Originally Posted by Atlas Shrugged

To all of you who might find yourselves at this glorious outfit in the near future, I give you some free advice from a regular line CA.

I can only speak about the 747, but much of this will apply to all air-frames. You are all pilots, and you know how to fly already. The problem is the amount of information and compressed training time at the school house. You will be drinking from a fire hose even though the training has certainly improved since my initial. Your first goal is to pass your type ride and oral. You MUST do this!

Then, you will have to get through OE, which will most likely be a wam bam thank you mam experience. You will probably be signed off without having done a North Atlantic crossing. You will have no clue what you are doing, and a line Captain will have to teach you. When this happens, please be upfront and tell the CA that you have never done this before. Then, please be open minded and teachable.

The 747 is a big airplane, but it is still an airplane. It is not difficult to fly, but you must respect two laws! The law of wings level at touchdown and center line discipline. These two laws will keep you out of about 95% of the danger.

Most of you who have flown more advanced airplanes, like the E175, etc, will find the FMS antiquated. It will not do things that you take for granted. You will have to recage your mindset a bit. Hand fly the airplane every chance you get. Ask lots of questions. Study on your own.

You are now going to be flying on 6 different continents with only 24 hours notice, and your ATP is on the line too. You will be singing the flight plan as PIC while I am sleeping.

Get a noise cancelling headset!!!!! That especially goes for you old guys who have never flown internationally and can't understand what the Korean lady is saying. Read the notes before your flight. AMS is not playing around when they say "call sign only". Learn how to talk on the radio. Learn ICAO radio terminology.

You sound like an amateur or a Delta pilot when you say to Tokyo control "Giant forty five seventy five climbing 5.5 for 10." And it makes it much harder for the everyone else. You can get away with that in the States, and it doesn't bother me in that case, but this is unacceptable internationally.

You will find yourself slipping into a 3-4 hour sleep cycle on the road. This is the result of cumulative fatigue. It comes with the territory. Life at Atlas is feast or famine, and there is no typical pattern. Learn to get some exercise and clean up your nutrition as much as possible. Even walking will help a lot. You will have to find out what works for you by trial an error. Always and never don't apply in our situation.

Good luck and remember that fate is a hunter!