Airbus Type Rating
 

hello guys as the title states i'm soon to be starting an airbus type rating for a regional airline, thus i'm currently nervous and stressing out in terms of what to expect and how best to pass the type rating-as this is one of my last steps in being employed within the company, is this a normal feeling? I have spoken to some of the students who where part of the previous type rating class and they have said just relax and you will be taught what you need and enjoy it as it comes, I'm currently in my late 30's and my class mates are in their 20's, thus i really feel the odd one out and am I out of my dept? I would really appreciate any advice, tips and if theres any books or youtube videos that can assist me in remaining calm / helping me thru this hurdle and any pointers in how to enjoy this transition before I embark on flying the real aircraft, is the feeling normal and how can I stay positive rather than negative and not my spoil my type rating experience...
:rolleyes:

Best advice is to sit with your sim partner or another student and “chair fly” SOPs - all your memory items and normal sectors. This will, believe me, make your life infinitely easier and significantly increase your capacity in the sim. It will also make your instructor’s life a lot easier - they are paid to reach you about the airbus, not your company SOPs. If you turn up on day one with good SOPs, know you memory items and have flows that just need a bit of a polish, believe me, it will impress and make your sim sessions a delight. Have a read of the FCTM and the normal procedure sections of the FCOM.

Systems knowledge to be honest you probably are best off with the learning material they offer you - which normally has “free play” panels demoing system behaviour on your ipad or whatever. I always found systems knowledge came far easier in context, particularly with airbus manuals!

Try to assimilate the yellow speed trend arrow. It indicates where the speed will go if nothing is changed.

If it is less than 5 mm long; just keep coming back to it to see if it stays like that or if it reduces or maybe goes the other way. If it is going positive, negative, positive, negative, you don't need to change thrust. If it remains in one direction without changing or gets longer, then - assuming that your flight path is correct - you need to make a small change to the thrust. Just walk the thrust levers up or down - each one a few mm at a time, rotating your wrist from side to side to move one lever then the other and so on.

Assuming your flight path is correct; If the speed trend arrow points up, speed is increasing so you need to reduce thrust slightly. If the speed trend arrow points down, speed is decreasing, so you need to increase thrust slightly- just walk the levers a small way in the opposite direction to where the speed trend arrow is pointing.

Try not to get fixated on your scan. Use the classic T scan on the PFD and keep your scan moving: Horizon, Speed (+ speed trend arrow), Horizon, Altitude (+ vertical speed arrow), Horizon, Compass, Horizon, Speed (+ speed trend arrow) etc. Centre, left, centre, right, centre, down, centre, left etc.

Remember - or realise - that Airbus FBW "stays where you put it" (in normal law).
Make sure you are using the outboard arm rest, which should be more or less horizontal and adjusted to be supporting the full weight of your forearm at the right height to allow your outboard hand to operate the side-stick with ease, and without any bias, and make small adjustments to the attitude with the side-stick - returning the stick to neutral between every small adjustment.

e.g. If you are drifting below your altitude, pull the side-stick an inch or so back then immediately return it to neutral; as quick as it takes to say "back, neutral". This will raise the nose a tiny amount and it will then stay at that new slightly higher pitch attitude with no further inputs. Observe the reaction on the vertical speed arrow, and keep the scan moving; Correct, neutral. Correct, neutral etc.

Good luck, I have not flown for a while and I am so jealous ! :ok:
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To your first post, don't worry about your age. If you're in your late 30's, you're still young. But, you do bring things to the table that your 20-year old class mates don't. You might struggle with things that come easy to them, but then you'll find you have more life experience to draw on for other things. I've trained many a pilot in their late 40's and 50's who have the same issues you're seeing, but when it came to topics such as emergency management, they sailed through the session because they knew how to prioritize different things. The younger folks often got bogged down and would happily fly an airplane into a mountain just to finish a silly acronym their sim instructor taught them as a memory aid. So really at the end of the day, focus on the big picture. Something like a scan will come in time.

