Lets here your experience of how your first few legs went as a new airline pilot
-How did the aircraft fly compared to the small pistons from GA flying? Easier to fly? Harder?
Wouldn't say it's easier or harder to physically fly. It's an airplane, just less forgiving and a little bit heavier on the controls.
-How close did the Sim fly like the aircraft?
Pretty darn close. Landings were the biggest difference. You just don't get a feel for the landings in the sim and the braking on the rollout is very exaggerated in the box. Everything else was pretty accurate.
-Did you feel your piston twin time make you feel like you could handle th RJ, TP, etc...
^^Assuming you were hired with min. multi piston for the job^^
Did a bit of MEI'ing just prior, which I think helped me the most. Did an RJ course through my degree program. For the most part, useless, since I fly a turboprop, but I do believe it helped me get used to doing things a little faster in the airplane. The sim gave me the confidence to fly the airplane. IOE gave me the confidence to operate in a 121 environment.
Basically I would like to get an idea of how well prepared you thought you were for flying a 121 size aircraft. Put your time when you started and the aircraft you were flying in GA and your 121 aircraft. Alright, lets here all the stories...
Walked into ground school with the idea that "hey I've done an RJ course, this shouldn't be too bad!". Not the case. Was not prepared for the firehose of knowledge packed into 3 weeks of ground school. Managed to get by, but it wasn't easy. The sim portion was a little easier for me, but it was stretched out much more, so I had more than adequate time to prepare for each lesson.
First couple of legs, I was hanging on to the static wicks. After a few landings, felt pretty confident and was able to stay ahead of the ship for the most part. Tips I have: Walk into ground school with the attitude that you know nothing. Study every night, but set aside a day during the weekends where you don't even think about an airplane (maybe go over limitations once, but that's it). Be confident, but DO NOT be a know-it-all. Just because you have a fancy degree from Riddle, UND, Perdue or a fancy jet course from ATP means zero things when you are sitting in ground school with classmates who putted around a grass strip in a 1972 C152 at Mom and Pop flight school. You are all equals at this point and you all need to work together. The fancy degrees and courses may have given you the advantage in the interview, but it's a clean slate in ground school.
Hired with about 540 TT, 130 ME, 275 Dual-given
Instructed in 172s and Seminoles
In the right seat of a Dash 8