So starting in June guys who are displaced into the Bus/737 fleets will start arriving at the TK, and I can't recall anyone here making an informed estimate at how fast crews can get trained into those fleets. Obviously, how fast Bus/737 guys can get trained has a big impact on the size and rate of potential furloughs. I'm putting some numbers here but would appreciate it if anyone can improve on them, especially since I've never worked at TK. I count 6 Bus FFS and 9 737 FFS. I assume each can do 5x4 hour training events per day (4 hours being set aside for maintenance).

The Requal-1 course appears to need two FFS events, RQ-2 needs 6, and RQ-3 needs 7. Initial Qual needs 10. For this guesstimate I'm assuming everyone needs an RQ-3. I think only a handful of folks will be eligible for RQ-1 and quite a few will be able to do RQ-2 so I figure they will somewhat balance out those who need Initial Quals.

So, if the Bus sims can handle 30 training events a day they could qualify an average of 4.3 crews every day (30/7 RQ-2 FFS). Comes out to 129 a month and 514 crews between June and September 30th.

The 737 sims can handle 45 events per day and qualify 6.4 crews per day (45/7). That makes 193 crews a month and 772 crews up until September 30th.

I think these guesstimates are probably well on the high side. For example, in June they will certainly not push out 129/193 crews since the first crews attending training will not even be graduating until at the very least a full week into June.

Side question - How much notice are they required to give you to attend landings class and do you have any say in when you go? I'm making plans for June that I'd rather not get interrupted on short notice.

Might want to move this to the UAL section

A 737 PI told me last week that they can train approximately 55 crews per month... 320s around 37 per month. This is with the sim running 5 training periods and 1 period for maintenance and disinfectant cleaning. This is full qualification courses lasting almost 5 weeks... many pilots only need a short course that could be as quick as a couple days and some taking a couple weeks. Guess is that they training center will target pilots needing the short courses first and then start the full courses in July/August.

To keep it simple, I just considered "max" throughput on the sims and didn't bother with total time spent at TK (academics or FTDs). I have to wonder if the 55 per month total is with or without concurrent training going on (for example, cycling 2000 737 crews through two simulator periods every nine months would take up about 15 out of 45 sim periods per day). Lots of folks have had CQ events cancelled already so I wonder if 55 is an accurate max when the decks have been mostly cleared of CQ events. The lower the number the better though...

As a line holder you notify them at least 21 days out when you will be going nonqual. They will ask for a couple of dates that work. I’ve never had a problem where they didn’t make it work around my schedule. As a reserve pilot, just sit quiet and go nonqual, collect 73 hours pay, and if they want to send you to landings they can call you on an available day.

I never called them as a line holder. Don’t have too. And when they do call you to give you a landing class, you can reject the first class at no jeopardy.


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You gotta add in CQ too. They can’t dedicate all slots to Qual. Some one said 55 crews on the 737 and that’s probably about right.....I think I remember seeing a memo with number 65 on it once and that was a very high load.

A backlog at TK only slows furloughs when pilots are needed on the line. They’re planning for basically a 30% reduction with this bid. If we’re reduced 60% in October, we really don’t need very many pilots and that backlog isn’t that big of a deal. They could furlough 4,000 (approximate 30% number for sake of argument only) in October and simply train the survivors when they can. Also, by announcing a big number out of the gate, they can bypass training for everyone who will get furloughed. It’s more efficient than furloughing in waves when your demand and revenue are gutted. I’m afraid that we are more expendable than we like to think.

agree......until you furlough all the instructors you need.......4000 puts a HEAVY cut into the 737.

Would it cost way more to have crews go up in a 73 or bus and have them just do 3 landings in the pattern?