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Inevitably most people would probably figure out that they should be studying flows/call-outs on their own before sims, whether it's from prior experience, because they got gouge from someone more senior, they have exceptional foresight, or they got lucky and found it somewhere else, but if it's not in the formal training program, there's no way to guarantee that everyone knows what they should be doing. As a result, even with holes in the training, most people will still pass, but TSA will lose out on some good pilots. I imagine TSA's goal is not to just be an all-expense-paid prep school for other airlines, so information like this sounds like a simple fix that could save them lots of money and resources. Just my .02
You nailed it on the head, and I figured out too late the timing of what needed to be learned when. But even the instructors admitted to not knowing how to teach the flows and callouts because they had just been revised. Three different instructors, including Paul, came in asking just how the flows worked. So we didn’t even have a full demonstration of the flows and really was a try and figure out what the training department wanted. My partner and I spent many frustrating hours in front of the paper tiger going through flows and callouts HOPING we were doing it correctly.Originally Posted by Duffman
FWIW, I found his post informative. He said he was unprepared for the sims at TSA with a causal factor being that TSA didn't dedicate time during training to learn flows and call-outs. You shouldn't be stumbling over basics in the sim, you should be focusing on the finer points of your global SA, so not knowing your flows is a death sentence. It's a training program so it's assumed that they'll make it very clear what you should be studying every night and it sounds like they did not. Inevitably most people would probably figure out that they should be studying flows/call-outs on their own before sims, whether it's from prior experience, because they got gouge from someone more senior, they have exceptional foresight, or they got lucky and found it somewhere else, but if it's not in the formal training program, there's no way to guarantee that everyone knows what they should be doing. As a result, even with holes in the training, most people will still pass, but TSA will lose out on some good pilots. I imagine TSA's goal is not to just be an all-expense-paid prep school for other airlines, so information like this sounds like a simple fix that could save them lots of money and resources. Just my .02
In the end, yes, TSA turned into an all expenses paid prep school, just as you said. They even paid for the ATP/CTP course that my next airline didn’t have to. In fact, because I already had the course under my belt, I was able to get into a class three months earlier than others who were given offers the same day I was because there was a waitlist for the ATP/CTP course. So, for the good things i took from TSA, I’m grateful.
Regarding the suggestion that there’s no way to tell that I would have been successful if I had gone to PSA first...It’s possible, but unlikely. We were given the tools we needed, particularly for flows and callouts, in advance of ground school, and we were told in no uncertain terms what needed to be learned and automatic by the time we went to sims.