Cockpit Procedures Training Session in the Simulator

5:57 AM - Saturday, Oct. 08, 2005
Cockpit Procedures Training Session in the Simulator

It’s coming up on 0600 and I’m unable to wind down. Tonight’s sim session went pretty darn well, considering that it was only our second time in “the box”. Our instructor, Keith, is very complementary and reminds us frequently (especially when things get bumpy and we’re hard on ourselves) that we’re still ahead of the curve and doing better than average. Which is good, since I don’t ever expect average from myself! (Dang it’s hard to be a beginner sometimes!)

In the last few weeks I’ve thought to myself how interesting it’s been to notice that my self-assessments and my self-confidence are in a very, very different place than they were last time I went though intensive flight training. When I was in Orlando getting my Citation type rating I was so far behind the curve and everything was completely foreign to me that I never felt comfortable with anything I learned those 15 days. And for the first few months of my new job at Dominion in the actual jet I felt like a fraud. But this training has so far been a very different experience. Part of my hesitation with deciding to apply to airlines was that I didn’t think I could really hack it in such a structured environment. Not that flying private jets isn’t structured, but it’s a different culture than the airline. And I’d heard plenty of stories about airline training and how rigorous it is, how they don’t tolerate even one word wrong in the verbatim repeating of emergency memory items, and how if you screw up more than once in training you’re gone. I didn’t really think that my free-flowing, barrier-averse temperament would do well in an environment like that.

But what I’m noticing is that my 18 months in the business jet has really given me a solid foundation upon which I am building my CRJ airline pilot skills. Not only am I learning a lot more than I anticipated because my study habits were formed a few years back, but I’m also enjoying myself and this process. Don’t get me wrong – I didn’t enjoy dragging my buns out of bed early 6 mornings a week for the last month-plus to sit in a classroom all day and listen to rules and regulations being blabbed at us. And I didn’t enjoy the stress of having to take exams on massive amounts of material I’d barely digested each night. But I did have a solid enough background to let me have a perspective on the whole situation, to see the big picture. And my good scores on the written exams were confidence-builders!

Now that I’m in the sim I’m fortunate to be able to breathe much easier than I did the first time around a couple of years back. I can see the forest for the trees! That ability has made these last 6 weeks much more enjoyable than odious. And now that I’m on the vampire sim session, which is more in tune with my own body clock than the early mornings were, I’m noticing how much is really getting in my head. My synapses are actually growing closer together at a quickened pace! (And there are no doubt billions more now than there ever were; it’s amazing I can even hold my head upright).

Tonight on a break between flights (we each fly for 2 hours in the right seat as pilot flying, then switch to the left and act as pilot monitoring) Steve expressed concern to me that he’s dragging me down, holding me back. Granted, he’s much less experienced, not used to thinking the speed of a jet and is used to doing everything and monitoring the entire situation all the time as a former flight instructor. That kept him alive to see another day! He has had no 2-pilot experience until now. But here in this sophisticated jet it’s complete sensory overload and it’s all he can do in some moments to keep the thing upright. I, on the other hand, have the luxury of about 600 hours of jet time under my belt, which makes this much easier for me to pick up. I’m able to notice more things at once, and able to fly well and do other tasks. Not that I’m doing stellar by any means, but I do fret less and make fewer mistakes. Just because of the experience I’ve had in the past. So I told Steve not to worry at all, that rather than hindering my learning he’s actually enhancing it – his lack of experience has me keeping a sharper eye on him, which divides my brain between flying and monitoring and is making me a better pilot. I have the luxury of being able to do a good job flying and also helping him with his tasks from time to time. But in perhaps more importantly right now it’s serving to boost my confidence in myself as a pilot, as a beginner and as a future captain.

Two months ago there was no way I could even envision myself as a captain of an airliner. But all that’s beginning to change. I’m doing well enough with this training to believe that when my seniority number will hold an upgrade to the left seat that I’ll be ready. And I’ll make a damn fine captain someday!