Ground School

After INDOC those assigned to the CRJ went on to ground school and the ERJ folks had a two and a half month break before starting ground school. I spent the time off working on household projects and using travel benefits to visit a few places. 

I took some notes during the month but didn't journal every detail, but you can get an idea of the process:

Day 1: 

• Class intros
• Issued company badges
• Sim bids (CVG, SEA, SLC) 4:00, 12:00, 16:00, 20:00. Live bidding based on seniority, 1st 15 in class got to choose, we had a few minutes to network and find a partner that we meshed with (similar back ground, common city, best time of day, etc.). There were two captains in the class so partnering with them would be ideal as you'd take your ILOE as a pair. Otherwise FO pairs get a fill in captain for the ILOE. This sim bid line also determined the procedure trainer schedule but all PT's are done in Denver so only need to travel to CVG for sims
• Emergencies
• TEAM model
• ICE briefings
• Safety and Power Up (from a dark aircraft)
• Electrical
• Fire Protection
• Checklists
• Power up
• Flows
• Origination
• Hydraulics 
• Airworthiness

Day 2:

• DTS lesson 1, getting familiar with MCDU (FMS)
• Matrix lesson 1, safety and power up checklist. Originating flow and checklist.
• Ground
• Flight instruments
• Before start tasks
• More FMS examples, building flight plan from release/clearance
• ABC
• WANT
• APU

Day 3:

• DTS lesson, load FMS with route, perf, other release info
• Matrix lesson 2, ABC's (load FMS, bugs), WANT briefings. 
• Started from dark cockpit
• originating flow, originating checklist
• Before start flow, before start checklist
• Ground 
• Engine start flow and checklist
• Tasks
• Getting release perf data (ZFW, V speeds, etc.)
• Pushback
• Starting engines
• After start checklist
• Taxi operations
• Ice and rain protection
• Runway performance change checklist

Day 4: 

• DTS
• Matrix
• Ground

Day 5:

• DTS
• Matrix
• Ground

Day 6: Off. Studied 10-2 with study group for KV. More studying that evening.

Day 7: Off. Got groceries, laundry, walked 3 miles, a little bit of studying.

Day 8: 

• DTS progress check, had to load FMS and takeoff data within 20 minutes. Got uniforms, had to exchange jacket for bigger size. 
• Matrix
• Ground (TBD)

Day 9:

• DTS
• Matrix
• Ground

Day 10:

• DTS - MCDU validation, setup FMS in 20 minutes
• Matrix
• Ground

Day 11: Emergency equipment, opening and disarming main cabin door, O2 masks, PBE's fire extinguishers, and life vests.

    Ground:

• Systems review. Reviewed the items that I didn't know during the in-class review that evening (about 1-2 hours)

Day 12: systems test, 160 questions, need 80% to pass. Pass and get ground school graduation certificate, wings and name tag.

Day 13: Leadership and professionalism. Topics included, styles of leadership, some actual ASAP reports and how we might have handled them. Another point was how we go from small focus on our tasks and flows when just learning to a wider and eventually big picture once muscle memory and repetitiveness of tasks/flows get proficient.  

Day 14: Off, but practiced flows and flight in procedure trainer SEA-PDX for PT1 Day 13

Day 15: Procedure trainers (PT). These are scheduled the same as sim slots so this week will be 8:00 pm to 2:00 am every day. Going to work on a sleep schedule and prep as the week progresses. Probably sleep until 10 or 11, and then breakfast and prep. Relax and exercise late afternoon and early dinner with rest before 8:00 pm check in.

• PT 1: SEA-PDX-SEA, basically a complete end to end flight alternating as PF and PM for each leg.
• Advanced trainer with yoke, throttle, flap, spoiler levers. Got to rotate and disconnect auto pilot at mins and follow flight director to runway.

