Anecdotally, CASA (each FOI has a different opinion) require a minimum of four simulator sessions for the MCC course. How many hours in each session is up to the provider. If the MCC training provider decides to include more sessions than the supposed minimum and the client doesn't like that he can always go elsewhere. The problem is where can he go? At the moment there are apparently only two approved MCC course providers, both charge in the region of $9000 and thus there is no competition.
I understand most of the MCC Human Factors syllabus is already covered in the ATPL and CPL Human Factors theory subjects. Is it really necessary to repeat the same subjects in the MCC course.
One approved MCC operator with a 737 FTD requires seven 4 hour simulator sessions. That is almost half required of an initial type rating. It is hard to see why this number of sessions are needed to teach the practical side of MCC. Well, in reality they are not needed. But it makes money for the provider. Again, anecdotally, the first few classroom sessions are nothing to do with MCC theory at all. They are all about looking at wall posters of the simulator cockpit and learning off by heart the position of ancillary controls, instruments, knobs and radios. In other words everything needed to fly an IFR airliner.
That means once you get into the sim with another pilot to start your 28 hours of sim sessions you don't get time to stuff around looking for the standby rudder switches and TCAS switches in a 737, Dash Eight, or an A320 FMCG or whatever the sim represents , That is because before you start playing multi crew cooperation games in an expensive simulator and using non-normals in the Saab or Dash or 737 QRH, you need to know the names of everything first and where things are in the aircraft type QRH.
Why is this so? The answer is that all the hours simulator flying (14 as PF and 14 as PM) are supposed to teach you multi crew operation like how to read a checklist and tune navaids, learn to read a QRH, talk to the cabin crew etc. This despite all this being later taught by the airline that you eventually and hopefully join in the future. It is called re-inventing the wheel. I think CASA haven't really thought this through before foisting a $9000 impost on a CPL holder. On the other hand, maybe they have...
Last edited by Tee Emm; 7th Aug 2015 at 10:18.