Career day might be coming up

Oral is getting closer.

Getting past an airline interview is just one of the many steps to getting the job.

The new hires have a wide range of back grounds. Some CFI, some pure general aviation, some military. One is from another regional.

There is an ever growing division visible to myself and the other company pilots who are transitioning. There are those that studied and those that didn't.

In the cockpit training sessions those that didn't are REALLY slowing the rest of us down.

Today we discussed going from a cold and dark airplane and taking off including flows, procedures and checklist.

For me it's not terribly hard as it's similar to what I have been doing for the last 4 years. Today we had a different cockpit trainer instructor, but I have the same partners all week.

"Jeff" the former military guy is progressing well. Jeff was a flight engineer in the military. All his flying hours are from general aviation. Bryan is a former CFI (again like me) but is falling further behind.

Bryan hasn't demonstrated a single flow this week. Today he got hung up on....starting an engine. I tried to explain we were starting the engine via the APU. He asked how was he supposed to know that. I stated it was because I had just finished starting the APU and that's the normal way of starting an engine. Bryan had a confused look on his face...as though this was a new concept. Jeff and I just looked at each other with amazement.

The instructor tried to help Bryan, which really slowed us down. Bryan got hung up on each flow Jeff and I demonstrated.

Orals for the new hires will likely be Wednesday with mine on Thursday. I don't have a warm and fuzzy feeling about Bryan.

After the session I helped Jeff with setting up a nonrev flight for his mom. It 's a bit confusing at first.

I then returned to the classroom and met up with the other transitioning pilots.

We discussed how in all of our trainer sessions many of the new hires just weren't getting it. None of us are "gods gift to aviation" by any means. We think part of it is the computer based training which requires a VERY high level of maturity to stay on task. We think many of them half assed the training.

Tomorrow is another full day. Next week we hit the cabin trainer for more hands on training.

Since I've been home I've dropped a few pounds. I'm on a "no processed food" kick. Low fat, no sugar, low carb thing. Going well. Feel good. I also bought a fancy Keurig coffee maker and a burr coffee grinder. This combo + a reusable K cup yields awesome black coffee.