Originally Posted by maxjet

Gotta chime in here. THIS IS MY PERSONAL OPINION AND IN NO WAY AM I SPEAKING FOR THE COMPANY. I have been observing the ASA pilots for a few months. Good people but very inexperienced regarding the demands of training and flying around the world.

The problem, as I see it, is that you don’t know what you don’t know. Because you were very good in your last environment does not totally transfer to this environment.

A lot of you have been flying the same aircraft, to the same airports, guided by ATC. You have been working with a training department whose program is designed for brand new pilots. You know all the players, all the gouge and the examiners know you.

You have now come to the world of ACMI wide body, AQP. The techniques you have used in the past may not serve you well here. The pace of training will be like going from a C172 to a personal jet.

So that is the bad news. The good news is that you CAN do this and we are happy to have the vast majority of you. Question is, how best to succeed.

1. Do not ever think “Co-operate, Graduate”. DO ask lots of questions. Never sit mute because you don’t want to ask that question. This is your training and you have to take charge of YOUR training. However, please do not suggest changing the program to what your airline does. It falls on deaf ears and makes you look like “that guy”.

2. Get as far ahead of the training as you can. Indoc this week? In addition to Indoc during the day, you should be studying flows, procedures and using the desk top trainers located on the basement level. Put the time in ahead, or you suffer a sleepless 2 weeks while you try to keep up during flight training.

3. Ask the instructors and pilots who are in the school house for direction. EVERYONE wants you to succeed.

4. Don’t ever get caught talking about one of our Pilots who is trying to help you. NL3 is very well liked and respected. If your ego cannot handle what he is writing, you would be best served to work elsewhere. What some of you have taken as condescending was nothing but helpful advice.

5. Do not memorize, understand. Bring your prior experiences with you. For example, Kalitta has a mandatory procedure that requires you to call the tug driver and request permission to pressurize hydraulics. Is that not the same as turning on the nose wheel steering switch? You visually checked out the window before turning on that switch. In any wide body aircraft you cannot do that because you cannot see the people and equipment under the aircraft. Hence the requirement to call. Point is, take your prior experience and plug it into your new procedures. You now understand, and are less likely to forget verses memorizing.

6. The instructor and the training department work for you. Take advantage of that. Come to briefings with lots of questions. We like to say, if you show up to a briefing with no questions, you either didn’t study or you didn’t understand anything you studied. Our manuals, like all airlines are confusing.

7. The FTD and simulator are places to rehearse what you have learned prior to going in. They are not the place to learn for the first time how something works. If you go into the device with an understanding of what it should look like, it is much easier to LEARN when it looks different than you thought. Some of the best students will remark “ oh, that’s how that looks”. The devices are where you are supposed to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes. If you cannot make a mistake, correct the behavior, and move on to the next task smoothly you will experience difficulty.

This is a fast paced program where sometimes you only get to do a maneuver once or twice before you are evaluated on it. If you go into the sim unsure of the procedure because you didn’t ask about it during the briefing, you will waste your training time talking about something in the simulator that should have been covered during the briefing.

If you show up at the first day of indoc and are not very familiar with memory items, and limitations at a minimum, you are already behind. The time you put in during training will directly effect your comfort level when you are 2 days out of IOE with another new hire crossing the Atlantic while the Captain is sleeping in the back.

Those who have class dates welcome. We need you and we want you. As a pilot group we expect you to be a professional and take pride in becoming the best that you can be. Momma at the Ops center is not holding your hand and making decisions for you here. As a crew, you are given the keys to the jet and a mission to complete. It is up to you to use all available resources to complete that mission giving the highest priority given to safety.

We work in a segment of the industry where more than any other sector, procedures and experience keep you safe. You don’t yet have the experience so you have to be very good regarding the procedures. We also work in a segment where the insurance company is the driver as to where we can go. Ball up an aircraft due to poor safety and we all suffer the loss of revenue. Bust noise abatement rules because of poor procedures? We can’t go there anymore ad again we all suffer the loss of revenue.

At Kalitta, you are the “Captain” when you are the PF. You are trained as a Captain and are expected to fly like a Captain. Nobody holds your hand here like you had to with your FO’s at your last job.

Good luck to all and I look forward to meeting all of you someday. The reward for all of this hard work. Best damned flying job you ever had as long as your family can handle 16 on/15 off. Best maintained aircraft, best destinations, and best people both in and out of the aircraft I have ever had the privilege to work with. Oh, did I mention? The gross pay and benefits at the end of the year is quite good.

I hope this is of some help.