey have a 40mph speed limit!

Fig 1.5 -  Andy and I had felt sorry for the passengers boarding the commercial jet having to wait 2+ hours for check in and security

As we taxiied to the holding point of the active runway I was surprised to see that the FlyBe had only just started taxiing before us (this is the main difference in speed I was talking about previously!), as we passed around the other side of the airport I noticed a Jet2 aircraft offloading passengers.  As we approached the holding point before the runway the Captain asked me to read out the "Before Takeoff Checks" which I did.  What we do here is make sure the engines are running as good as they left the factory, making sure any problem is found on the ground before we get in the air (Problems are extremely, extremely rare, but we need to check each time to be sure!). 

 Fig 1.6 - Taking on 80 litres per tank for our flight back to base

One of the checks is a magneto check.  Each engine is made up of many cylinders, say 6 in this example.  Each cylinder has 2 spark plugs (a car having one per cyl), this is for a couple of reasons. 1) To create a more even burn 2) for redundancy in case one set fails, it will still generate power.  Aeronautical engines differ from car engines in that they need to be looked after on the ground and in the air by the pilot - engine management is a task in it's own!  Even though the engine will idle at 400-600rpm, you must idle an aero engine around 1100 rpm, otherwise spark plugs become fouled with carbon, resulting in a weaker spark.

These two spark plugs have a spark generated by two magneto's, one mag running one spark plug, and the other running the other.  One of the checks at the hold is to turn one magneto OFF and see if the engine runs on one set, only with a small RPM drop of 50rpm (is acceptable).  As we turned the Right mag OFF on the left hand engine, the engine was running slightly rough and RPM has dropped around 400-500rpm.  This wasn't normal so the Captain troubleshot the issue.  The problem was that on the long taxi to the holding point the spark plugs became slightly fouled with carbon (which can happen even though 1100rpm is set, but for long periods of time) and the spark plugs were not generating full spark on the left hand side. 

The way to clear this is to decrease the mixture, which in turn runs the cylinders hotter, which then burns off the carbon deposits and clears the spark plugs.  After the Captain did this standard practise the engine was running as good as new.  We are able to accurately monitor the engine with accurate EGT (Exhaust Gas Temperature) and CHT (Cylinder Head Temperature) as well as Oil Temperature gauges.