DAL Indoc
 

Starting indoc 4 Jan. Anybody have any "doh, I can't believe I forgot that" or " I wish I had asked that" suggestions?

Delta pilots never forget anything. But ask for a wind check. :-) good luck.

Just make sure to bring the paperwork and a suit. Don't worry about having all the online stuff done before you show up because it won't let you access the LMS until your first day of employment.

Long time lurker. First time poster.

I am a poolie looking to start class very soon as well. What are the timelines like for training? That "pilot inbound" brochure I got in my red folder has gone missing. Forgive me if the information is in there.

Can anyone speak to the cost of the various housing options while in training? I prefer to not stay at a place that rents hourly, but anything else is fair game.

I am getting pretty excited for my inevitable MD80 experience!

Price is all over the board. If you can bring a car it will open up your options to crashpads that are too far to walk. There are ads for crossheads on many of the bulletin boards around the campus. For hotels, you're looking at 80-100 after tax for a good place. Some of them (Staybridge and Residence Inn I believe) have free breakfast all week and free dinner with free beer 4 nights a week.

If you get the 717 you might get sim training in MIA and then your hotel is covered. Everything else is in ATL and lodging is on your dime. I talked to one guy who said he spent 25 nights for training.

If you're open to the Delta Summer Camp experience, splitting a room with your sim partner isn't a terrible way to go. The Staybridge has deals they can offer as well as the Residence Inn if it's a slow period. Both have full kitchens and offer breakfast every day. My partner and I were able to talk the Residence Inn into giving us a two bedroom suite if we took one of the units way in the back by the highway. The Staybridge has free laundry and a better gym for those that care. And yes, a car is a big help/qol improver.

Also, not sure if this is still the case but some of the 7ER guys also went to Miami for a week of sims. Just depends on demand I suppose.

If the uniform store is busy with other Indoc guys you can wait till training to do it. It's about a 2 week turnaround at abbots.

They're going to throw a bunch of on-boarding "homework" stuff at you. Don't get too wrapped up if it doesn't all work right away or work the way they said. Just do what you can and keep plugging away at it. There's a lot of stuff where you have to do A before soandso in department B can do C then you have to go back in and do D. Saw a lot of guys about to blow gaskets trying to make sense of it but all you can do is smile, cooperate and ask for help when you think you need it but understand that sometimes the answer is going to be "keep trying, sometimes it takes a while".

Bring a toothbrush.

Oh, and swimming trunks. Bathing suits for the gals.

I heard you can get a couple room suite at the Holiday Inn for a reasonable deal. I know a guy who split a suite with 2 other guys, he said it cost him $600. Not to bad..

No more swimming! 8 months of that was enough

Oh, there's swimming. You gotta do the ditch training in the pool. If you're real lucky, your class will get to do it with a new hire FA training class.

my first thought was the Seinfeld episode where George is trying to explain shrinkage after swimming.

A Windows PC

A good attitude. (Believe it or not, some have failed to make it through sim training due to 'forgetting' the good attitude at home.) :eek:

Bring your liver. If you don't float the keg (or at least try to float it) every night at the Staybridge, you are wrong. And a real Delta pilot will bring a bottle of booze so your buds won't have to pay for beers out of the hotel's market once the taps are locked.

If you live in Atlanta (45 minutes north of the airport) is it reasonable to commute home every night during training or are you better off staying down by the training center?

It's office hours for indoc. The earliest show is 7 and the latest you get out is 5. i live thirty south in base housing (PTC) and have no regrets for not taking them up on the hotel. For initial qual it also wasn't an issue.

Why do you need a Windows PC? Is the surface that bad?

I am bringing my O'Dules Rules tshirt!!! Do they lay out the training footprint pretty well when they send you the email for class?

I used a Mac during indoc to do the LMS (online training) and worked fine. When you get the flash drive with your aircraft systems on it, that only works with windows with the exception of Windows RT which happens to be the operating system on the Surface 2. You can get a Parallels or Bootcamp cd from the pilot support center to run the software on a Mac or they have Surface 3's that they loan out that are able to run the systems software.

You get your training schedule during Indoc. 9 days of indoc then you will have about 1-4 weeks off. When you come back it's about 30 days to get through sims.

Yes, it's reasonable to commute, but will be a pain - depending on how much extra time you want to work/study for proficiency. Your sims will likely not often be "B" period, so your commute will likely avoid rush hour. I stayed in a crash pad that was 20-25 minutes away, and though it was a pain, I would have rather saved the cash... YMMV

Sorry. We didnt have surface pros when I did Indoc. Outdated post!!!

Haha, dinosaur. 😂
But that does mean you are, and always will be, that much more senior then all of us newbs

Unless you get paired with an upgrade captain.

I was. ;)

I wouldn't pay many hundreds of dollars for a room/crash pad if I lived 45 minutes away, but that's me. YMMV.

Do you seriously need to bring a computer? I do not own one. Just an iPad and a phone.

You will for your systems training at home but for indoc you can complete all the modules on the surface.

Any Jan 4th indoc folks have anything to add for those of us about to start?

Thanks,
HT

They actually do have the cd's for the Mac...you'll be fine

First week is easy, just cover the ways to monitor "guard" and how to remind people that they are in fact, on "guard"

Most of these guys/gals are ex-regional. They got "guard duty" wired already.

I applaud your ability to stiff-arm the computer so long.
I didn't need a computer at indoc, but I found it easier to bid via the PITA that is PBS with a laptop or desktop with the PBS desktop program than it is using the Delta PBS site.
If this doesn't make sense, it will by the end of indoc. The PBS guy will basically walk you through the youtube video on it and then you'll understand EVERYTHING! /sarc:)

PBS is designed so that you never understand everything. It's a constant source of discovery over your whole career. You'll be bidding as a 797A in 2035 and you'll get your bid back and think, wow pbs did what?

Ha. Thanks. I used to have a computer. It died. Then I thought about how stupid the concept of dragging a laptop around was because I used my iPhone non stop. Then when the iPad came I had news, movies, gaming, Safari, etc.

Then Delta came along...... Off to Best Buy I go. I am not buying a laptop until I get a class date though. Been a 7-month poolie.

I think I will skip the laptop if I get the same plane as tunes. He can just read the material off the CD to me as I doze off to sleep every night.

You won't need a computer then either. Each training hotel (used for indoc) will have computers in a lounge for you to use, connected straight to deltamatic. Additionally, you can use computers in the training building, just need to be in business casual instead of your skivvies while doing a systems lesson.:cool:

You don't even need a cell phone, just check your schedule if on reserve or sit next to a phone if on short call. Welcome aboard, Captain!

Oh, so THAT'S why I kept getting those funny looks while using the computers in OC4.... :rolleyes:

Indoc complete! Hallelujah! Any questions, let us know. They have pulled the big rubber stopper out of the bottom. Hold on for the ride.😀

hope this is true because we haven't seen the water drain much yet!