Kellwolf's Upgrade Updates

[kellwolf]

Well, when I was going through initial training here at Pinnacle WAAAY back in March of 2006, I did sort of a running "blog" type thread on what went on as far as training. Seemed to be a good response to that, so I was thinking of doing the same thing with upgrade. I figure this might give some of the people just coming up some insight as to what goes on and give some of the FOs with upgrade coming up an idea of what to expect. Here's the links to the threads from over two years ago when I was initial. It started out as a "compare and contrast" with me and Ready2Fly (we both started at our respective regionals on the same DAY). First thread is here:

http://forums.jetcareers.com/member-...g-updates.html

and it continues here:

http://forums.jetcareers.com/member-...e-updates.html


Tomorrow is Day 1, so there's not much to tell right now. I spent the last two months interacting with CAs, looking for feedback on what I can improve on, studying the FOM, CFM and systems and generally playing "WWYD" during issues that came up on the line. My last trip the CA I had was great. He let me do all of his flows, talk to the pushback crews and make the decisions (WX deviation, talking to dispatch and MX, etc). IMO, this was the BEST thing to do since it was pretty much hands-on. Toughest thing was coming into BTR, last leg of a four day, already running behind and seeing purple on the radar right on the final approach. Knowing the CRJ radar the way I do, I suspected it was heavy rain, but I made the plan that if it got bad, we'd go missed, ask for a left turn and go to Jackson, MS. We really didn't have enough gas left to try to hold and wait for it to go by. Turns out my guess was correct: heavy rain and a smooth ride all the way down the glideslope.

Class starts at 8 AM tomorrow, so hopefully I'll have something interesting to post tomorrow.

[IFly85]

Goodluck

[ASpilot2be]

Good luck, we are all counting on you

[MusketeerMan]

Good luck! Truly happy for you and your fam!

[Captain_Bob]

We are all counting on you!

Good luck!

Bob

[bike21]

Way to go man! Enjoy - the view is better from the left seat

[t-cart]

Good luck, I bet that you will do great.

[Seggy]

Let us practice your briefing to the flight crew...

Repeat after me...

"Don't get me killed, fired, or violated."

[Velocipede]

One thing to remember about being a Captain. When you look to the left for help/advice all you see is your own reflection.

[WAFlyBoy]

Congrats on the award and good luck!

[Qgar]

Congratulations! I'm sure you'll enjoy the new responsibility!

[Bumblebee]

First of all congratulations!

Originally Posted by Seggy

Let us practice your briefing to the flight crew...

Repeat after me...

"Don't get me killed, fired, or violated."

"As long as we're not a smokin' hole at the end of the day . . .I'm happy!"
A quote from a brief actually delivered by a Captain.

Waaaaaaaaaaannng!

[Lee D]

Congratulations! Life should get a little easier, believe it or not.

[FlyChicaga]

Awesome news! Congrats! Being a Captain is a rewarding experience. You'll love it. Good luck in training!

[tpaRob]

Congrats! I can't wait to follow along.

[kellwolf]

Originally Posted by Velocipede

One thing to remember about being a Captain. When you look to the left for help/advice all you see is your own reflection.

Velo, I like that one.


Here's how day one boiled down.

Show up right at 8 AM, and already we're one down. Turns out one of the people in our class had a 709 ride the day before. Not sure if they passed or failed, but regardless they weren't in our class. So, we were left with 7 upgrading FOs, the ACP from MSP and an FAA guy going through the program to evaluate it.

We did an overview of what to expect, which consisted of "If you haven't got the FOM, CFM and a good handle on systems at this point.....you're gonna be playing catch up." Syllabus is more or less loose and fast. It's more of a free flowing class to allow people to ask a LOT of questions and put us in scenario based situations. We did get the syllabus for our CPTs and sim training, and it all looks pretty straight forward.

After that we went around the room sharing negative CA experiences followed by positive CA experiences. From that exercise we got a lot of characteristics of a good CA along with things not to do. Talked about how to act like a CA, ranging from setting the tone for your crew from the start to constructively coaching new FOs. One thing that was mentioned is so many people say "I fly by the book," but we can never seem to find that book they're talking about.

Went over some of the forms that we'll run across like AMLs, flight safety reports, ASAP forms, jumpseat forms, etc, etc. Talked about what each one was and deadlines on some, like the FSR. Then we broke for about an hour lunch.

When we came back the person in charge of assisting with disabled passengers and our HAZMAT policy talked to us for about an hour. This was a resources I didn't even knew existed. Apparently, if there's a problem with a disabled passenger and we can't get it solved locally, she wants us to call her to get it rectified. I think over the day I added about 4 people to my Contacts list in my Treo. There's a LOT of resources at your fingertips as a CA that you never knew about as an FO. Talked a lot about HAZMAT and how we don't carry any on Pinnacle flights, with of course the few exceptions listed in our FOM. Then we took the required HAZMAT test, and that pretty much wrapped up the day.

I've got homework for tonight, though. Looks like we'll be getting a performance problem to take home every night to work out. They give you the ATIS, cargo load, passenger load and a flight release. From there, you have to do a manual W&B, figure the speeds and power settings and the trim setting. Pretty much the same thing we had to do in initial but without the hand holding.

Tomorrow's big topic is risk management, and the acting Director of Operations and the chief pilot will be in for that one. Bonus is they're feeding us lunch.

[ready2fly]

Knock the bottom of it, buddy!!

[SIUAv8r]

Congrats on upgrade! Hoping to be there myself by the end of the year.

[falconvalley]

Good Lord, someone was doing a 709 ride??

Way to go on the upgrade class! After the Trials, you'll find the reward of a Captain's life to be quite refreshing!

[higney85]

Kell- I expect more details... I plan on taking on this "endeavour" late summer myself. See you on the line..

[Bumblebee]

Originally Posted by falconvalley

Good Lord, someone was doing a 709 ride??

Way to go on the upgrade class! After the Trials, you'll find the reward of a Captain's life to be quite refreshing!

what's a 709 ride?

[staplegun]

Originally Posted by bumblebee

what's a 709 ride?

Beat me to it, I don't know either...



Kevin

[Polar742]

I believe it used to be called the 609 ride.

The you-did-something-REAL-bad-so-we're-going-to-give-you-all-the-rides ride.

[ERfly]

Originally Posted by bumblebee

what's a 709 ride?

If memory serves, it's a ride for all your certificates. If you fail, the FAA can take them all and you start over. Bad juju!

Congrats on the upgrade! I can't believe it's almost been a year since I started class, myself. Good luck!

[wheelsup]

I signed my first release today. I have a copy in my flight bag. Good luck! Being the captain puts the fun in flying again. I've now got a sum total of 6.3 TPIC .