Diaryofa1900driver

November 11, 2006
After 6 1/2 years as a commercial pilot, numerous part-time flying and non-flying jobs and one full-time flying job, I’ve finally gotten a full-time flying job in the part of the Midwest I prefer (SE Wisconsin). So, it’s my 2nd full-time flying job and doesn’t appear to be a huge milestone considering how I left AirNet and how I ended up at Skyway. I should at least be glad to have a job at all. But it’s more than that to me. Some of you on this board remember being 5-10 years old and watching airplanes take-off and land at the local airport. I remember being 7 years old and sitting on a fuel farm container at KMKE, where my dad flew out of and watching KC-135A’s, Ozark DC-9s, Continental 737s, Jetstreams, etc, take off and land. This was back when it was strange but no big deal to see kids crawling under the fence to see what I was doing. I have been based here part-time. I’ve flown out of here temporarily for AirNet, and I’ve worked at 4 different locations on the airport. I’ve fueled and maintained airplanes here. I even flew a King Air out of here part-time after cleaning it for a year. Now, I finally have a full-time flying job, based out of KMKE. It’s not the end of this long road, but only a new beginning for me. A good one. I intend to make something of myself despite what happens next.

I look back at what led to this…I officially became an ex-employee of AirNet one half hour before my birthday on September 21st. I took a long walk at 2am and collected my thoughts. About 2 miles down the road, I decided that I had just been offered an “open door”. There was one problem. My roommates in OH would tell you that I didn’t have to say it…it was obvious that I was at a low point as a pilot, psychologically. I thus began my transformation into Travis, the Pilot your airline is looking for.

It all started as I had lunch with one of my roommates the next day, I believe. He told me about a regional that was desperate for pilots. I was soon talking to his friend employed at the airline, on the phone. I applied to that airline, online. I found out that there were more airlines that were hiring. I had no idea! I applied at a few more and got a new 1st class medical. I also applied for my FCC license. I knew that I needed to start making some money, so I planned on going back to WI during the first week of October to work at the Air Guard while I was unemployed.

I had just a little more than a carload of my stuff in OH, so I left a TV, my dishes and my cat to my roommates to babysit and off I went to “visit” my parents in WI. About that time I got one interview invite and set it up. I was really excited about that! I began studying my butt off in preparation. One day, during the first week of October, I was driving past the airport I used to fly divers out of and almost didn’t stop to say hi, but I thought what the hey. A friend of mine, who is a Captain at Skyway was there. He tells me that Skyway is hiring again, for TWO classes that they need like yesterday. He had walked my resume in a little over a year ago and I had embarrassed myself in the interview. I told him about my current situation and he said he wanted me to email an updated resume that night. I did. A little over a week later, I get the call, talk about myself and get an interview date!

I interviewed on October 17th, a Tuesday. That Friday, no phone call, no letter. I was sure it meant “no”. I couldn’t sleep that Sunday night. What could no answer yet mean? I knew they were looking to start classes soon, so why no answer? My phone woke me up at around 11am. I would have to go in on November 3rd to meet the training department. I knew why. This was a good opportunity for me, though. It meant I had a chance. But I had to wait until the 3rd! The 3rd rolls up and I have a zone moment in the flight training device at Midwest and I get invited to training at Skyway to start on the 20th!

So next week, I will go back to OH and get my cat, my dishes and my TV. I will come back and “continue where I left off in WI” as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t mind jumpseating to visit and drill, but it never felt permanent.

For anyone interested in reading about training at a smaller Regional, I’ll update my progress from time to time. This definitely won’t measure up to R2F’s or KW’s threads, but I sure as heck am going to reread them. Good reading material! I remember wishing I was doing what they were doing. I loved flying freight, but I always wanted to be an Airline Pilot.

Wish me luck. I’ll be back in this thread to update after I start.