In fact, that makes me remember one thing I did with some of my students who had trouble with their scan, especially so early on as sim session 2. I would ask them if it was their first glass panel airplane. If the answer was yes, I'd have them do a series of turns and tell me the bank angle. A lot of times the answer would come back that they have no clue and they're very confused. You see, the sky pointer in most glass cockpits operates opposite of the way it does in conventional instruments. Sometimes this little change is enough to throw a person's scan right off. They're so hyper focused on trying to identify whether the airplane is turning left or right, that they let their speed and altitude get away from them. Then because it's an attitude awareness problem, they're not sure whether to add or remove power, even though there is this funky trend vector telling them what to do. Now, I'm not an airbus pilot (I fly the competition), but just remember that at the end of the day, it's just an airplane. Sure, it's a bigger and faster airplane, but the nose goes up and the nose goes down just like a Cessna. If a Cessna slows down and you don't want it to, you add power. If it speeds up and you don't want it to, you remove power. The airbus is no different (save for those funky FBW laws), except now you get a little device that tells you where the airplane will be in 5 or 10 seconds. But remember that trend arrows are just that - they tell you where the airplane will be in x number of seconds if you do nothing to change it. Don't chase the trend arrow, but use it as a tool to identify what you need to do - then go back to basic piloting (or whatever that is that you Airbus pilots do).

Also, remember that it is the job of the pilot monitoring to call out deviations. If your sim partner is calling those out, they're doing their job - in fact, that's a great sign! They are there to help you. It's not so much that you're having to be told, but rather that your sim partner is using their CRM and SOPs and it shows you're gelling as a crew. I've seen some PMs in the sim throw their partner under the bus (pardon the slight pun) by not calling anything out. But guess who I start to focus on as the sim instructor or check pilot? It's not the guy or gal doing the flying, but the guy or gal not doing their job by calling out deviations. You should thank your sim partner and ask them to keep doing it.

As for training material, this always sounds corny, but flight sim is a great tool for learning the scan. MSFS 2020 has a good default A320 with a few paid addons that I'm told are halfway decent. If they're anything as good as the PMDG 737, then you'll learn a lot just from watching what happens. I used the PMDG 737 when I came on to the Boeing, and I'm using it again as I begin to see my upgrade looming in the next 8 to 12 months. Like I said, corny, but I can attest that it helps with flows and interpretation of the instruments.

This your first jet or what was you flying prior?

My first airline job since i finished studies in 2023

@+TSRA, the Airbus FBW flies as a normal aircraft. Think of the FBW as you would an auto gearbox in a car. It assists you, but it does not take over from you driving the car. FBW just helps with some of the "background" tasks; auto trimming in the Airbus is like auto gear changing in the auto car.

Flying Airbus FBW is still basic piloting.


A SIM partner who calls out every tiny deviation can be a nuisance to the learner pilot. Quite often the learner pilot knows full well that they are deviating but are still getting to grips with it. If PM keeps calling every deviation it can add to the stress the learner pilot is under. I have experienced this and having PM call every small deviation while I am getting my motor reflexes up to speed can be a pain in the ........ Give the guy a bit of "space" and let them learn without nit picking them too much.

On the line and/or when you are flying a CAT lllB, then of course call out any and all deviations.

You are being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data presented to you. Typical issue coming into a complex avionics aircraft along with its higher speeds and weight/inertia to deal with. You have to learn what stuff you need and when..so your scan is more concentrated and you disregarding all the info you dont need at that time. An Airbus is easy to fly (almost too easy to the detriment to your flying skills according to my friends who fly it) as the computers keep it where it has to be. But this is also an issue if you havent flown similiar setups let alone a sim which really doesnt fly like a real airplane either.

@ uplinker, I'm being facetious with my Airbus piloting comments. Many of my friends fly them, so I make my comments about flying an Airbus in jest.

I agree that you need to give space in the sim, especially so early on. You don't want to give the impression that it is OK for the pilot monitoring to never call out deviations. I would have a chat with the PM student if I felt their calls were bordering on a nuisance, but the OP mentioned it's both sim instructor and PM making comments, so I took the line that the PM is likely sticking to SOPs and not calling out a 2-knot deviation (which I too have had people do to me, and you're right - it's infuriating!). I would hope that, in this case, the sim instructor tells the PM to ease off at the appropriate times or otherwise remind the PM of the conditions at which a call is to be made. The issue comes that you don't have to tell experienced pilots like you and me when it's play time and when it's game time. But for a brand new pilot to the airline world, they don't yet know when to and when not to lay off, so I take it as a good sign that the PM is at least making the calls.

