Has it come to this?

I think it's like a quarter or something. Hell, I even think a can of Vienna sausage is $0.50
 
The funny thing about the coffee you have to pay for at Spirit was the first day I had my normal two cups. It is 'instant coffee' and not the brewed kind.

I had HORRIBLE diarrhea that night thanks to that coffee.
 
Seggy said:
The funny thing about the coffee you have to pay for at Spirit was the first day I had my normal two cups. It is 'instant coffee' and not the brewed kind.

I had HORRIBLE diarrhea that night thanks to that coffee.
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Sounds like most coffee!
 
MikeD said:
1. Take full responsibility for past performance, or lack thereof. It doesn't matter what you think could've, would've, should've with the instructional staff; it only matters what they think and did. Learn from that and don't complain, quibble, or make excuses. Just apply the lessons learned and move forward. Your opinion on the matter means nothing. You are merely a candidate. Think Richard Gere from An Officer and a Gentleman.

2. Ensure that for future apps and interviews, that you fully disclose all previous training successes as well as failures. Be up front first and foremost, and let the potential employer make the decision on whether that information is important to them or not. Do NOT fail to disclose something then have the employer find out later about it, to where what could've been a non-issue up front, now has them wondering "what else isn't being disclosed". Don't let a non-issue now become an issue.

3. When in training, ensure that you fully apply yourself to that training. When in training, barring any emergencies that must be handled, family life takes a backseat (assuming one isn't single). The home fires need to be kept burning and handled by those at home. If this can't be done while one is at training, there's no way in hell it can be done when you are really gone out on the line and on the road. That goes both for you the candidate, as well as family members. When TDY for training, ensure that the bulk of your off time is in the books. Don't burn yourself out, of course, but don't screw around or let other things become a priority if they don't absolutely have to be, most especially if you find yourself behind or having any kinds of trouble with the subject matter material. Take responsibility for your own training and progress, and make things happen on your end, always being prepared and showing up to training sessions as-such. Do not give the impression to any instructional staff that you are "just along for the ride".

4. Take command of your own training. Remember: you do not graduate training; your gradebook does.

The above are some major errors I've see from guys who have suffered setbacks such as yours and some of the things that have tripped them up from being able to advance past that.

You have the answers to what you need to do. Apply them. And remember, as someone trying to break into 121 such as yourself, the airline you make fun of or criticize today, just might be the one you're trying to interview with tomorrow. Tread carefully, especially on public forums.

Proceed.
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Meh, I'm not sure this industry is rational at all. You can take responsibility for your bad actions all the live long day and still not get anywhere. Worse, no one is going to give you any credit for your good actions, cause everything in this industry is about date of hire - not skill, knowledge, or aiming for excellence. Whether this situation is driven by the box checkers in HR, or the make-believe mathematicians in Insurance, or the egos of the many insecure, bitter underachievers flying airplanes is up for debate. But the bottom line is, if you come to the flight line out of low time or even high single engine/single pilot time and start doing perfect continuous bank, constant V-ref+10 circle to greasers in a jet 20 hours into jet flying, "the other pilots" are still going to think you are 'inexperienced" and "not ready". Why? Cause most of them can't keep from thumping the thing down with the wheels on either side of the centerline off a straight in. Or... You manually fly the airplane for 3 hours as accurately as the autopilot and you're "dangerous" because you're not using the autopilot. Once again, this industry is NOT about skill. It is not about the pursuit of excellence. It is not about the right stuff. It, like much else in early 21st century society has devolved into a simulacrum of excellence... a Potemkin Village of performance. It reminds me seeing Paris or New York... in Vegas.

Do you really know something to a greater degree simply because you've been exposed to it (as opposed to engaged with it) for a longer period of time? Are you really more experienced because you've napped in your seat for hours while the AP flys the plane? Are you really the guy the other guys want to fly with just because some vacuous HR bureaucrat was able to check more boxes on your form without ever talking to you?

Just gotta keep the faith, I guess... and hope you get noticed by an enlightened, powerful individual who gives a damn. You know, a benevolent dictator. Flying employment is too much like figure skating. Too many damned subjective judges. Yet the aviation judges generally lack even the modicum of objective judgement criteria imposed on the skating judges. I'll take ski racing every day of the week. First one across the line wins. Be skilled or lose. No BS. No intervention from bureaucrats and sinecure-ists.
 
Derg said:
Use the time to change the approach toward training.

Training is challenging, as well it should, and you really have to treat every event like your job depends on it, because it does.

If you get behind the ball of feeling sorry for yourself, you're absolutely doomed. If you're not leaving the simulator with the blood of your instructor, you're doing it wrong.
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Most aviation training I've experienced has been challenging only because the instructors were less than adequate and didn't know how to teach well. I'm lucky to be an autodidact, so it didn't affect me much. But I've seen others struggle needlessly. On a few occasions, I've been lucky to have a good aviation instructor. A good teacher feels like a beach in Costa Rica with a margarita with a mild breeze coming in off the ocean.
 
Crop Duster said:
...But the bottom line is, if you come to the flight line out of low time or even high single engine/single pilot time and start doing perfect continuous bank, constant V-ref+10 circle to greasers in a jet 20 hours into jet flying, "the other pilots" are still going to think you are 'inexperienced" and "not ready"...
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Skill ≠ experience ≠ judgement

...
Do you really know something to a greater degree simply because you've been exposed to it (as opposed to engaged with it) for a longer period of time?...
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Everything else being equal, yes.
... Flying employment is too much like figure skating. Too many damned subjective judges. Yet the aviation judges generally lack even the modicum of objective judgement criteria imposed on the skating judges. I'll take ski racing every day of the week. First one across the line wins. Be skilled or lose. No BS. No intervention from bureaucrats and sinecure-ists.
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If flying were strictly a physical skill endeavor I'd agree with you. Since it isn't, eh, not so much.
 
Speaking of coffee, I just found out Starbucks mocha fraps don't have real caffeine in them. Rabble rabble rabble!
 
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