Originally Posted by
RemoveB4flght
I’m about 25 years too late to help you with questions about the program you are in. That being said, the important thing to remember for pilots in your shoes is not how difficult the Spirit training will seem, but how much you still have yet to learn on the other side of it.
To put it into context, compare the knowledge level that was expected of you on your CFI ride to what was expected on your Private. You are flying the same plane in the same airport/airspace, but under much different circumstances and responsibility. Coming off your private, you had only the most fundamental understanding of both the plane and how to operate it. This is where you will be at the end of your Spirit training. I’m sure you have had discussions with freshly licensed students to be wary about how much they bite off as they slowly expand their experience. You won’t have that luxury as the very next day when you get line qualified you can be sent to the biggest/busiest/or trickiest airports in the most challenging conditions.
If the training at any point seems easy, it’s because you aren’t aware of how much you don’t know. The same goes for your first few years on the line.
I was sub 200 hours on the plane and sub 500 hours of 121 when I was called on reserve to fly to Costa Rica with a fully loaded, topped off A321 in the hot summer with nothing, but red and purple on the radar and controllers who don’t know how to speak English. I was sh%#+ing myself.
It’s not easy, but it’s fun! The CAs certainly are not instructors, but they’re usually willing to help out if you go to them humble, hungry, and ready to soak up what they got to tell you. Nothing, but top notch crews here at NK!