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Trans States Airlines Regional Airline

Pass rate for TSA 121 ground school?

Old 07-11-2018, 06:41 AM
  #11  
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Originally Posted by GregSa View Post
Wow everyone thanks for replying.

To be specific I fly Mike model Blackhawks that's have a flight director and works very well for instrument flying. DME is a thing inside that aircraft. Once turned final it will capture course and glide slope of an ILS and hold it very well. I refrain from making turns using the cyclic and just turn knobs on the flight director and leave the computer to hold airspeed and altitude for me. As
Opposed to the Lima model IFR is a breeze and very enjoyable. This is just some of the stuff it does. However we dont do RNAV approaches. GPS is in the aircraft is corruptable.

Me personally as a pilot I LOVE instruments and I would fly IFR all the time if I could. There are some things I will need to review such as STARs. I did SIDs at flight school however I will review then again. Idk if this is the attitude or mindset the airlines are looking for but it is mine. Im worried not having flown an airplane and hoping to learn a particular airframe in 3 months is enough time. But I look back on it. That's about what I had in flight school anyway. I am allowed to utilize the sim to practice procedures and callouts in my time off yes? Or do I need that flight sim software in my room or was that just a good idea?

When people do fail what happens to them? Are they removed from the course? Told thank you for being here but you need to leave now?
Other than a cheap small paper of the cockpit layout used to practice chair flying and flows in your hotel room, you will not get any actual sim to practice on. They’ll give you a few days of computerized cockpit layout training but even that is really to brush up on what you should know from chair flying yourself. If you use any of the cockpit training events in the course to “learn” something, especially sim, you are already behind. You should already know what you’re doing as far as procedures and cockpit flows. They won’t remove you until they know for sure you are hopeless after taking a lot of sim sessions. Most guys just resign on their own knowing they’re too far behind.
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Old 07-11-2018, 09:08 AM
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Level D sims cost about $1000/hour to use, so no you won’t be able to use it after class. Sims are usually rented out months in advance, too.
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Old 07-11-2018, 09:16 AM
  #13  
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Originally Posted by bnkangle View Post
Level D sims cost about $1000/hour to use, so no you won’t be able to use it after class. Sims are usually rented out months in advance, too.
And with the number of repeat sessions now being required in new hire training - regional industry wide- open sessions are in real short supply.
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Old 07-11-2018, 10:58 AM
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You sound pretty motivated. This whole industry needs more people like that. Everybody's response is pretty spot on. You won't have access to empty sims and if you do that will be because you needed it for extra training. One thing you CAN use at your disposal is your peers. That sounds pretty terrible, but it's the best tool you'll have. Learn from other people's mistakes. If you truly are motivated. When you get hired, go and observe as many new hire training sims as you possibly can. Watch your peers make mistakes. Listen to the instructors give pointers and tips. Sit in on the pre-briefs and de-briefs. Always make sure that it's ok with the instructor and students because just like jumpseating, you're not guaranteed an observation. This is your access to sims. Other than that, there's a simulator for FSX you can buy from FeelThere simulations on the 145. It'll be good for familiarizing yourself with the cockpit and going through flows. It'll also be good for going through the motions of approaches and callouts.

One thing you'll need to get good at too is thinking about 3 times as fast as you do in your current plane. You'll be going roughly 180kts in simworld. You're travelling 3 miles a minute in these jets. So you've got to be thinking always 3-5 miles in front of this plane.

If you "fail" there's not necessarily a termination. Failing has multiple meanings here, so to answer your questions, it's appropriate to talk about all of them.

You can't really fail much in the way of ground school. I suppose you could, it's definitely been done, but if you're failing tests in ground school you'll probably be let go due simply to the fact that it's a very straight forward process. Failing in ground simply means you don't care and they're not going to dump big money into people who dont care.

Failing orals has happened too. That's a hit or miss thing. If you're failing your oral for showing up with no paperwork done, not following the new hire checklist, not having your ipad charged and updated, that kind of stuff may not be tolerated especially if you have a track record of these habits. If your oral is from lack of knowledge, but you really tried and you're showing it, you'll probably get another chance.

Failing a checkride in the sim rings true of every other stage. You'll usually get plenty of sims to ensure that your first shot on a checkride is the only one you'll need. Nobody is going to send you to a checkride unprepared. If you've reached your 20th sim and you just don't get it, it's probably going to be time for you and your carrier to part ways. If you get to your check and you fail from an honest mistake you're not terminated.

It really all depends on

1.) Your work ethic
2.) Your overall progress.

It's all about "reason". It's not reasonable to pay thousands of dollars an hour to help someone figure out the relationship between pitch, power, and performance. It is reasonable to pay thousands of dollars for someone who needs one or two more sims to get their non-precision, single engine, hand flown, raw data approaches ironed out and looking good.

