Here is an article I wrote for my flying club
Jet Airline Pilot
A long time ago, near the turn of the
last century I dreamed of a career as a jet airline pilot. Life led
me down a different path. Last March my good friend Dave returned to
the club looking for a flight review and an instrument proficiency
check. I excitedly remarked "That's awesome, are you coming
back to instructing?" "No dude, I am going to the
airlines." remarked Dave. This was interesting since he had
left instructing to insure a stable income for his family. Several
of my students have pursued airline careers and their experience of
minimal pay dissuaded me. Dave excitedly told me of the new economic
realities. After conferring with my mentors, peers, friends and
family I determined that it was a financially plausible option. It
is not the hardest thing I have done, that was admitting I was wrong
and asking forgiveness, but it has been a challenge. As Greg Koonz
says "It is not rocket surgery but it ain't easy."
Here is the story of my journey so
far. The interview process was painless since the industry needs
pilots. Fog a mirror, detectable pulse and reasonably coherent
conversations and you are in like Finn. Indoctrination is the first
phase of training. They cover company policies and FAA mandated
training. I started with Brand X and was issued my first Ipad. The
steep learning curve began. The tablet is our interface for most
flight publications and company communications. The charts were a
different format than the FAA (NACO) publications that I am
intimately familiar. The airlines do not use Foreflight,
Flightplango or other platforms that I had experienced. I felt like
a dog staring at a wristwatch. We learned about fun things like high
altitude and high speed aerodynamics and mandated items like
harassment and drug policy.
Next you learn aircraft systems.
This is heaven for an airplane geek but an incredible amount of
information. Multiple redundancy and complex interactions between
systems is the standard. The aircraft I fly has state of the art
technology for the late nineties and is very well engineered. If the
weather sucks and we lose an engine on departure we plan on being
able to fly 200NM at 15000 feet. This is quite a difference from
single piston twins that may only guarantee a controlled descent in
the event of an engine failure. The capabilities are incredible and
being able to fly in icing, strong winds and over thunderstorms
allows our modern lifestyle. Learning the limitations insures the
level of safety society demands. The airlines are very cost
conscious and the FAA is very slow to approve and adapt new
technology so it may be surprising that we do not have ADSB, very
limited on board weather information, and only one GPS receiver.
The airlines have a limited
training footprint and keeping up is hard. . The next phase prepares
you for the simulator and is known by various acronyms. Paper mock
ups of the cockpit and more robust simulations are used by various
companies to teach procedures. It is not like the airplane has 515
buttons, knobs and switches, but it does, and learning the triggers
and flows is indispensable for safe and efficient operation. The
crew environment is fundamental to error management and learning
standardized challenges and responses helps establish a shared mental
model. For example instead of saying "you are getting a little
slow" we say "target minus five."
The next phase of training is in a
level D simulator and is quite challenging. I had to fight the laws
of primacy and exercise and learn new strategies. Pitch for airspeed
and power for altitude is not the effect method to control a jet,
rather thrust for target and attitude for angle of attack works
better. A swept wing jet in a low energy state is slow to respond.
One must keep the engines spooled up. Without propeller drag power
reductions do not affect sink rate much before the lack of thrust
impacts airspeed. If the engines are not spooled up it may take ten
seconds for the engines to respond. When configured for landing the
draggy jet loses energy rapidly so don't get slow. Excess airspeed,
as always, causes float so don't get fast. Approach speeds of 140+
knots means things happen faster. The simulator is very instrument
intensive.
Landings in the simulator are like
kissing your cousin, it feels a bit weird and you would not brag
about it. We do not slip a jet, sink rates would be unrecoverable
and over 7 degrees of bank drags a wing. The "ailerons for
drift, rudder for alignment" is part of the flare, some people
refer to the "crab and kick" method but it seems that
kicking the plane irritates the aircraft and results in inconsistent
directional stability upon touchdown. The flare is minimal because
we have spoilers and other ground lift dumping devices. Thrust
reversers and powerful brakes with anti-skid dissipate energy very
effectively. The "greaser" landing is not the goal. Get
it on the ground and use the technology. As a matter of fact, a full
stall landing would likely be very unpleasant and the nose high
attitude would eliminate nose wheel steering.
The wide range of the weight, balance
and performance envelopes mean the numbers are often quite different
each flight. Pitch plus power still equals performance but weight
can vary by thousands of pounds and the CG with it. Additionally
thrust is quite variable depending on atmospheric conditions.
The bottom line is that it is not as easy to put the cowling two
fingers below the horizon and pull the throttle back three fingers
and you get 90 knots. It is not too hard using the instruments to
get it to respond precisely it is just no longer instinctual.
Transport aircraft have very limited load factor limits and above
about 200 feet you do NOT use the rudder unless you have an engine
failure/thrust reverser unlocked. The yaw dampers and flight
spoilers are awesome but flying with my feet on the floor takes a
conscious effort. Stalls and unusual attitudes require a measured
response. Aerobatics are wonderful and I encourage all pilots to try
them but one must understand the particular capabilities and
limitations of each aircraft. In strong little airplanes getting the
airplane into a dive and smoothly recovering from fixes most botched
maneuvers. Transport aircraft have different characteristics. Swept
wings, long axes and tremendous momentum limit your options. The
nice thing is we fly well within the maneuvering envelope and have
multiple layers of built-in protection.
Glass cockpits are awesome! The PFD/MFD (primary flight
display/multi-function display) are feature ridden and have tons of
data. The plethora of information means the "scan, interpret
and control" process required adjustment, it is not like
glancing at the six pack. Interpreting new tools like trend vectors,
speed rasters, and sky pointers took time. We use the the flight
control panel and other tools to manage the automation. A
trustworthy flight director and autopilot are wonderful tools and
help when you are flying at 200 knots on fire. Oh, I forgot to
mention that the simulator is where you perfect your emergency
procedures. The weather always sucks and nearly every system will
fail at some point, not to mention windshear and TCAS alerts. George
says "Amateurs practice until they get it right, professionals
practice until they can't get it wrong" and that pretty
succinctly explains the simulator. After an FAA checkride and a LOFT
(line oriented flight training) you are off to the aircraft.
IOE (initial operating experience) pairs you with an experienced
captain and they help you adapt to the realities of line flying. My
first flight was from Chicago O'Hare to Indianapolis, Indiana. The
pace of ATC communications and the variation from sterile simulator
environment were and are demanding. In other words, I am having a
ton of fun and learning a lot. If you want to be an airline pilot,
now is a good time. There are many club members flying
professionally, reach out if you wish. Sid Graham is a tremendous
resource. It was wonderful to have my friend and former student,
Emmanuel Aponte, as my simulator instructor. He performed very
professionally and did not cut me any slack. I was his last student
at Brand W, he now flies for Delta.
I
loved instructing at the club and hope to be able to help like
Harrison but currently I am "living the dream." They say
if you do something you love for a living you will never work a day
in your life but, you can turn your joy into a job. Have fun, be
safe.
