Originally Posted by
PapaJaime
I went through mid-October, we had three resignations - no terminations. From the get-go we were told to “study together, or fail alone.” We took that advice and followed it. After indoc, we were informed of the three strikes and you’re out policy. However, they give you the opportunity to resign and not be terminated.
I came from flight instructing in a Cessna and am a very introverted person, but I knew that I would need study partners and friends throughout the program - so I sucked it up and studied my butt off with my group and then went back to my own room and studied more. If my study group wasn’t clear on something we asked other groups and then would ask for clarification from one of the instructors. We were told at times that we were over thinking something and to not dig so deep, but never were we told ‘sorry, get out.’ Also, there were countless observations of other people’s sim sessions. That different perspective helped me. I admitted I was struggling and not confident during LOFT and requested another session. The instructor was happy to give me another one. In the additional session I set forth my concerns during the prebrief and the instructor answered any question I had and helped me throughout the session. I will admit, there are some better instructors but none of them were unwilling to help me or those in my class.
No, it was not an easy program, Skywest is rumored to have the hardest training program of 121 operators, but I felt prepared when I got to IOE. Since getting through IOE, I’ve learned more from the everyday line captains than we learned in sim.
I absolutely hate the commonly told advice that you must study together in groups. Yes, that works and is apparently necessary for some people. But for others (myself included), it’s completely unnecessary and actually counterproductive. I’ve always touched base with my sim partner, and for sure the two of you MUST practice flows and call outs to be successful. But studying together? Not necessary.
Now that I’m at a major, I agree that SkyWest has a fantastic training program (much better than the place I ended up at). It’s challenging in that there’s a lot of stuff covered, but if you put in the effort it’s very reasonable and I have witnessed the training department bend over backwards to help people that are struggling. I’ve also seen people that showed up with an entitled attitude get their butt handed to them.
I will say there are a couple of SLC CRJ instructors that have reputations. I’ve had the two most notorious ones on several occasions for CQ. But even with them, as long as you were humble and put in effort, it was fine.