IOE Check Airman

Trip7

Well-Known Member
Whats the process like to become a check airman at your airline? How much extra pay does one normally get? Is it something that can be gained quickly? My buddy at Republic flew with a 24 yr old capt who was also a check airman.
 
Well, before you had to have at least a year's experience in the CRJ, pass a written test and then pass an interview board to be check airman. After that, there was a checkride and right seat qualification. Now, with the new mentor program coming on-line soon, you'll have to be a mentor CA to apply for check airman. I guess they wanna see if you can deal with the FOs that know what they're doing before you deal with the ones that don't. :)

I do know there are a lot of check airman here that are pondering (or already have) stepped down to just be regular, ole line CAs again. Plenty of other CAs that would make excellent check airman aren't even interested in doing so for a number of reasons.
 
At my airline, new captains, not even off high mins are ready to be signed off as line checkairmen. That's just my airline right now, though.
 
Whats the process like to become a check airman at your airline? How much extra pay does one normally get? Is it something that can be gained quickly? My buddy at Republic flew with a 24 yr old capt who was also a check airman.


Sim or IOE instructors at UPS must have a minimum of 4000tt with at least 1000tt in FAR 121 or turbojet ops and at least 500hrs as a UPS Captain. Now, there's also an interview process if you're chosen out of the list of applicants for any instructor position. To be an IOE instructor also requires a right seat FAA observation ride on at least one leg.

I was a sim instructor on the B75/76 and A300 fleet and a IOE instructor on the A300.
 
Thanks for the info guys. Do IOE captains get a significant pay increase?

At the place I work the IOE check airmen get an additional $14 per hour on top of about $60-$80 per hour for captain pay.

Individual definitions of what is a significant pay increase vary but number-wise it comes out to 23% more per hour for the lowest paid captain.
 
At the place I work the IOE check airmen get an additional $14 per hour on top of about $60-$80 per hour for captain pay.

Individual definitions of what is a significant pay increase vary but number-wise it comes out to 23% more per hour for the lowest paid captain.

Wow 14 an hour more sounds nice!
 
But think about instructing in a multi million dollar airplane with dozens of people on board...I think they earn it.

yea, especially if its that person's first time on the line. Would being a check airman help on your application to a major?
 
yea, especially if its that person's first time on the line. Would being a check airman help on your application to a major?

I can't imagine anything more stressful than being a check airman and having to supervise a pilot's first landing in an actual airplane (with passengers, no less). I pity the guy that has to do my CRJ700 line check next month--after a couple of hours in the sim today, I'm apparently good to go with pax!

I certainly don't work for and haven't applied to a major, so I'm not speaking from any experience, but I've heard that being a check airman helps tremendously.
 
yea, especially if its that person's first time on the line. Would being a check airman help on your application to a major?

You better be pretty into teaching if you're pursuing that position. Being a captain is already being a teacher, but to be a check airman and IOE captain you're taking it to a whole new level. If in a few months you hate flight instructing you may consider that continuing to be a teacher might not be the best idea.
 
I can't imagine anything more stressful than being a check airman and having to supervise a pilot's first landing in an actual airplane (with passengers, no less). I pity the guy that has to do my CRJ700 line check next month--after a couple of hours in the sim today, I'm apparently good to go with pax!

I certainly don't work for and haven't applied to a major, so I'm not speaking from any experience, but I've heard that being a check airman helps tremendously.

Yeah that sounds pretty stressful. Im sure they're used to it. Have fun on the 700! Guess you have to get used to not dive bombing to the runway
 
yea, especially if its that person's first time on the line. Would being a check airman help on your application to a major?

I have a friend that was hired by SWA last year. Of the people hired, during his interview, all but one was a check airman. I would say that it probably does help, but certainly isn't necessary. It probably depends on the airline. If the airline is hiring like mad, it probably doesn't make a big difference, but at airlines that have a choice, due to the stack of resumes, such as UPS, FedEx, SWA, and maybe some others, it probably would help you stand out, some.
 
You better be pretty into teaching if you're pursuing that position. Being a captain is already being a teacher, but to be a check airman and IOE captain you're taking it to a whole new level. If in a few months you hate flight instructing you may consider that continuing to be a teacher might not be the best idea.

Bingo. Check airman=CFI at an airline. I personally know of several check airman that have gotten violated as a direct result of the people they were teaching. As a CA, you've gotta watch not only yourself, but your FO, ATC, the other guys out there, the FA, the gate agent, dispatch, etc, etc. As a check airman, you have to do all of that with a new FO, ESPECIALLY with current regional hiring practices. A couple of seconds lapse in the attention b/c of the reduced rest overnight and no food could land you in the middle of a clearance deviation. Is it the new FO's fault or your's? I'll tell you who the FAA is gonna point the finger at.

It may help on an application to a major (depending on how many and how quickly they're hiring), but the risk of violations could offset that. I already know of too many guys that are getting out of the check airman thing before they get violated or violated again.

One guy said "I'd do it forever if I could just do CA IOEs. It's the FOs that don't know what's going on that get me in trouble."
 
I kind of got an very very unofficial offer to do that after I bid SLC MD-90 captain, but lemme think.

767ER FO... Dozing for dollars... Laying over in Europe.

Back to the mad dog, more money as captain, but having to teach someone the 'pull push pull' method of landing, five legs a day...short 12 hour layovers....

ehhh!
 
I was an IOE instructor (F/A) for several years at Eagle before going to AA.

It was a lot of work. It was a bit more money, how much more I've forgotten. But I haven't forgotten how much work it was! (Kinda tell ya which memories stick around, eh? The money or the effort.......)

I quit doing IOE a few weeks before I went to class to get checked out as a ground school instructor. The trip after I quit as an IOE instructor I showed up and saw the training department had given me a student. I called them up and told them I'd quit, they told me it would have to wait until the end of the month as I was the only instructor who'd bid the ATR and they needed the newhires signed off.

I greatly preferred ground school teaching to IOE teaching. I was actually in the process of submitting my 'stuff' to teach with AA when 9/11 happened.
 
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