http://forums.jetcareers.com/blogs/ an online community of airline and corporate pilots en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 20:00:34 GMT vBulletin 250 http://forums.jetcareers.com/images/misc/rss.jpg http://forums.jetcareers.com/blogs/ http://forums.jetcareers.com/blogs/v1valarob/44-colgan-ioe-first-leg.html Mon, 04 Aug 2008 05:04:59 GMT Last Wednesday I began IOE with Colgan. IOE stands for Initial Operating Experience. You fly with a Captain who is also whats known as a Check Airmen. A Check Airmen is given special training to fly with new guys. IOE is normally about 20 - 25 hours of flying time with Colgan. During IOE you are... Last Wednesday I began IOE with Colgan. IOE stands for Initial Operating Experience. You fly with a Captain who is also whats known as a Check Airmen. A Check Airmen is given special training to fly with new guys. IOE is normally about 20 - 25 hours of flying time with Colgan. During IOE you are flying real routes with passengers in the back. No they dont know that the guy up front of brand new, and you dont ever want them to know this. After IOE you are released and allowed to fly with any other Captain who has more than 100 hours in the aircraft (they dont want 2 new guys flying the plane.) It would be pretty hard to find a Captain right now with Colgan who has less than 100 hours in the Saab.


The cool part about my IOE so far is that I am doing it out of Charlottesville, Virginia. This is the same airport that I would fly to with my students when I was instructing. Another funny part is that we would fly from Manassas to Charlottesville. My first day of IOE was Charlottesville - Dulles - Charlottesville - Dulles - Charlottesville. For those that dont know, Dulles and Manassas are about 2 minutes by air from each other. I was basically flying the same route on IOE that I was flying previously with students.
I arrived into Charlottesville about 2 hours prior to our scheduled departure to Dulles. An hour later my check airmen showed up. We discussed the flights and what routes we would take. We talked about what was expected of me. He told me about the things that you do while flying for an airline that I was not used to doing while flying outside of an airline.


Side track warning to explain pilot flying and non-pilot flying for family and non-aviation geeks: Many people, friends mostly, ask me “Do you actually fly the plane?” “Do you land it?” Well the answer is, yes of course, why wouldn’t I? When you are in a multi-crew environment you decide prior to the flight who is going to physically fly the aircraft and who is going to do all the non-pilot flying stuff. Pilot flying stuff is fairly simple to explain, this is the person that will have his hands on the yoke and manipulate the plane. This is the person that will actually take off, and the person that will land the plane. What does the non-pilot flying do? He does everything else. Now to a new guy like me, the non pilot flying duties can be a bit overwhelming. To an experienced person its nothing. The non flying pilot will do all the radio calls. The non flying pilot will run a flow after take off to get the plane to begin to pressurize, he will pull back the prop RPM a bit, he will also turn off external lights that are no longer needed to be one. He will then run a climb checklist to make sure everything is done. The non flying pilot will call back to operations after take off to let them know our times (they want to know what time we backed out of the gate and what time we left the ground, this information goes into the computer and lets your companies dispatch know that your on time, it also lets people log on online and see that the plane has left its location.) The non flying pilot will make all radio calls along the way. When we get into range of the destination airport the pilot not flying will get the weather and call the operations of that airport and let them know that we are “in range.”


