Indoc (Week #1)

IrishSheepdog

Sitting in the median
Hey all,

I haven't been online much since I've been so busy, but I figured I'd stop in every so often to give you guys and gals an idea of what new-hire training is like at the regionals. I know probably like 90% of the people on this board want to have a airline career... hopefully this will give you some insight into the training process!
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Day 1: Showed up a little early for my first day, just to ensure I wasn't late. We started right at 8:00 am going through some company information, ID photos, fingerprinting, paperwork, benefits review, and so on. I met my fellow new-hires (4 of us) at this point. I'm the "baby" of the group, since they order us by age. I am at the bottom of the seniority list by a month!
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We all headed to lunch together and got to know each other a bit more, before returning at 1:00 pm to start "Indoc." At this point the upgrades showed up (4 of them as well), and we were paired up with a captain. I got paired up with a really cool captain... a woman who interviewed just about the time I was leaving my internship at the company, 18 months earlier.

For indoc, basically we take our General Operations Manual (GOM) and go through it chapter by chapter, page by page. The manual covers everything from weather, to dispatch, communications, emergency procedures, flight operations, winter operations, and so on. We did this until 5:00 pm. For about a half hour after that my partner and I kinda just BSed and discussed a few things that I had questions about. It's really great being paired up with an upgrade. It instills the CRM we'll use every day from day one of training.

Back at home I studied what we covered that day, as well as some normal procedures/flows, for about 3 1/2 hours before finally crashing due to fatigue.
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Day 2: Back into the books. Today we got our company IDs, and putting it on for the first time kinda was an eye opener. The thing has "CREW" in huge letters across the bottom, as well as "Position: Pilot" on it, and I was almost nervous to wear it for fear of jinxing myself. Same thing for when filling out the class roster... I have to put "FO, MDW" on it each day. I almost don't want to, for fear something happens!

In the evening, I studied for a while the things covered that day. Then I used the evening to go out and relax with a friend to clear my mind!

This whole weekend has pretty much been spent in the books (except last night, fireworks... duh!
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) I have a huge cockpit poster for the airplane all spread out on the floor, and have been memorizing my memory items for the emergencies/abnormals and normal/flows, plus continuing to go through the GOM for everything we have covered already. I just read through it straight once, then go back and read through everything I highlighted which is very important and relates to me as an FO. That is the stuff they will test us on Friday for our Indoc exam.

Tomorrow sometime I plan on meeting up with my sim partner and another upgrade, and we are going to get into the CPT (mock-up of the cockpit) to practice flows and emergencies/abnormals. The thing about learning this stuff is you can't just memorize it. You have to know what the procedure is, when to apply it, what order to apply it should other operations be required at the same time (for instance tail pipe hot warning at acceleration altitude, when the climb checklist has been called for).

To get an idea about memory items... basically, if we get a Master Warning or Master Caution, the Pilot Flying will as the Pilot Not Flying to state the problem and cancel the bell. At this point they call for the proper checklist, or "memory items." For some critical emergencies/abnormals, there isn't time to get the book and look it up. You need to fix it fast. For instance, engine fire. The PNF will 1) Reduce torque 20-30%, 2) Position condition lever to fuel off, 3) Pull the associated fire handle, 4) Activate the associated fire extinguisher. Then you can pull out the QRH (quick reference handbook) to complete the rest of the procedure.

This next week is all indoc (GOM), then the following two weeks are systems. After that, we have a week of oral preparation and cockpit procedures training/performance, followed by about two weeks of sim training in Minneapolis. After that comes OE (25 flight hours, operating experience with a check airman), then hopefully they let me stay here as a pilot!

Hope this gives you all some insight into training. I'll try and post next weekend again, and answer any questions you might have.
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Until then, back in the books...
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Bitchin! Thanks for the synopsis Fly. I'll be waiting with bated breath for next weeks installment.
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So is this captain single? Women with 4 bars =
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Good luck with the studying.
 
Well, you just made it harder to leave my line position to get back into I.T.
Glad to hear your good news and bring the realization that some are training to be regional pilots and that they are still hiring.
I'll be waiting for that next post like I'm a teenager waiting for the next episode of 'Real World".
 
very cool. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences.

Sarah
 
You are making it really hard on me! I can't wait to start my training. Good luck with the training!! I'm looking forward to another update.
 
FlyChicaga,

Just curious if you wouldn't mind sharing what kind of TT you had when you interviewed.

Chad
 
Hey Chad,
He's showed in a previous thread what his times were etc...
The kind of times that has you 1500hr CFIs going "What the #$#%"
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But life ain't fair right?!

Good post though, very informative.
 
haha.. Oh must of missed it. I'm not even a CFI just a 17 year old private pilot with 42 hours
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lol. I was just curious..

Chad
 
I'm sooooooo jealous it's not even funny! Great job and keep you nose in the books. Keep us posted.
 
Sorry, been busy. But to answer your questions...

No, the captain isn't single. Her boy is upgrading with us as well.
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My times were 370 TTL and 25 ME.

'll explain more this weekend when I get some time to relax. Indoc test is Friday morning, so my nose is in the books.
 
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