Challenger Truckee

SrFnFly227 said:
Nope that's me and I'm about to blow your mind.

I am the Training Manager for my company of 8 pilots (7 PIC and 1 SIC) and 3 mechanics. I am the Standards Captain on the Lear 45. I am PIC qualified, but not let go as non restricted PIC in the Gulfstream 280. Flying pilot always sits in the left seat, regardless of assigned position. So I may fly from the left seat in the 280 as SIC on Monday and then hop in the Lear Tuesday with the same pilot that I flew with on Monday a give a standards check in the Lear. There is never a question about who will be running the show in the case of an emergency. Anything not an emergency is coordinated as a crew.

This works because we are all on the same page with it. We know each other and know the other pilot is competent and will make good decisions. Every 6 months, we train together and fly both left seat and right seat in the sim. And just like in the plane, left seat flies and right seat runs checklists.

Now this obviously all gets murky with situations like the accident this thread is discussing. I would argue that professional contract pilots are a lot like FOs at the airlines. You have to be somewhat of a chameleon. And that's possible because as mentioned upthread, the training facilities all use manufacturer provided material. Different operators may change things like what lights are turned on when or what call outs happen when, but overall, things stay pretty damn consistent. It still appears to me as if the PNF was trying his best to mentor the PF. Unfortunately, he let it go too far before either stepping in or saying go around. Why this happened is a great question and I would venture it has to do with the fact that he was contracted to be SIC on this flight and he was filling that role.
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Is your role as training manager for your mechanics just a paperwork thing or do you assume, because alpha •, that you know enough about what they do that you might give them some beneficial guidance? You're just checking the boxes required and your input is neither valuable nor useful, but you check the boxes and add that to your resume. They don't care despite what they may tell you, they need those boxes checked. If you want to earn their respect get your hands dirty changing a brake and then do all of the paperwork involved, make sure you don't miss dotting an I or crossing a T. The outlandish assumptions pilots make about how the airplanes they fly are actually taken care of baffles me.
 
knot4u said:
Is your role as training manager for your mechanics just a paperwork thing or do you assume, because alpha •, that you know enough about what they do that you might give them some beneficial guidance? You're just checking the boxes required and your input is neither valuable nor useful, but you check the boxes and add that to your resume. They don't care despite what they may tell you, they need those boxes checked. If you want to earn their respect get your hands dirty changing a brake and then do all of the paperwork involved, make sure you don't miss dotting an I or crossing a T. The outlandish assumptions pilots make about how the airplanes they fly are actually taken care of baffles me.
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I do not pretend to know anything about maintaining an airplane. My job is to budget, schedule, pay for, track, and document their training events. As I am new to the role, at the moment it is basically them telling me what they need. I am enjoying learning about required training on the tech side though. It's a world I had not really been exposed to prior to taking this over in April. One of our guys started 6 months to CAM through the NBAA in July and is going for his IA in a week.

We may end up hiring 1 or 2 full time flight attendants next year. I will be responsible for their training in the same way that I am the mechanics. Though I will probably be part of the onboarding process for them as well. And I forgot to mention our scheduler/dispatcher. Track his stuff too.
 
SrFnFly227 said:
I do not pretend to know anything about maintaining an airplane. My job is to budget, schedule, pay for, track, and document their training events. As I am new to the role, at the moment it is basically them telling me what they need. I am enjoying learning about required training on the tech side though. It's a world I had not really been exposed to prior to taking this over in April. One of our guys started 6 months to CAM through the NBAA in July and is going for his IA in a week.

We may end up hiring 1 or 2 full time flight attendants next year. I will be responsible for their training in the same way that I am the mechanics. Though I will probably be part of the onboarding process for them as well. And I forgot to mention our scheduler/dispatcher. Track his stuff too.
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'Nough said.
 
BobDDuck said:
That's true. A straight in ILS is probably even safer than that... But we don't always get to pick our approaches, especially OCONUS when there are most likely language barriers. I just shot a barely vmc "visual" from a downwind that dumped me on a 3 mile final in a 400k jet (stop laughing @Screaming_Emu) in mountainous terrain. The RNAV was available by request, for operation requirements but not operational preference, so since we didn't want to write a full letter to JCAB we jammed the visual.

View attachment 73161
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SMOL
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
Classics can do abeam points?!

Our 700s and 800s cannot.

Then I gotta go to the fix page, put original fix, abeam, and drop it on legs page. We do abeams for fuel check points, and because creating a direct to a large distance just throws the FOA value out of whack. The winds page only looks at that next fix 700 miles away with no other data in between.



