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Occasionally, on the SOAR Message Board and in Wednesday night Chat, there are questions regarding training requirements for airline pilots.

Minimum standards are set by the Federal Aviation Regulations. (FARs.) Different airlines have different training programs, but all must be approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). At American Airlines (AA), for whom I fly, we attend recurrent training every nine months. Since I completed requalification training in the MD-80 last February, I am due for recurrent training in November.

And, in fact, today (October 20th) I received my recurrent training schedule. This will take place the 11th through the 14th.

The first day, I will deadhead (that is, ride as a passenger) to Dallas/Fort Worth, TX (DFW), where AA’s pilot training facility (the AA Flight Academy, but we call it the “Schoolhouse”) is located.

Upon arriving in DFW, I’ll ride a Company-provided Shuttle from the terminal to the Flight Academy (about a ten-minute ride). My first class will be at 1:15 in the afternoon – MD-80 Performance, in which we’ll review performance requirements for all phases of flight – takeoff, cruise, and landing. Performance pertains to the ability of the airplane to safely – and legally -- fly under various conditions of weight, temperature, and altitude.

Following that, I’ll attend a Flight Manual Briefing. This consists of a review of legal considerations (there are many!), as well as a review of AA’s Company procedures. For example, we’ll look at hypothetical weather conditions for a given airport and runway, and discuss whether or not it would be legal to take off under those conditions. Same with a possible landing scenario. We’ll review any new requirements or regulations that may have come up since the last time we attended training. We’ll review “hot items” – operational problems that may be occurring on a frequent basis. (For example -- Runway Incursions – inadvertent and unauthorized entering of runway boundaries by airplanes on the ground, have been a “hot” topic for several years now.) Tips on how to avoid this sort of thing are offered.

That will complete Day One. Nest morning, I’ll attend Systems Review, for four hours. This pertains to the MD-80 airplane itself – electrical, hydraulic, pneumatic, fuel, flight control, engines, auto-flight, flight management system, navigation – the works. Four hours really isn’t enough to thoroughly go over everything – it’s a review. Systems training during initial airplane qualification takes three weeks. But, it’s an opportunity to ask questions that may have come up during line operations, and refresh oneself on details that may have been forgotten since the last training cycle.

Following that I’ll go to Security training, just for pilots. This will last an hour and a half. We’ll go over recent threats to airline operations, and review techniques and procedures to deal with possible threats.

Then, it will be Human Factors and Safety class, lasting two hours and forty-five minutes. This deals with possible threats (non-security-related) to a safe operation. Possible topics could be fatigue, bad judgment, inter-personal relationships (e.g., between the Captain and First Officer), and others. Case studies of recent problems will be examined and discussed.

Next day, it’s into the simulator. We (I and a First Officer trainee) will meet with our instructor at 5:30 in the morning (ugh) and spend two hours discussing what we’ll be doing. Then, we’ll actually go do it. This will be a general review of takeoffs, approaches, landings, and emergency procedures. A lot of the work will be done with an engine inoperative, or a system (e.g. hydraulic or flight control) non-functioning. The simulator session will take four hours (with, mercifully, a fifteen or twenty-minute break about halfway through the session).

Following the simulator session, we’ll have another security class, this time jointly with Flight Attendants. (This is a new format, so I haven’t yet experienced it yet. Makes sense, though – flight security is a joint effort, and the F/As are the ones stuck back in the cabin with any Bad Actors.)

Finally, the last day. Back into the simulator again, showing up at 5:30 AM once more. We’ll – again – spend two hours with the instructor discussing what will happen. This time it will be a simulated, real-time, line flight, from Point A to Point B. “Something” irregular will “happen” during the flight, and we’ll be evaluated on our handling of the situation. There won’t necessarily be a Right or Wrong way to do it; rather, we’ll be judged on how we react, how we follow applicable procedures, and so on.

This will be a two-hour session. Following a short break, it’s AGAIN into the simulator, for Advanced Training. Here we’ll practice windshear escape, takeoffs from high-elevation airports, terrain avoidance, extreme weather conditions (slippery runway, strong crosswind, etc.) unusual attitude recovery (perhaps we’ll be flipped over by the wake from a very large airplane in front of us). Stuff that probably won’t happen in the Real World, but which we nonetheless must be prepared for.

Finally, I’ll get to head for the DFW airport terminal and catch a flight home. And, just nine short months later, I’ll be back again.

Please note – what I just described is recurrent training for pilots already flying a particular type of airplane. For initial training on a new airplane, the course is five weeks: three weeks of ground school (i.e., classroom and computer-based training) and two weeks – ten sessions – of simulator training, including an evaluation at the end.

For that matter, my MD-80 requalification training last winter was exactly the same as for initial qualification on the airplane. I had flown the MD-80 before – in fact, had over 2,000 hours in it. But, I hadn’t flown it for four and an half years, so I was handled the same as someone who had never flown it before.

I hope all this may help to put peoples’ minds at least somewhat more at ease. We do NOT just climb into the airplane (the way people do into cars) and start flying. There is a lot of training and evaluation involved.

Best to all.

Steve

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