Day 16: PT 2

Day 17: PT 3

Day 18: PT 4

Day 19: Reviewed flows/checklists in Matrix in preparation for PV. PV (flows/checklist/FMS setup validation) and approach practice. Hand fly a takeoff (no auto throttles or AP). Did repetative approaches to work on a pattern/cadence for rapid briefing and approach setup. ABC, WANT briefing, descent checklist. Approach and missed approach callouts.

Day 20: PT 5

Day 21: Travel home

Day 22-23: Off

Day 24: Travel to CVG for start of SIM training

Indoc

After completing CTP-ATP, I had a day off and then a travel day from DFW to the company training center for INDOC. Once again it was an early flight so there was some time to scout the area for food options and pick up a few things for meals. In addition, Uber Eats and similar were available which I used a few times for dinners during the week.

INDOC is a week of classroom training of all things part 121, company procedures, uniform fitting, etc. There is a lot of information condensed into a week of classroom presentations and at the end there is a 100 question knowledge validation (KV) that you must get at least 80% correct in order to move on to the next step of training. If you do have a bad day with the KV and get less than 80% you'll get a second try after some remediation. You'll want to avoid a second try because it reduces your "second try count" for future validations. There will be other validations that are much more difficult that you may need a retry on and if you use the retries up early in training it may keep you from continuing later on in the training process. 

Throughout the training, we had quizzes to complete after each topic and some computer based training (on the iPad) to complete before the end of the week. Here is a partial list of the topics covered:

Day 1 - Start of INDOC - "culture day". The presentation was all about the company's culture and a get to know everyone in the class day.

Day 2 - Company history, culture, travel benefits. badge photos, issued company iPads, measured for uniforms. Started in on lectures - managing documents, op specs, flight operations manual (FOM), etc.

Day 3 - Derived minimums, definition of marginal weather, PIC/SIC minimums, 17347 exception, duty/flight times, types of reserve,

Day 4 - Flight releases, airworthiness, different types of approaches, aircraft performance

Day 5 - Supplemental operation, emergencies

Day 6,7 - Off and time to study for the KV

Day 8 - Knowledge validation, 100 questions

After the KV, we were told that depending on the aircraft type that you were assigned to, you'd continue on with ground school or go home and wait for a ground school class to get assigned. In my case, it was the later and they scheduled a flight home for me the next day. It was kind of nice to get a break and that break turned out to be about two and half months off with training pay. So not a bad deal as after a couple of weeks in a hotel, I was ready to get home, plus it gave me some time to prepare a little better for a long hotel stint which would occur once ground school started. 

CTP-ATP

In order to take the ATP multi-engine knowledge test, one has to complete the CTP-ATP course. This course is a six day class that consists of classroom sessions covering ATP knowledge topics (30 hours) and 10 hours of simulator training to expose you to crew resource management concepts and some maneuvers that you'll see in the 121 environment. In most cases, the airline that hired you will pay for the CTP-ATP if you don't yet have an ATP multi-engine rating.

In my case, I was sent to CTP-ATP at ATP Jets in Dallas, TX. The airline paid for my travel, hotel, and the class (which can run $3800-$6000). I traveled to DFW, and had an early flight so got to the hotel in the afternoon and had some time to explore the area around the hotel for food options.

Classroom Day 1 - Up at 5:45 for breakfast at 6:00, shuttle to ATP Jets at 7:00. First 1/2 hour was sign in and show identification documents. Got a short tour and was provided with WiFi and access to account profile, schedule, etc. Class started at 7:45. No lunch was provided but a company called  Foodja was available to order lunch each day.  My class had about 80 students and probably 50 were from my airline and the remainder were folks taking the class on their own, a few from NetJets, and miscellaneous other airlines. I got back to the hotel around 5:00 pm and made the short walk to Walmart to get food for the week. The hotel had a small fridge and microwave. Spent some time studying for the ATP written test using Shepard Air test prep (the airline paid for the prep too).

Classroom Day 2 - Today and remaining class room days start at 8:00 am. Another full day of presentations. Got back to the hotel and did more studying for the written.

Classroom Day 3 - Today and remaining class room days start at 8:00 am. Another full day of presentations. Got back to the hotel and did more studying for the written.

