Just like a cesssna, you always have to be thinking about what you're going to be doing with the plane before you arrive at that point. You're thinking about setting up for the arrival before you start down from your cruise altitude, right? Well, it's the same thing, just that if I'm thinking about the descent and arrival in an airliner at FL360, I'm thinking about that stuff 100-150 miles out. I'm pep ing for an emergency on takeoff before we've even started away from the gate. Tha's what we mean. And your first day you're still used to being ahead of a cessna that flies 150kts, not a jet that flies 450kts. For me, by the end of the first day I felt like I'd just made it to the employee lot when we got to the hotel for the overnight.

IOE is Initial Operating Experience. Sim training only teaches you how to fly the plane in a nice, safe, controlled environment that's missing all the extra stuff that you need to deal with when line flying. If you try to fly an ILS by the book in ORD, you're gonna **** off a lot of people and gum up the works. So on IOE you learn how to fly the plane on the line and deal with the extra stuff. Like getting the walk around, the clearance, the w&b, catering, ramp, ops, and all the other stuff, and all within 15 minutes or so.

It takes a few weeks to get the hang of it, but IOE is there to set you on the right track and get you started in the airline life.