When I was contemplating bidding CA on the EMB, everybody in general seemed to think that was a good idea. Idle small talk, many had been in the EMB before the CRJ, said it was fun (for a while).

Then, after I accepted the bid, I seemed to regularly bump into people that would question, "you're going from FO CRJ to CA EMB ?"

When I said yes, almost universally, they would say, "you're gunna have your hands full".

I think JetJock said they had 28 total days, and he thought that was fast. I did 26 days from first day of class to failed sim ride.

I completed my fifth sim session (which started at 4am each day), and everything went pretty good. Not perfect by any measure, but I felt pretty good. The instructor signed me off, but wouldn't sign off my sim partner. I went right into the oral from that sim ride. When I thought I could see light at the end of the tunnel (I was scheduled to actually fly the plane in three days), it all went down hill fast.

Actually, it was amazing how fast I went from hero to zero.

Oral started like this:

1. How long is the temporary airman certificate good for? I said 90 days, answer 120 (I think a temp aircraft registration is 90) WRONG

2. If you lost the temp certificate, what do you need from the company? I said some kind of letter or copy of certificate. WRONG, illegal to copy temp certificate, need exemption 5585.

3. If you flew 8 hours, what is normal rest? I said 9. WRONG. It's 10, 'cuz the rule is less than OR EQUAL TO 8 hours equals 10. 9 hour rest is for LESS THAN 8 hours.

4. What does the F stand for in ALSF-2 and the R in MALSR? I had no frigging idea. WRONG (flashing and runway)

5. When you get to DH on the ILS, and see the approach lights, how low can you descend? Me, "100 AGL". Ok, you see the red terminating bar, how low? I said continue the descent (word for word out of the reg). He says no, it's 50 feet (basically the landing threshold crossing height) until you see the runway lights/markings (except centerline lights).
Not sure I still buy off on that. Surely, you can't land, but I've never seen any altitude restriction, nor is there a callout for that, or training on that.

Anyway, the oral didn't go much further and he stopped it. I basically didn't get anything right. It kind ****ed me off, too, 'cuz we never really even talked about the f-ing airplane that I just spent the last 3 weeks learning.

I was so wound up, I couldn't get on my motorcycle to ride back to the hotel for about 3 hours. My sim partner, who didn't get signed off for the sim check ride, did his oral after me. He didn't get much of an oral at all. He said he just asked him a couple questions, and was on the phone the rest of the time rescheduling stuff.

I didn't sleep that night at all; I went over every memory thing I could think of that he would ask in the sim (it would be the same examiner that just failed me on the sim). At 6am, sure enough, right off the bat, he asked how to check the parking brake light. I had no idea. I looked after the fact, and could not find any place in any of the manuals that tells you it's push to test. (by the way, it says right on the lens "push to test"... one of those things that familiarity with the plane would have helped).

Anyway, I'll save y'all the gory details, but the sim ride was failed also. Strike two. Not signed off for retake, strike three.

Of the ten folks who signed up for the class, one didn't show (were told he got a job in Citation), one failed the written, passed on retake, and quit. Presumably, he thought he wouldn't complete training, and by quitting prior to FTD/Sim, it doesn't show up as a PRIA. He could actually just reapply, and get hired back on at SkyWest or anywhere... a wise move. And, of course, I failed.

My sim partner called and said he passed, and was on IOE.