[TFaudree_ERAU]

I said I would write a gouge of sorts when I had a few hours. So, here I sit with time to kill until my run starts at 8:30 tonight. I put this in interview experiences because from day one, Austin Collins, the director of training, continuously reiterates that the entire training process IS the job interview.

The class lineup:

23 year old - Embry-Riddle graduate; CFI; previously employed at 2 different 135 operators, both VFR only; 690 TT - Passed training and hired to TPA

25 year old - Louisiana Tech graduate; previously employed by multiple private companies, flying a Beech Bonanza throughout central and eastern US; 1187 TT - Passed the VFR ride, picked up a 6 hour run that night, took the IFR ride the next day and hired to HKS

33 year old - education unknown; recently left PSA due to low pay; 1400 TT - Left training due to death in the family

42 year old - education unknown, career changer, formerly a bodyguard in the music industry, trained at ATP Orlando; says he flew with a local Part 135 operator as SIC in a 402 throughout FL and Caribbean; 1080 TT - Asked to leave

On day one, you start off by taking the picture for you ID badge. Wear a white shirt and tie. You start off on a bad foot if you show up in blue and yellow stripes. After that, it's paperwork galore. I'm talking like 50 pages of stuff. Work history, education, flight time records, tax information, direct deposit, etc. I just heard that the class after mine had 9 to begin with and was down to 8 at the end of the paperwork process. No one is sure why. Bring your logbook and make sure that at least the last page is totaled up and accurate. After all that, it is a 60 question test on basic commercial and IFR knowledge. You need not know any Part 135 regulations at this point, but brushing up on some Gleim test questions or the Jeppesen IFR/Commercial manual isn't a bad idea. I personally scored an 85...the highest of the 4 in the class. None of us studied prior, and it surely showed. The last item of the day were the wonderful videos on workplace harassment and drug testing.

On day two, we reviewed the missed questions from the previous day's test. I think the norm is to review them on day one after having the test graded, but some people in my class were lucky enough to have scores well below 50. Austin said we didn't have enough time left in the class day to go over everything. In the review, he covers every question that was missed on the test. The review consists of reading the question, answer, and a brief description of the applicable FAR, FAA test question or other source. I hate to say it, but it is somewhat robotic in nature; he leaves no time in between for questions. You have to remember which one you want to ask about and wait until he is done going through each of the missed questions. I think he might do this to see if everyone is really up to par for this type of job; remember, the entire process IS the interview. After that, we were handed drug test sheets and given driving directions to the collection site. Austin gave us a 3 hour period to go do the pee cup thing and then eat lunch.

The rest of the week was spent watching videos and covering Part 135 regulations and requirements. We had a few practice exercises (quizzes) on rest/duty/flight time limitations, Part 135 IFR flight planning, daily paperwork items (Data Transfer Form, Duty Log, aircraft records, etc). My recommendation for this is to RTFQ! I missed a couple of questions because I didn't read the last few words of the question, which happened to be the curve ball that changed the answer. One of the guys in class complained about there being too many right answers, or answers that were close to right. I'll let you guess who that was.

Wednesday was Austin's last day before he went on his 4,200 mile transcon motorcycle adventure. I believe he was in Nashville over the weekend to give recurrent checkrides. Chief Pilot Matt Harper picked up from there. With him in the classroom, it was a much more laid back environment. He wasn't hesitant to go on a tangent to talk about the more practical sides of 135 cargo flying, giving you a sort of glimpse into the day to day life.

On the final day we took the stage test on the 210 systems and operations. After reviewing that, it was down to the final exam. This is the go or go home test. Two go'ed with a 90 and 83, and one go'ed home with sub-50. Just like the FAA writtens, its 70 percent to pass.

We had the weekend off before flight training started, but from what I understand it isn't out of the norm to start and even finish over the weekend. This is especially true if you are a high priority hire, like the other guy in my class that made it through. He was headed to HKS to pick up a run that they were having to charter out at $1500/day. He took his check ride on Tuesday afternoon and actually picked up a run that night after someone called out sick. Wednesday morning, I started my flight training. KNOW YOUR FLOWS, and VERBALIZE! Matt was pretty demanding of them, but from what I've heard, Austin will end the flight before you even taxi off the ramp if you don't do everything that he has so tediously typed up in his training guide. We took off, put the foggles on and headed out to the practice area. During the first flight, its steep turns, imminent stalls, unusual attitudes, slow flight, NDB hold over Leesburg, NDB 31 approach, circle to 13 at Leesburg, pattern work, emergency procedures (engine fires and failures are flows, for an electrical or vacuum problem, just pull the checklist; he'll try to confuse you on that) and finally the ILS back into Executive. Day two of training had me flying all over the northern part of Florida to use up the mandatory 6 hours of flight training before the checkride. We did a few landings at Cross City, sight seeing over Cedar Key, Dairy Queen lunch at Crystal River and then back to Leesburg for the NDB hold to burn off an additional 15 minutes before starting the checkride. The ride consisted of some steep turns, slow flight, imminent stalls, psuedo-vectors toward SFB and then ATC vectors to the ILS 27R, low approach only. On the missed, it was back to ORL for a full stop. Total checkride time was .7. Remember...this was a VFR only checkride. I've got about 6 or 8 months of flying the line before I get to go back for the IFR portion.

Thats about it. Make sure you have ALL of the stuff off of Austin's site printed out, hole punched and in a 3 ring binder. A few guys showed up with stuff paper clipped in a back pack and they quickly regretted it. Speaking of backpacks, you might want to bring one. I had a small Cencal flight bag, and it quickly became overloaded with all the paperwork and books you are given. The Title 49 (HAZMAT) book itself is the size of the entire FAR/AIM.

Lastly, if you are hired, make sure you express your wishes for a base to Ernst, the Director of Ops. I was originally tallied to go to Nashville, but knowing that the weather in Tampa was more conducive to VFR flying, I was able to be based here. They also originally wanted me to get down there the next day to start the run, but I was able to talk them into giving me the weekend and then a couple of days to get my stuff moved. They're not trying to make anyone do anything they don't want to. You may be disappointed for a little while (I know there are a few guys on TDY here in TPA that want to be in St. Louis or Cincinnati.), but they will always work with you if you just stay on their case about it.