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Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Saturday, 13th July 1996
What in the hell am I doing in
Phoenix, in the middle of summer? No
doubt you’re asking yourself, dear reader.
To maintain a level of proficiency and safety, airline pilots are
required to annually attend ground school and flight simulator training on
emergencies, known as “Recurrent Training.”
Since my last “Recurrent” had taken place in November of 1992 at England,
I was long overdue for another one.
Therefore I whistled back to the States to get “Recurrent” at Jet Tech
International in Phoenix. What prompted
this was “feelers” from an aviation head-hunting group out of Melbourne,
Australia, supplying pilots for a new airline in the Philippines called “Grand
Air.” If I completed “Recurrent
Training,” on my own nickel, they were prepared to offer me a 737 Captain’s
position, based at Manila.
On this day I finished eight hours of ground school, and four hours of
emergencies in the flight simulator, on the Boeing 737-200A; being issued a
graduation certificate as proof.
Four days later, using the America West Airlines classroom and
simulator, I also accomplished the transition to the Boeing 737-300 all glass
cockpit. In addition, Jet Tech issued me
another graduation certificate on the 300.
Upon faxing my graduation certificates to the Aussies, they immediately
hired me and told me to report to Manila at the end of September 1996.
Aside from the faxes and a couple of phone calls, I never actually met the Aussies, dear reader. I was also informed by them that my paychecks would be issued in U.S. Dollars out of bank in Hong Kong.
This was turning out to be another “Terry and
the Pirates” adventure. I hope.
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