To the Schoolhouse

It has been a couple of weeks, but this is the follow up to my previous post about the interview process. The approaching weekend will be my last prior to entering the frantic world of airline training, which starts on Monday. The anxiety and adrenaline levels are running high. In a way though, I've been at the schoolhouse since March 20th. My airline does what is known as AQP, which stands for Advanced Qualification Program. What this involves is a significant amount of self-study, which, in theory, shortens the actual time spent at ground school somewhat. To ensure you are studying the material, which you receive at the interview if hired, there are three take home test to complete: one on the FOM (Flight Operations Manual, the airline version of the Policy and Procedures manual), one on Systems, and one on Winter Operations. I found the third one curious, as it is as long as the other two, but there is obviously far more material on systems and policy/procedures. You might think "oh, open book tests, easy", and for the most part you'd be right. There are some tricky questions though, and you need a 90% in order to pass. I've heard that people have been sent home the first day for not achieving that number. I feel pretty good about what I have, especially after spending some time with a fellow new hire quizzing each other and talking through some of the systems. My wife keeps telling me I'm over-prepared, although I feel woefully underprepared. You know how sometimes you study something to the point that you start forgetting the material? That's where I'm at right now. We'll find out next week.

The first week consists of a day at company HQ to do the standard HR paperwork, which includes getting into the system to take advantage of travel benefits. We are very excited about this. With aircraft loads at record levels, it's not going to be as easy to travel as "non-rev" passengers as it used to be. Traveling as a non-rev relegates you to standby passenger status, and if you have been to the airport recently you probably noticed that most standby lists are long. At the bottom of the standby list are the non-revs. Despite that, I'm confident that we'll be able to take advantage once in a while. Our daughter is already plugging for a return trip to Disney.

After the first day, it's off to the real schoolhouse in North Carolina for three days of FOM, a week or so of systems, and then procedures. After that first couple of weeks, simulator training starts. I hear that the simulator department is backed up, and people are getting mini-vacations in between, but that remains to be seen. If it happens, I won't complain, as that will allow me to work on the renovations to the new house. Oh yeah, did I mention that we managed to buy a new house in the middle of all this?

More to follow as I progress through training, until then, it's back to the books.