Thanx Clue. Towards the end of my training and during my PC I got it figured out...enough to pass anyway. It was just the beginning that I was so far behind the airplane I couldn't think about what I was doing. Im much more confident now.

Years ago my first flight in Saab brought this quote from the Check Airman

"You look as nervous as a wh*** in church on Sunday, now relax":)

Speaking of radar, had a united mainline captain riding in the cockpit the other day. Our radar had somehow gone screwy so that the gain was full up and we couldn't change it. So we are coming into ORD and on the arrival there was this little shaft of rain right on the arrival and the radar paints it a great red color about 3 miles in front of us. So this captain, who had been sleeping most of the flight, looks up at the screen and sees this and freaks. He hits me on the shoulder and yells in my ear "Are you gonna go through that!?" Now I'd been watching it out the window for bout 10 minutes and knew it wasn't anything to worry about, you could see right through it. Maybe a mile across if that. I look back and am like "Yeah sure."
Well he kinda looks at me startled and I smile then he sits back and puts on his shoulder straps and tightens cranks down on the straps to tighten them up. And then holds onto our seats like we were gonna get rocked.
I about crapped myself. I wound up turning around it just so he didn't have a heart attack. If he'd just looked out the window would have seen it was nothing.

I don't think any training can fully prepare you for Line-flying. Whether you like it or not, much of what we do can only be learned effectively on the job. It works the same with anything you learn - I don't think I fully understood half of what I learned until I saw it used on the Line...

Thanks for the responses so far guys. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. I head out on a trip tomorrow so if I don't get the chance everyone have a Merry Christmas!

Guess it all depends on the aircraft you fly. All 121 aircraft are supposed to have a working radar so that is definitely an area to at least give some type of specific publication on the operation of that system. Generally if you are new to the 121 environment then you are going to be flying an RJ or a turboprop. I started out in an RJ and came straight over from an F-172. Yeah, they actually fly pretty different. I guess it is something that I should have picked up from aerodynamics but it was one of those things that I just kind forgot about. For example - something that should be brought up on landings is that in a propeller aircraft with an engine forward of the C.G. when you add power the initial tendency is for the aircraft to nose up. This is not so in an RJ with aft mounted engines. When you add power the nose pitches down and vise versa. Bringing that to someones attention could help with the stabilized approach phase. The other thing that took a while to really figure out was the use of the FMS. Of course you get the basics but I never got WHY I was doing the things I was doing. It was all rote learning and we never really got to the understanding stage of using the FMS. It would have been helpful to have some type of users manual for it or something.

Small aero correction. The thrust change pitching moment is related to the thrust line relative to the CG vertically. Forward or aft doesn't matter unless there is an extreme angle to the thrust line and it crosses the longitudinal axis on the same side as the engines. Then you'd get some funny behavior. If the thrust line is above the CG (as in a CRJ), an increase in power will result in a pitch down moment versus how a forward mounted single or wing mounted twin/jet works. The 170 actually compensates for thrust pitch changes with the FBW system. You don't have to change anything, it just adjusts the neutral point of the elevator for you.

Thanks for the correction. Honestly I didn't even think of it that way but it makes total sense. Just one of those things some of us have yet to think of but would be a great help when it comes to flying a jet. Especially ones that don't have the benefit of FBW. :D

Thanks for all the tips and tricks you guys that have been around are throwing out. This is a great thread for me. I'm just getting ready for sims and it seems to me this is all coming so fast. It is a hard transition from small G/A aircraft to a 121 jet enviroment. There are alot of people reading these posts and gathering in as much info as possible.

I agree that weather radar should be covered a bit more. We read an article in class from some famous airline captain who was supposed to be really good on radar, but to be honest, I understood about half of it. And we weren't tested on it, it was just a "for your information" type of thing.

all the radar knowledge I have, I got from sitting on the ground on rainy days with ground power hooked up to the Seneca, pointing at clouds (with no one around, of course). Unfortunately, I got the Seminole instead of the Seneca for my multi-engine course, so I missed the whole "practical radar" part.