November 21, 2006
Training started promptly at 8 am on Monday, the 21st. There are 12 of us and I knew some of my classmates already! Monday was real compressed with HR stuff and orientation. Alot of the first 5 days are probably going to crazy because of Thanksgiving. We met some training department personnel, filled out paperwork, and received our manuals and revisions. We met with and talked about Scheduling. We also talked about what training will consist of (seems similiar to other airlines):

Days 1-5 Indoc and Indoc test

Days 6-10 General Subjects

Days 11-15 Aircraft Systems

3 Days of CBT
Written and Oral

6 Sim sessions
1 PC Check
1 LOFT Sim Session

Approximately 20 hours of IOE

We won’t get to see a simulator until January, so the first of us will probably be finishing IOE at the end of January. I’m thinking that timeline is going to be close because of the need for FOs right now.

Today (Day 2), we met with and talked about Dispatch, met the Director of Operations and the Chief Pilot. We watched some icing videos and learned more about company structure and our manuals.

That’s all I have for now. Not much detail because not much time!!

November 23, 2006
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Day 3 we talked about Skyway’s Deice/Anti-ice program for a few hours, then we went to KMKE for a tour for the rest of the day. We got fitted for our uniforms, woohoo! I actually feel like an accepted employee though we’re in training, which is complete opposite from my last job. We also got our airport badges. In between those appointments, we toured Skyway operations, dispatch, scheduling, and the rest of their and some of Midwest’s airport office areas. It was a really fun and laid back day! At the end of the day, we met with the union rep and that concluded Day 3!

All in all, a really weird week because of the holiday. We should continue full-speed ahead starting on Monday. I’m gonna try to get ahead and familiar with some hot topics this weekend. We’ll also have a study group meet on Saturday. I’m glad too, because I have a feeling we’re gonna need to help each other out in the long run. We have a few very low time people in our class. I can only imagine what kind of shock this atmosphere is creating for the classmates who have never been through a 121 or 135 training program before!

We already have our indoc test on Tuesday. I think it’s going to be particularly challenging to stay in the right frame of mind, because of the long weekend.

By the way, we have a class of 12, 11 guys and one girl. I think like 5 of us guys shave our heads! I guess that’s all the rage right now. And I was worried I would be a little too extreme without hair!

December 3, 2006
Day 4 we learned about Deice and Anti-ice procedures at Skyway and looked at holdover charts. We also learned about passenger handling. That was quite a bit of information and doesn’t come as a surprise . We also learned about rest requirements. That was a bit confusing at first. I think the way our instructor explained it didn’t help, but all at once it clicked in my head.

Day 5 was mainly review and then we took the indoc final. Everybody passed and we spent the rest of the day touring the hangar and I gots me a new picture of one of my offices! I’ll post it as soon as I can.

Day 6 was beginning of General Subjects. We started with accidents and CRM. A very dark day indeed. Some of CRM was a lecture from the Chief Pilot. Nice guy, but I would not want to be on his bad side. However, he’s a ton nicer and more readable than my last boss…

Day 7 we learned more about the SOC (Dispatch), mechanical discrepencies, Weight and Balance, Meteorology, ATC stuff (private pilot stuff) DPs/RVSM and flight planning.

We were snowed in on Friday. I got the class is cancelled call halfway there! I was pissed! Spent the day at my dad’s work watching him try to get out of MKE. They had like a half hour window and had to get the plane out of the hangar, get sprayed and get to the other end of the airport in Moderate/Heavy snow. Ultimately they never got out of the hangar because County plowed a ridge of snow in the way! Twice! I don’t think they understood what they needed to do. I don’t know…it seemed simple to me: clear snow off apron so airplane can get to the taxiway before the airport closes. Oh well, can’t win them all!

December 9, 2006
Day 8 we covered Dangerous goods, which was much easier to learn than AirNet. At the net, we carried DGs, so there was paperwork and limitations, bleh!! Skyway is much, much easier! We can’t carry it…with exceptions. Easy stuff, stuff that you normally see on airlines, like sodi-pop and the like.

We also learned more about weather mins (3585) and how we deal with that. We got our Jepps and revisions . We also covered instrument approaches, enroute stuff and basic navigation. There was some very basic stuff on day 8. Most of us stayed late to review and study for the General Subjects exam.

