Washing out at JB???

[Gumby]

Heres' a question for you "blue" guys and gals...I have a buddy who needs to get off his "coolie" from his ERJ/PIC job and send his stuff into JB. He worries about so-called stories of folks washing out, and JB not giving them a chance!

He is one of the sharpest sticks I know, and try and tell him not to worry, but he's being a sissy...anyone have insight to the policies that JB sets down for new hires, or any relateable stories..Thanks..G-man...

 

[Jeff G]

There have been just a handful of new hires who have washed from the FO program at JetBlue. They were all given extra sim time, extra trainer time, extra instructor attention, new instructors, new partners, etc. Whatever would help get them through. But some just can't get up to speed and/or don't work hard enough to get up to speed and are let go. Nobody likes to see that happen, especially JetBlue, which needs them out there generating ASM's and not consuming training expenses. But it's not a matter of flushing out newbies. One pilot had a military background and just could not get a handle on the airline crew environment and the glass cockpit. Another was a high time jet pilot in his 50's with no previous glass time. I understand he resigned rather than deal with the frustration of learning the glass. See a pattern? So your EFIS-trained buddy can relax; there's no pile of bodies outside the door.

 

[jointops]

Gumby,

I second all of what JeffG wrote. I started class in March. I've known several people in each of the subsequent classes (we're furloughees from US Airways or they're Air Force buddies of mine). Only 1 pilot in the March/April/May/June/July classes didn't make it.

Lack of studying and application on his part was the consensus. There was one pilot in the class ahead of mine who didn't make it through his IOE.

Apparently, he is a great guy with outstanding personality. Just a little behind the jet at all times. They gave him about 50 hours of IOE time and he still couldn't come up to speed. He was an A-10 pilot, retired from the Air Force and the glass cockpit was a little daunting for him.

Usually each class has enough people with Airbus experience that you can always get extra help if you're interested. The facilities are open 24/7 and therefore you are the master of your own training.

If any extra help is ever needed, it's provided. Extra help is very seldom needed however. Students attack the program and get it done.

Happy Landings,

 

[Gumby]

JB washing...

Thanks guys for the input..I'm sure he's not gonna have a problem...Just trying to get him to apply is the problem...

 

[Dieterly]

All he has to remember is D.I.F.S.R.I.P, and he'll be OK...

 

[Browntothebone]

And this is how you remember it!

D I F S R I P


Death In Family Sucks Rest In Peace

 

[Snoopy58]

DIFSRIP???

... and for all of us who haven't flown an Airbus, what IS a DIFSRIP, if I may proclaim my ignorance & inquire?

 

[Jeff G]

We learned it as DIAFRIPS, but either way gets the job done.

 

[jointops]

Snoopy 58

It's the acronym we use to program the MCDU (FMGS computer). I'd write what each letter means, but unless you've flown the Bus, it doesn't really make sense.

 

[Eagleflip]

It's the acronym we use to program the MCDU (FMGS computer). I'd write what each letter means, but unless you've flown the Bus, it doesn't really make sense.

And then again, for those of us who do fly the Airbus, it still doesn't make too much sense...

Jeff G had to give me several nuclear dope slaps last week to help impart the whys and whyfoes of our somewhat recalcitrant FMGS.

 

[Jeff G]

No, no you have it all wrong. The dope slaps were for the FMGS. My aim isn't so good though. Sorry.

 

[AlbieF15]

And that's why I'm at Fedex...I only get slapped for not putting enough "blues" or "moos" in the captains coffee...

Seriously...if the moon and stars ever line up and I get to fondle a real FMS on an MD11 or A300, I'll be on here looking for gouge... Eagleflip...seriously...how is the transition to glass? I'm 3500 hours into round dials, and it will ALL be knew if/when I get my chance. What is the key to making the transition (or at least passing my first line check?)

 

[dogg]

Hey does Jet Blue do their own sim training and do they own their own sims or are they in the "virtual program"

 

[Jeff G]

The sims are Airbus', but the instructors are (mostly) JetBlue's. JetBlue has its own training program; only the facilities are from Airbus.