Classroom Day 4 - Professionalism and CRM, 35 question quiz from topics discussed during the four days

Simulator Day 1 (Day 5) - CRJ AATD,  intro to FMS programming, CRM, callouts (takeoff, approach, descent, landings, takeoffs, ILS, RNAV, SID, STAR). 

Simulator Day 2 (Day 6) - Full motion A320, B777, Terrain escape maneuver, TCAS maneuver (RA). B777 crosswind landings, approach to stall, unusual attitude, normal landings, auto land 300 RVR, incorrect airspeed indication (failed 2 of 3 pitot tubes). KSEA, KMEM, KRNO

Day 7 - Off

Day 8 - ATM test (ATP multiengine written).  Test took about 2 hours (went back through each question a second time), passed with 95%.

Day 9 - Off

Day 10 - Travel DFW to airline's training center for INDOC class.

 

The Next Phase of My Pilot Journey

After a long stint as a software engineer, it was time for career 2.0, so today I'm headed to Dallas to start the training path toward becoming an airline pilot.  Over the years I've accumulated the required hours and ratings. and the job search process began back in July with numerous applications, resumes and interviews. Though I could have started in October, chose to finish out 2022 at my current company and start career 2.0 in 2023.

Prospect Oregon

After a couple of cancelled attempts due to weather to get to Prospect, OR (64S), the club was finally able to get a fly out completed to this small Oregon town. The town is a short walk from the airport and we ate at a traditional roadside diner called the Prospect Cafe
where breakfast is served all day. The other highlight of the trip is that there are a couple of waterfalls below the airport and can easily be accessed via a trail off of the end of the runway or from the south end of town.

   

Camping in the San Juans

One of the annual club trips on the calendar is to spend a weekend in the San Juans camping at the Orcas Island Airport (KORS). There is typically a fly in sponsored by the local EAA chapter on the first full weekend of August. This year we had five airplanes make the trip with some repeat attendees and some new participants. We made the usual trek to Roche Harbor and Friday Harbor during the weekend and those destinations never get old. See previous posts here.

Hotel at Roche Harbor

Camping Area Looking North

Career 2.0

June 27, 2023 - At the time of writing this post, it's been nearly one year since the process started of applying to an airline. I have some downtime while sitting on reserve to catch up on documenting the journey.

After over two decades in the technology industry, the time was right for a career change. I've had the urge to do some professional flying and have had the flight hours and ATP experience requirements for a while and with the current hiring climate in the aviation industry, now was the time to make the switch. After doing some research on various flying jobs using airlinepilotcentral.com and individual company sites, I settled on applying to some fractional operations and a few regional airlines that either had a base near where I lived or had a short commute with a lot of flights to and from the major airport where I live to a domicile. With that criteria in mind, I started compiling my aviation resume and applying to various airlines using the airlines' respective websites or using airlineapps.com. Within a week I was getting emails for follow-up phone screens and to setup interview times/dates. For some of the airlines, the interview slots went fast so when it was all said and done the process took about a month to get all the interviews scheduled and completed. 

The interview process was straight forward and with help from sites like aviationinterviews.com preparing for the type of questions that would be asked was helpful. One of the interviews required completing a 50 question technical exam that consisted of questions similar to the FAA ATP written exam. I was fortunate to get multiple offers and have the luxury of being able to choose the company that had a domicile that would keep my commuting to work to a minimum.  For those unaware, about 50% of airplane pilots commute to work, so for example, someone living in Seattle may commute to Denver as a non-revenue passenger or ride in the cockpit jump seat in order to get to a place to start their flying day.

After accepting an offer with a regional airline, the next step was to choose a training class date. The class date is key to an airline pilot's seniority as it is the day that the starts your seniority ranking which will be used for domicile selection, trip selection, simulator schedule, etc. For me, I wanted to complete the year at my current job so I selected a class date near the end of December. This would allow me to finish out the year at my current employer, be home for Christmas and have a week or so to reset and prepare for the next career adventure ahead.