TSA Training
 

I have been with Trans States Airlines for about 5 months now and have realized one thing. If you aren't serious and sure that TSA is the place for you go somewhere else. The training is very hard as it now has reached an all new level.

In the October class that I was there were 25 total people; 5 washed out. In the November class even more. December follows the trend with horrible numbers. The FAA has now realized something is wrong and has gotten involved. I can only hope the Jan. class can fulfill the needs of the company; otherwise there will be more jobless pilots out there. The rate at which the FO's have been failing out has caused the company to start a Feb class and even a March class. Please make sure this airline is for you. I have seen good friends and great pilots go through the program and wash out. People will 1000 hrs just like the rest of us. Good honest hard working people.

My apologies to our instructors Jerry, Scott and Jen. These instructors along with many mentors are the only reason people make it through training....That and strong willed and talented individuals.

"Have you ever failed a checkride - other than TSA?"

The Emb-145 isnt a hard a/c and if they washed out in the sim its because they cant/shoudlnt be flying around in a 121 airliner

That is just stupid. There are to many factors affecting your sucess in the sim. flight safety instructors teaching generic procedures and company check airmen doing the checkride can cause you to make mistakes you never even knew about...... Just to mention 1 probable cause.

While the failure rate of new-hires may affect the number of people in each class in the future, they certainly aren't the reason for the classes. We're losing FOs every day, whether it be upgrades or pilots simply going elsewhere. Now that the captains have started to leave, there are going to be even more upgrades.
The real problem that TSA is going to have is when they run out of FOs who are qualified to fly from the left seat, given that they're hiring so many people with such low time...

Everybody in my new-hire class had FS instructors with company check airmen. Ever hear of a wonderful concept called "retraining"?

be more specific, what are the trends? what are people washing out for? if its nit-picking stuff then that sucks, but if its crashing during a v1 cut then come on...

I don't think there ARE any trends; it seems to be all over the spectrum.
There was a rumor going around that somebody failed on spinning the weight/balance whiz wheel twice during the oral. If you can spin an E6B/CR2, you can spin our wheel.
Know your stuff and know how to handle the plane, and you'll be fine. It couldn't be any easier.

I am in the December Class.
And I cannot really give any insight into what is going on.
From what I have heard from friends that I see at Flight Safety, I think there have been 4 to wash, and two or so just quit.

I was having a real hard time, but I got a good instructor and I am moving forward.

It is a tough program and I can see where if someone was not devoted to it and willing to give everything to that program that they could wash.

There have been days that I have been at my wits end, and did not know how to make it to the next day, but the next day comes and you just try it again.

I have been lucky, i have went through all my testing thus far the first time.
my ride is next week.


Does anyone know what the FAA is going to do about it?

Reeves

[QUOTE=Does anyone know what the FAA is going to do about it?

Reeves[/QUOTE]

I don't think there is much the FAA can do... companies are allowed to set higher standards than those of the FAA.... they just can not have less restrictive standards. If TSA wants their pilots to fly and expects higher levels than pilots with less time are going to have to build their experience level instead of going applying for jobs with such low times.

I was hired in Jan for the Apr class, so I don't think the future hiring plans are attributed to new hires washing out. Before the interview they said they have been losing about 15 FO's/month and about the same number of Capts. That number is supposed to decrease though.

I've heard similar things about Piedmont; that their AQP training program is insane...I am waiting for a call for them for a class and can't help but wonder what might happen if one were to fail out of a 121 training program, ie. what are your chances of getting another 121 job...

a big problem with the classes up till this one (Jan class) was that people were studying the gauges for the check airmen, not the material. then when they got into their orals, they didn't know memory items, limitations, and such. as soon as the DE saw that they didn't know those and were answering questions too fast, they went off script.

so they've changed things with the Jan class. we'll see how it worked, as orals start next week.

they told us the same thing
they said that the november class was doing that

I know in our class there were a few that were floating around, but I never saw one, so I have no idea what they look like.

I think one of the problems may not be so much the low time, but it seems it was the first 121 job for most of us, and we just did not understand what a 121 training program was about.

that was maybe more just my take on it, I really cannot say if anyone else in the class feels the same way.

We are to the point now that we have checkrides coming and we will see how our class does.

same thing for most of our class, this whole drinking from a fire hose with their job actually on the line. some are struggling.

but we thankfully have about 14 upgrades with us, so there's a wealth of knowledge and assistance that most of our class seems to be taking advantage of.

i'll let you know how it works out.

What have they changed? I was in the nov class...we had 10 or 11 of 20 make it.

we had a "pass/go home" test 2 weeks in on memory items and limitations. everything had to be verbatim (even with the badly Portuguese-English interpretation that is our SOP). we also reviewed every morning before starting new systems.

they're also rewriting the systems test and maybe the GOS test. so the gauges everyone has for those will be useless starting with the next class

Seems like they're making everything harder. Then again, maybe I'd have started studying that stuff earlier if we'd had that test when I went through...:p

pretty slim to none unless you have the world's best connections. this is sort of like mesa's dash 8 captain upgrade program from what i understand. theres a big difference between a failed checkride, which you can get away with, and completely failing out of training, assuming you made it all the way to the checkride, failed, then failed the retraining.

as a side note, skywests ground school was tough and they really challenge the crap out of you. sim's on the other hand were beyond easy, the hardest sim i had here was that frasca at the interview!