I will add that, you will know the profile of the Type ride before going in. You basically practice the type ride on sim #4.

The flight training device does not give a student the feel of the airplane. Its great for procedures but not for learning how to properly transition to the sight picture and the feel of the side stick. Even after all of these years, I still think only 4 sim sessions isn't enough time. Speaking for myself, I would have benefited greatly with more simulator sessions. Of course I am no Chuck Yeager. I just think we are asking a lot with giving only 4 simulator rides then a check ride. Yes it can be done, but it is far from easy. My best Simulator session, as a new hire, was my check ride day. So yes the system worked but the stress level is through the roof.

I doubt Spirit attracts many LCA or 121 captains these days.

This exactly. You don't use the side stick in the ftd and it's not a normal airplane. I found it to be very hard to learn having not used a side stick or a crossbar flight director before.

The sim doesn't fly like the plane either. Blending from ground to flight mode is pretty bad. It's more sensitive to me than the plane and the engines take forever to spool.

And the visuals are good but you really don't get the feeling of the crosswind on final or a true depth perception in flare.

OE is when you get a real feel for this plane.

LOL. Meaning..."pilots that just can't get hired anywhere else." Maybe if management gives us a good contract, they won't have to scavenge the bottom of the pool.
Candidates....expect a VP of Flight Ops briefing at the fair...."If you want United pay, well, go to United."

I take offense to that! First of all when I got hired no one else was hiring. Who knows maybe my connections at United or AA would have worked out if they had been hiring at the time.

I have friends on the Airbus at AA, USAIRWAYS formally, and United that tell me that they would not have made it through Airbus Training with only 4 simulator sessions.

You can say what you want, but the best pilots I have flown with are at Spirit. I don't see our quality decreasing at all and I would bet our pilots are some of the best pilots in the world. We don't get pilots from a regional under a BS flow through program. Our pilots have to get qualified first and jump through major hurdles just to get an interview.

It's not personal but it is happening. We are hiring with just over 2000TT and limited turbine.

Have you seen or heard of this FOQA event they are showing in recurrent, SAN?

Wonder how much "turbine time" those two had when they made the decision to continue that approach

I've never felt "really prepared" for any type ride. Spirit was no exception, and I couldn't have studied any harder along the way.

The FTD's aren't perfect, but they do help get an understanding for the procedures and profiles, as well as the systems.

The sims aren't perfect, but I've never flown a sim that I thought flew "exactly like the airplane." These are pretty good. Landings in the sim are have never been fun or all that accurate for me.

Overall, it's an intense, fast-paced program with great instructors. It's a ton of work, but airline initial is NEVER easy.