For my first flight I would be the non flying pilot and the check airmen would fly the plane. But there is much more to do prior to even pushing back from the gate. We get out to the airplane and I set my flight case next to the stairs. Its my duty to walk around the aircraft and make sure everything is in order prior to flight. Im looking for basic stuff, are the tires properly inflated, do they have enough tread, is there any fluid leaking from the hydraulic lines and much more, but too boring to explain. After a walk around of the plane I hop up on in and get situated. I now have 3 things I need to get working on. Getting the current weather, getting our clearance and then beginning the weight and balance. Prior to every flight we must manually complete a weight and balance. The first bits of information I get from a release. A release is basically paper document that contains weather information, fuel information, NOTAMS, runway information for our aircraft, and a ton more. Its about 8 pages long. The information that the release gives me that I need for our weight and balange are the basic operating weight of the plane, how much fuel we plan to have on board, how much fuel we plan to burn on taxi, and en route. I complete all the information that I can from that. By the time I have completed these 3 things the passengers are on board and Im waiting for the rest of the information I need for the weight and balance. The gate agent will then hand the Captain a document that says how many people we have on board and how many bags we have. I then have to quickly use this information to complete our weight and balance. While Im adding up our weight, the captain has a tool to we call a See Gee wheel to make sure that the plane is loaded up correctly. It checks to see that we dont have too much weight in the aft or in the front of the plane. He then spits a bunch of numbers off to me, I write them them down and hand him the completed weight and balance. He signs it and hands it to the gate agent. Its now my job to use the release and the take off weight that I just calculated to see how much power we need for take off. We RARELY use 100% power for take off. I would say on average we use about 88% of our normal available power. At the same time Im doing this Im also supposed to be calling ground to ask for permission to begin taxiing. After I get the speeds and take off power figured out, we are normally taxiing to the runway. The captain will then call for me to brief the numbers which I just calculated and to run the taxi checklist. I brief the numbers, and run the checklist. The next thing I know we are at the runway ready for take off. I flip over to the tower frequency and ask for take-off clearance. Tower clears us for take off. Its now time for me to run through my before take off checklist. Gust lock off, props to max, flight controls checked, transponder to alt, tcas to auto, radar standby, bleed valves off, check all the warning lights. I run this through my head, trying to remember everything from memory. I pull the checklist off the dash and quickly read all of these things aloud, verifying that I have done them. By this time the captain is about to turn the nose of the aircraft down the runway. I hit the take-off inhibit button, external lights on, and say “before take off checklist complete.” The captain advances the power levers forward. Holy ####.. this is happening. The captains asks for me to set the power. (pretty much the only automated thing we have in the Saab is whats called the CTOT. We basically turn a knob to pick our torque setting so that all you have to do is flick a switch and the plane adds or decreases fuel as necessary to keep the torque setting the same. This saves us from having to play with the power levers while going down the runway, trying to set it just right.) I bring the CTOT switch to the APR setting. I scan the instruments, all green, I shout “power set.” Whoops, there goes my 80 knot call out that I forgot. I shout 80 knots, even though we are actually at 100knots. The captain replies “My controls.” I confirm “Your controls.” Next thing I know we are at V1. I shout “V1, Rotate.” The captains smoothly rotates the Saab into the air. I say “positive rate.” The captain replies “Gear Up.” Me.. “in transit” as I bring the gear handle up. I then run through my climb flow. Mid-way through my flow, the tower is calling us, telling us to contact departure. Ahhh, its going so fast! I flip to departure and let them know our altitude and where we are going and then back to my flow. The captain then calls for the climb checklist. I silently read the checklist, verifying I did everything I was supposed to do on climb out. The captain then flips on the autopilot and tells me to call back to operations to give them our out and off times. In most flights, the pilot not flying can now have a breather. However when the flights is only 20 minutes long going up to Dulles, we are pretty much “in range” of Dulles. I tune in the weather at Dulles and scribble it down to brief to the Captain. The plane then levels off at 6000 feet. Approach then calls us and starts to give us vectors for the airport. The captain then tells me to call Dulles operations and let them know that we are in range of the airport. At the same time they tell me what gate we should expect to be pulling into. Using the weather and our weight I figure out our landing V speeds. The captain then asks me to brief the V speeds. I brief him. He then asks for the descent checklist. I complete the descent checklist. What seems like seconds later he begins to track the localizer for runway 1 Center at Dulles. He asks for me to complete the approach and in range checklist. I then call up approach and let them know we have the runway in sight. Approach clears us for the visual approach. We flip over to tower, we are cleared to land. We are now on the glideslope for the runway, and the captain is calling for flaps, he then calls for the gear down. I begin my gear down flow. The captain calls for flaps 20 and before landing checklist. I bring the flaps to 20 and read aloud the before landing checklist. We are now on short final. He brings the plane in right on speed. He then lets the plane settle onto the runway, but doesnt grease it. He tries to prove to me a point that we cannot try to grease every landing, and float down the runway. In a cessna you didnt need all that runway, but when your at a short runway with a turbine powered aircraft, you need to get it on the runway and stop it. We pull off the runway and tower tells us to call ground. I call ground and am bombarded with taxi instructions. I manage to spit them back correctly. As we get closer to the ramp where the aircraft are parked I have to call the ramp to ask for permission in. I let them know our gate and we are cleared in, but are told to hold short. As we pull up to a spot near our gates we are told that our gate is currently full. We wait for almost 20 minutes for a gate to open up. I found it funny that we spent more time on the ground waiting for a gate, than we did in the air getting to Dulles. We finally pull into the gate. I do my engine shut down flown, read off the parking checklist, and then call ops to give them our on and in times.


