Regardless the day started at 0600 hrs. I showered, shaved and donned my pilots uniform for the first time. It was a proud moment to look in the mirror and see a future pilot staring back at me. This would be the same character that people would see striding through a terminal in time to come; the look of awe from young aspiring kids and their mothers.
Headhunter and I broke fast and heading inbound to the airport. The first engagement of the day was with The Chief; a portly, retired-RAF with a bellowing voice which instilled confidence and quickly gained favour. He spoke with dilligence and an RP which is ubiquitous amongst the faculty. He reminded us of the great and difficult journey that lay ahead, whilst also reminded us of the innumerable rewards; he managed to maintain smiles throughout with frequent jokes to keep us amused. He remarked rather early on "Ground school is difficult; anybody who enjoys ground school is a pervert!"..
Soon after, our cohort was issued with our reading material for the first six month period. This consisted of 14 textbooks which echoed my thoughts of the difficulties which lie ahead.
Lunch was followed by a particularly dull HSE talk on conduct throughout the airport; with credit due to the brevity used to address this boring formality.
The day was concluded with an introductory talk by the Squadron Leader; a pleasant gent with possibly a drinking problem a stress issues. The Squadron were left in some way confused as the whether this was a joke or not; instinctively I had assumed it to be a joke and began to laugh, but stopped immediately when few chimed in. How disconcerting..!
Right, back to work; as I stare at the huge pile of books on my desk I feel somewhat as though I should make a start and at very the least remove the cellophane wrappers..
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