Hi Bigjarv - best advice: Just go there, study and focus hard, familiarise yourself with all checklists, standard calls, flight profiles as well as you possible can. This will clear up a lot of capacity so you can get on with the rest of the flying. All the information you need will be given to you once you get there and you will have enough time to familiarise yourself with it while you are there.
The whole course is conducted during weekdays, you will have weekends off. The first 2 weeks are an MCC. Week 1 is classroom stuff about all sorts of multi-crew issues many of which will be familiar to you if you've done an MCC and from Human Perf. & Limitations. Lots of group exercises, discussions, videos involving MCC issues (airline accident stuff etc). Mainly enjoyable and relaxed. Try to get involved and answer questions, instructors will certainly try to involve you. Nothing to worry about here.
Week 2: MCC Sim. 5x4 hour sessions with your sim-buddy. 2 as PF, 2 as PNF. Starts off as a basic introduction to the sim and general handling. Over the course of the week various things are added, engine failures etc until you'll be left more-or-less on your own on day 5 to operate a flight in which various situations will be thrown at you. The important thing is that you follow the procedures you have been taught while adhereing to the MCC principles you've been learning in Week 1. Most of the time this week you'll be using the autopilot so you have the spare capacity to get used to these multicrew principles and procedures. Which leads to...
Week 3: Advanced handling. This is essentially the same as week 2. Except Day 1, back in the classroom for a bit more MCC stuff, consolidation and prep for what is to come. Then 4x4 hour sessions - very much as before but... no autopilot! So this will force you to be more adept at using the MCC and multicrew procedural skills that you've learnt. The last session is billed as a 'Final Assessment'! - but we were assured throughout the course that this was in no way a 'chop check' and it really is your performance over the length of the course that they'll look at. However, I think that if your instructor (in this case one that you have not had previously on the course) did notice any significant problems they would be taking a very careful look at the rest of your file.
I think most people on my course found it hard at times, i.e. the occasional flight where things weren't as smooth as they'd like resulting in a below average report. However, we all made it in the end. If you find yourself struggling with anything, just make sure you do something about it, study, speak to an instructor - they are there to help you, speak to other guys on your course. You should enjoy it - it's a very nice environment to learn in, with some very dedicated and enthusiastic instructors and the steep learning curve you are forced to go through makes it very satisfying.
Last edited by ChocksAwayUK; 10th Oct 2006 at 14:01.