my 2 cents on line training
pre flight prep is key. know EVERYTHING about your next sector. taxi routing, ground freqs, sid's, NADP's, engine out routings, airways, airways notes, airspace boundry, STARS, the approach charts, taxi routing after landing, usual parking bays at destination. most of this info, you can get from seniors, and other guys who have been online for awhile. make friends, force them to help you.. buy beer for them, that usually works huhu
i used to spend the whole night before flight looking at the details of the flight. calling up my buddies who are online and bugging them about anything i'm unsure of. i can tell you, the online guys can name you waypoints all around the world which are of interest, the tricks and traps in certain FIRs. always keep an eye on the traps.. it'll kill you at the worst, get you a proper written warning at the best.
next, concentrate on time management. especially on the ground. preping the aircraft, doing your briefing, take off analysis charts. plan your work flow, and dont get distracted (i know of some instructors who will delay you on purpose to get you to panic. he wants to see you under pressure). practice your take off briefing until you can do it in one breath (without thinking too much is what i mean)
then time management in the air before decent. practice arrival briefings at home, know the flow. practice a general airport and fm briefing at home hundreds of times.
then the landings (if you have any trouble with that) this can be done by reading the fctm, bunk flying/flight sim(buy a computer flight controller to get used to the side stick, there are good A320 sim software [wilco airbus series] out there, its not 100% the same as airbus, its simulates normal law not too bad, flare law is kinda whack, but it helps, helps alot. just dont use the flight sim figures in real life, this is more of an exercise for you to get used to the sidestick and trying to make small corrections during the final approach phase/ also it will help you with your FMGEC work. i remember when i was on the turboprops, my housemate used to fly PMDG's 738 flight sim and i used to join in, by the time i got on to the 73, fm work was pie) and paying close attention to the instructor during p2 duties. try and get your body to be hyper sensitive to changes in attitude and sink rates, acceleration and deceleration rates. anticipate momentum, remember the inertia, small corrections early. if you are tuned enough, you'll come to a point where the FD's will follow you instead of you following it. breathe and concentrate.
descent planning. learn your 3 times table, and as you become more aware, pay attention to traffic and try to anticipate when ATC will give direct tracks, and when they will ask you to slow down during approach. this can be done with good usage of ears(listening out to RT and being aware how many a/c are on approach, where they are, and what speeds they are doing) and good usage of TCAS display. knowing who is in front of you in sequence, will give you good anticipation of whats gonna happen next. also, know exactly how long it takes the aircraft to decel in level flight, decending flight, tail/head wind effects.
all of these items may not apply to you, but of all my years as a safety co pilot, from newbies on the turbo props to guys who come up to widebody from narrow body jets seem to always lose the plot around these few areas.
finally is book knowledge.. you gotta help yourself there.
Last edited by cav-not-ok; 1st Jul 2012 at 23:39.