Originally Posted by
Cessnaflyer1213
Available on Day 1? Yes ... have to to read, understand, and digest while going through Indoc and systems? Hardly. I understand the premise of this style of learning which is mostly driven by cost reduction. This “Survivor Island “ style of learning can be handled by some people, but many struggle. I also understand that this style of learning has a few supporters who think it’s a weeding process to help keep those who aren’t good enough or smart enough out. Only the strong and committed survive. Even the old Fundamentals of Instruction, that many were supposed to have read, will tell you that different learners learn differently.
I understand why AW chose to teach this way, but I don’t agree with it. I stand by my opinion that it is a poor learning system, with numerous flaws, based on an outdated model that was poorly designed to begin with. Indoc and Systems were smooth, well paced, and gave time for people to learn and understand the new world of regional jets at AW. It’s the same style of learning that people experience from Kindergarten on through all of their aviation training, because it works. Then there’s a huge shift in learning style ... I know it’s not AW’s job to make people’s airline pilot dreams come true, but the company’s success is literally tied to this poor example of training.
If ZW only cared about cost savings, you’d get a flash drive in the mail with systems presentations and a letter that basically says “know this on day one”. You’d show up to Indoc and they’d pass out a written test to weed out the people that didn’t study. Which is how many airlines already do it. You’d have maybe a week in Appleton and then they’d send you to the sim, and would fire you after two sessions if you didn’t have the flows down. I have some sympathy if you get called two days after systems ends to come to CPT, but that should be the expectation. Two days plus a travel day is enough to at least get a rudimentary knowledge of the FO flows and day 1 stuff.
As far as different styles of learning, maybe this was a skill the non-college pilots never had to use, but there is nothing preventing you from creating study materials that fit your style of learning. I’m an Audio/visual learner, and most of my college courses required memorizing written material. So I’d find friends to quiz me verbally. If I couldn’t find friends, I’d record me saying the material out loud and listen to it. Plenty of people make videos of the flows for studying.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect professional aviators to be able to read and study a syllabus that clearly outlines everything they need to know AND has page numbers and references for all that material. No company is going to give you group flows/callout study time when you go to recurrent. ZW doesn’t repeatedly hammer limitations in ground school but you absolutely are expected to know them for a checkride, how is that any different than flows? You don’t need to understand anything about the airplane to memorize “flaps, fuel, radar, flight attendant”. The problem is many people read “know all your flows and callouts for day one” and don’t take it seriously.