I've found when instructing that it's too easy to treat the sim as a flying only trainer, where the PM is there to flip switches and get the PM through their part of the session. I used to cover this possibility when teaching a train-the-trainer course, that instructors had to focus on both students. But inevitably it is easier for new instructors to focus on the flying and let the PM duties go by the wayside. This can leave the PM student thinking that they're doing the right things by calling out a 2-knot deviation or not calling out any deviations because the instructor didn't say anything. A previous airline of mine went through a period of increased unstabilized approaches continued to a landing where one of the root causes identified was that some of our junior instructors were not discussing or correcting unstable approaches in the simulator. Well, in a way they were: they'd reposition the sim for another approach, but never discussed why the additional exercise was added or how to correct the issue before the approach gates were passed. These students got to the line thinking it was OK to be unstable because of how quickly the airplane would respond to a corrective input. So, we rebuilt the sim scripts to tell the instructor and student when an exercise was for handling practice or for grading. That way we were telling the student PM that it is OK to not make the calls in exercise A, but in exercise B it was game on. I'm not sure how common that is in sim scripts around the world, but it certainly made things clearer for both instructor and student.

Fair comment :) . I thought you were, but I just wanted to make sure that other non Airbus folk who might be reading, realised you were being light hearted and how good Airbus FBW really is.

One sees some daft comments sometimes - the ones that bug me imply that you are somehow not a real pilot unless you fly a "tractor", where almost everything has to be manually controlled and adjusted, but those same folk probably drive cars with the latest state of the art auto-gearboxes and other driver aids, such as Sat Nav, Cruise control and auto wipers and lights for example.

I feel embarrassed writing this but wanted a second view and what would you do in my situation, i was literally 6 lessons from finishing my type rating but due to not been able to follow lesson plan and not planning properly for the lesson i was told that my type rating will not continue no longer, again to hear this i was very devastated to say the least and made an appointment with the head of training, he gave me an option to redo my type rating from the beginning and i will have to fund this myself, I am grateful for the second chance but at the same time feel a bit depressed/negative as that my other class mates have finished and i'm left behind, i really did give my 100% for each session and tried to best prepare, i admit i did not make effort to meet with my sim partner and go over materials/lesson preparation other than discusing flows, again a fault from both of us and I really assumed studying alone would be sufficient enough .. just really scared if second time round if my 100% will be enough, i literally had to do engine fire, one engine go around and wind sheer and then i would have been finished... the instructor did point out my system knowledge is quite poor which i said is true, however on the overall course i really did give my 100% and the last lesson it did not go according to my likening and i felt it was very harsh.. even my sim partner was shocked and amazed how the instructor conducted the lesson and that at the end of the debrief I really wanted to express my views and thoughts but at the same time knew if I spoke out of line this will be noted..

I really feel i can do this given the second chance but just worried on what happend the first time and do not want a repeat outcome..
At the age of 37 I feel age is a factor to learn things compared to my class mates whom are younger, at the same time I am using external materials like youtube channels to help me better understand certain topics etc which has helped and I did feel that during the training....

Do i give up and walk away ( which i will always think what if...) or give it my 200% second time round and learn from the mistakes, since i was so near to the finish line..

Any replies Advice would be much gratefull...

Relax, trust the process, and enjoy the learning. Check out YouTube channels like "Angle of Attack" or "Mentour Pilot" for helpful tips.

Are you paying for this type or is the company?

If its yourself, then you are the customer and need to demand the retraining required to continue on the present rating course. If a company is paying (which I doubt as companies dont want to wash you and pay for en entirely new course..) then either its them not needing more pilots and cheaper to boot you or simply take them up on the offer. Its worse for your records to bust a checkride as its noted in your pilot records for future employers to background check as opposed to starting again. I am assuming its FAA as in EASA you wouldnt havegotten to flight stage as you must pass the systems written exam prior to sim stage. Only other thing is to get together with your sim partner, go over all that stuff and chair fly everything . Stop screwing your mind up with ideas how young smartass pilots may be better.. they are not.. we all had to drink from the fire hose as it does seem insane (I speak from experience with 8 typeratings thru my career)

Think of it this way.. not many years ago you couldnt fly anything of this size unless you had 4/5/6000 hrs total time... anybody with that time certainly werent spring chickens.. so if they could train 30year old senior citizens to fly Airbus back then, then you certainly can too..

