Originally Posted by Turbosina

Glad I could help!

A couple other pieces of advice that I wish someone had given me:

1) About halfway through Systems, it's going to feel completely overwhelming. You're going to think to yourself, 'There's no way I'm going to pass this. Just no way." Just realize that this feeling is normal; everyone feels this way at some point. But the Systems Validation (systems exam) is definitely easier than the training itself. In other words, they will cram your brain with more knowledge than you need for the exam.

However, out on the line, you will be surprised at how much you use that knowledge every day. Admittedly, some of the stuff just evaporates from your brain because you never use it, or because the reference is printed right there on the TOLD card or somewhere else (max landing weight comes to mind; if you turn to 70,000 lbs on the CRJ-700 TOLD card, it'll say in very big letters, "Landing - Overweight", as an example.)

But other stuff, such as "How and why do we transfer the APU bleeds on the 200?" is stuff that you'll use every day on the line, and will become second nature the more you do it.

2) The earlier you can practice flows, the better. Sit with a buddy and help each other memorize and practice flows. Unfortunately on the CRJ you won't have any seasoned Skywest pilots in class with you (I don't know of anyone who's doing a E175-to-CRJ transition, although I suppose it's possible), but if you do have any ex-121 guys in the class, ask them for help. Watch how they practice flows. Go into the Matrix on your off hours (SKW allows unlimited self-practice time on the Matrix simulator) and run the flows and callouts over and over. Again, it really really really helps to do this with a buddy.

I came from a Part 91 background with north of 6,000 hours of piston time, and the concept of flows was a tough one for me to grasp. Reading the SOP, with its rather confusing separation of flows and tasks and checklists, left me utterly confused as to just what we were supposed to do when. There were times I thought I'd never get it.

Now, however, I can jump in that airplane and do flows and callouts with my eyes closed, half-drunk (OK, I'm kidding on the second part.) When you see a seasoned crew blitz through an originating, pre-start, engine start, taxi, and takeoff check, it will seem like magic if you've never done it before. Then once you get enough practice, it becomes second nature. I mean, on our first FTD session, it took me and my sim partner 90 minutes to power up the airplane, run our checklists and push back from the gate. My record now is 18 minutes from arrival at the cold, dark aircraft to actual pushback, and that included the walkaround...

Of course if you're prior 121 then you know all this, but just in case you're coming from a GA background, I thought it might be useful to hear one GA pilot's perspective.