Hi, I am nearing ATP mins, about 900TT and I was wondering if you guys had any tips on how to prepare for IOE, SIM training? Ie what is the toughest part about going from teaching in 172s to build hours, then going to flying something 5 times as fast? Out of all aspects of airlines, what is the hardest to overcome? Thank you so much.
Gabriel,
Great question and I’d be lying if I didn’t say newhire at the airlines kicked my butt. Fortunately I did my training with ATP and they prepared me well for the pace of ground school so that was a non event. Personally the biggest challenge I had was adjusting to the turbine “lag”. While jets obviously have tremendous power, it’s not instantaneous like it is with pistons. You need power in a Cessna you push in the throttle and it’s there. No so in a turbo fan. There’s a lag which can be as much as 6-7 seconds. That might not seem like much but when you need it’s an eternity! That’s really where the concept of staying “ahead of the airplane” becomes critical. You must anticipate or you’ll be chasing and that’s never good. It’s something you pick up pretty quickly (or else you’re toast) but it’s def a steep learning curve.
Adam
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Gabriel,
My best advice to you is to ask these questions to mentors or instructors when you get hired. Each airline’s training footprint is different and they are your best source of information as far as what to study, what not to study, what the common areas of deficiency are, etc.
If I were to do it all over again that’s what I would have done. I spent too much time trying to memorize things I didn’t need to. It paid off in the long run, but it would have helped me avoid a lot of unnecessary stress.
Tory
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Gabriel,
Pay very close attention to what your instructors tell you. They will be experts on your particular airplane.
I found the toughest part to be keeping up with the airline operations. It isn’t just flying airplanes anymore, there will be catering, maintenance, gate agents, passengers, etc to attend to.
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Would you mind expanding on this a little bit? I’m unfamiliar so I don’t even know the right question to ask here to get more information.
I found the toughest part to be keeping up with the airline operations. It isn’t just flying airplanes anymore, there will be catering, maintenance, gate agents, passengers, etc to attend to.
I’m dog-piling on you for that comment 
I’m seriously considering leaving my current job because I spend 90% of my time doing “HR” type work (employees with life issues or attitudes that they bring to work). They may constitute only 10% of my staff, but they eat up most of my day so I cannot pay attention to the good people who show up and do their job. My biggest victory some days is simply disciplining/correcting a grown adult in a legal way that doesn’t incite them to file an inquiry into MY behavior…and as you might imagine, since I’m actually a pretty nice person, that’s not a good feeling day, after day, after day. It’s very unsatisfying and some weeks it’s just soul-crushing when an otherwise good employee takes a nosedive and puts me in a position to be sternly corrective. I’m looking at Airline Pilot because it looks like the script is flipped on my current existence. Fly the plane 80-90% of the time, the other 10-20% is admin, flight prep, some light HR (flight attendant, or other co-worker creates some drama that the PIC has to weigh in on). I think Tory is a union officer, but that’s likely a career challenge he chose to take on.
“Life as an Airline Pilot” YouTubers and forum writers give no indication that pilots do much beyond inspect the plane and fly (with time on ‘reserve’ consisting of drinking coffee in the lounge/Starbucks, or sitting at the house with your family waiting for “the call”). A few more details on the more mundane, or un-pilot-y duties that pilots have would be really nice to know before I make this jump. Thanks!
Yes, most of our time is spent flying the airplane, but not he ground we frequently deal with all sorts of various issues. Generally speaking, anything that happens on the ground in some way runs through the pilots.
Two passengers have the same seat assigned, the FAs come to you, you can either pick up the radio, call it in and wait fifteen minutes for it to be resolved, or walk the two tickets up to the gate agent yourself and resolve it in two minutes.
Something breaks on the airplane, that is a call to maintenance, then to dispatch, then another call to MX to see if they are really coming out. Then numerous calls to decide if what they are doing is a legal fix and how it will affect your flight.
Catering. Something is missing in the back, guess who the FAs call to have it resolved. I usually wait five minutes before calling in their “missing items” as 90% of the time they find it.
De-icing involves very long and complicated procedures, plus a lot of waiting in line.
Pushing back from the gate is not just a call to ground control, it is a call to ramp, then a clearance to a defined spot, then a call to clearance deliver, even though you already have your clearance (IAH) and then finally ground control.
In London one must clearly state that they are “fully ready” when calling for pushback, because the fact that one is calling for pushing back somehow does not indicate that they are ready and the word “ready” is not good enough, one must be “fully ready”. If one simply says they are “ready” they will be asked by a very irritated “director” (not controller) if they are “fully ready”. A simple “yes” will not suffice, one must respond again, with the call sign that they are in fact “fully ready” and not just “ready”, even though it is the same darn thing.
Things like the above examples are not really big deals, but they just take some time to learn.
Chris
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Thanks for the response. I don’t mind those type of minor safety-related judgement calls and customer service exercises. Also, I am no stranger to minor bureaucratic issues and, have developed an almost superhuman ability to endure such BS and still remain calm.
It’s the high level human resources problems that take hours and days to resolve that kill me. I am pretty much done with telling adults how to set their alarm clock or manage their lives to be to work on time, be civil toward customers, and not create drama that impedes the organizations ability to do the mission. I don’t mind being a leader, and really enjoy aspects of it, but endless counseling and disciplinary actions have worn me down with regard to parenting adults.
Again thanks for the feedback!
Thank you so much for the response Adam, I’ll be sure to study up on that
Chris,
How much assistance do the company’s dispatchers offer when it comes to dealing with maintenance and the other ground related issues?
It was my understanding they are there to take some of the burden off of the PIC
Anderson,
Dispatch helps with flight planning and will get involved with maintenance if the issue will affect the flight, but that is about it.
A lot more falls to the pilots than most people realize.
Chris