Hi! My name is Renaud and I am an Airbus 320 pilot. It is a great pleasure to become an official contributor for Airside, and I’m very much looking forward to sharing my passion for aviation with you!
My aviation journey started in September 2010 at CAE Brussels (which means I am a CAE Pilot!), just after obtaining a Master in Management at the University of Namur in Belgium. I have so many great memories of my training at CAE, which I consider one of the best times of my life. In Brussels, Phoenix and Antwerp, I had the chance to be taught by amazing instructors with very high standards who helped me achieve the required standards to obtain my licenses and eventually become an airline pilot.
I graduated in 2012 when the market was still in the aftermath of the 2010 financial crisis. Despite that, I was able to secure three interviews with different airlines. I started my flying career on the Boeing 717, based in Nantes, France. Quickly after that, I was offered a job at Thomas Cook Airlines Belgium, an airline that operated charter and holiday flights on an Airbus 319/320 fleet out of Brussels Airport in Belgium. Their network was amazing. I got to fly to many fascinating places such as Madeira, Santorini, and many other places in Southern Europe and Northern Africa, all the way down to Cape Verde.
I will always be grateful for having been employed by this airline. The destinations were great, the flying standards set by the instructor team were extremely high, and my colleagues (the “cookies”) were the greatest aviation people I had ever met!
In 2016, I was offered a job with British Airways, based at London Heathrow and flying on the Airbus 319/320/321 to a wide range of destinations. Until now (September 2020), I have accumulated over 6.000 hours of flying on Airbus and have flown to over 100 airports in Europe and Africa.
As a contributor for Airside, I will mostly focus on sharing with you great and inspiring aviation tales from the past, as well as writing other lifestyle articles, layover tips and short training-related articles and quizzes!
My very first article will be about the great test pilot Tex Johnston. In 1955, as Boeing was about to enter the jet age with its brand new Boeing 707, Tex was flying a prototype version of this airplane in front of a crowd of 250,000 people along with airline executives from all around the world. However, during this air-show, Johnston didn’t just do a flyover … (to be continued in my first article “Great Aviation Stories – The Day Tex Johnston rolled a Boeing 707 Prototype” 😊)
Renaud Gobert
Airbus 319/320/321 Airline Pilot
welcome aboard the new airside
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