An hour and a half later its my turn to fly, and for the captain to do everything I did on the first flight (besides the stuff before take off, weight and balance, and speeds, thats always the first officers job.) ]]> v1valarob http://forums.jetcareers.com/blogs/v1valarob/44-colgan-ioe-first-leg.html http://forums.jetcareers.com/blogs/v1valarob/43-saab-sim-training-pc.html Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:55:05 GMT The day after we passed our indoctrination test we where sent to St Louis, Missouri for training in the Saab Simulator. Colgan gives us 7 sim sessions and then a proficiency check. Sim is basically one huge mind ####, to be honest. The first day you fly the sim you are just getting used to it, we... The day after we passed our indoctrination test we where sent to St Louis, Missouri for training in the Saab Simulator. Colgan gives us 7 sim sessions and then a proficiency check. Sim is basically one huge mind ####, to be honest. The first day you fly the sim you are just getting used to it, we went out and did steep turns, stalls and shot a few instrument approaches. Thats where the normal flying stopped.


Sim sessions 2 through 7 are just pretty much the worst things. After you are finished, you realize how fun it all was. But when you have an engine failure prior to rotation, then a generator failure on the engine that does work and you have to fly using only a compass and back up instruments, it gets really tiring. You are running checklists over and over and over again. The biggest thing you learn about checklists is FINISH THEM (more on this later.) They basically want to give you the worst possible situations and see how you handle it, and see IF you can handle it. They also want to make the proficiency check seem like a cake walk in comparison to what they have put you through during sim.


On a side note for any family and non-aviation geeks, the sim which we fly in is a full motion simulator. The inside is a full mock up of the actual aircraft. Every button does what it really does in the real plane. When we have a hard landing in the sim, the simulator shakes and gives us a hard hit. When we retract the landing gear, we feel a thud as the gear locks up into the plane. Its about as real as it gets, and trust me, when your coming in an your about to crash it, you actually feel a bit of fear thinking its real.


The proficiency check was easy in comparison to what you get during sim training. However because you are now being tested, it is stressful. My flying partner and roommate went first. Basically the guy in the right seat flies the plane and the left seat guy runs the actual checklists and talks on the radios. You use each other, otherwise it would be impossible to fly the plane. My partner passes his ride, he also received no retraining. During our proficiency checks we are allowed to be retrained on 3 things during the actual checkride.


