Monday, December 17, 2007

Day 3 at TK


I've been at the place United pilots dispassionately call "TK" for three days. TK is the inter-company mail address for the Denver flight training center. Down at American they call their Dallas training center the "school house." If it's anything like TK it's a house of horrors.

I'm in the Boeing 757/767 transition course. It's day 3 of 20 and I'm lost already. They turn a fire hose of information on you here and expect you to drink every drop. I'm in a class of four. I'm paired with a first officer trainee who, incredibly, is older than I am by a half year. He started at United rather late and doesn't have the seniority to hold a captain's vacancy. Good guy, though. The other two are a separate crew and we rarely see them.
 
The first day started with a meeting with a beady-eyed mustachioed guy who told us that we would likely not pass the written test five days hence if we did not bare down with the studying at every opportunity. That was about all there was to our welcome to TK. After that we sat in front of a computer for 6 hours and listened to a guy with a lisp talk about the Boeing 757 and 767. Next day we had a live instructor who is very good. But the info comes too fast. 

Despite the fact that I took a week off without pay to study up at home before coming here, my brain is jumbled beyond salvage.

The days are split between lectures and sessions in the fixed based trainer (FPT). Tt's not a simulator--that comes later--but a cockpit with instruments that work. There are no visual effects and the FBT does not move. The instructor uses it to demonstrate principles he covered in class and directs us through normal and emergency checklists.

I gotta hit the books. Over.

Alan

2 comments:

  1. Ride due west as the sun sets. Turn left at the Rocky Mountains.

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  2. Alan, you mentioned that you were born in ’49 and that kicked-off many memories for me. One of which was of my being a student at Keesler AFB as an A&E mech. And that I turned 19 in Feb. of that year. My class no. was 02079. Further, the AF was not yet two (2) years old, all mechs who graduated in those days were qualified to work on all aircraft however, if you were to work on the jets ( F-80, T-33 ) you would go to a specialist course. The B-29 was the big boy of the day and the C-47 was the work horse. My, my how things have changed. Jay” Keep ‘em Flying”

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