The new office

Here's some pics of the new office.....sorta. This here is the pre-office study gizmo that us f.n.g's use to practice flying like the company wants us to. Prior to the invention of the G.F.S (graphic flight simulator a.k.a Goofus) pilots would spend many an hour sitting in front of a cardboard cut out of a cockpit. There you would pretend to push buttons, flip switches and chair fly all your flight profiles. Now we sit in the cradle of technology and push touch screen computer monitors that actually do something. Every time we push the screen to flip a switch or push a button, the cockpit actually responds like the real thing.....sorta. It has its limitations. For example, we do a lot of knob turning in order to set our v-speeds, heading bug, speed bug, ext. On the goofus, we have to touch the screen to get a box to illuminate, then we repeatedly press the screen to set whatever we are trying to set. Only one dirty finger on the screen at a time too. Because of this, it is time consuming to try and get things dialed in the way we want them.

The Goofus may be awkward to learn to use, but I love the thing. It is light years beyond sitting behind a "paper tiger". I love the fact that we can do just about anything with it. Anything you can get in the sim, we can go over in the goofus. It can simulate all of the failures you will see in the sim as well as gives us a semi realistic platform to learn to fly the glass. If the instructor wants to give us a hot start, all he does is push a button and when we go to start an engine, it'll simulate a hot start. Cool stuff.

1 month down, 1 to go

I know its been a while since I've posted, but the past 4 weeks have been spent cramming my head full of a lot of information. Everyone calls airline training "trying to drink from a fire hose". They are correct. The sheer amount of information that needs to be absorbed is astounding. We have 3 main books that are our new flying bibles.

The first book is our Flight Operations Manual. This book governs how we operate. It contains information ranging from how we are to keep our hair to what we do with unruly pax. Bible number 2 is our Flight Manual. This book contains all our new procedures for flying. It makes sure that every pilot at the company is on the same page as far as what we do in the airplane. This way every pilot flys the same way. (for the most part) It also contains our memory items and limitations. These chapters need to be committed to memory verbatim. The limitations chapter is almost 50 pages long and has items on every page that must be committed to memory. This book also contains our expanded checklists and flows which also need to be memorized. Further on the the book, we have our maneuvers and profiles. This is a template for how we fly the aircraft. We have call outs and procedures that must be followed to a "T" for every flight regime.

Bible number 3 is the systems manual. This is where we find all the information we could ever want about the plane. We must have every switch, light, lever, knob and system memorized as well as how they all interact. We need to have detailed, working knowledge of how every system in the plane works. All 22 chapters in the book need to be read, highlighted and read again. This way we have a good understanding of how the plane works.

After you have digested and memorized the contents of the three bibles, you now get to show off your newly acquired knowledge by taking an oral exam with a check airman or a fed (if your having a real bad day). The oral exam can be a tortuous event for those that come unprepared. I've heard the horror stories of guys busting for even the smallest of errors or forgotten items. This can last anywhere from an hour to 3 hours if the check airman has to drag every answer out of you. After you pass the oral, its then on to cockpit procedure training to finally go learn how to fly the plane the way the company wants you to. Then if you pass a phase check, basically a mini checkride in a pseudo sim, you get to go to the sims.

Currently I am sitting here in my hotel taking a little study break. I finished up the ground school this week and am studying for my oral exam that I take early this week. Hopefully that'll go well and I'll get to start my cockpit procedures training towards the end of the week. If everything goes according to schedule, I'll start my sims in 2 weeks, finish them on time and take my checkride in another 4 weeks. Of course this is just a tentative schedule. All it takes is one broken sim, someone ahead of me needing retraining, a busted checkride or numerous other events to throw a wrench in the works. So I'm hoping everything will go as fast as possible. All I really care about is finishing up so I can go home.

Splat

Here's the aftermath of a flock of birds on the takeoff roll a few weeks back. Luckily we didn't suck any into the engine's. The score for that encounter: Falcon 2 Birds 0.

Lawyer anyone?

If anyone ever is told by an employer that they require a training contract, walk away. I wish someone had given me that advise before I signed my life away for my former job. The contract I signed is so absolutely one sided that it leaves the pilot zero protection from the company should things not work out. It basically states you must pay the full amount of training if you quit or are fired before the time limit is up. You also must agree to have your paychecks withheld, that you agree to go to court in the company's hometown and you will have to pay all legal bills for the company should you lose your case. I had the "rose colored glasses" on when I signed this contract. Had I taken a step back and realised how bad it really was, I would have gone to ExpressJet instead.

This contract only benefits the company. The pilots only get screwed by signing it. For example, the schedule change last year. They can force the pilots into whatever they want. The pilot has no recourse. They are forced into the terrible schedule because they cant quit, or they'd owe the company money. The company doesn't care if it kills any semblance of a family life you may have, you work the schedule, or else you owe. They could force you to never have a day off if they wanted, technically they could force you to be on call 24/7 and there is nothing you can do about it because you signed that contract. Another pitfall is that it is also not prorated. So lets say you are a good pilot, always show up on time and fly your ass off for the company for the required time limit. 1 day before your contract is due to expire, they can fire you, take you to court and sue you for the entirety of the contract. Why? Just because the contract says they can.

I knew that I'd have to pay some sort of money to get out of my contract at my company. They have been prorating the contract for other pilots who have left the company early, so I figured they would do the same for me based on the precedence they have started. I found out the hard way that I was WRONG! They refuse to prorate it and informed me they plan on suing for the entire amount of the contract. I tried to reason with them, even offered thousands more than the prorated amount, they refused.

So here I sit, in training for an airline trying to absorb all the information they are throwing at me, and I have impending legal action looming over my head. Try memorizing 10 pages of limitations while also worrying about how your going to defend yourself in court against a lawsuit that you cant afford to defend yourself against. So anyone know any lawyers in the Dallas area that is willing to do a little pro-bono work? Please, send them my way.

For all those aspiring pilots out there that read this: Be careful in your career choices! This industry is filled with landmines and pitfalls that you must be careful to avoid in order to get to your dream job. Watch out for training contracts, there are plenty of good companies out there that will hire you with out one. There are lots of jobs out there, choose wisely.