My line training diary
Following on from my type rating diary which I posted on PPRUNE back in June; I have received some requests to post a line training diary, a sort of follow on. I have put together the first few flights to give those interested an idea of what to expect. I hope it is of some help and that you enjoy reading it.
Having completed all the CAA requirements, (rating issued, doors and slides, fire, and smoke drills, aviation medical, dangerous goods and wet drills) as well as a few extra day courses to get me prepared to operate in an airline environment such as airline SOPs and company paperwork, I was signed off as ‘cleared for line training’.
Line training, for me at least will consist of 100 hours or 40 sectors with a final line check clearing me to operate as a line pilot without the need to be under the supervision of a line training captain.
Having recently completed my rating as some of you will have already read, I thought that this was the more relaxing part of my course, no constant failures that you get in the sim, just, take off, cruise and descent interrupted by coffee and food. Boy was I in for a shock!
Before you can start your line flying for real you are given a few supernumerary flights. These are ‘jump seat’ flights where you can observe how the crew operate before sitting in the right hand seat for real.
My two jump seats were scheduled to take place from Birmingham and I excitedly checked my roster to see that they would be to two Spanish destinations, Malaga and Alicante.
The company I am training with have a very comprehensive web with all the information I needed to prepare.
I ‘surfed’ for a couple of hours getting all the airport information, flight times, directions to crew rooms and car parks as well as revision on performance and company procedures . That’s it I am ready, uniform all neatly pressed, shoes polished and hair cut. Just one thing to remember, all airline crew times are in Zulu (GMT ) meaning at this time of year if it says report at 1pm, its 2 pm on my watch.
Day one
Birmingham – Malaga
This is an afternoon flight. I left home in plenty of time, actually arriving an hour before report time, no it wasn’t the GMT/BST time mistake I promise. My car park pass isn’t through yet, which is a bit of a pain, so I had to park in the passenger car park for the day, that will cost!
I found the report room and the coffee machine and got familiar with the company computers. A kind soul helped me out with where all the paperwork was kept and what internal telephone and fax numbers I would need in due course. In hindsight I am glad I got there early, there is nothing worse than entering a room full of people as the new boy, not sure who anyone is or where to go.
On time the crew arrived, the first captain, first officer, and the three cabin crew. After introductions the first officer let me shadow him in his preparations for the flight, getting the PLOGs, weather and duty forms.
I tried to keep up, but the preparations where leaving me a little behind. What I did learn was that as first officer, you need to have a system, to make sure it’s all done and ready to go, in about 25 to 30 minutes. The F.O. seeing that I was a bit wide eyed about the whole thing advised me not to try and take it all in on day one, and that he would try and point out the stuff that I would be able to handle.
I guess as with everything in life, once familiar with things they seem a little bit easier and although I had been shown the paperwork on a course a few weeks ago, this all felt dauntingly new.
Once that side of things were done and the operating crew had checked the fuel figures, notams, weather and PLOGs we all made our way down through security to the aircraft.
I was allowed to do the cockpit safety check, rainbow scans and panel checks as well as load the FMC well attempt to load the FMC! Here again I realised that I would have to get my ‘system’ up to scratch, time is of the essence pre departure and boy was I slow. Over the watchful eye of the Captain and with his prompts I got through it and the took my seat while the crew got on with the business of getting the aircraft prepared for flight.
Once the passengers were all on and the doors were closed, I watched the start up procedure and made notes on anything that was non normal to my training.
Start up is one of those instances. In Boeing procedures I had learnt in the sim the captain carries out all the engine starts, but on the line (company SOPs) the pilot flying does these duties as well as talks to the ground crew during push back.
We taxied out and lined up on the runway, the captain taxing and then handing over control to the first officer who was flying this sector.
An uneventful take off, an Lnav, Vnav departure and we were on our way to Sunny Malaga.
Once in the cruise I had time to take a closer look at the PLOG and was shown how to carry out the fuel checks and the RVSM checks, all of which are noted on the PLOG.
RVSM is the reduced vertical separation minima applied to aircraft with the necessary equipment flying above flight level 280. Basically every hour or less the 2 primary altimeters and the standby altimeter have to be checked against each other to ensure they are all functioning within limits. Along with that, updated weather is obtained for airports in and around our track in the event of a problem necessitating a diversion.
