Av8tr1

Our training isn't easy. We've had some high turnover in training. I was speaking with our chief instructor recently about this. We've had a reputation of 50% pass rate in the past. Not sure where it is now. Its extremely expensive to get someone through initial training. I've heard somewhere around 50K.

Once you get hired you can expect about 1 and a half months of training before you are on the line. With IOE its about 2 months total before you are let go to fly on your own. Ground is roughly 2 weeks in Coeur d'alene. Then 2 weeks in Wichita at Flight Safety. Then another week of training and a check ride. Depending on the schedule you'll get a few days off to a couple of weeks in between training activities. I was rushed through back to back which sucked. I had a weekend off for a friends wedding and then was home for 1/2 a day to do laundry and flew out again. Went direct to flight training from Flight safety. Was gone for nearly an entire month.

Ground is pretty easy, if you study. Make sure to either pair up or do study sessions with your classmates. Those that don't tend to do very poorly. You'll take a number of tests that are not hard if you study. They want you to pass so it's not like they try to fail you. But a lot of people just don't study.

Flight Safety used to be a simcation where except for the written you have no expectations other than playing in the awesome simulators and you would be tested in the actual airplane. That changed recently in the last few months and now the end of flight safety is a check ride. Not sure what happens once you get to company flight training in the airplane. There may or may not be another check ride.

Training in the airplane was 4-5 days then a check ride. Basically it's reviewing the company procedures and flying approaches in the real airplane. Having flown the Van before (about 350 hours) training was pretty easy for me and the instructor kept making jokes about "why are we doing this, you are ready for a check ride". But then I got sick 1/2 way through training and had to spend 4 days near death in my hotel room. That sucked!!!! Then had 1 more day of training and took the check ride. Somehow I managed to pass the ride but to this day as sick as I was I couldn't tell you how.

Then a week of IOE where you basically fly with another pilot who watches how you do. It's not training but they can offer tidbits of how to do things. Not every pilot or station operates the same way. So there is a lot of variance from pilot to pilot.

We recently had someone fail in IOE which is extremely rare. Not sure why but that's nearly unheard of.

So study the POH for the Van as soon as you can and be prepared once you get to training. We do some things differently from the POH like flap speeds are lower than published to save wear on the airplane. POH says flaps 10 at 175, we use 150 for example. But knowing the systems from the POH puts you way ahead of the game.

Hope that gives you a better idea of our training process. I really like the job. It's fun. The company is definitely quirky. It's not the 121 robots. We have some real characters here. Some of the most knowledgeable and experienced Van pilots in the industry. PDX was a muppet show. Imagine being stuck in a van with Waldorf and Statler (the old guys from the muppet show) every morning while the muppets are out loading the planes (all the Portland peeps with different colored hair). That's pretty much it. If you can see the humor through that and how great the people are with all the quirkiness you'll love this job. Much as I hated Portland I really miss the guys at PDX (both the pilots and the rampers).

I am really proud to be one of them. Not everyone can do this job. Single pilot IFR in a single engine airplane in the mountains isn't for the weak. You need to know your stuff. Taking off out of GEG yesterday we had 500rvr for take off due to low fog. I got to use the SMGCS chart while taxiing out to the runway. Coming back in ceilings were 200 feet with 3000 feet viz. At SEA this is a regular thing and you have to do approches at 160 knots over the numbers to keep up with the big iron traffic.

It would make for a great discovery channel reality show (hint hint nudge nudge for anyone from discovery listening on this frequency).


There isn't any way for me to forecast openings. But as I said SEA has been difficult to staff as of late. If you have the numbers put an app in. Feel free to PM me on JC if you have any specific questions as I spend a lot more time there than here.

dera

500rvr? How is that legal? Do you really have OpSpecs for that?

PrettyFlyGuy

Don’t you fly right seat in a PC-12?

727C47

We had a similar cult going with DC3's in the 80's and90's : )

dera

Both left and right, why?

Av8tr1

Yep, completely legal. We also have the equipment to do so. We have a special display that allows us to taxi at low vis.

Here are some pics of what it looks like. These were all taken by a company pilot on a ride along.



Well I guess I can't include video here so here are direct links.
https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/...tCKOEznZFRlfgn

https://www.amazon.com/photos/share/...JwTRyVyNWAxGfN

dera

That's really cool actually. I didn't realize there were Caravans equipped with those displays.

Av8tr1

Well the FedEx Caravans have them. Don't know about others. But they go all out to equip our airplanes. Other than the piece of crap analog autopilots that thankfully are being replaced here soon with a new digital product.

I'll get a picture of the taxi display and post it when I fly my next flight.

Flyinlynn

Wow cool pics! You guys must have some nice tech onboard.

Was looking at the job opening for Seattle Caravan says:
“75 IFR (50 actual)“

I have about 125 hood time but only about 25 actual so 150 hours combined while flying aircraft.

Given that, do you know if I need to get the actual time in clouds? Also I only have 76 night so I assume I would need 24 more hours of night flight before I could apply.

Av8tr1

Just put in an app. You won't be sure unless you try. Talk with Alan and tell him Capt. Jack sent you. He'll either set you up for an interview or tell you what you need to get an interview.