Just wondering if there is anyone here in the March 3rd class with Piedmont?

 

You're a newhire with PDT? You state that your position is DHC-8 F/O. Don't count your chickens before they hatch, bro, cause roughly half of those hired in the past few months have been sent home by week 3. Ground school is a killer, and the sim is an a**kicker. With low-timers lining up out the door to get hired, the training department has the ability to be VERY selective. One bad day can get a guy sent home. All that said, I wish you the best of luck! Study hard, stay humble.

 

Excellent point coop. So far more than half of the people who started sims ended up failing out. I'm only the 2nd or 3rd person to finish so far (12/17 hire date.) I start SOE on the 20th. Although the instructors are helpful, they did make the point early on that for a lot us (not me fortunately) that this was their first time they will get paid to fly, and although they will help you out, there will come a point where they will have to cut you loose. They are not there to teach you to fly basic instruments (majority of failures so far.)
Having said that, best of luck to ya. Just please be able to track to a VOR and fly a full nonprecision approach.
-MJ

 

Hi, I have been looking at Piedmont.
Would you say they are too hard on the new hires or do you think that these people did not have great instrument skills in the first place? I ask because I feel as though my instrument skills are good. But if they are looking to kick people to the curb maybe I will cross them off the list.

 

As long as you're competent you will do fine. I never got the impression that they were hard on me. From what I've been hearing, all the people who flunk out have extremely poor instrument skills. One of my instructors told me about a CFI-I with about 800 hrs who couldn't fly to a VOR, couldn't hold, couldn't fly a procedure turn and never got established on the final approach course on a nonprecision approach. Last I heard he was on about his 4th additional training session. They will work with you but eventually they have to cut you loose.
Most of my instructors seemed impressed that I have my CFI and actually instructed full time before coming there. Most of the new hires are fresh out of various certificate factories and can't fly instruments to save their life.
To make a long story short, as long as you are good on instruments you will do absolutely fine.
-MJ

 

Can't fly to a VOR or hold?! You gotta be kidding me...I mean this isn't rocket science folks. These factory folks scare me a little....sad too that they're failing out

 

Yea I thought my instructor was joking at first. Worst part about it was that he was an -II. Guess the old saying rings true...those who can't do, teach. Simply unbelievable.
-MJ

 

Think about it like this...In the right seat you are there monitoring someone else doing the work and criticizing it. It is allot different when you are the one flying the needle. I think that the best thing to do before going to class is nothing but instrument flying on your own not watching someone else. I have spent the last 8 months doing nothing but IFR work to get as prepared as possible for Training. Basically you need to be able to fly IFR second nature without much effort so you can focus on the procedures and callouts. At least that is how I am preparing myself for class. I will let you know in a couple of months how it all works out..

 

Have to agree with you on that one. Now that I'm out of ground school I have been flying a bunch of instrument on Flightsim (since the WX sucks) just getting a basic scan and knowledge back. On top of that getting my flows down, have over a month before sim starts and I'm trying to be as prepared as possible.

 

That being said, a -II still must know instrument procedure, even if they suck at doing it when they actually fly. A lot of the weaknesses come from being unsure of how to enter/fly a hold or fly to/from a VOR. Knowing how to do it is half the battle. The other half is executing and being able to do it while actually flying the airplane. I do agree that watching someone fly the needles is much different from actually flying them, but watching others fly needles made me realize ways to do it better myself.

To the new Piedmont guys. Good luck! Study up on the procedures themselves so you don't have to be second guessing yourself in the sim. Be prepared and capable of flying instruments and you'll do fine. I'd also recommend practicing instrument procedures on a very basic aircraft - an older Skyhawk with no GPS, etc. That'll allow you to be pleasantly surprised when you get in the Dash and actually have a flight director and HSI, which make life A LOT easier (at least compared to traditional piston single instruments).