It is an EXCELLENT opportunity for guys like me. It's called Airline Training Orientation Program, and its bascially a weekend where we get wrung through the same style of training the airline pilots get put through, just not for 4-6 weeks.
We spent a full day doing a crash course overview on every system in the aircraft and then woke up REALLY early (4AM for me) for our Sim ride. Both days were at the Continental Pilot Training Center at IAH. During the sim ride we each spent half an hours PF and half an hour as PNF, and we hand flew the whole thing, however we did use autothrottles. To cap off the flight we did two ILS's into SFO, one in CAVU the other in whatever conditions we wanted down to Cat 1 mins. I asked him make it hurt ... nothing quite like charging down the ILS in at 160KIAS in hard IMC when the fastest approach you've ever done was 90KIAS. Then we went over to the FTD and performed an emergency descent for our High Altitude endorsement. It was way easier than it sounded because its all flown with the Autopilot.
Aside from being the most fun I've had flying, I learned a TON about airline flying and the coursework that airline pilots go through, and even after going through that I still want to be an airline pilot. I think the course was very useful in a practical sense too. Every time I board a 737 now I make a point to walk up to the flight deck, introduce myself to the flight crew, and take a peek at the overhead panel, just to see if I still know what all the buttons and switches do. We covered literally every switch on the airplane, obivously in an overview fashion only. (If I wanted a better explanation of a system I went and asked my Boeing engineer buddy after the class.) And the best part, the instructor let us keep all the training materials, so i've got Paper Tigers for a 737NG, some systems diagrams and a small systems book now.
If you've ever read AOPA Pilot or Flight Training you've probably read an article by the instructor, Wayne Phillips. He is a great teacher and that is one of the reasons I still remembered where all the switches were and what they did at 5AM the next day.
And he was also willing to answer questions and talk flying with us outside of the training environment. He even took us to dinner and breakfast.
I honestly can't say enough about the program, it solidified my drive to be an airline pilot becuase now I know what to expect (training wise, im here to learn about the QOL type issues) and I still want to do it anyways.
The indicator is Captains Side above the Standby Instruments, its small bar the moves kind of like the ball on a turn coordinator and during normal flight doesn't move much.
On non-NG 737's its dead center above the engine instruments.
