Systems training is
complete! After two weeks of more
information than any person should have a right to receive, I am finally done
with the classroom part of my training.
We took our systems final exam today and I got a 96%. All 19 of my classmates passed as well.
We also finally received our
training schedules for the remainder of our training. It’s kind of weird.
Bottom line is I’ll be spending a good deal of time in Oregon this month
because of a number of delays, which I was expecting.
I just got into Portland
(first class this time!) and I’ll be returning to Houston on a redeye flight
Monday night to get a 5-hour class on Mexico flight operations on Tuesday. Then I have 8 days off back at home. Seems kind of silly to fly back for a single
class, but that is just the way the training is scheduled. I head back to Houston after that break to
begin cockpit procedures training (CPT).
The 4-day hands-on course will have me in a cockpit mockup and a flight
training device to practice procedures in the EMB-145. It will my first experience with flying the
aircraft, even though I won’t actually be “flying” anything. After that I will take the dreaded oral exam.
Then it’s another week off
back in Portland, then back to Houston for simulator training. This will last 11 days, most of which will
be in the ultra-realistic full-motion flight simulator. My timeslot will be during the hours of
1830-2400 each day. We use the
simulators 24 hours a day because we only have 3 of them. I feel sorry for the folks who have the
0200-0830 slot. On August 31, I’ll take
my simulator proficiency check. After
that I’ll officially be a first officer, but will still be waiting on aircraft
training and IOE. I have no idea when
that will be. But at least I’ll be
getting paid while I wait.
Even with all the delays,
the key factor is that I started building seniority on July 9 and the longer
I’m in training, the less time I’ll be sitting reserve, so it doesn’t really
matter too much.
After we took our exams
today we went and did some emergency drills in the cabin trainer, which is an
actual EMB-145 that has been separated into a cockpit section, which is now a
flight training device, and a cabin section that the flight attendants use for
their training. The FAA requires that
the pilots learn how to open the emergency doors and what-not so we spent some
time in the cabin trainer. I’ve never
been in the EMB-145 before and this was exactly like it. It’s small but very comfortable and
new-looking, and it was pretty cool because now I know what my passengers will
be experiencing. Nifty stuff.
I’m still having fun and am
happy to be done sitting in class.
Soon it will be time to see if I
can actually make use of what I have been taught.