tlorimer

you guys have some nice stories. I will be there soon. I kick myself in the butt for not listing to mom when she wanted to give me lessons at 15. that saying holds true 'mother knows best.' since then i have earned my BA/MBA/A from ERAU (not the main campus). but, i know that an MBA does not fly the plane, it's your talent and hours. the thing i learned about flying is to UNDERSTAND what is going on. then the rest is easy. this forum is really cool.

flynavyj

First flight was STL-JAX, check-airman was great, met up with him at the end of one of the concourses and he gave me a run through of where the mailbox was, took me down to the crewroom, talked about "bidding" (which made no sense) and a few other technical things, got me the extra paperwork that i should carry around, etc. Then we went up to the gate, saw our plane was delayed, and went to burger king where he bought me some lunch, said welcome to IOE, and off we went.

I didn't feel like i was totally behind the airplane when we left out, but, i wasn't sitting back with my feet on the foot rests, entering radio calls on the FMS and talking on the hand mike, but it wasn't tooooooooo bad. Think he did the first two legs, i did the second landing, and he was showing the oddities of the airplane, proved that he could outclimb a 737 (i still can't manage that one well) and that he could get under their showed "burn" every leg (i still screw the pooch on that one too) but was a learning experience.

It's a great feeling though knowing that you've "arrived" doing what you were trying to do for so long before this. Was exciting, and overwhelming, all at the same time. YOu'll love it when you get here.

exeagle

My first flight was from SJU to Bonaire on the ATR. I had a really good IOE captain that was very helpful and patient. I was definately hanging on by the tail.

Finding the crew room and your captain, well in advance, will really ease some of the jitters. Good Luck...

727gm

I know it's not a regional, but it's still kind of interesting...

First flight was as an engineer on a 727 on Haj flight from DXXX (Lome, Togo) to FTTJ(N'Djamena, Chad), headed, after fueling, to OEJN.

Had arrived from the USA with a wet engineer certificate from PanAm Flight Academy after a 19-day firehose session. At 2:30 A.M. the next morning, out to the airplane, fuel, load bags and pax (the FA's were a mix of FIRST timers and retirees back out for a haj adventure). The guys up front were friends who had been in the sims back in Miami too. The cockpit was set up Exactly like the sim in MIA (not that common in the 727 world), so off we went, just like another sim session.....No check engineer, no IOE, no nothin'... But it was just like the simulator, even night outside... Little U , Big U (727 FE scan flows), tweak thrust levers, checking and rechecking every gage, and NOTHING was ever amiss! No red lights, horns, bells, no misbehaving needles that had been steady just a second before....All was well....until an FA knocked at the door. Opened the door and there are 149 black faces looking back at me, as amazed as I was (it was their first airliner flight, too...)

The weirdest part was the sun coming up out ahead of us... THAT never happens in the simulator!!

I was very grateful to true professionals back in PanAm-MIA, Bob Koval, Dick Clough, Fred Crum.....I'd have to say I actually felt prepared.

Emb170man

First 121 flight was IAD-GSP. Gate C22 at IAD. Departure was delayed (nice stormy/windy day in D.C.), sitting in the gate area waiting for the IOE Capt to show up (he got the notice that it was delayed, I didn't) I got to sit and talk to the IAD Airport Police and file a report after some drunk got ****ed at United Customer "Service" (shocker I know) and punched a hole in the wall in the concourse. Nerve racking sitting in the gate area and looking around seeing all the faces that would soon be putting their lives in my hand. The funny thing is that as soon as the cockpit door closed, I realized that it was just another airplane. You pull back the houses get smaller...you push foward the houses get bigger. After that it was no sweat.

Emb170man

Wow... I didn't think ****ed (sorry p.o'd) was on the no-no list! Geez, are we 8 years old?!

AirWillie

My first flight as a regional FO was on the B1900, pre-dawn departure. Thankfully the first leg was a maintenance repo flight so no pax and it was my leg. The plane was frozen we had to warm it up, we were doing the first flight of the day checks, I was trying to keep up. When we were ready for takeoff and the CA asked me tell them were're ready and when I actually called them with the company callsign that's when I knew I was with the big boys now. Being used to 6 to 8K for cruising in the 172/seminole. It was a trip watching the altimeter go from 0 to 10K and above in what seemed like a few minutes. The most challenging part for me was interacting with the pax, since the 1900 doesn't have an FA, and trying not to make it seem like it was my first day. I never really had any problems flying or managing company ops. Training is tough but it's really fun once you make it out on the line.

Invisible Man

My forth leg on my first day going from EWR to SYR the captain got up and went to the lav and left me all alone. I almost took a dump myself!
IM

Senior Skipper

At least you got to log .05 as PIC

OntheMissed

aw jeeze, my first leg was horrible. Captain was late and super grumpy. The Chief flight instructor was aboard. We had a main (only) cabin door malfunction. Couldn't open it, but wouldn't lock so we couldn't leave. Had to get mx onboard via the overwing emergency exits. There's more, but I tried my hardest to forget. I was glad that day was over! I ended up learning alot from that captain though