You’ll call flaps 2 here and throw me out of whack. :) Joke aside, if I come to your shop I’d be trained by your shop specifically. Right? That’s unlike a contract pilots who just show up to move a plane.
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Don't quote me on this, but it seems like on most long haul flights, the predicted on deck fuel on the PROG page (at least if STAR/approach are input then) is around 1000 more before takeoff than it is when you land. Or at least in that ballpark. We used a similar rule of thumb in the FA-18, albeit on shorter legs.....but the reality was the same, predictive fuel estimates were about that optimistic early in the flight. IMO, it is funny to be measuring the predicted fuel with a micrometer, i.e. abeam points, when people change speeds and fly other altitudes than planned (turb, wx avoidance), get held down, or fly non standard climb outs. When I'm sitting there trying to figure out why I might be 800# below the how ya doin, there are just too many variables to be able to say "oh its a fuel leak". So I question if fixating on the printout and abeam points is really a worthwhile endeavor. But I'm new, so I'm also probably wrong :)
 
///AMG said:
Don't quote me on this, but it seems like on most long haul flights, the predicted on deck fuel on the PROG page (at least if STAR/approach are input then) is around 1000 more before takeoff than it is when you land. Or at least in that ballpark. We used a similar rule of thumb in the FA-18, albeit on shorter legs.....but the reality was the same, predictive fuel estimates were about that optimistic early in the flight. IMO, it is funny to be measuring the predicted fuel with a micrometer, i.e. abeam points, when people change speeds and fly other altitudes than planned (turb, wx avoidance), get held down, or fly non standard climb outs. When I'm sitting there trying to figure out why I might be 800# below the how ya doin, there are just too many variables to be able to say "oh its a fuel leak". So I question if fixating on the printout and abeam points is really a worthwhile endeavor. But I'm new, so I'm also probably wrong :)
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I’m never concerned with abeam points and the like, just extra useless info in the legs page. I always like it when guys keep climbing to cruise, altitude with a direct headwind that keeps increasing by 10-15 knots per 1000’. Gotta get up to 360! Can’t cruise at 320 and have 50-60 knots less headwind.
 
CoffeeIcePapers said:
Doesn’t a lot of this have to do with doing the exact same profile every 6-12 months? Sure, after you’ve done the cookie cutter training event, it will go smoothly. Part 91 flying rarely goes that smoothly in reality. Also, I suspect you’re quite a bit ahead of the curve relative to the average 91 guy.
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“Cleared ILS runway 4R, circle to land runway 31R”
 
MikeD said:
I’m never concerned with abeam points and the like, just extra useless info in the legs page. I always like it when guys keep climbing to cruise, altitude with a direct headwind that keeps increasing by 10-15 knots per 1000’. Gotta get up to 360! Can’t cruise at 320 and have 50-60 knots less headwind.
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Don't you question the gonkulator Mike! The release said 350, with a step to 370. The CRZ page says it too. OUR FUEL BURN IS LESS THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
FWIW, while I haven't flown with mike, I can picture him giving a "you're a dumb dumb but I'm gonna sit here and give you a lot of non-verbal cues but still let you do your dumb thing because it doesn't really matter" face. I've seen it when I ate his nachos wrong my civilian buddies were talking about Skywest at dinner :)
 
///AMG said:
FWIW, while I haven't flown with mike, I can picture him giving a "you're a dumb dumb but I'm gonna sit here and give you a lot of non-verbal cues but still let you do your dumb thing because it doesn't really matter" face. I've seen it when I ate his nachos wrong my civilian buddies were talking about Skywest at dinner :)
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Ha! So, you noticed….during our dinner at Majerle’s?
 
///AMG said:
Don't you question the gonkulator Mike! The release said 350, with a step to 370. The CRZ page says it too. OUR FUEL BURN IS LESS THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Yup….even though the winds end up not as forecast. But, must follow the release to a T! Don’t you dare request or accept any shortcuts either.

Or the other week. PHX to NYL. Dispatch, why do you have me filed at 360? 240 will work fine.

Or the week prior. For the 50th time, stop filing me J169 BLH, TRM; told you 50 times already, ZLA is going to reroute me every single time HRRBR J212 DECAS TRM for the ARCOE STAR because J169 puts me in the way of eastbound traffic climbing out of the LA basin. Can you please change that canned flight plan route in the office computer? :)
 
Cherokee_Cruiser said:
What’s to stop me calling myself a BBJ contract pilot? I’m typed and current right? Other then the nugget at my shop for no other professional flying for my services, why can’t I just show up at your organization and fly a BBJ on a one time basis for a re-po leg?
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As a very busy contractor in large corporate jet flying international and domestic destinations…

Your attitude, tone, confidence, reputation, inability to think outside the box, lack of recency in flying part 91, lack of standardization, lack of experience in the right seat, can’t fly a circle to land, can’t file a flight plan…etc etc. I can keep going but I think you get the picture.
 
///AMG said:
Blythe Thermal. You know you wanna be there
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Spent a week in Blythe the other week for flight ops. Top floor of the Hampton and they’ve got a Sizzler!

May have an opportunity to be supervisor of a patrol unit if they open one up there like they want to. Would have the whole airport to ourselves and our one helo. :)
 
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