It depends what kind of airplane
My first was a turboprop, first 2 weeks of ground
this included: systems,limitations, procedures etc, but also the company CRM,safety etc. since I just joined the airline.
After all this you do a exam, if you pass, you went on to the procedure trainer, this took us a few days.
In here we learned the correct callouts and procedures used by the airline.
then the fun stuff starts, 12 session in a full flight sim.
during the first sessions they take you by the hand, how to start the engines, how to taxi etc. the whole course is outlined in a trainingbook so you know exactly what to prepare and do.
the last few session we did so called Loft sessions, this is basically flying from A>B with all kinds of problems happening.
You finish the sim sessions with a typerating exam, this consist of n-1, prec. appr.,non pres. appr., abborted To, go around, what you do depends of course on the issuing authority.
the last step was circuittraining in the real thing.
After this you wait till the authorities put the rating on your license
Now it is time to start line training.
My first jet type took me 7 weeks from start to linetraining
basically followed the same route as the turboprop rating.
except that the groundschool was compterbased
For me was the typerating "easier" than the ATPL stuff.
the ATPL stuff was very diverse and for multiple AC.
the type is about 1 AC, but now you need to learn everything about it.
Advice?
Preparation is the keyword I think, look at the training handbook and see what you are going to do the next sessions and review the stuff.
before you go in the sim make sure you know the callouts and procedure for your new airline, If you have to spend time in the FFS and work on your callouts you loose valuable expensive simtime.
anecdotes?
a few, the best landing I ever did in training was the very first one. the rest sucked bigtime!!!!
another one, during a smoke in the cockpit drill, the smoke machine would not stop. I could not see my finger, even if I put it in my eye!!!
eventually the trainer pressed the emergency stop button!
and we "evacuated" the sim
S