Originally Posted by
stilton
One very important lesson I learned from over two decades in the airlines is to learn what they want you to learn, don’t waste your time and effort on extraneous material
They will test you on the course they teach you, that’s mutually advantageous and only makes sense
Its very important to remember that each operator does things very differently, studying ‘generic’ or other material / courses from different sources won’t necessarily be helpful, worse it could take you down the wrong path with completely different procedures, that will only be detrimental
I will add to this that the manufacturers have put a great deal of work into what they think you should know - going too deeply beyond that isn’t necessarily helpful, and can lead to trying to troubleshoot with what you think is a more “in depth” understanding but is in reality just another, more complex, simplification of what is really going on. In the sim that’s a black mark and in real life it can be dangerous.
There are a fair few threads on here of very in depth navel gazing about the complexities of various technical elements of aircraft. The FCTM and FCOM as well as company manuals tell you what you need to know to operate the aircraft safely, and in reality there is so much information there that you’re better off understanding that than going into a deep dive into exactly how the flight control laws ACTUALLY work.
If you want more in depth stuff then Airbus’s “safety first” publications are a really good place to start. I’m absolutely not saying don’t learn more and more about the aircraft as you gain experience, but I am saying that mastering the fundamentals in the FCOM/FCTM is absolutely essential to build a framework - walk before you run.