Other option may be to write it off and get a flying job in a turbo prop or something similiar size with conventional controls and get some flight experience. Then you would get comfortable and up to speed (but type course will be SAME intense affaire!!) and return to the Airbus later?

Im paying for the type and I have an EASA license, I have passed the initial systems written test, the contract prior to starting was your allowed two resits/retakes before the course is terminated due to not matching the standards as required..

so if they allow you two resits (aka simsessions) why cant you simply trade them one of those for a extra training sim session now? Chucking you out now will waste the companies money so not in their interest.

wish it was that easy was told bottom line i did not match their skills set required to carry on and it was best interest to terminate my training contract for the type rating at that establishment,
my performance was not up to standards, and failed to match their basic standards

so who is footing the bill if you walk out of there now?

I understand it stings a bit on on your pride to leave, but maybe its for the better if its not costing you a dime for type training so far. Alot of airlines require you to jump thru their hoops and pass the stage checks as you progress, so thats the game as its their trainset,so they get to call the shots. If you do decide to pay for the 2nd course, at least you will that much further ahead than the kids on day one ;)

There has to be some deeper issues since they are binning you now, instead of tweaking your performance with some minor training events. Maybe some introspection and formulating a plan along with renting some time in one of the million FSTDs that emulate the Airbus so you can go over stuff with a normal instructor and no pressure?

This sounds crazy.

If you really had no ability and were a complete no hoper, they should have taken you aside much earlier and suggested a plan to get you up to speed, or suggested that you parted company before too much time and money had been wasted on either side.

To try to dump you now, so close to your final exams, is daft. If you are paying, then you are the customer and they are providing a service to you in the form of a training course. They work for you, not the other way round. For them to wait until now to suggest you should start the course again from the beginning - at your expense presumably - is ridiculous at this late stage.

If they are paying for you, they can stop the course, but again, why wait so long to do that.

I would have a meeting with their head of training. It sounds as if you need a week or two out of the classroom to go back over the books and the ground course notes, and then make sure you learn all the SOPs and flight profiles, preferably with a buddy. Then rejoin the course.

A type rating is hard work - you need to study about 12 hours a day. No time for television or socialising. Go over and over the notes and descriptions until you understand them. Practise the test questions over and over again. Draw out the flight profiles over and over again and write in all the speeds, pitch angles, etc. Walk out the profiles, circuits etc. in the garden or a field; speaking all the parameters, altitudes, speeds, configs and SOP phrases etc, to yourself. Do this for PF and PM roles.

I managed to speak to one of the instructors who conducted my lesson ( i had a total of 3) and he did make me aware my knowledge was poor on the systems to which i am aware and acknowledged, he suggested spending some time on fcom/fctm and general system knowledge using such materials such as youtube, he also suggested that maybe the previous instructor who originally conducted my training may have been too lenient in passing me to get this far to which I debate, i agree my knowledge is poor but I did my level best at each sessions up and until the end and managed to do the lesson tasks/objectives eg ILS approach/ UPRT recovery etc,

Also I wanted to state that, which person at a novice stage knows the full airbus system, again i did not wish to argue but wanted to seek knowledge/advice on how to overcome this hurdle and finish my training, he did say if he was my original instructor and if did not know the basics as in the stage at where i was he would have not let me continue until i demonstrated a standard of understanding , he also stated that before i make any rash decisions in terms of continuing the training spend 2-3 months studying and then start the type rating again, to which i said i would do the actions he asked, thus any websites or apps/ external materials or books can anyone suggest to get my understanding to a standard of level?

I am comfortable with the flows/ flight profiles but agree i have not studied or practised with my sim partner during my time at the type rating, I am going to take time out to study as much as i can but i feel like its a question when asking how long is a piece of string, in terms of test questions any websites or apps i can use?
I have had time to reflect on my mistakes and my weaknesses to which i admit but at the same time i feel angry to be at the stage i am, again I know this path is not easy and the type rating can be done with the right mind set and focus...