Day 9 started with a tour of KMKE tower and approach. Really cool. I’ve seen the radar room before but never could get in the tower for a visit. This time we did and it was awesome! Got to see an emergency landing and when we went to the radar room there was another emergency and we got to watch the fire trucks on their ground radar approach the tug that was on fire. Yes, it was the tug that was towing the former emergency aircraft back to its hangar. Bad day for them! Everyone was ok though and the plane was fine.

After lunch we took the General Subjects exam. It was tougher for me, not because there was more information, but because I was confused on what exactly the exam covered. I still can’t figure out how General Subjects is different from Indoc. Seemed to be the same stuff and in our case it was all thrown together and alot of stuff was missed because of the holiday and snow day. We still had to cover security stuff and fatigue. I did good on the exam, I got a 98…somehow.

Day 10 we did security stuff. Easy day.

Day 11, Thursday we started Aircraft Systems, finally! We covered aircraft general (this is a Beech 1900D…here are the doors), aircraft engines, and annunciators and fire protection. Basically, starting today it was GAME ON. Lots and lots of info to learn in 8 working days.

Day 12, we took quizzes on the info we learned the day before. My maintenance background and previous experience on King Airs helps a ton and I find myself helping other classmates. The quizzes are super important and if you get less than an 80 percent on more than one of them, you’re in some serious trouble. I got two 100s and a 90. Got lucky this time. Some of the questions aren’t very well written.

After the quizzes, we learned about the propellor system. Believe it or not this is the first time I’ve truely understood how a governor works, now that i’ve seen the maintenance diagrams. I apologize to the many previous CFIs that tried to explain it to me, but just saying “springs and counterweights” and what they did didn’t do it for me. I had to see for myself. Pretty ingenious design. After props, we learned the fuel system, the pitot static system, and the oxygen system we actually covered quickly at the end of Day 11 though it was supposed to be today.

That is all for now!

January 20, 2007
Ok so my last post was lost in “The Dump”. The jist of it was finishing systems, taking a final systems test and waiting two weeks to do my oral. The final was easy for me from my background, but some of the other classmates had to study alot. You certainly don’t need to be a genius but if you struggle with systems you need to be serious and relaxed with an open mind about learning new things.

I then had to wait through the rest of the Holidays to do the oral. The oral was so easy for me it wasn’t funny. I way overstudied. My partner struggled though. All I can say is knowing exactly what you do on the run-up and what you’re testing helps a BIG deal.

After the oral my sim partner and I went to New York to battle the Simulator. I’d heard of this beast and trained for war beforehand, with my Master, FS2002. Master helped me with instrument scan and I threw in some V1 cuts to see what it looked like. Surprisingly, the plane acted more like the sim during a V1 cut than anything else. So, we had 6 training sessions, a PC (Proficiency Check or Checkride) and a LOFT (Line Oriented Flight Training). The six training sessions were 4 hours of sim with me flying 2 hours and Mike flying the other 2.

Sim 1 was mainly engine starts and run ups. After going through those, we each had just enough time to fly for about 10 minutes. Pretty easy day, but we were tired because we basically got off the plane and went straight to Flight Safety for 6 hours.

Sim 2 was attitude flying and approaches. I could definitely see the difficulty my partner was experiencing. He had to learn about a baby glass cockpit, how to operate it without looking away from the instruments, how to fly IFR the Skyway way, and work with another pilot. I’m somewhat proficient and have flown a King Air before so, I was getting up to speed much faster. I had the most difficultly with including Mike in ALL of CRM. With him trying to keep up as a PNF, I felt very single-pilot and didn’t have a problem with it having just come from flying a Baron by myself. There was a problem though…I needed to include him in the game. The first few missed approaches he hung on, barely, but we made it unscathed.

Sim 3 was more intense approaches and abnormalities. I think we did a couple V1 cuts with the autofeather just for kicks. Mike was still a little slow, but now began MY stuggles as a PNF. I consider myself to be a GREAT non-flying pilot, but the rest of sim training definitely did not represent that. I left Mike hanging multiple times but his actions saved us from crashing at least once.