If you are at the point where you are let go, it's like any other job. You're let go. There'll be talks before that point.

Show up with a good work ethic, make progress, ask questions, study and be prepared and you'd be very unlikely to "fail" or be terminated.
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Old 07-11-2018, 11:10 AM
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Hey dude, former military rotor-type guy here now at an LCC after a stint in the CRJ-200. For me, the biggest issue (as mentioned previously) was the automation. Flying the airplane was easy, it was making it do what you wanted via buttons, knobs, and various mode selection options that took some time adapting to. I flew “steam-gauge” AH-1Ws in my previous life, relying solely on TACAN or PAR/ASR approaches, so having to deal with an FCP took some getting used to. That said, I made it through both training programs without issue. You’ll have ample time to learn the flows and profiles prior to getting in the sim, which is the second half of the battle. The -60 sounds like it’s a generation ahead of the Cobra technology-wise, so I’d expect that to help you out significantly. Bottom line, show up, study, and be prepared to do things the way the training department specifies. If you have a good attitude, you’ll be fine. Low stress compared to brown-out landings and the like, I promise. Hit me up with any rotor transition questions if you need it, and best of luck!

As far as pass/fail, the only guys that got the hook had less-than-stellar attitudes. If you’re teachable and express a desire to be there, they’ll work with you. Be humble, be on time, and don’t be a d1ck...
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Old 07-11-2018, 02:12 PM
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Alright looks like I'm gonna be downloading flight sim stuff on my computer and using that in my free time. I'll also be doing study groups because I know that helps me.

Are Jeppsen approach plates being used? I'm use to DoD and FAA pubs.

Making an account on here and asking questions has been one of the best things I've done for research in this industry. I sincerely appreciate all the well detailed input provided by everyone on here. I welcome any more advice and experience as usual and I'll be back.
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Old 07-11-2018, 02:20 PM
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Most companies will give you the option of Jepps or DOD plates for the interview, but Jepps seems to be the prevailing standard out there. Plenty of good YouTube vids breaking out the differences, but they’re very much the same.
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Old 07-11-2018, 02:42 PM
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Originally Posted by SideFlare View Post
Hey dude, former military rotor-type guy here now at an LCC after a stint in the CRJ-200. For me, the biggest issue (as mentioned previously) was the automation. Flying the airplane was easy, it was making it do what you wanted via buttons, knobs, and various mode selection options that took some time adapting to. I flew “steam-gauge” AH-1Ws in my previous life, relying solely on TACAN or PAR/ASR approaches, so having to deal with an FCP took some getting used to. That said, I made it through both training programs without issue. You’ll have ample time to learn the flows and profiles prior to getting in the sim, which is the second half of the battle. The -60 sounds like it’s a generation ahead of the Cobra technology-wise, so I’d expect that to help you out significantly. Bottom line, show up, study, and be prepared to do things the way the training department specifies. If you have a good attitude, you’ll be fine. Low stress compared to brown-out landings and the like, I promise. Hit me up with any rotor transition questions if you need it, and best of luck!

As far as pass/fail, the only guys that got the hook had less-than-stellar attitudes. If you’re teachable and express a desire to be there, they’ll work with you. Be humble, be on time, and don’t be a d1ck...
I went through army flight school as a single dad. Needless to say I was pretty stressed out, and to be honest I didn't find actual flight school to be fun and I learned more when I got to my unit. I'm anticipating the same type of environment but everyone tells me it's not like that. I'll expect the worst and anything better will be great. Thank you for sharing your experience.
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Old 07-11-2018, 04:31 PM
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Originally Posted by GregSa View Post
Alright looks like I'm gonna be downloading flight sim stuff on my computer and using that in my free time. I'll also be doing study groups because I know that helps me.

Are Jeppsen approach plates being used? I'm use to DoD and FAA pubs.

Making an account on here and asking questions has been one of the best things I've done for research in this industry. I sincerely appreciate all the well detailed input provided by everyone on here. I welcome any more advice and experience as usual and I'll be back.
We use LIDO (Lufthansa) charts at TSA. They're similar to Jeppesen in that they are approach plates and thats about it.

You probably won't be able to get your hands on many of those. If you can, good for you and look over them. They share some symbology.

I don't know what they use for the interview, but if you have a good idea of approach symbology you should be fine.
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Old 07-11-2018, 05:27 PM
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Originally Posted by GregSa View Post
Just wondering the pass and fail rate for the 121 ground school for this company. I have read the article on the TSA website already. Just wanting to.hear from others experience how it is and if you fail what happens.
Everyone passes ground school. It’s the sims where they wash out. Know your flows, chair fly, know your callouts, observe 3-4 sim sessions and Jumpseat to see the real thing. You’ll be fine.
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