Whats your first day like?

flyboy04

Well-Known Member
I was just sitting here thinking about how most airline training is done in sims and the first time you fly the real plane your with a bunch of passengers, Im curious to know from some of you airline pilots out there what this is like. I can only imagine sitting down at the controls and looking back to see 50 or so passengers. I bet its a awesome feeling! Anyone have any first day stories that we might find intersting?
 
Mine was just like the simulator, only a lot faster.

My first flight engineer leg was a 17 minute flight from Rochester to Syracuse and all I remember asking after takeoff was a real faint "uhh, help..." to the Check second officer because the simulator and the actual aircraft were a little different.

My first first officer leg on the Beech 1900 I spent most of the Rockford, IL to Detroit leg thinking "the vibration of that four-bladed prop really makes my inner ear itch"

Weird, I know.
 
Correct me if I am wrong, but when I was in the jumpseat of the VS A340 while in the cockpit it does not feel like there are 300 people behind you. Just you and 4 guys making jokes, flying this really fast cockpit that flies itself but you occasionally pull out the map to get an idea where you are, and a person who keeps feeding, watering comes in occasionally.
 
All I remember about my first pax trip in the CE-500 was... Damn this thing is sluggish with people, bags AND gas...

all of my training had been on 1/2 tanks and no pax.
 
I remember being pretty confident during my S/O IOE on the 727. Things went well and I thought I got good training. My first leg really by myself, I went out to the plane like an hour early (two hours before departure) just to give myself extra time. The leg was uneventful and afterwords I told the pilots "hey, that was my first leg as a real S/O"....they weren't all that impressed...guess that was a good thing.
 
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