Thursday, October 6, 2011

I give good oral

The title should increase my hits.....ha!

Those who have been reading this blog for a while know I have one superstious ritual on check ride day. The McDonalds McGriddle. I've eaten one each check ride day and have yet to fail an event.

Of course this month I've been eating fresh food. I seriously debated not eating a McGriddle. The sound of one made my stomach turn.

I dropped my daughter off at day care and....went to Mc Donalds.



I ate it....bleh.

Back home. Studied for a bit. Felt good. I then watched a video podcast and left the house 40 minutes prior.

I'm required to bring ALL manuals to checking events. My kit bag was crazy heavy...at least 30 pounds.

On my way I passed a waiting room where a new hire was waiting. I talked to him for a few minutes. Apparently not all of them were passing. One guy failed that he knew of. From the story it seemed like the examiner WANTED the new hire to use his manuals to find an answer. The new hire simply started guessing at answers. I told many of them if you're not sure say, "I think it's this, but let me look it up," and then reach for a manual. Most of the time the examiner will say, "good enough" and move on. This new hire didn't. Retraining and delays for him as he was supposed to start sim tomorrow.

A buddy who is in my class (also changing planes) sent me a text that he just finished his oral with the same examiner I had. Piece of cake. Nice.

The oral started like all orals. He examined my credentials (FAA license, Medical, Company ID) then got down to business.

We were in a room with a cockpit mockup. He asked questions about memory items, limitations and systems. He threw in a few curve balls to make sure I had more than rote knowledge. Done.

He then asked a few company procedure questions. I got hung up on one question and had to look it up. Learned something new.

Finally a performance problem.

Realize I failed college algebra. Failed. The instructor gave me a C. I still remember his words, "You are a journalism major. This is the highest math you need. You came to class everyday. You tried.  I give you a C." I was grateful.

Back to the performance problem. I'm glad the instructor on this plane taught them everyday. I "get it" now. My first time around when I was a new hire was terribly confusing.

He left the room while I worked the problem. Thirty minutes later he returned, checked my work and said I was done.

He thanked me for coming in prepared. I will see him in 12 days as he will be giving me the check ride.

Tomorrow starts sim.  Time to go over the profiles. They are similar to my last plane....just tweaked a bit.

2 comments:

  1. I don't get here regularly, and may have missed something (and not found it in the archives):  Why are you changing planes?  Moving up to Captain on a smaller plane?  Staying FO on a larger one?  Eliminating the commute?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Getting rid of the commute. Still a FO for now. Different plane. Should be back on the line flying at the end of the month.

    ReplyDelete

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