You’re pretty busy, so there’s not much time alotted for just going out. BI is mainly a get to know your classmates time—lost of social time with them. Fleet training is pretty packed with usually increasingly early schedules, so your time between events isn’t that long.

Parking at the airport is limited to $35/month or employee parking at your domicile.

 

The downtown hotel is where you’ll be for fleet training. Shuttles to and from TK. Plenty of bars/restaurants an easy walk. Target down the street has groceries or there is a Whole Foods further down near Union Station. Near TK there’s also a Walmart and I think a Costco but don’t quote me on that. If you want access to stuff you don’t need a car. FWIW the downtown hotel has a whole study lounge set up and dedicated to us with rooms for each fleet, a fridge and a microwave available as well. Generally it’s been pretty easy to get a fridge in your room if you don’t already have one. Laundry expenses are paid so don’t bother dragging your suitcase and clothes back and forth. In fact a local place does a flat rate $20 pick up and drop off laundry service (bags and instructions are in the study lounge). Receipt for expense report in the bag on return. Easy. You can also use the hotel service also.

 

That sounds incredibly convenient. I'll consider leaving the car at home.

 

Be glad you guys aren’t doing trng in IAH at the Sheraton for a month. Oh boy what fun

 

Car will be a distractor at best and at worst cause you to spend less time with your classmates and training partners. I’ve been through 3 qual courses and never once ever “missed” having a car. Also…don’t split up with your training partner unless they live locally. Having one pilot at the Dtree and the other staying downtown is a bad recipe for prep unless your training partner is a time hardened slam clicker to begin with. Events are 6-8hrs in the building plus van time. Add to that exercise, sleep, studying and the inconvenience of eating and there isn’t much time leftover.

 

Second trying to stay in the same location as stick partner. I recently went through a qual course I’d gone through before on an airplane I’d flown. I had a new hire stick partner. Spoke with NH before fleet training began. Told me he was offered a choice of hotels. I told him I’m downtown, they’ve got a nice setup for us, you should take the downtown hotel. He chose the other hotel. He struggled greatly though training. We couldn’t prep together or go over anything together. I was clueless as to how or if he was studying and how to help him. Eventually they had to split us up because he had to repeat rides. Moral of the story, go to the same hotel as your stick partner.

 

I would also say that you don’t need a car while in training unless you can drive home. If you want to stay in the hotel during your off days and take a trip you can better share a rental car with your classmates.
I would also second the idea to stay in the same hotel as your sim partner.
To add a different perspective- I never met with my sim partner to prepare for a session or sit in the paper tiger. We just met for the occasional dinner. Nevertheless we got excellent grades for our good CRM. But we both were very experienced in Boeing aircraft though it was a new type for both of us. So everyone is different in how they prepare.

 

Totally agree on both points. My sim partner and I met up maybe 2-3 times, usually at TK an hour before the brief. We didn’t see each other much outside of the actual sessions. Both of us got through with no issues at all. Just depends on how you and your sim partner learn.

 

How’s the training overall? Do most make it through?

 

0 drop outs in my class. Can’t speak knowledgeably beyond that as far as rate. Training is excellent. Very professional. If you’re coming from another airline it’ll feel like a very well polished version of whatever training your other airline had. If you’re military don’t worry they understand that you aren’t going to necessarily be familiar with airline ops and they’ll teach you everything you need to know. They had the Mil guys get together at one point and I think they got a bunch of info on stuff they wouldn’t have been exposed to before.

Overall it’s building blocks. Start off with company structure and policies, manual system, etc. mostly how to find the info you need quickly and on your own. A few important things to memorize. Then you move on to fleet training. Technical side is excellent. They give you a ton of detail but don’t expect you to know the gee-whiz stuff. Memorize what they tell you to and don’t stress over how many rivets are on the airplane or what brand of tire they use. Sim training is similar building blocks. You learn maneuvers then you test on maneuvers. You learn on line ops then you test on line ops. Stay engaged, don’t burn out, but don’t blow it off either and you’ll be totally fine. I went home on the weekends. There are no surprises, the syllabus tells you exactly what to know when and what you’re doing every day. Studied maybe 1-2 hours a day outside of class. Met up with my sim partner to run callouts a few times because that’s hard to do on your own. No issues, no repeats.