R57 relay

I sometimes think that our training department has become over reliant on automation(like the restrictions on autothrust), but other than that think they have done a good job. Especially when compared to what the current managers inherited from the mid '90s. We faced serious challenges and met them.

I've heard the west complain about AQP, despite the fact that the industry as a whole headed that way. I think it is really still a hold out of the east/west battle.

From what I've gathered from the AA guys, I hope we stick with ours.

aa73

Used to be. 75/76 fleet is down to 6. 737 used to have like 12! Slowly coming around to the 21st century here. Please USAir bring in some modern cockpit culture!

Pilot X

US 75/76 is 4 memory items, 3 of them are one liners too!

ERJF15

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ncpilot624

I dare say really enjoy our training. I did the 190 & Bus here and it was amazing how standardized the 2 programs are.

EMBFlyer

I noticed it riding up front on the 757 the other day. The triggers, how the flows are laid out, the callouts and almost the flows themselves are very similar to the Airbus. Granted they are different airplanes, but it does appear to be a seamless transition. It's not like going to an entirely different airline when you change equipment. I'm in no hurry to go to school any time soon, but it doesn't seem like it would be too bad to change airplanes.

R57 relay

I figure I have spent well over 2 years of my 27 years with this company in training. I've been to some sort of 737 school 8 times. 727 F/E training with PI was the hardest and A320 with US was the easiest.

When I got to training now I don't sweat it as much but I know that I will come away with the feeling that I have learned something. In the old days of PCs I enjoyed going in and knocking it out in a couple of hours like a piece of cake. With AQP I have to deal with more situations and my reactions to them.

In 1993 while taking a F-28 PC my instructor said that since we had some extra time he wanted to try a scenario. Little did I know that was the future of my training.

Wiskey Driver

Yup get all of them out you too!! In all honesty I really dont have a position one way or the other. I dont know of or rather have not heard of any such campaign.

WD at AWA

CaptainBigWood

I think USAirways training is as good as it can be. There will be a power struggle as to who will have the power and top position. DP knows how to manage people and will choose the biggest brown noser who can get the job done.

cactusmike

The training and standards are lower than what we had at AWA. Not having a 6 month PT (proficiency training) event weakens your non normal skillset. On every check ride we did a direct law approach from a fallure that led to the degradation in control laws. I don't mind AQP but I don't like how they chop up the scenarios. The sims generally don't like it either, lots of resets. We also trained to lower minimums. We would have hand flown ILS approaches set to 100', that was part of our qualification for flying the Silver ILS into RNO.

Systems knowledge has gone out the window now. And to be told "you don't need to know that" is BS. I can't tell you the number of times I have been able to reset the right system and get home rather than have to deal with a contract MX guy who knows zero about a bus and is just going off a fax from MX control. When I did my types on the 737, 757 and airbus we had to do the switch and light explanation for our oral. My 757 oral was 4 hours, mostly because the Fed was really old and he had to take a pee break every hour. Overkill? Yeah, but when you learn so much the important things stick in your memory better. I was a maintenance check captain on the airbus my first go around on it (I took a six year break to fly capt on the 757) and I relied on the stuff I learned in systems quite a bit. When I came back to the bus all those details came tumbling back out of my memory. When I took my oral for my requal I was way ahead of the game that training is playing now.

I think that is why we have had such a good safety record at AWA. Pilots are all the same but we were trained to a high standard. The checkairmen always made it fun as well. It was always "hey, you're doing great, lets load it up a little more". Our training department came from Eastern and Frontier and they were very, very experienced. The idea was you train to 100%, you check to 90, you get 80% on the line. Now it seems the numbers have gone to 75%, 60 and 50%. What we do have is a lot of peer pressure to get it right. Guys are not afraid to call someone out for substandard flying. And that goes both ways.

This will all go away soon. I do hope that training and stanards gets sorted out quick because there will be enormous pressure to fly a safe operation. Lots of eyes will be on this, especially as crews get integrated. I don't see any problems with whoever we wind up flying with.