It feels embarrassing to be at this stage , I mean I have not come across many or other students in my shoes, I have heard of students repeating lessons etc but for the training to be terminated is a real kick in the teeth and to do it all again at my own expense is worrying but I feel I can do this with the right mind set and focus and support...

You now have the course notes, and the FCOM and the FCTM - or you should have.

You should also have sets of practice questions. You should have all you need, and you have already paid for it. You don't need to use Youtube, which is an unregulated resource with unqualified people, and which I would stay away from.

You just need to go through all the lessons and paperwork again at home and make sure you fully understand it, and can recall it, and pass the tests.

When you have got this all sorted out you can rejoin the course and take the tests again to prove your system knowledge is up to speed.

If you are paying, why are they terminating your course - if you are paying then it's not their decision. They can advise that you will not pass with your current level of knowledge and ability but I don't see how they can terminate you. If they were paying then yes, but they're not paying.

I would say you need a few weeks away to catch up, then go back and continue your course.


PS, when you say you are comfortable with the profiles, can you draw each one from scratch on a blank sheet of paper and add all the parameters and phase changes ? Can you walk each profile, speaking all the SOPs for PF and then PM ?

PPS, get your SIM buddy, other half, friend or family member to test your knowledge. It is possible to convince yourself that you know things, when actually you might not. This can be revealed when questions are asked in a different way.

As an exercise, without looking anything up beforehand, give us an overview of either the A320 electrical system or the hydraulic system in the 'Quick reply' box below.

I am not trying to catch you out or embarrass you, but just gently putting you on the spot so you can see for yourself what aspects you know and maybe don't know yet. (Or if you prefer, do this privately on a sheet of paper).

First thing is you’ve got advice from a number of people here, to the point your head might explode. Don’t try and do everything everyone says, take a few nuggets from each.

You don’t need to be able to draw the entire schematics of every part of the 320, very few training captains could on the spot. But you need to know roughly what the stuff does, not necessarily how to do it.

You want specific material - look up ‘A320 podcast’. A phenomenal back catalogue of material designed for people just like you, learning the type. I still use it after being on it years and jumping seat, it’s designed for all of that. Very accessible 20 minute odd episodes designed to demystify. They do a subject area each episode. Yes it’s ‘not approved’, but it’s made by trainers and it’s very good, there’s a limit to how pedantic you can be with ‘approved’ material. The biro you use in the flight deck isn’t ‘approved’ etc…

I wouldn’t think you’d need 2 to 3 months, the tech section is usually only 2 weeks long anyway. Maybe take a month off. First week do very little, then hammer it for the last three weeks. And by hammer it I mean hammer it. You should know the sim profiles in your sleep having had 12 pints on a big night out. They need to be absolutely second nature. All of them.

Being blunt I think you just didn’t put enough work in the first time, a lack of knowledge rather than lack of skill is the symptom of that. I also suspect you genuinely didn’t know how much work you’d have to put in, and to be fair for a first rating why would you.

Are you staying in a hotel near the sim centre? If not do so, if you’ve got kids they’re getting parked for 6 weeks of the course (sorry). This is possibly your last chance to pass the rating and get employed by this carrier. Mess this up and that could be it for your career. Yes that’s the hard truth, but you need to just write off the next couple of months and in return you’ll get a 30 year plus dying career as payback. You need to be with your sim partner for hours a day. Every. Single. Day. You don’t get days off on the course.

Personally I think you ought to be okay, you’ve presumably passed a single pilot ME/IR, that’s far harder than airline flying.

PM me if you want any more thoughts, equally reply here and everyone gets the benefit. Good luck!

your overview of the hydraulic system all i am aware or know at this stage is theres three: blue/ yellow/ green and there's a redundancy back up in case one fails, with the electrics I know the battery voltage limit and where required there is an external power sources available such as the external battery on the ground or the APU functions,

Okay you’ll need more than that. Hydraulics for example, what does the PTU do, when’s it inhibited, which systems control flaps vs slats vs flaps and slats.

Try the podcast, the hydraulics ones, for example, are absolutely excellent.