During my checkride we learned why completing checklists is necessary ;D After taking off we where told to fly a localizer approach. While setting up for the approach and landing we tried to extend the flaps like you normally would. However our flaps failed. My flying partner then ran the checklist for no flaps. The checklist will basically run down a few items to look at, it will give you new airspeeds for your approach, as now you will not have flaps to slow you down. The new speeds are located on this chart, and right underneath the chart is the last part of the checklist, which we forgot to do. The last part basically tells you to override the Ground Proximity Warning System. In normal flight if you have no flaps down and you are close to terrain, the aircraft will start to yell at you “Terrain, Terrain.” Then it will say “Pull up, Pull up.” You are required to follow it. When you put your flaps down, it overrides this warning. However when your flaps arent working and your coming into land you dont want that thing shouting at you, and giving you a false warning, because of course your getting close to terrain, YOUR LANDING! However we forgot the flip the override switch. So while coming into land the plane starts yelling at me to pull up, I realize that this is a checkride and there is no way I am going to crash into a mountain I cant see and bust the checkride (these checkrides are done with the plane set at “night time” so you cant see anything but runway lights), so I opt to go around. As soon as I call for the missed approach the person giving the checkride pauses the sim and asks us what just happened. My partner then fesses up that he just realized we didnt finish the checklist and thats why the plane was shouting at us. Lesson learned to us about finishing checklists.


We are then given vectors to another airport. At the other airport we are told that we are going to shoot an approach to one runway, but circle to another. No big deal, we had done this same approach a ton of times before in training. However this time it was going to be without flaps, she kept them failed. The problem with this is that now instead of coming in at around 125 knots, Im coming in at somewhere closer to 150knots. So as I begin to turn toward the runway at the same location I always would have, I overshoot the runway. I also come in high, as we have no flaps, this causes the plane to start shouting “Sink rate, sink rate” meaning Im coming down to fast. My mind is now going nuts thinking, “Oh ####, Im about to fail this checkride.” I then have a hard landing. The person doing our check then asks me if I knew how much bank I had into the turn. I said that I knew it was “alot.” She then said “you had 45 degrees.” Pretty unacceptable. 30 degrees is pretty much max allowed. She then started me back at the beginning and gave me flaps this time. I came around and turned towards the runway and had a perfect circle landing. This was my only “retraining” during proficiency check. Needless to say I was pretty pleased to get it over with ]]> v1valarob http://forums.jetcareers.com/blogs/v1valarob/43-saab-sim-training-pc.html http://forums.jetcareers.com/blogs/v1valarob/42-colgan-saab-ground-school.html Mon, 04 Aug 2008 03:54:00 GMT So I failed at keeping this up to date. But ground school is pretty intense and the last thing you think about is keeping your blog up to date. 6 weeks ago (or there abouts..) I started Saab ground school with Colgan. Ground school for the Saab is in Manassas, which is where I instructed and... So I failed at keeping this up to date. But ground school is pretty intense and the last thing you think about is keeping your blog up to date.


6 weeks ago (or there abouts..) I started Saab ground school with Colgan. Ground school for the Saab is in Manassas, which is where I instructed and 25 minutes from where I lived. This made my experience much different from everyone else in my class. Everyone else who attends a 121 ground school is NORMALLY away from home and is able to focus completely on studying. My friends really couldn't understand why I wouldnt hang out with them on occasions that I normally would have. Sometimes however I did ditch studying to go hang out with my friends on the weekend.


Ground school is broken up into 2 phases. Systems and Indoctrination. Systems is just what it sounds like, systems that are on and inside of the aircraft. Electrical, Hydraulics, Pneumatic, etc. Indoctrination is basically learning the rules in which we operate our aircraft. Normally you go through indoc first, and once you pass the indoc test you move on to systems. However for us they switched it around. We arent sure why, but it turned out to be a pretty good deal.


The systems are extremely in depth and going from a light twin to a fully loaded Saab that can take off at 29,000lbs is a huge step and when most systems are only covered for a day, and never touched on again you better prepare to be bombarded with information. Most compare it to drinking water from a fire hose. The first 2 weeks where spent on systems, one a day. After the 2 weeks we took a 100 question, multiple choice test. I passed. To be honest the test was much easier than most of us had thought it would be. They go much further in depth on each system in class than they will on the test.


