Jet Transport Training

Visit an airline training center and you might be surprised to find a lot more than the stereotypical rows of multi-million dollar flight simulators. Modern training programs flow us through a cascade of training tools, some of them decidedly low tech. In truth we'll spend most of our time splashing around in this low-cost end of the pool, before we get near the costly full-flight simulators.

Our most common training device is made of paper -- the aircraft operations manual. Most pilots begin lobbying to lay their hands on one as soon as they have a training date assigned. Throughout the course we'll pour over it marking key passages with coloured hi-lighter pens and memorizing the basics of the fuel, hydraulic and electrical systems. Much attention is focused on the section of the manual detailing the ramp check - the exact sequence we follow before each flight to confirm every switch and indicator in the flight deck is tested or set as required. From there we’ll continue memorizing the standard checks and drills at every phase of flight from ramp-to-ramp. Anything we can do to get ahead of the learning curve with these normal operations leaves us extra time later for the emergency and abnormal procedures. Airline training, in a bid to keep costs low, requires a rapid absorption of the new material, and has been likened to drinking from a fire hose.

When ground school officially begins we'll cycle our time amongst the computer based training kiosks (CBT) the panel mock-ups and of course the inevitable classrooms.

Computer-based training (CBT) is comprised of self-paced learning modules along with some simple simulations and animated diagrams we can interact with. Most pilots like it because we can zip quickly through the familiar parts and concentrate on the more difficult areas.

Time saved at the CBT kiosk will usually be reinvested in the panel mock-ups - the so-called paper tigers or bamboo bombers. These low-tech aids are merely large graphics of flight deck panels, mounted on wooden frames and arranged in the same relative position as we'd find them in the aircraft. Add a couple of classroom chairs, and they become the closest thing we'll see to an airplane until we prove we know our new procedures cold. Consequently, pilots huddle for hours amidst these pretend flight decks muttering mantras and waving their hands across the panels “touching” each switch and indicator as they go.

Classroom time is a chance for the instructors to reveal other mysteries such as the use of aircraft performance charts, checklists or quick reference booklets, and cover rapidly changing material that is unsuited to CBT.

Moving along the technology river as the course progresses, we'll encounter part task training (PTT) devices. With increasing electronics in the flight deck, PTTs are more important than ever. Most of us know from our own computers it takes pages of text to explain relatively simple tasks. Simple that is, once you can actually manipulate the controls. There is no substitute for actual button-pushing to learn the complex flight programming steps and to delve into the multi-functional possibilities of computer interfaces.

The creme-de-la-creme of PTTs is the fully integrated avionics suite that provides a stepping-stone from the paper tiger to the full flight simulator (FFS). Becoming familiar with the magic tubes is the key to mastering the new generation of 'glass' aircraft. Top-notch avionics trainers will fly us through a complete ramp-to-ramp sequence while we manipulate the mojo.

Finally we graduate to the so-called flight training phase -- which is actually accomplished on the ground in the full-flight simulator. It does confuse the language, doesn't it? Use of the airline's expensive, flying, fuel-sucking assets to shoot touch-and-goes at the local airstrip is not common any more.

This cascade of technology has been carefully developed not only to reduce overall training costs to the airline but it also optimizes the company's investment in the FFS. Each full-flight simulator is so expensive (as much as the actual aircraft) it must be used to the maximum. New-technology simulators are expected to routinely deliver 23 hours each day of training while the 24th hour is set aside for maintenance. Each time slot that's not needed internally becomes a commodity to be flogged to other airlines. It’s now routine to see pilots from smaller companies all over the world using these extra slots at larger airline training centers. Extra FFS training time is also sold by dedicated flight training companies.

Cascade training is also important in assuring that when the new pilot is turned loose on the line, to continue practicing on the unsuspecting public, he or she will have had many opportunities to repeat the normal flight operations. On the line we are constrained by the realities of the ticking clock and the unrelenting airspeed indicator. Even though newly-trained pilots will inevitably work more slowly for a while than their experienced colleagues they must still operate with a degree of speed and accuracy that only comes through repetition.

Despite all that, I still like the badge.
(link 'badge' to the newbies article)