Thank you , I will check out the podcast, I think I underestimated the amount of work the first time as well as lack of knowledge, and how to progress with the work load, I was living by myself in an apartment which consisted of some reading and hammering youtube videos and asking friends who have done the type rating before me questions on various subjects that i didn't understand or which it didn't make sense,- again I should have asked the instructors but I felt if i asked them then they would have not gone forward with the sim session or state adequate preparation/lack of preparation... I am a family man and I moved abroad to do this course, it was difficult juggling family life and a nagging wife with the threat of taking the kids or not paying them much attention- this was not helpfull i must admit, I also did feel if i did stay close by or lived with my sim partner it would have been more enjoyable as in discuss profiles/ lesson plans etc, so I know second time round I will improve on this 100 %, at the same time since i am home I am enjoying seeing the kids and thinking do i take the jump and do it again or move on, I know it sound stupid but I really am nervous and at the same time wish to succeed, Thus would appreciate your thoughts on the matter..

You need the wife on-side… the problem is they dont know and dont care about the level of work you have to put into this.

Like everybody said, you dont need stupid distractions like her and the kids so best you move to same dorms as the other kids , and here you WILL feel alien as you are at completely different stages of life.. aka they dont have any..at all. So they will crank out 22hrs of studying a day and you can too without trivial homefront niffnaff.

Let the fam know you love them and all that jazz, and ensure them you need this 6 week period to disappear up your own butt to complete this.

I wish it was that easy with the wife, agree with the comment they dont see the end result they think its all glamorous as in staying at fancy hotels and ordering room service and partying with the cabin crew , its far from that lol , when I initially did the type rating i did end up renting a place to myself and tried my best to study but I did feel isolated not having any1 to talk too or ask for much help other than calling friends whom have done the training before me but not having someone physically to talk to did feel like I was in prison, so hopefully second time round I can count on my sim partner for assistance... at the moment just feel negative and depressed to a certain extent- which i assume is normal so trying to stay positive and to continue is quite difficult at this stage but at the same time I dont want to be like this for the next 2-3 months etc as time is ticking..

OK, you need a much deeper system knowledge.

I thought you would be able to tell us that there are five(seven), sources of electrical power on the A320, and what they are:

One Main Generator on each engine, one Main Generator on the APU, a RAT powered emergency generator, and aircraft batteries. Any single Main Generator can power the whole aircraft, (on the ground or in a flight emergency, with Galley Shedding). (and each engine FADEC also has its own electrical generator, making a total of seven electrical power sources). You need to know all this, along with switching priorities and electrical capacities of all the various power sources, How long can you fly on batteries alone, for example ? How is the power distributed. Which aircraft systems use AC, which ones use DC ? How is the DC power generated ? What is the RAT, and when is it used ? You must surely have looked at the ECAM system pages for all the aircraft systems ??

There are three separate hydraulic systems, with seven(eight) sources of hydraulic power: One Main Hydraulic pump on each engine. A Main Electric pump powering a third system full-time, (which one ?). An electric pump which can intermittently power the Yellow system in a limited way, a PTU, a RAT hydraulic pump, and brake accumulators. You can fly and land the aircraft with only one hydraulic system - with certain restrictions. (There is also a hand operated pump on the Yellow system for ground operations). You need to know all this, and which major aircraft services are powered by which hydraulic system(s).

Were you not given a copy of the Airbus A320 FCOM ? You should have studied each system in depth; Electrics, Hydraulics, Fuel storage, supply and transfer. Fire and Smoke, Pressurisation, Air conditioning, Gear and brakes, Flight Controls, FBW - computers, computer priorities. reversions. Autopilot and flight directors, FMGS, Indicating and recording systems, Auto-thrust, Navigation, Ice and rain protection, etc. You should have had an exam to test and prove your knowledge on each system.

I am not trying to be clever here, nor am I having a go at you, This is all basic knowledge and I am shocked that you have not been taught it by your ATO, (Approved Training Organisation). Why are you having to watch Youtube videos - you should have, and need to, study the proper Airbus manuals; the FCOM, (Flight Crew Operating Manual), and the FCTM, (Flight Crew Training Manual).

we were given a CBT to watch and attempt the questions at the end followed by a test of the airbus systems which i passed, currently have a copy of FCOM and will be studying this soon , as well as FCTM..

If students are just shown a CBT and then attempt a test without having studied the FCOM, that makes me very concerned indeed.

we also had access to airbus material on the ipad but most of the questions asked where from the cbt material provided to us, we wasnt told how much of FCOM to study

Hi again Michael_A,

Two things I want to touch on: resources and distractions.

