Initial Training

Last Saturday, our 4^thday of going to the Arik Air Offices, we had roughly five hours of class covering CRM (Crew Resource Management), Dangerous Goods, some Standard Operating Procedures, and Security. Oddly, the class was taught by an experienced cabin crew member or CCM. Usually classes like this, especially CRM classes are taught by pilots but for what it’s worth, the CCM tried his best.The training still has a lot of room for improvement and seems quite mediocre compared to the training I received in the US. All of our pilots are quite experienced and have gone through CRM training with their prior airlines, so this quick refresher course should be sufficient enough for now.

 

Here at Arik we have pilots from all over the world. Different languages, customs, personalities and behaviors are the norm, and it is really quite interesting talking and interacting with everyone.

 

On Sunday we started our two day crash course on Nigerian Air Law.The actual exam consists of two tests, a 75 question test followed by a 20 question test. You must pass each with a 75% or better. Upon passing this test, you send your foreign logbooks, medical and licenses into the NCAA (Nigerian Civil Aviation Association) and they issue you your Nigerian Pilots License – often several weeks later. Class was taught by a comical and intelligent pilot who has been flying in Africa for several years. He provides tips and answers questions then hands out roughly 200 sample questions to go back to the hotel and study with. The bank of questions that the test is created from is probably up near 300 now so as long as you study the 200 provided questions you have a very good chance of passing your first time. If you don’t pass, you may retake one more time after a 30 day waiting period. If you fail a second time, you are sent home and that’s it – they’ve lost a lot of great pilots due to this test. It’s unfortunate too since the test is over 40 years old and full of typos, odd English and ridiculous questions. Also, many of the regulations you are tested on are not applicable to the rules of today – so basically you learn how to answer the questions then try to flush it from your memory after passing. Here are a few examples of questions on the test:

 

1. When landing on a grass airfield after another aircraft, you should:

a. Land on its left and turn right

b. Land on its right and turn left

c. Land on its right and turn right

 

2. An aircraft without radio communication equipment shall not commence a flight when the weather conditions at the destination are likely to be less than:

a. 5nm visibility and 1500 foot cloud base

b. 3000 yards visibility and 2000 foot cloud base

c. 5nm visibility and 2000 foot cloud base

 

3. What are the vertical limits of Lagos TMA?

a. FL245 – UNL

b. 1500 feet – FL145

c. SFC – 2500 feet

d. 1500 feet – UNL

 

 

On Monday we received some more questions to practice with, collected our ID badges and went back to the hotels for some more studying.

 

Tuesday was the exam day; we were picked up early in the morning, dropped off at the Arik offices, and then took a short van ride over to the NCAA building near the international terminal. We waited about 15 minutes, then were sent in to take the test. It is done on the computer and you are given 1-2 hours for the first test, and about half an hour for the second test. Both tests took me about 30 minutes and most of the questions I had were ones I had studied the night before. A couple guys took much longer though because they were given many “new” questions that they had not seen or prepared for previously. It really isn’t fair – everyone should be given a test of equal difficulty, and this simply wasn’t the case here. I haven’t received the results of the test; however, I am 99% certain that I passed.

 

This was the lady who put up with us at the NCAA building.

We got back to our hotel early that afternoon, some of the guys from a nearby hotel came to our hotel and we all hung out by the pool. It’s a very nice pool, expect pictures in the future. As I was soaking in the sun in the humid 85 degree air, I forgot I was in Nigeria for an instant – this can’t be work, this feels like a vacation. After a few laps in the pool, I juggled a soccer ball on the side and even got to play with one of the employees for a minute or so. They all seemed quite amused, I am sure they don’t have many guests who juggle soccer balls for fun.

 

 

I only have a few more hurdles to jump through then I anticipate they will be sending me home to wait for the Q400s to be delivered. Everything so far has been much better than expected, things are improving here and I feel if they continue in the direction they are going, they will see great success.