Mark

The Days of Pilots actually being taught and understanding real aircraft systems is long gone.

I remember being in a 727 class in Miami at a former Airline.
We had electric circuit boards, hydraulic boards, pneumatic boards and Power plant boards. We learned every switch, valve, light, circuit etc. We are now in an environment where we are Trained gives us just enough to pass. When I finished Ground School, I knew that Airplane forwards and backwards.

Can you imagine when we all convert to the 9/18 cycle? I cannot wait to read the "Reportable incidents" in a couple of years.

There are extremes...

My old former Pan Am pro instructor during my initial 727 SO training wanted us to understand a "pressure bump" when we adjusted the Packs, even though it would affect the rear area where there were no passengers, just boxes. He wanted to discuss parts of the cabin that were now inaccessible and covered with freight cans. I thought there was a ton of "I don't need to know this..." data bits in that program.

On the other hand, watching the MD-11 skim along 50 feet high and 20 feet low crossing the country during IOE, I asked PB, my LCA, "why do it DO that...?" He explained that an attitude is really just a pressure wave...a wave of equal pressure. The jet was smart enough to not waste energy going up and down to chase a barometer setting but instead used GPS/IRU data to "dampen" the flight path to be more efficient as long as it stayed in tolerances. That was an example of some data that made go "humph. That's pretty cool..." Never got that in class...he was probably a Long Beach product like some of you guys alluded to...

These days, I understand that if I want the next level of knowledge, I am going to have to find it myself. Good news is I don't have to memorize a bunch of non-relevant queep. Bad news is I have to take a bit of initiative to get my general knowledge to the next level.

FWIW...most courses at the other carriers are much, much shorter, and involve a lot of self study. We are using AQP to dummy down the program to save time and money. I still prefer AQP, but I have also realized I am just going to have take more initiative on learning my jet than I did in previous years. I don't want to be the boring captain who quizzes his FOs about systems, but I do think I will be studying more at cruise the next 10 years than I did the last 10. We just don't get as much material thrown at us as we did in the past...

The MD-11 did that before we had GPS.

Instead of chasing small airspeed changes with constant throttle movements, the MD-11 will maintain speed (tiny adjustments) with pitch (even though the FMA says THRUST). Once it reaches an altitude "tolerance", it will adjust the throttles, but if it can maintain the speed with constant thrust and a little up and down, it will.






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Most of us know a lot more than we're teaching in the Sys class... For example, someone asked me the width of the Wx Radar beam a few days ago- it's 3.4 degrees high and 3.6 degrees wide. Just ask and we're glad to help you understand the jet at the A&P level.

AQP? The Professional Instructors in the MD-11 program told me they could be fired for providing instruction outside of the AQP syllabus. Nobody was willing to risk their job to provide tutoring on a day off or host a study session along the way. When I went through the B-727 FE and the DC-10 FE courses (Appendix F Training), the Professional Instructors hosted study sessions in their own homes -- we just provided the liquid refreshments.

Now they're afraid they'll skew the AQP process by talking to you outside of the briefing room. The only way they can prove the program has flaws is to watch people struggle and fail.

It's a different jungle out there.






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Just curious if the latest class has been filled. Is this for a July new-hire class?

All I need is an LRT

No...upgrade training.

Same thing being said right now in the 777 schoolhouse. Shockingly poor. I would never not give someone an assist if they were struggling to understand something. My mouth hit the floor when I was told nearly verbatim what TonyC is saying above. Then, after telling me that the "policy" is a bunch of BS, he explained the answer to what I was asking. Note that he said "policy"? Tell me how we don't have a problem.

Manny, there is no problem! We get drunk, We fall down, NO Problem!