Resources

I tell students there are three types of knowledge in aviation: Need to know, nice to know, and nerd level. Most companies I've worked for take this to heart, and understand that you won't be an expert at the end of the initial. After all, the initial is simply a license to learn. There is a fine line between these levels, especially during an initial, but everything you'll ever need to know as a line pilot from a systems standpoint will be contained in the FCOM. I agree with Uplinker in that if you've not yet picked up or only recently began reading the FCOM, that's concerning. The FCOM (and FCTM if Airbus puts one out) should be the go-to resources during an initial. So much so that I tell my students to do this: Read the FCOM section for the system you will be learning about. Don't read it to study or understand, just read it as though you were reading any old book. Then watch the CBT video and take your notes. The hope here is that at most one or two things from your first reading made viewing the CBT easier. Now that you've watched the CBT, re-read the FCOM.Things will make a lot more sense and it'll let you ask questions of your instructors from a higher level of knowledge. Keep going down this road of FCOM-CBT-FCOM and you'll quickly learn the system.

As far as YouTube and Podcasts, I give caution to initial students even though I agree with posters above that they are a great resource. The problem is that you're not always sure of the experience of the presenter and all presenters use an assumed level of knowledge when putting their presentations together, with most not telling their audience what that level is. I've seen some great videos with flashy animations and graphics and presenters that sound more knowledgeable than our company training pilots. But then I look at the date, realize the video is 14 years old and there have been umpteen changes to the system that causes the video to now be incorrect. If you don't take that step to confirm the validity of the video, then you're already behind the 8-ball. I've also listened to some great podcasts that I quickly realize are begun from an assumed level of knowledge that is well above that of an initial student, despite the information being golden for a recurrent student or future instructor. I've also seen videos and podcasts that look and sound great, but are missing some very key points of information that are absolutely required to understand the system, but because the presenter didn't have that level of knowledge, they didn't know they had to pass that information on to you. This most often comes to play with aircraft options. The presenter could present an aircraft option (or lack of one) as applying to the global fleet, without realizing their airline either took (or did not take) an option that changed the system compared to others in the fleet. This can make talking about something simple as data entry into an FMC very distracting for a pilot whose company took option b instead of option a, and yet because you don't know there are different options, you end up confused. I'm not saying don't use these resources, but understand you and they have limitations you have to be aware of. So if it doesn't make sense to you, go back to the FCOM and ignore the video for now.

Distractions

It sounds as though your family has been a huge distraction for you.Try as we might, we cannot simply enter "family mode" and "work mode." We carry both parts of our lives with us into training, and if we're distracted by anything, training suffers. I've had students show up to sim before only to find out a family member just died, or they just broke up with their significant other, or one where the pilot found out that morning they had cancer. However, the single most common distraction is that which you are describing: family who doesn't understand the pressure put on us. I describe a type rating as being somewhat equivalent to a Year 1 University semester boiled down to less than two months. The workload is intense, and if you don't adequately prepare your family for it, then you end up holding the bag. I often tell people that my wife also has six type ratings because she's been by my side for all of them. But it wasn't until the third or fourth that she began to understand the level of study required. Indeed, they see us sitting at an iPad or computer watching videos, and we go in to work for 6 hours, only 4 of which are in the simulator, so it's easy for them to think it's easy for us. Especially if we're sitting somewhere warm in a company provided, all-inclusive hotel.

You have two jobs. The first is to prepare your family. Show your spouse and kids what you have to learn. A cockpit poster is good for this. You have to learn what every switch does, how it presents on the screens, and how to fix issues when they happen. Not only that, but that every sub-panel has its own computer which you have to learn how it is programmed to operate. You don't have to show system diagrams, but once you boil everything down to this, most family members begin to appreciate the commitment you have to put it. Someone said above it requires 12 hours a day, and I would tend to agree with that. So no, you don't have time to help with the dishes, or putting out the trash, or looking after the kids while you're studying. Laundry gets done once a week, and the time you take for yourself away from study is to relax your brain and consolidate the information, not to take on family duties. It sucks. It sucks big time. But that's what it takes. That's the commitment required to be a professional pilot completing an initial type rating.