We then moved onto indoctrination. To be honest we all found indoctrination to be a bit of a joke since it was an open book test. Most of the stuff you know already, but are required to be taught it again. Yes, I passed this open book test.
Next onto Sim…. ]]> v1valarob http://forums.jetcareers.com/blogs/v1valarob/42-colgan-saab-ground-school.html http://forums.jetcareers.com/blogs/v1valarob/27-saab-systems-day-1-2.html Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:21:38 GMT Yesterday we began to talk about the plane. It was pretty much a summary of the aircraft in general. Quite a few limitations given to us that need to be note carded and etched into memory. Today however was the electric system. It was exactly like everyone said, drinking water from a fire hose.... Yesterday we began to talk about the plane. It was pretty much a summary of the aircraft in general. Quite a few limitations given to us that need to be note carded and etched into memory.

Today however was the electric system. It was exactly like everyone said, drinking water from a fire hose. I think the electric system is going to be my weak point. However I havent looked over everything we went over today in class, and maybe studying on my own I can make some sense of it all.

We have 2 more weeks of systems. Then our systems test. Then a week of indoc, and then another test. We are scheduled to be out of training in Manassas by July 15th. ]]> v1valarob http://forums.jetcareers.com/blogs/v1valarob/27-saab-systems-day-1-2.html http://forums.jetcareers.com/blogs/v1valarob/25-hired-colgan.html Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:14:54 GMT So lets not beat around the bush, AMR, the parent company to American and American Eagle had to make a decision due to rising fuel prices. Their decision was that for AMR to start making some cash ($300 million dollar loss in the first quarter of this year,) they would have to ground planes.... So lets not beat around the bush, AMR, the parent company to American and American Eagle had to make a decision due to rising fuel prices. Their decision was that for AMR to start making some cash ($300 million dollar loss in the first quarter of this year,) they would have to ground planes. Between 70 and 80 plane, 30 - 40 of those planes are going to be Eagle planes. That comes out to be about 400 pilots. At the point this decision was made, they decided to cancel all future training classes. Which included my class.


When did I find out this information? Just after I had successfully completed the RJO course with Flight Safety I was sitting in LaGuardia, waiting for my connection to Washington I saw this on the national news. I then got a phone call from HR notifying me of classes being canceled. It was a pretty crap day.


Fast forward to 3 weeks later. I walked my resume into Chuck Colgans office. The outcome seemed fairly grim. Colgan had raised its minimums to 1000/100. I dont even come close to those minimums. Chuck and Cathy and I talked anyway, and I left feeling like I wouldnt hear anything. A day later Chuck emailed me with an invite to LaGuardia to interview and sim test. Well that was yesterday, and again I left feeling like I had not done my best.


This morning I received a phone call from my sister who works in Colgan customer service. She asked me how my interview went, I told her it went so-so. She said that Karen and Cathy thought it went really well. I said “oh really? thats good.” My sister then told me that I was hired!! I didnt believe her at first, I thought it was my sister just playing around. Chuck and Cathy apparently thought it would be a good/funny idea for my sister to let me know, and to be honest I thought it was great. If it was not for my family’s support, I wouldnt be where I am today.
I start Saab class next Wednesday and Im thrilled. In these dark times of aviation, the chance to even interview somewhere is an amazing thing. ]]> v1valarob http://forums.jetcareers.com/blogs/v1valarob/25-hired-colgan.html http://forums.jetcareers.com/blogs/v1valarob/24-i-guess-ill-start-blog-up-now-then.html Thu, 12 Jun 2008 23:13:56 GMT If you want to check out anything previous to today, go to RobertStogsdill.flyblog.com ! -Rob If you want to check out anything previous to today, go to RobertStogsdill.flyblog.com !

-Rob ]]> v1valarob http://forums.jetcareers.com/blogs/v1valarob/24-i-guess-ill-start-blog-up-now-then.html