After what seemed like 5 minutes in the cruise, it was time for the first officer to brief the captain on the descent approach and landing into Malaga. The most pertinent point about Malaga is the range of high ground crosses the track to the airfield. For me this was to prove a huge learning curve. The 737 has various ways to descend, level change, vertical speed and Vnav. Vnav is something I found I had hardly used in the sim, as most approaches are completed after significant failures and usually flown in the more manual modes of level change and VS.
After the descent checks were completed we began on down towards our initial approach. At this point I was well behind the aircraft watching as the 2 experienced professionals used all the modes to keep the profile where it should be. The thought was dawning on me that next time I witness this complicated stage of flight over high ground or after being kept high by air traffic control, it may be me fumbling around to regain a profile and get the height off.
I did pick up some useful tips in between brain overload. For instance when you are high and want to loose as much height as you can, then you actually speed up rather than slow down, the thinking being, the greater energy will get you down quicker. Conversely when you are held high it is more sensible to slow down to delay the closing distance to your airfield.
The saying goes, you can slow down and you can go down, but you can’t go down and slow down.
Before I knew it we were fully established on the ILS and slowed down to approach speed with flaps and gear down. A good landing and we taxied onto the apron at Malaga.
As the passengers are getting off the transit shutdown checks are completed and then it’s really all go until time of departure. The whole thing that was started in the crew room at Birmingham is now done in the flight deck. The F.O. loading the FMC and setting up the panels for the departure while the Captain, now the pilot flying carried out the walk around and made the fuel and performance calculations.
Just as it’s all completed the inbound passengers are joining the aircraft.
During the return flight I watched in awe as the captain played with the FMC like a well practiced piano player. I learnt loads of useful stuff like how to put in ABM fixes on the map so you can carry out those all important fuel checks, and lots of handy rules of thumb.
Just sitting in the jump seat watching was a huge benefit to me, even down to listening to the P.A.s to the passengers (something I am not really looking forward to attempting)
The descent this time wasn’t too much of an issue, ATC doing a sterling job of stepping our descent so the management wasn’t as frantic.
We landed back at Birmingham and I watched as the full shutdown checks were completed and we all got off the aircraft as far as the air bridge to calls for the captain to phone operations urgently.
An aircraft had become unserviceable in Dublin and the crew were going to have to do another trip to collect the stranded passengers.
I was quite pleased when I was invited to tag along. Great, I get to have an extra jump seat and this time on an even shorter sector. On a personal note I was pleased as, I obviously hadn’t have cheesed them off to much with my endless stupid questions, that they were prepared to put up with me for a few hours more.
This short sector was great, firstly it was at night time which speaks for itself and secondly I got to see how a manual load sheet was put together. Load sheets are another thing that I had been shown but without constant practice are easily forgotten how to do.
Made a note to make sure I get a few blank ones from the crew room and practice practice practice.
With the rescue flight complete we returned to Birmingham where I said my thanks and went home to write up the notes I had made.
Thus far has dispelled the myth I had that the hard part as over. I was so far behind the curve at times it scared me. Upon my return home I sat for a couple of hours reviewing what I had seen and how I was going to catch up. One more of those trips and I was going to be expected to be the in the right hand seat!
Day two
Birmingham – Alicante
Again an afternoon flight, and again I got there very early. The difference this time was I knew what paperwork was required so I got it all ready and went over it with a fine tooth comb. I also had time to make some comprehensive notes on what to do from walking into the crew room to being ready to go to the aircraft. This meant I could rehearse at home. The first officer was quite pleased too when he turned up to find that I had saved him 20 minutes of work.
Flying with a different crew was great in as much as they didn’t know what I had already been told so showed me much of the same things again. Very handy for me as some of the stuff during the first flight hadn’t quite sunk in deep enough and its always embarrassing not to know something you have already been shown.
The flight was again a great learning experience for me, but I still left not really feeling ready to do it as part of the operating crew.
I got home later that night to an email from the course coordinator who had remembered that I lived in Norfolk. The email said that there were some flights available for me from Norwich which I was welcome to take.
This was great for me as Norwich airport is only 40 minutes up the road rather than the 3 hours to Birmingham.
In addition I was also offered a couple more supernumerary flights from Norwich as I hadn’t experienced the place before.
Two flights from Norwich on the jump seat one back to Alicante and one to Murcia in Spain and I was far more confident to start the line training for real.
Wow here goes; the next time I fly in a 737 will be as operating crew, in the right hand seat, with passengers. Mind-blowing!