Fired - Need Advice

[100LL... Again!]

I appreciate everyone's comments and assume that the interview boards I have met with since the bust had similar reactions. Going from a Seminole to a EMB-145 is challenging no matter how good a pilot you are, but what I said in my first post is the truth. Visuals were the primary reason for the extra time in IOE, but again, the extra time was not extraordinary. I agree that more time will help, but I'm not sure that doing stalls in a 172 and accumulating 500 more hours is going to make me any more qualified for a regional than I am now.

You'd be surprised. If any given "next step" proves to be too much, it means that you have not mastered the previous level. Really. Most of the airline or 135 pilots I trained that had trouble displayed signs that it was FUNDAMENTAL skills that were deficient.

 

[Atccfi]

Keep your head up!

I agree with Skywestcrj and with White cloud.... they bot had valid points. I'd say keep trying at other regionals and see what happens. In the mean time keep building your time and when you get to 135 mins. go fly freight in a twin somewhere. Flight express will take you this monday morning if you show up ( It's on on fl350). I have always heard of freight being solid, skill building flying. When you get your time up some more and do get to the next level you can tell the interview board that you were not ready for such a large step up and decided to take it one step at a time and not skip any steps... no faulting you for that, as a matter of fact, it is respectable and it sounds alot better than what you are putting out there right now... Take it for what it's worth... Best of luck to you.

 

[BOHICAgain]

No slam-dunk visuals without electronic guidance, no 250 til the marker, no multiple failures, nothing that could remotely be described as high-workload. I've always found the sim to be the easy part.

electronic guidance...do u need that everytime.. just aim for the numbers...
and no multiple failures in the sim??

I give you that the sim is easier because everything is planned. But line flying is much easier until you crap in your pants. Then you wish u were in the box.

 

[PCL_128]

electronic guidance...do u need that everytime.. just aim for the numbers...

You would be amazed how many new FOs have a problem with this. Flying a simple visual pattern, which is what many of them were doing for 1000 hours as a CFI, is a complete cluster for some new guys.

and no multiple failures in the sim??

Not during a jeopardy event. Check the PTS. No multiple failures, no unreasonable distractions, no attempts to "trick" you, etc... The PTS is pretty clear about this stuff. Sim rides are always straightforward.

 

[Singlecoil]

This wasn't just one visual approach that you messed up. You had to do extra IOE because of problems with visual approaches. That means other check airmen were instructing you and you weren't getting it. They no doubt communicated this with the line check airman. You had shown a history of problems with the visual, he saw that you still hadn't been able to improve, and you were let go. That much you need to admit and move on. In the future when you relate this story, you need to say something like, "In hindsight, I shouldn't have accepted the job offer because I didn't have enough experience. At the time, I thought it wouldn't be a problem at all, but I soon learned otherwise. I let myself get behind the airplane on more than one occasion and that was simply unacceptable. To the company's credit, they worked with me and let me do some extra IOE, but we later both agreed that I would be better off getting some more experience and trying again at a later date. I feel I have improved my flying skills to the point where this issue won't be a problem for me in the future and I now feel I am ready for the next level."

Fire up your computer and fly the jet on flight simulator. Do a bunch of touch and goes in a closed pattern until you are bored. I have over 9000 hours and still do that once in a while if I haven't been flying on reserve and feel I need to brush up.

Good luck.

 

[Mike man]

What company?

 

[FlyingFerris]

Visuals were the primary reason for the extra time in IOE, but again, the extra time was not extraordinary. I agree that more time will help, but I'm not sure that doing stalls in a 172 and accumulating 500 more hours is going to make me any more qualified for a regional than I am now.

Ok time to eat your humble pie or be glad someone forcefed it to you. Obviously more time is exactly what you need because your stick and rudder was far from being good otherwise you would have jumped into the jet without much heart ache. There are growing pains, but when you can't fly a visual that's usualy a combination of bad stick and rudder, instrument flying, or both. Obviously everyone else knows you need the extra time but you. You can either accept this or be arrogent about it, only one will lead you back to the cockpit of an airliner.

You're sounding like some of the "canidates" at the flight school I taught at who got kicked back and thought that they were delt a great disservice because they had the best European style 250 hours of training anywhere. They said the very same things you did.

are you kidding me. Line flying is a joke as long as you get along with the crew. sit back relax and let george(autopilot) do its thing..just try not to get coffee on your shirt

I agree with this 100%. No firebells everyflight, an engine failure could happen not will happen (I know for me it was only one or two out of four,) you shoot an approach land, done, not approach, missed, approach, missed, approach, land with an engine on fire. Yeah the stress level is hight when I'm trying not to spill my pepsi.

 

[RichardFitzwell]

BTS,

Don't beat yourself up over this. I know this airline well. They have washed out some very good pilots over the years. Consider this as a very tough learning experience.

I think the IOE instructors might be a little to blame as well. Have you ever heard the 3 to 1 rule? When trying to learn your visual sight picture in jets it is very helpful to judge your altitude. Basically for every mile you are from the runway add 300' to your altitude agl. At six miles you should be at 1800' agl. This rule will provide you with gates to check your altitude during the approach and will help with situational awareness.

Also some hard numbers like 25 - 30 miles from the airport plan on being at 10,000' and 250 kts or 10 miles from the field you should be at 3000' and 210 knots. These work for the 737 and may or may not work for the ERJ. To configure I also use flaps 15, gear down by 2500' and flaps 30 by 2000' agl.

This helps me with my situational awareness. A lot of this was all taught to me by IOE instructors as reference points during visual approaches. I always use these as guidelines to know where I am. If you haven't heard some of these numbers before, I'd say your IOE was lacking.

Remember, your attitude is everything during training. Stay positive and willing to try and most instructors will bend over backwards to get you through. If they see a negative attitude your done. Good luck.

 

[Bankangle]

Dude, there are people with less time than this guy/gal that get into a bomber and friggin go to Iraq. Let's stop the low time dramatics.

Lets be real..the training is just a little bit different... However I am just basising my statement on my own experience. I have always thought of myself as a good pilot but when I had the kind of time he had, I think i wouldve been getting extra IOE too! I think its only after accumalating quite a few thousands of hours and a number of types, that you can look back and realize how little you knew back in the day.

always learning

 

[Captain Overs]

I just don't see how you can be failed for executing a missed approach. Going missed when the approach is bad is a show of good judgement. Now if you didn't realize you needed to go around and the check airman told you to then that is a different story.

There has to be a history of things that happened during training. You don't just get fired for doing one thing wrong,,,,, unless you crash.