Andrew Baillie
Andrew successfully completed the AirlineReady® APS MCC at VA Airline Training and is now flying the Embraer ERJ145 with Loganair, based in Scotland
What inspired you to pursue a career as a commercial pilot?
I first knew I wanted to do something within aviation from a very young age due to spending a lot of time with my grandfather who was former RAF Bomber Command based at RAF Coningsby. My older brother at the time also worked at Prestwick Airport which we grew up beside as a family which led to me seeing and being exposed to lots of different aircraft types and getting to go out on the apron and see them up close which I loved. I attended airshows whenever I could with my family and vividly recall sitting in an F4 Phantom at the RAF Leuchars Airshow when I was around 7 and remember even then wanting to start it up and take it for a flight.
What did you do before starting pilot training?
I left school knowing I was going to pursue pilot training but felt it would be a good idea to continue education whilst working for a few years first. I studied Aeronautical Engineering for 2 years at Ayrshire College and got a good understanding of how Aircraft work which later helped me with my ATPL exams. My first job in Aviation was working at Prestwick Airport for Ryanair. I started on check-in and worked my way up to boarding agent. I also spent time working with the corporate FBO operation at major events such as COP26 and the Open golf tournaments and handling military, NASA and VIP movements, including Air Force One on a presidential visit. The experience of working on the ground is extremely valuable to my role now in the flight deck and gives a full-circle understanding of the operation involved inside and outside a flight deck to make things work safely and effectively.
Which training route did you choose to follow, and why?
I chose the modular training route. I visited the Pilot Careers Live exhibition at Heathrow Airport and remember it being a time in 2014 when the old ridiculous myth of ‘integrated route or no job prospects’ was still very much a thing. I luckily chose not to accept this and pursued setting up my own training plan which I planned out meticulously on a spreadsheet with every cost detailed and created a Word document with pros/cons and feedback to make an educated selection of which schools I wanted to attend and why. I ended up doing my PPL with Tayside Aviation in Dundee, ATPLs in Bournemouth with BCFT, hour building in Florida, ME/IR/CPL in Sweden with Diamond Flight Academy and APS MCC and UPRT with VA Airline Training. To this day, I am extremely happy with the choices I made as I got the best value for money, three licences included in the cost (FAA, UK CAA and EASA), great instructors, modern aircraft, good facilities and importantly, I got to travel and live in many new places whilst really enjoying my training as well, all for half the cost of an integrated course. With Brexit uncertainty for aviation also looming in the UK, I managed to figure out a way to get dual licences for no extra cost due to having a good understanding of the EASA Part FCL regulations at the time when planning my training to know what I needed for each step and when I could get it. Funding is arguably the most challenging part of the whole planned process. I was extremely lucky that my family were able to help me with it and were on board with my end goal. This being said, it did really help that I had documents and research done to provide and show my family who knew next to nothing about pilot training a basic outline of the process and explanations about things such as costs, timeframe, potential salary and job opportunities post training to make up a repayment structure for any mortgage or loan I'd need.
What challenges did you face before or during training?
I faced two major challenges while training. One was I was still completing my ATPL exams when Covid-19 struck the world. This led to closures in exam centres which led to me having to keep studying over a prolonged period of time to prevent knowledge fading until I could sit the exams and a huge amount of uncertainty for a while with regard to the 18-month limit to pass all exams which I was facing. The other major issue I had was weeks before the Pandemic lockdown, my Dad was taken seriously ill and was hospitalized with something non-Covid related which led to me having to stop studying for a few months and visit the hospital during a very dark and eery time in the Pandemic. There were times I wasn't sure if I'd be able to pick things back up and finish my exams in time but thankfully, I managed to get back on track once things had worked out with family and finish my exams. The CAA also issued me a 6 month extension due to exam centres being closed which helped me massively with what pressures I was facing that year. The one thing my spreadsheet could not plan for was a global pandemic and family matter so my advice is to be prepared to be resilient and keep the end goal in sight should such a thing happen during your training. For me, I kept a screen saver of a flight deck as a reminder of where I wanted to be so it would be in the back of my head when looking at my phone or computer.
What were the highlights of your time in training?
The highlight of my training was undoubtedly living in Sweden and Florida for parts of my training. In Florida, I flew all over the state in my rented plane with a friend I met in Bournemouth during ground school and got to tick off some pilot bucket list items such as flying down the NASA Kennedy space shuttle landing sight at 250ft above the enormous runway, flying over John Travolta's private airfield and see the jets parked at his front door and flying to Merritt Island and watch a Space X Falcon 9 rocket depart towards the international space station. In Sweden, we stayed at the school's own hotel which had a pool table, sauna, jacuzzi and our own spacious private rooms. I met some amazing friends there, one of whom I completed my APS MCC course with at VA Airline Training. The flying was just utterly fantastic in the DA42. The instructors ranged from a former Saab Draken fighter Pilot to Diamond Aircraft Delivery pilots who all knew the aircraft inside out having delivered them worldwide. We would regularly fly to places like Denmark and Germany making approaches at various interesting airfields I'd never have seen or visited otherwise.
How did the competencies you developed during your APS MCC help you afterwards?
The APS MCC set the foundations up nicely for the multi-crew aspect of my role flying the ERJ145. The course used real-world SOPs which are the bread and butter of every flight you do working as an airline pilot. The instructors all made sure we understood why we do things each way and what it prevents commonly known as Threat and Error management. The emphasis on good briefings and keeping your colleague informed is great practice for the real world where you will fly with different people to different places all the time.
What have been the highlights since you started airline flying?
The experience I have gained working for Loganair operating the ERJ145 into big airports and providing lifeline services to our customers who live in the islands has been fantastic. We regularly do non-precision approaches into places like Stornoway and Benbecula which are procedural and have no radar and can both provide some of the most challenging weather and winds you will find anywhere in the UK but can also on a nice day provide utterly breathtaking scenery to admire in the cruise. We also do charters and scheduled flights into major airports such as Dublin, Manchester, and Heathrow to name a few. A personal highlight of mine was landing at Heathrow for the first time and seeing all the traffic in the hold around us. Seeing Concorde sitting as you taxi in to your stand is pretty exciting.
What advice would you give to someone about to start APS MCC training?
The best advice I can give somebody starting their APS MCC training is to focus on what the course is really about, Multi Crew. It can be overly tempting to rush in to push a button or engage a mode in the sim but it is key to remember that "slow is smooth and smooth is fast" when interacting with a jet aircraft moving at 6 miles per minute which requires two people to fly and both to understand what is happening. The main thing however is to enjoy the training and ask lots of questions if you don't understand something as it is likely one of the last steps you'll take before applying for your first job and having to pass that first simulator assessment.