How does your command upgrade training look like?
I have just finished and passed my command upgrade course to captain B737, so I’m a very happy man now… :-)
I’m curious how the command course in other airlines look like!
The upgrade course in the company I fly for, is as follows:
- 4 days command development ground school: 4 days ground school on Crew Resource Management, leadership, public address speeches, aircraft performance and handling non-normals
- 12 days command development line training flights: you’ll be scheduled to fly 12 days with a Type Rating Examiner (TRE) on normal flights. You’re still flying as an f/o from the rh seat, but you’re expected to act as the captain on these flights.
- 1 day command development evaluation simulator session: a 4 hour sim session with some multiple failures. You’re expected to act as the captain as Pilot Monitoring from the left hand seat. It is used to determine what your ‘entry level’ is, where your weaknesses are, where you have to work on.
- 3 days command ground school: 3 days ground school, with briefings from various departments within our company: Legal Department, Commercial Planning, Customer focus, Rostering Department, Technical Department.
- 1 day oral examination (2 hours) on the company’s Operations Manual.
- 6 days (or a few more if required) command simulator training. At least 6 tough multiple failure sim sessions that you fly as a captain from the lh seat, with an f/o in the rh seat.
- 1 day command simulator check ride, taken by 2 TRE’s. First part of the 4-hour sim session is a multiple failure scenario, second part is the Operator’s Proficiency Check (OPC) and LoVis part. After passing, you’ll be scheduled for command line training.
- 7 days command line training: 6 days line flying from the lh seat. The first five flights are with a TRE in the rh seat, acting as an f/o, the last two flights are with a normal f/o in the rh seat and the TRE sitting on the jumpseat.
- 1 day command line check: final check flight. The TRE examines the candidate from the jumpseat. After passing, you’ll get a promotion interview with the head of flight ops and get your 4th stripe.
How does the command training in your company look like? How should the ideal training look like? Just focus on multiple failure scenarios or something else?