Sim 4 began the intense emergencies. Paul, our instructor, had also been sliding us closer and closer to the airports on our downwinds and was badgering us to speed up our briefings. Now add emergencies. Sim 4 was where I crashed. Not very proud of that. We lost an engine on climbout and I initiated the Guard and Retard procedures. I neglected to notice that when I called for “Max Power” Mike had sent our good engine to actual max torque, instead of the maximum of the caution zone. A simple error made in the heat of the moment in a very unfamiliar airplane. We subsequently lost the other engine and I had to put the airplane down off airport. There wasn’t a freeze or red screen but I count it as a crash because it just wasn’t a cool move on my part. His job was to give me max power without scorching the engine or tearing the tubes apart. My job was to maintain control of the airplane and then back him up when I had time. We lost that battle but moved on.

Sim 5 was where Mike crashed and I had a hand in that also. We were confronted with a jammed elevator by our sly instructor and it was at 100 ft above the runway. I started running trim for Mike and didn’t realize we needed reversion as we didn’t have a moving stab. So I put us into the approach lights by accident. Mike was also unlucky enough to be flying when we lost an engine, lost a DSP (one of the control panels for the tubes), lost an EHSI, got an engine fire on the good engine, and on final the bad engine started on fire also. So you can see the urgency of the situation. It started with a simple DSP failure. It was Mike’s, so I immediately switched him to mine. Basically he was now showing on his EADI and EHSI what I had on mine and could only control it on my side. After that, he lost his EHSI, so I switched the important info from his EHSI to display up in his EADI. Then one engine failed and we secured it and asked for vectors for an approach. We didn’t make the runway on the approach and had to go missed. In the hold after the missed the other engine started on fire and I exclaimed “Awww Blessed…” No I really didn’t but I wanted to. So I said “Skyway-x 1000 needs IMMEDIATE vectors for an approach.” Our instructor, who clearly wanted to see if he could get us to shut down our good engine, was a good sport and gave is a heading and a clearance and on the approach the secured engine started on fire. I said “Left engine fire, that’s the secured engine, we have a ready left fire bottle!” Mike said “GUARDING RIGHT FIRE BOTTLE!!!” That was all I needed to hear. 121 turboprop peeps might get a kick out of that We somehow landed that one.

Sim 6 was alot of sim 5 but with more obscure abnormalities, like going off the taxway during the run-up during winter and stuff like that. I shouldn’t say obscure because it’s serious stuff, but it wasn’t your typical sim session, it was alot of struggling from the both of us because we were tired and our attention span was nil. Mike called me on bank angle at least 4 times and I’m certain I was flying like a noob again. I definitely needed a day off…

January 20, 2007
Ok so we had a much needed day off. Not much to really work on in my opinion so we headed to Manhatten to see some sights and not think about flying for a few hours. We did practice callouts on the long 80 block or so walk from Battery Park to Times Square. Don’t ask me why I requested that we walk it. Let’s call it me being naive. We did see some really cool stuff along the way though, when we weren’t nearly walking right into traffic as we were in a moment of “Right engine has failed, right propellor has NOT feathered!!”

Our PC check was intense but easier than days 1-6. Typical Air Carrier checkride with steep turns, stalls, 4 instrument approaches, 2 of them single engine and one of them with a circle. I felt I did well and I feel that Mike, though struggled a little, passed fairly and will probably be a great First Officer in about 40-50 hours of flying. Not saying he won’t be ready to be released from IOE on time, but really saying I see his potential. He locked it up and did really well the second half of sim school. I struggled with improvement but I feel confident that I’m through my year of stuggles as an improving pilot. I can feel it. Anybody know what I’m talking about and been through it? I’ve had a tough year…

The LOFT was easy. Basically set up to be a typical bad day as an airline pilot. Mine was typical. Mikes was more intense but believable. We both stuggled as the non-flying pilots due to up-tempo legs. I should be primed for IOE

That does it for my training blog. Sorry I couldn’t post it on flyblog. I never did successfully create an account

I didn’t think I could pull this off…get a job after washing out of transition training, much less pass an airline checkride. But through all of this I think I’ve changed as a pilot. I had a few really good years and have been recently having problems with confidence and finding my way as a good Captain. I think I’ve finally found a good road to take and learn more of the important skills I need. One of these days I’m gonna be able to get back in the left seat and do this.

This was your First Officer, Travis speaking