Kellwolf's Upgrade Updates

[E6BAV8R]

Congrats man! Well done!

[falconvalley]

Congrats!!! Feels good to be done??

Don't sweat that bs you went through on the OE ride. A good evaluator knows how to apply their knowledge and how to talk to people. This guy obviously needs to take a class or two on getting the point across. I can see that whole thing about concentrating solely on the taxiing, but it's a concept that is evolving and he clearly felt otherwise. Such a shame...

[FlyboyZR1]

Congrats on everything ... not to hijack the thread but is the indicator for the #2 hydraulic accumulator in the forward avionics bay?

[kellwolf]

Originally Posted by FlyboyZR1

Congrats on everything ... not to hijack the thread but is the indicator for the #2 hydraulic accumulator in the forward avionics bay?

Yep. CA's side.

[fender_jag]

Congrats, Kell!

[blee256]

First of all, Congrats Steven!!

Originally Posted by kellwolf

I was more or less berated for telling the FO to do something that would have him heads down and not looking out the window. In retrospect, they (the check airman and the APD on the jumpseat) are right, I just felt they were a little harsh with the judgement. Especially since almost every CA I've flown with had me doing that on the taxi out.

Yeah, they are really coming down on that. Thats a new thing, so I wouldnt get too worked about it. They are big on runway incursions right now. We are going to have new checklists (again) soon. They are going to shorten the taxi checklist tremendously. From what I understand most of it will be done on the after start checklist (ie flaps, vspeeds, etc.) I bet if you did this on your fed ride a year ago, they wouldn't have said anything.

Originally Posted by kellwolf

Everything was fine coming in to MEM, but I got jumped for not slowing down to 200 kts in the terminal area. Now, I've been told by several CAs, check airmen and controllers in MEM they want you doing 250 until the last second, so that was what I was doing. Now, I'm suddenly being told something different. Add to that ATC kept me high and then cleared me for the visual. Now, it worked out, and I was stabilized on the approach all the way down. Got to the gate, taxiied in, and shut it down. More or less got the "I'm gonna sign you off, but you've got a lot of work to do" speech from the fed, and that was it for the ride.

It seems like everyone has their own opinion on when to start slowing. Some captains like to tell the F/Os "keep it fast as long as you can or you will screw up the whole flow coming in". I just try to use my best judgement. The only question I have is, if they were keeping ME high on the downwind I would have probably started slowing, so that i could slowdown and get down asap. Unless they were running like 30 mile finals like they sometimes do.

Originally Posted by kellwolf

Now, I'm just waiting on scheduling to call so I can find out when my reserve days start.

Believe it or not, i barely got used on reserve! I have only done 4 legs. But I did call in sick the last 2 days because of a mean stomach flu. And i got a line next month, woot!

Originally Posted by kellwolf

Don't tell me, tell Nessa. Actually, I bought a new MP3 player today as sort of a "YeeHaw!" gift for myself....

I did the same thing, I bought myself a burberry watch that I have been eyeing for about 9 months. There is nothing wrong with rewarding ourselves.

again, congrats Captain!!

[coa787]

Congratulations, Kellwolf!

Now, you've mentioned that your sim partner had to do re-training because of a failed checkride. Well, is there a possibility that you can keep going through re-training, or redoing sim lessons, until you feel comfortable to continue, without just failing everything completely and washing out?

[wheelsup]

Originally Posted by blee256

They are going to shorten the taxi checklist tremendously. From what I understand most of it will be done on the after start checklist (ie flaps, vspeeds, etc.)

They did away with the entire taxi check here; I love it. Best thing they've done in a while.

[blee256]

Originally Posted by coa787

Now, you've mentioned that your sim partner had to do re-training because of a failed checkride. Well, is there a possibility that you can keep going through re-training, or redoing sim lessons, until you feel comfortable to continue, without just failing everything completely and washing out?

If you fail the type ride, you get one training sim session (I think), and then a re-check. If you fail. You have washed out of training and have to wait a year to try the upgrade course again. If you fail the Fed ride, you get another chance, but instead of the fed riding along on just 2 legs, he sits in on 4. Otherwise you have to wait a year just like failing the type ride.

[kellwolf]

Originally Posted by wheelsup

They did away with the entire taxi check here; I love it. Best thing they've done in a while.

From what I'm hearing through the training grapevine, eventually we're not even going to leave the gate until we get all of our W&B numbers. That'll be SWEET. There's plenty of times you start taxiing out only to hear you need to come back for ballast, the JSer needs to come off, you're too heavy or "move 1 pax from zone 1 to zone 6," etc. Either that or the gate agent just forgets to send the passenger numbers or the cargo numbers get lost in the ether. Having the plane still sitting at the gate is a nice reminder to not go running off to Starbucks as soon as the door is closed.

If you've got a good FO (and I show this trick to the FOs that don't know about it), you can get your numbers set up before the door even closes and be right about 90% of the time. Just go off the preliminary data to set up the V-speeds. Worst case scenario when you get your final numbers you're only off by a couple of knots. I see a LOT of guys just not do anything until the final load data comes through.

[ERfly]

Congrats, again, man!

Just remember to save your first release signed as a Captain. I didn't and wish I had.

I feel your pain about the stress of the Fed Ride. I did a DAL turn out of IAH for mine. I got lucky. It was a 135, not full, no need for ballast (did have to move some pax in IAH...5 minute delay). I did the Fed Ride on the way up to DAL. Things went pretty well. There was one cell between IAH and DAL and wouldn't you know it, it was smack dab on the middle of the arrival, just north of CQY. Got the visual into DAL to 13L. I was descending on final, trying to slow. I looked down at my RA and it was at about 1060. I immediately raised the nose to bleed off those 10 knots so I could get Flaps 45 in. Configured by 1000, phew! The Fed (Company OEO guy) mentioned it and said if I would have gone below 1000, he would have Unsat'd me. The Line Check back to IAH was uneventfully (especially with the OEO in the back). My check airman was fairly quiet. It was so relieving to hear those magical words when I shut down the engine in IAH..."Congratulations, Captain!"

Congrats again! Enjoy life on the line. You'll be amazed at how quickly you become comfortable in the seat. It's almost too quick.

[wheelsup]

Originally Posted by kellwolf

From what I'm hearing through the training grapevine, eventually we're not even going to leave the gate until we get all of our W&B numbers.

Yeah, that's how we operate. It is nice.

[Aero_Engineer]

Congrats, I wish you all the best!!

[aifiji]

I read through both of the links/blogs. That is priceless reading that tells a great account of training!! Thanks!!!