Thank you
 

I want to thank everyone on this board who gave me all the great info to prepare for my first 121 interview. It went great, and have been scheduled for a Jul 2 class at TSA.

Thank you!

Anyone got any trips to prepare for training?

Well apparently you didnt take anyones advice:p Why TSA? :p Congrats.............. I hear initial TSA initial washout rate is extremely high, study hard

I have heard this as well, be very careful and study hard!

Congratulations. Study hard, don't give up, have a little fun with the folks in your class.

Congrats.

Re. training, your previous academic experiences may not have prepared you for the pace of 121 training. The material is not super-hard for most people, but there is a lot of it in a short time so plan on spending many hours studying each night until you get a feel for the standards.

The ol' college technique of knowing 20% of the material, cramming 40% the night before, and throwing a hail-mary on the last 10% needed to score a 70% will not work. Remember you are studying for your oral interview (assuming they do that for FOs) as well the written stuff...best to be over-prepared.

Also be wary of those who drink beer all night, every night. They are probably either clueless CFI's or CA upgrades. The upgrades already know most of it anyway so they don't have to work as hard as you do.

Pay attention in class. Use good study techniques, and make flashcards.

Start learning flows (and maybe profiles) during systems class...those are the things you REALLY must know cold, and the longer you expose yourself to them the easier they will be to perform in the sim.

Probably best not to go home every weekend, but try to get out out at least once a week. Try to exercise regulalry too if you do that normally.


Also, don't be "that guy" the 172 SkyGod who can't keep his mouth shut and annoys the heck out of everyone. The upgrades in your class know people in the training dept...you don't want your reputation to precede you to the sim :eek::eek::eek:

Best of luck, i think about anyone on this board would have told you to avoid TSA, especially given the washout rate and the work rules (we're middle of the road, there are some better, some worse) but all i can say is good luck, study hard, study everything they tell you to. Get flows and profiles down, have your memory items down pat, know the notes section of the limitations also, not just the limitations themselves, and you'll be fine for the oral. You'll need your flows and profiles for the sim, but the sim isn't the place to learn them, make sure those things are memorized before your oral as well, as you can guarentee how long you'll have between oral and sim.

Also, before you ask someone in your groundschool this, when i said have your memory items and limitations down pat, i mean verbatim. A lot of guys say "can't i just paraphrase this" the answer "NO" you need to know those forward and backwards, the long ones and the short ones, through and through...if you do, it'll make your oral go nice and easy...if you don't, and you have to do your oral a second time, well, dont say we didn't warn you.

Here`s a tip that worked for me. I would draw out each system on a piece of paper, sort of like a blue print. I continued to do this until I could draw each system completely, every check valve, everything. Just reading about it didn`t do it for me, I had to be able to visulize it all in my mind. Another clue..emergency proceedures...memory items...being able to spout them out while listening to a fire bell ringing is completely different than just saying them in a controlled atmosphere. Really, really get them down cold. Another thing...no one cares about how you did it before, or how the systems worked on your previous aircraft....Good luck to you.

Well you are were 767 Ca so I have no doubt that you are faaaaar more experienced and knowledgeable than myself, but I think drawing the system out may distract him from learning what is important and may overload him, I dunno just my guess, however I agree 100% that if you can draw it out, it will be much easier to comprehend and understand

I always draw them too. After ten times or so you'll have it cold. You can simply systems that are very complicated if necessary.

Having "Blue Prints" of every system is key and I continue to draw them just to stay sharp. It doesn't distract you from more important items seeing systems knowledge is one of the most important. Have a great grasp of our a/c systems inside and out will save your ass someday. AND I don't mean during an emergency. Having a firm understanding can help assist maintenance control in fixing a minor glitch that's keeping you from getting home or maybe the FAA is jump seating you and some minor problem springs to life. Without a through understanding of systems knowledge (Ops Spec, Wx, Regs, etc) you might make a decision that causes the FAA JSer to question your expertise, not good. You don’t want to spend a few hours after a flight having to explain yourself to the FAA. All the material that they teach you in ground school and sim needs to be treated equally important.

I highly recommend creating a "Blue Print" of every system in a small note book that you can keep with you. Mine not only has systems inside but does and don'ts, Regs, Wx, Ops Specs and there’s even a section for things I've learned on line. It's amazing that these POS's can through at you!

Good luck, study hard and lesson to your instructors.

I agree on drawing the systems. It's a great way to learn. I once sat down for a 135 checkride and the guy said " I'm gonna get a drink of water, draw out the electrical system and then we can talk about it."

If I hadn't done it 100 times before I would have been screwed.

Ya know, most of you guys have bad things to say about TSA, and I appreciate your opinions. At least its not GoJets. Plus I'll make CA in a year. So thats all good.

Keep the comments coming.

Congratulations & Best of Luck.... Care to give us any specific details about the interview itself?

I interviewed on the 26th, and was offered a class date also.

The interview was just as advertised. 50 question written test, mostly easy ATP written questions. The interview consists of a few hr questions: How did you hear of tsa?, Tell us about your MIP, When would you be able to start?, What would it take for you to stay? An information sheet on some E145 systems and memory items (very few, I memorized it on the plane on the way to stl the morning of the interview.) is emailed to you before the interview and they ask a few questions over it. Also asked some questions about my current aircraft. A line captain had a jepp binder and asked a few questions about an arrival and had me figure out a descent profile (which I did wrong, too used to using the gps eta and vsi).
I was offered a class in july and told them I couldn't make it till september. Sept 4th is the class date.

I am from Missouri, and would like to live in stl, but the consensus around here is that tsa is a crappy place to work. I have 1400/500/600, so I may be able to upgade quickly, but I have no idea of the seinority required. I have interviews with Eagle and ASA coming up, but I don't really want to live in any of their available domiciles. Does anybody have a positive opinion of TSA? Is it as bad as Mesa of Gojet?

wow CA in a year...........have fun on the type and try not to get violated............chasing an upgrade is sometimes not worth it.............. talk to me in a year and well see how your thoughts of TSA have changed

Do you ever have something good to say? ;)

Hey, sorry, not to be a downer, I remember when I first came on here everybody would badmouth COLGAN and being I had just got hired and it was my 1st airline gig, I stuck up for it and tried hard not to listen to them, but in the end after the thrill of the uniform, I ran like hell from that place.................just be cautious, all regionals are hiring right now, and attrition due to FO's leaving is not a good sign, but congrats on the job.........

This is soooo true.

...and it doesnt have anything to do with being negative or not. All true.

Congrats on the job!! Let us know how it is going in one year....