Originally Posted by
Wheels322
Hey man...glad to hear you're liking it so far. Sounds fun and exciting. I had an interview this week and was told on day 2 I'd get checked-out in the 172 and PA-28. Can you tell me a bit about these checkouts? Are these like US checkrides, where you're being tested on maneuvers, traffic pattern work, etc.? Also, are these done in the right or left seat? Thanks in advance.
Sorry for the late reply! It's been pretty busy here. After you get settled in and do all of your new hire paperwork, you're off to training sit through a short presentation about how the discovery flights work and the routes. Then I sat in the backseat of a discovery flight to observe one or two flights. Then you hop in a Cessna or Piper and go do a checkout w/ one of the senior pilots. It's really basic stuff like stalls, steep turns, stalls. A few touch and goes and it comes to about .8 for the checkout. It's not so much a checkride, really basic if you've flown recently.
Next is your IOE. You will be flying paying passengers as PIC, but one of the senior pilots will be in the backseat observing you for just a few flights. After that you're cleared on that aircraft. Eventually you do a checkout in the other plane and then you're cut lose and cleared to fly either one. You can fly in either seat (but personally I fly in the right seat, much easier for me!)
Hope that helped!