July 31st - What Time is It?
I just completed my Operating Experience! The instructor and evaluator told me I completed it with fewer training hours than the average pilot who comes from turbo-prop plane, so that was a real morale booster. The simulator training was needed to get me trained on flying the plane. This Operating Experience (OE) was required to allow me to fly the plane for the airline itself. The Line Check Airman, the FAA representative, and a company evaluator all had to sign me off on this training. My first flight as a true Captain will be August 5th flying international into Canada.
No one is perfect and there were things I kept forgetting. One flight I would forget to turn on the landing lights for take-off - it was during the day so they only come on so other pilots can see us coming in – and on another flight I would forget to call for a checklist when I was supposed to. Some of this was due to the fact that when you're in the simulator your instructor would teach you one way, then when flying the actual plane that instructor would have a different way of doing things. You just have to accept this fact and adapt on the fly – pun intended.
On the second day of OE I made a funny mistake that others said they have done, too. I shut down both engines at the gate without first making sure there was an electrical source to power the airplane's interior lights. It was at night and all the passengers were still on… the airplane went completely dark! The emergency lights then came on. My instructor looked at me, smiled, and pushed the button to turn on the auxiliary power generator. He said "I bet that's a mistake you'll never make again."
The second day started in Chicago and ended in Des Moines, Iowa with a stop in Memphis, TN first. I made two nice landings. We followed a FedEx jet out of Memphis all the way to De Moines. The air traffic controller asked us both what our speed was in relation to the speed of sound. We were both flying at 77% the speed of sound, so the controller didn't have to have one of us slow down for the other.
When we ended our day the flight attendants told me that a passenger had commented to them that I had a soothing voice over the Public Address speakers in the aircraft cabin. That was the first time I have ever heard a passenger make that compliment about any pilot. Another morale booster!
What's it like flying a jet? Everything happens quick! You will fly near a thunderstorm you saw on the horizon just 20 minutes ago and had guessed that it was too far away to even worry about. Flying half-way across the country? In my previous airplanes you had hours to think about approach and landing. With a jet… you're planning the approach and landing only an hour after you took off… and you're not even in the same time zone yet, hah!
Warning: Science talk:
When we talk about how fast we're going in a jet at high altitudes, we talk in percentages of the speed of sound, not in miles per hour. To explain… the closer we get to the speed of sound the more drag an airplane encounters, to the point at which we would need a rocket engine or special jet engines to get the plane past the speed barrier. Because of these aerodynamic facts (and a couple more), a subsonic passenger jet plane, its engines, and its wings are designed to fly as close to the speed of sound as possible while also being fuel efficient. Now, the speed of sound changes with air temperature and air pressure. So while we are climbing or descending and the air pressure and temperature are constantly changing, the speed of sound will change. If we used miles per hour to describe our speed, we would need to calculate the speed of sound every single minute to make sure we weren't going too fast or slow. Instead we simply have instruments that tell us what our speed is compared to the speed of sound. Mach 0.74 is 74% the speed of sound. Using this terminology is different to me, but is very cool indeed. Our instruments tell us both Mach and nautical miles per hour at the same time, so I have to be careful to look at the right one while flying.
On day three we flew from Des Moines, Iowa to Minneapolis, MN to St Louis, MO back to Minneapolis then on to Austin, TX. One of the people that have to sign my training as satisfactory is a government representative from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). They have to sit in the cockpit in the spare seat and observe one flight. They aren't looking for perfection because they know I'm still in training. It's just the government's way of double checking that the airline is doing a proper job training pilots. But you still get nervous and feel a lot of pressure to be perfect. Mine went fine and the representative shook my hand and said good job. The last day we flew from Austin TX to Detroit to Hartford, CT and back to Detroit.
On the third flight (the one to Hartford) an FAA aviation inspector decided to hop a ride home on our flight. He used his credentials to sit in the spare cockpit seat to inspect my instructor and I. We were tired after flying all weekend and my training was coming to an end, so having a government inspector ride with us and watch everything we did wasn't fun, BUT, it's part of the job. I usually never ever worry, because I know I'm safe and do everything the way I should, so I don't have to worry about the FAA guy taking my license away. But when you're so new and still learning, you get nervous and want to put on a good show. Once again, the FAA shook my hand and said good job. Phew! It was a tough landing, too (not rough, tough). The runway didn't have an ILS landing system working, and there were no lights to guide me down to the runway, so once I saw the runway I had to use my basic pilot skills and land a fast heavy jet on the runway as if I had all the normal visual cues.
Now for my last flight during OE. My instructor thought I was doing well enough that instead of a training flight, he would make it the final evaluation. If I did well, he would sign the paperwork. If I made a big mistake, he'd just say I needed some extra time, instead of giving me a failing grade. That was very gentlemanly of him. Fortunately I didn't need that bone, because he thought I did well enough to sign me off fully! He shook my hand and said "good job!" In aviation if it's not one thing that goes wrong, it's another. On our last flight, when the whole crew (me, my instructor, and the two flight attendants) were going to be going home and hoped for an early arrival in Detroit, there was a glitch with the jetway. We waited on the plane with our passengers for almost 20 minutes while they tried to figure it out.
Overall conclusion:
The thrill of flying a technological marvel capable of achieving speeds and altitudes only dreamed about a century ago is something I would never give back. No matter how demanding the job can get I am reminded every day that what I do for work is simply miraculous.
So, what does airline training teach us? Besides the fact that we have to know and master flying the airplane itself, we learn that we cannot depend on our own human brain in itself to operate an airline flight. Everyone involved must do their part, must be trusted, and must speak up if they don't like what they see or hear. The engineers who designed, the mechanics who maintain, and the reliability of the equipment must be trusted. With all these elements in place, you still cannot ensure a safe flight if you did not take your training seriously, if you show up to work late, tired, emotionally drained, or under the influence of a drug or alcohol. You must rely on your and your co-worker's experience and gut instincts. You must follow the regulations and policies, filling in the grey areas with information from all resources available to you. Realizing that no human or machine is perfect you must always be planning a way to safely return to the Earth.