Your second job is to tell your instructors if you're distracted. Too many times I asked students or flight test candidates if they were prepared for the session. My exact speech was: "Are there any professional or personal reasons we should delay or cancel today's session? I ask because talking about it now is a reason. Talking about it after is an excuse." I did this to give the student or candidate a chance to have a different conversation with me before the session. What I didn't say, but implied in tone is that reasons are good, excuses are childish and unprofessional. Training can always be moved. Yes it's a pain in the butt for someone, yes it "wastes" resources, and yes it may mean they can't get you back in for a week or so. But that is better than getting into a session that you are simply not prepared for. Being unprepared is unprofessional and shows poor risk management and decision making abilities. Especially during a flight test. Too many pilots told me after they failed a ride that they were distracted and should have taken me up on my offer. But at that point it's too late, the ride is failed. But cancelling before the session has no negative implications as long as it doesn't become a trend over multiple sessions. So be honest with yourself and your instructor if you are distracted and put a plan in place to remove where possible or otherwise minimize the distraction. Otherwise, you'll keep walking the same path getting the same result.

Thank you for your detailed reply, I have decided to take some time out clear my head and come back with a positive mind set, currently still feeling down and some what depressed but at the same time the hunger is in the belly but at times thinking the path I choose is it worth disrupting family life as that if i did get a 9-5 office job at least i will be at home and work home life will be balanced but then i some times think i have a second chance and that I know the struggle that I went thru to get this far and the struggle will pay off, having an office view at 30,000 ft is some time unreal and each day will be different, yes to get the first 500 hours will be a struggle but afterwards the struggle will be worth it

I like your comment about speaking to the instructor and about distractions, I felt at my initial type rating training If i did came forward and spoke up they would have just postponed the lesson and made a note and just would not really care as they are on a time frame themselves, it seems second time round with the type rating at a different location from speaking to a friend who is doing the course it seems more relaxed and tailored to the student etc, I recall a lesson where i did not plan adequately and realised i was over my head in terms of lesson planning and I explained this to the instructor never the less he let the lesson go ahead and made a report on my file for it to be repeated and i did not plan adequately, which I was annoyed as I rather would have let the lesson be cancelled and have a lesson on briefing me what I should have prepared for the lesson and what I lacked on etc..

Looking at the various comments, I feel that I did not plan well from day 1 and not being on the same page as my sim instructor did not help, thus i am understanding my mistake and will improve on them and bring a better knowledge and studying when i do the type rating the second time round, its about 18 lessons/sim time the whole type rating that i originally did, yes it will be annoying doing it again but i feel i have the added advantage of knowing what i have done previously so it should make the second time far better, I also did hate the time in the sim originally where i did an action wrong and the instructor kept shouting, during those moments i just kept a look on the clock and thought only 15 mins left etc, as i just wanted to get out the sim as i felt crap, I know the sim lessons are ment to be enjoyable and a learning experience but for me it was the opposite..

At the same time i dont want to leave it for so long where i forget stuff but want to ask this low negative sad feeling is this normal and how do i overcome this feeling..

I am very sorry to hear this.

If an instructor at a school you are paying for ever shouts at you, shout back: "don't shout at me !". Shouting at students is totally unhelpful and there is no need for trainers to shout during training, (unless you are just about to step off the SIM platform or something).

I once said exactly this during a go-around on my twin engined propellor night test, (actual aircarft, not the SIM), which I had flown not exactly to his liking. He shut up and once we were climbing safely away, and clean; I then told the instructor that I was cancelling this test. Yes, me - I was the customer and I was paying for the training, and there was no way I could fly properly after being shouted at. (My test was quietly re-scheduled a few nights later with a different instructor, and with a successful outcome). If the instructor shouts, then they have not trained you properly, or as in my case, they are a rubbish instructor.

Yes, they can be direct, yes they can be critical, yes they can say you have knowledge shortcomings, yes they can calmly take control, yes they can fail you, but shouting at the student; never. Totally unacceptable.
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Nothing really to add except to say awesome advice and guidance from +TSRA , Uplinker and VariablePitchP

Again would like to say thank you for all the replies, has anyone been in similar situation or know of somebody, would love to get some advice on how to stay motivated etc