 

[Dog14]

AlbieF15 The transition to Glass is a major Non-Event!! I speak from experience having been 1 of the last people in the world to have flown the A-4M (possibly the best strap-on a/c ever conceived!) Flying glass is 1000% easier than anything you have ever flown!! (Just do what u were always taught, Aviate- Navigate- Communicate), you'll love it!!!!!!!!

 

[Eagleflip]

Wellll, I gotta say that Dog14 was probably a better pilot than I was in Airbus training.

(Of course the fighter pilot in me must comment that I am now the best of the best, but I just keep that Neanderthal well caged in the dark, Bitburger beer-damaged recesses of my mind).

By that tribute to Dog14, I mean that the transition to glass was a bit difficult for me, but only to the extent that I made it so. Let me explain.

The A320 will do what you tell it to do, but you have to know the syntax of how approaches are sequenced into the system. During one of my early sims at the Airbus center, my sim partner and I managed to somehow program the dang thing to fly a holding pattern exactly backwards. To boot, it made an extra 360 over JFK before it even entered the wayward holding pattern.

To make things worse, my partner and I sat there like absolute numbnuts through it all, watching this machine fly some irregular geometric pattern over a synthetic NYC that would have made a monitoring center controller cry blood and the grandma in 8C puke her colon out. Our instructor finally put the sim on freeze and said in a well modulated voice "Well, that was special, wasn't it?" Gulp.

I was humbled. As Dog said, A-N-C are the three basics, and I had forgone the first two of the steps. I learned a valuable lesson that day, Albie--if the jet ain't moving in the right direction, you toggle off that autopilot (risking incipient heart attack/vapor lock from that WAY loud autopilot disconnect chirp) and fly it. Gee--it acts just like a regular airplane if you let it! I have since used that autopilot disconnect without hesitation during a wayward approach; lesson learned.

Was the transition difficult otherwise? Hmmm. It was interesting, if nothing else. For example, the airspeed tape works backwards in the A320 from that in the F-15 HUD (the higher airspeed numbers go up from the centerline of the flight display vs. downward). The instrument scan is not difficult to master at all, once the instructors have doled out the requisite number of dope slaps to read what the autopilot thinks it is doing.

The most difficult part, after knowing how to sequence the box and when to hand-fly the rascal, was to understand the autopilot system. As mentioned before, you have to (duh) know what the flight management annunciator (the thingy over the attitude indicator that tells you what the autopilot thinks it should be doing) is saying to you afer you engage one of the two traditional auto flight systems (autopilots). An additional task is to figure out the reversion modes; a good example of this is when you are descending on an arrival with a crossing restriction ahead. If you make a managed descent (meaning you are allowing the jet to figure out how fast to descend on the arrival to make the restriction) and subsequently get vectored off of the arrival, the autoflight system cannot calculate the descent to a point you are no longer heading toward. It will thus revert from a managed descent to a simple vertical velocity value, say 2500 fpm down. As long as you know what it is going to do, it isn't a surprise.

The great stuff? When it works, and that is 99% of the time, the system is smooth, reliable and safe. Information is logicallyand well presented. Having triple IRs and a double GPS system is very cool. The jet will land in frog choking rain, right on centerline, without my paltry help. The ability to run the emergency checklist directly from the displays makes life pretty easy as well.

All in all, I think the transition to a 121 environment and the myriad of regulations, OPSPECs, SOPs, etc. was an equally daunting task.

Glass cockpit transition? Was it tough? Kind of.

Paper regulation transition? Even on the laptop, those are still kicking my rear end!

 

[jointops]

Eagleflip,

You know I was trying to refresh me memory on where I could find the info on the OPS in the FCOM (sorry more acronyms). I couldn't for the life of me remember it (besides it was 2 am on the OAK redeye).

Maybe because I don't have a Dash 1 or a handbook to highlight, my retention is shattered. The laptop is great, but I can't remember a darn thing anymore.

Seems I have to review Ops Limits every 2 weeks now as well. Really hope this has nothing to do with age.

Yeah, paperless cockpit. Jury is still out on that. But we burned through 2 toner cartridges in training printing everything out.