That's a new avatar. I think you are right. My apologies to the young lady and wishing for her success.

One technique that works in any aircraft is a CRM technique for any non precision approach.
The challenge is one of scan. Where to look, etc. I find teaching that most pilots naturally follow all company required calls. It gets pretty quite though below MDA. Try this, have the PM give you a "speed +/-, sinking xxx" Example:
"400ft, +5, sink 850" "300 ft, Minus 8, sink 1000" Do you think you would know what you are doing? What you need to correct? Nice to have the extra data to go along with whatever company/aircraft procedure /technique you are supplied.
How about this, "400 ft, minus 5, sink 300" Probably holding the nose up and not on a proper glidepath. Or, "400 ft, onspeed, sink 750" might be the correct glidepath for your speed, etc. Anyway, this is a suggestion to more fully utilize the PM while you struggle on a non precision approach at MDA and below. It effectively leverages the other pilots scan and gives you useful info when you have a split scan between flight instruments and the runway environment and allows you to make effective corrections..

I purposely avoided this thread for a long time, never opened it until a half hour ago and read the whole thing in one sitting. As a GA pilot about to make the jump to 121, I just didn't want to read about "washing out." At this point, the thread deserves a new title, like "hanging tough." From what I gather, you've pulled yourself back in the running and it's looking good. Congratulations.

Av8r, thank you for opening your heart and soul to us - I'm not saying I don't like to cheer each time someone posts that they've passed an IOE or something, but when I go into class knowing that it's not a guaranteed pass, I'll sure take things more seriously. Also, knowing that you can be behind the 8 ball and still make it - that's a good bit to know as well.

Best of luck as life goes on!

J

Perhaps my favorite thread ever in my reading of APC. To my mind, this thread is what makes APC great. A couple months ago there was a guy that failed some company's ground school. He blamed failed teaching methods, etc...everyone but himself. He was rightfully hammered on by everyone here. The author of this thread came in humility, accepted responsibility, gave circumstances (illness) that never came off as excuses, and asked for help. 10 PAGES of help later, she is still with the airline and working through things. This is why I read this forum a lot, and as crappy as things can sound in the airline biz this is why I am going for a late life career change. You do not find this kind of genuine behaviour in the corporate world - just weasels.

Add up the experience level of all the different responders to this thread - how many hours, types flown, situations faced, etc are represented here and willing to share their knowledge? Pretty cool.

Av8tr, clean out your PMs!

If they told you to use speed hold then they are smoking something or don't fly in real weather any. On a nice smooth day it's all dandy but get in gusting and turbulent conditions speed hold will be tossing people out of their chairs. Personally I use verticle speed mode and look at my ground speed then adjust. Remember PITCH for airspeed and POWER for altitude.

tooo many words.

Guess I should say just put the thrust levers dead center, top of the hump, then set your decent rate. Then just tweak from there.